Contact Improvisation Bibliography

Bibliography


 

Paxton, S. Drafting Interior Techniques. In Stark-Smith, N. A Subjective History of Contact Improvisation. In Albright, A. C., & Gere, D. (2003) Taken by Surprise: A dance Improvisation Reader. Middletown, Conn: Wesleyan University Press. 175-184.

Heitkamp, D. (2003) Moving from the Skin: An Exploratorium. Contact Quarterly/ Contact Improvisation Sourcebook II. 28, (2) 256-264

Bannon, F. & Holt, D. (2012) Touch:Experience and Knowledge. Journal of Dance and Somatic Practices. 3, (1/2) 215-227

Turner, R. (2010) Steve Paxton’s “Interior Techniques”: Contact Improvisation and Political Power. 54, (3) 123-135

Ravn, S. (2010) Sensing Weight in Movement. Journal of Dance and Somatic Practices. 2, (1) 21-34

Brown, B. is Conatact a Small Dance? Contact Improvisation Sourcebook I. 6, 72-75

Woodhull, A. Center of Gravity. Contact Quarterly/Contact Improvisation Sourcebook. 4, 43-48

Curtis, B. Exposed to Gravity. Contact Quarterly/Contact Improvisation Sourcebook I. 13, 156-162.

Youtube. (2009) Steve Paxton, Small Dance. [Online Video] Available from: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=steve+paxtons+small+dance [Accessed on 20th October 2014]

 

Contact Improvisation Week Ten

Monday 1st December 2014 – Week Ten

When attending the lesson today we mainly focused on our scores and polishing them up ready for the open studios on Thursday. When focusing more deeply on the score we realised that we had some issues with it. The first being that we replaced the amount of lifts we had to see before going back into the jam. At first it was three lifts, but we changed it to two lifts as people were standing out of the jam too long. We also decided that the audience should have a say in what we do. So at the start of the score we asked the audience to pick a number. Half the group asked for a number ranging from one to five and the other half asked for a number ranging from one to ten. The numbers indicated how many people we danced with before we could leave the score. As a group we felt this worked so much better with both halves of the group having different ranges of numbers as we could balance out the number going in and out. Thinking about the lifts, we had to make sure that we constantly had the lifts in the back of our head mainly because we didn’t want people waiting on the outside for a long period of time. We went through the score a few times in the lesson, whilst getting feedback and reorganising things to fit with the score.

In the open studios on Thursday the 4th December 2014, I felt that it went really well. At the start we had a soothing start to the jam which got us geared up and ready for the score. As the audience was arriving I didn’t really realise they were watching at the time, I think because I was so focused on what I was doing, I wanted to achieve my best and see how far I could go in the score we set. I feel I gave and took weight well, but not as much as I have in lesson, this could be due to having an audience in the room and feeling cautious?

Throughout this ongoing module Contact Improvisation I feel like I have grown from the first session. I feel now I am more confident in the group now and feel I could work with different people in the group without feeling shy or intimidated. Throughout this research lab I have felt the readings have given me a much bigger understanding on how I view and critique pieces of contact improvisation.

Contact Improvisation Week Nine

Monday 24th November 2014 – Week Nine

In today’s session we got into our groups that we are in for open studios next Thursday evening. For our score we decided to go with space as our component. The following rules as part of the score are:

  • Ask the audience to pick a number between one and ten.

  • Odd number means you start standing and even number means you start on the floor.

  • You have to dance with the amount of people your chosen number was, eg four.

  • Once you have danced with the number of people you were given, you step out of the jam and watch until you see two lifts happen inside the jam.

  • Once you have seen two lifts you enter back into the space continuing with the jam, aiming to dance with the number of people you got given by the audience member.

  • If two people get left in the space at any time, the other members have to make a corridor around the two members left in the space. Once the corridor members had seen two lifts they could then enter back into the space and start to improvise again.

  • Once we feel the score has come to an end, one by one we will improvise towards the audience and sit looking in at the jam. There should be a duet left in the space at the end.

With our score I feel like it is very strong and within the designated time slots to practice I feel like we will accomplish our score and will be able to improve it for when we perform it next Thursday. During the session, we mainly just spoke about what worked and what didn’t. We also just kept running through the score and assuring people understood all the concepts.

Contact Improvisation Week Eight

Monday 17th November 2014 – Week Eight – Research Lab

In today’s session we had our second research lab and for me I found it quite not daunting, but not challenging enough. Our research lab session was looking into space and speed. To start with we looked at high and low level. With low level we came across that a lot of the time the two dancers were going back to doing the same old movements, for example a lot of rolls were happening, plus a lot of back to back movements. We related this back to our very first session where we were being slugs and just slowly rolling on each other. Maybe this could be a comfort thing when becoming stuck on what to do next. However, as the observers we did notice that different dynamics were coming into play, such as slow and fast. I then became a dancer for the experiment of high level. When doing this I felt very comfortable using my head, and as the weeks have gone on I have noticed that my head is my safety net. The observers noticed very well that our base was distant, meaning we couldn’t do much because we weren’t touching a lot. Going back to using the head as a safety net, the observers said we could probably use our legs more and see where this would take us. After communicating back to each other we decided to do the same again, but whoever did low last time would do high this time. We discovered in the second time that people were not as consciousness of doing movements. We started using different body parts for example legs and pelvis. When involving mixed levels (high and low) we discovered that it travelled more in the space and created more linkage between the two levels. Throughout this time we saw that the two dancers were using more surfaces on each other and not going for the easy targets such as the back and belly. When it came to travelling with both levels we saw that space was being used well, however they were sticking to on diagonal, this could have been because the audience was on the other side and they didn’t want to hit them. There was a good sense of pushing and pulling and going back to last weeks reading with the sense of gravity, I could defiantly see them playing with the centre of gravity and where it falls in each position. We then added in speed and tone, this was very hard for the dancers and also for the audience. When doing slow with hard and soft movements we found that as dancers the tones were easy to work with. However, when we did hard tone with slow speed the audience couldn’t see the tone being applied. Also with the fast speed with hard and soft tone, both audience and dancers couldn’t get the aspects of using the tones with the faster speed. As a result of this we came to a conclusion that tone doesn’t show a lot when looking at it from a audience view. We also found out that its hard to be fluid when trying to relate all these things together, especially when interchanging between levels and tone.

Readings:

(Quotes and feelings towards them)

‘another species of Human’ – I highlighted this because it reminded me of when I dance in the jams, it makes me feel alien like, going into positions I would of never thought of before.

‘curiosity’ – I get this feeling a lot when I am in a jam and working with different people. I feel like I can explore different things with different people.

‘body in a wheelchair’ – Non dancers may think disability is a disadvantage to dance, also they may think they have less chance of being involved in the dance sector.

‘micro-movement was just as much dancing as what everyone else did with their whole body’ – Disabled people can still move in big and interesting ways, including rhythmic movements. Even though they are in a wheelchair or blind, they can still do internal movement as well as mini external movement. It is going back to week four when watching Steve Paxton’s ‘Small Dance’. The body doesn’t have to move externally to do improvisation, what is happening internally can be a dance to some people.

‘what is most important to remember is that each body, disabled or not, is unique and presents another opportunity to explore what movement is possible’ – With Contact Improvisation anyone can participate. Relating to this article disabled have plenty of strength to move about alone and to improvise with other dancers.

‘feeling is minimal, I often use my eyes to tell me exactly where my body is’ – This relates to my last research lab task with the eyes closed, he is saying his eyes are his main communication when working in the space. It is this idea of using other senses to guide you and the movement through the space. Also relating back to our last research lab when our task was with eyes closed we used touch, hearing and vocal to help get us through the space.

‘keep your eyes open, don’t get lost inside your head’ & ‘ Don’t give or take weight without listening for the agreement of your partner’s body. Let each move evolve from mutual agreement, rather than having an image in your own mind dictate what happens next’ – Relating back to week one when talking about the rules of contact improvisation. You shouldn’t do anything with a partner unless each person has a mutual agreement. You should always be listening to your partners body language and movement and judge if its the right time and place to continue.

‘being spontaneous and playing together with gravity’ – I highlighted this mainly because it is something I have to work on a lot more. I feel like I don’t give 100% of my weight to the people I work with. This should lead me into becoming comfortable in being the over and under dancer and find different, interesting ways to situate weight and create stable surfaces for the over dancer i’m working with.

Contact Improvisation Week Seven

Monday 10th November 2014 – Week Seven – Formative Assessment 1-5

In today’s session we looked at going up into lifts more, I found this fun but challenging at the same time. There were a number of lifts we did today. The first one was where one person bent over and the other was being lifted off the ground balancing on the stable position your partner was giving you. When I did this lift with Toni we found it easier for her to pick me up then for me to lift her, this could have been because we were different heights and I couldn’t get low enough to pick her up. The next lift was where one person stands behind you and puts their hands across your shoulder blades, you then both signified together on when to go, this meant you bent your knees and the front person would jump whilst the person behind moved them backwards. We then did the ‘paper-clip’ lift, this was where the under dancer put one arm around the over dancers waist and then when ready the over dancer would come towards the under dancer signifying they’re ready to be lifted. The over dancer puts the same arm as the under dancer over the under dancers shoulder and then the under dancer lifts up to give the over dancer a little lift off the floor. The last lift was a little bit more complicated, meaning that the under dancer had to be very stable in the position they were holding. The over dancer swipes one arm over the under dancer’s shoulder and you had to put a bit of momentum into it, so it’s like going into a cartwheel. You have to make sure that the over dancer’s pelvis is in line with the under dancer’s pelvis, meaning you can get more height when your lifted. Once you have established that cartwheel momentum, the over dancer is in a side plank position on the under dancer’s shoulder. The over dancer must make sure their legs are mobilised in case they need to come down quickly. During this session we also got into pairs and we had to stay in contact all the time. I found this nice as you always had a connection with your partner when moving across the space, it also made me not think about what I was doing as all I was concentrating on was keeping connected with my partner and moving to the other side of room. Throughout this process today I have felt like I have become more confident in being the over and under dancer and I feel I can interchange from one to the other. When we came to the last bit of the session we were being filmed as part of our assessment, the whole group got into pairs and started with their heads touching. This was the beginning of our improvisation dance. My partner for this was Emma and as I have worked with Emma before in the past I always think I can’t give her my full body weight as I think I will crush her. Now that over the weeks I have become more confident with being the under and over dancer I felt much more relaxed working with her. This gave me a boost as I was experimenting with much more range of movement. We then came to sit in a circle while there were two couples in the middle improvising, people on the outside could watch and then go in and add to the couple to make a trio, then after a while one of the original couple members would leave and the cycle would go over and over. For instance, when I was sat out on the circle, Stacie and Georgina were rolling towards me and I felt that that was the right moment to join into the dance. When I was in the middle doing the improvisation I felt that all the stuff I had learnt today had sunk in as I was translating what I learnt and putting it with the movement I did as I went along. Although we learnt set exercises on how to do different lifts today, I felt that we didn’t have to do them full out whilst improvising. With this, I took some of the lifts and improvised with them, so I wasn’t just doing the same things over and over. I think this helped me move more freely in between each movements for example, I felt like this was the first week where there wasn’t a lot of start and stopping between each ‘exercise’ we had learnt from lesson. We could flow from one thing to the next. At the end of the session we got into groups and started to look at questions we wanted to do for our research lab next week.

Readings:

With this weeks reading I have found that it relates a lot to gravity. From reading this chapter I felt it gave me a bit more insight to what we were doing in lesson. In the reading it had a little challenge for us to do, this was to cut a shape out on cardboard and balance it on an end of a pencil. I found this challenging as the shape lost its centre of gravity a lot. When relating this to the practical session it became more clear about gravity and how to hold it when dancing with someone else. Also thinking about this sense of gravity, it gave me a bit more confidence in trusting other people to support me when I became the over dancer. The reading states that ‘the two forces (weight and support) aiming past one another, create torque that turns the body’. This helped me in the jam when people were supporting me when I was the over dancer. The under dancers support and my gravity as the over dancer counterbalanced the lift to make sure it was a stable position. It is like with the exercise with the cardboard where you had to find the centre of gravity and draw an X. When dancing as a pair and one person is the under dancer and the other is the over dancer you soon find where the centre of gravity is, because you become comfortable in the position.