Albright, A. C., & Gere, D. (2003).Taken by surprise: A dance improvisation reader. Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press. Pp.229-238

Curtis, B. (1988). Exposed to Gravity. Contact Quarterly/ Contact Improvisation Sourcebook I, Vol. 13. Pp.156-162.

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

Koteen, D., Stark Smith, N. and Paxton, S. (2008) Caught Falling, The Confluence of Contact  Improvisation and Other Moving Ideas. Northampton: MA Contact Editions.

Omegabranch (2011) Contact Improvisation Mirva Mäkinen and Otto Akkanen. [online video] Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMLbWxujoGw [Accessed 17 November 2014].

Stover,   J. (1989). Some considerations when structuring an Improvisation (to be seen   by an audience). Contact Quarterly/ Contact Improvisation Sourcebook II,   Vol.14. pp185

The lesson began by getting into pairs, I worked with Sophie. We began with myself standing in front of Sophie so that her hips where placed behind my back. We then began a spiral exercise which focused on releasing in the back and spiraling around each other. The exercise then extended so that we could use the spirals to incorporate different levels or facings into the exercise. I believe me and Sophie worked well whilst doing this as we really used a wide range of levels and wasn’t shy about putting our weight into each other. We then changed partners and were given the instruction that we both had to try and be the under dancer. I really enjoyed being given this direction and feel as though i work better when i have more of a clear pathway to follow.  We changed partners again and both had to try and be the over dancer. This exercise overall helped me to understand how i can stack my body in different ways around a partner to give them different surfaces to work from.

We then spent the remainder of the lesson refining and improving our scores from the previous week, using feedback from our tutor and our peers. We decided that we needed to add more direction to the score.

Our new scores rules are:

– A minimum of 4 people must be out of the space at all times.
-After the jam, everyone would exit the space. Once we were all out of the space someone would enter to begin a solo. This would then be formed into a duo or trio.
-Involve travel! When someone new enters your solo/duo or trio the direction of travel must be changed with the aim of getting to the other side of the space.
-Every time you are aware that someone new has entered the space you must consciously try to change the level in your solo/duo or trio.
-We would end the score with some of us doing the ‘small dance’. And once you felt connected to the space you would stop dancing when you felt ready so that the score wouldn’t just come to an abrupt end.

We performed the score to the class twice more and got the feedback that we need to ensure that all of the space is used rather than just sticking to the upstage area and also to make sure that we don’t just stick together as a large group but explore the areas of the stage in smaller sections.

Reading:

Koteen, D., Stark Smith, N. and Paxton, S. (2008) Caught Falling, The Confluence of Contact  Improvisation and Other Moving Ideas. Northampton: MA Contact Editions.

We have now been split into two separate groups which consist of two research lab groups each. I am working with Harriet, Toni, Sophie, Charlotte, Stacie, Leanne, Beth, Ellie and Becky. We started the session by viewing a video of ourselves in the ’round robin’ exercise from the previous week. This was really helpful and helped me to notice that i need to ensure that when going up in lifts i give my pelvis more in order to perform the movement safely. I’m glad we had time to reflect back on the round robin as it enabled us to see what we could possibly put into our scores in our groups if it was successful.

We then got into our group and began discussing what could be in our scores so that we can carry on discovering or applying things from the previous weeks research lab.

The score we came up with was:
-Everyone must begin out of the space
-Two people out of the space at all times
-Move in clear pathways – Opposite direction to where you start
-If a trio is created then the direction must change within that trio.

we then had to perform this score for 5 minutes to the rest of the group. Overall i think it went quite successfully and we managed to stick to the score that we had set ourselves however there are a few changes that we need to make in the future. These are that we need to:
-Keep on changing and exploring with different levels.
-Use more of the space.

these are things that we will apply next lesson.

Reading:

Stover,   J. (1989). Some considerations when structuring an Improvisation (to be seen   by an audience). Contact Quarterly/ Contact Improvisation Sourcebook II,   Vol.14. pp185

The question that we posed for this research lab was:
How can we move fluidly whilst in contact out our partner and incorporate various levels?

and had several exercises to investigate this which were:
-Cat/Surface exercise
-Trying to move fluidly and constantly (while remaining in contact with our partners) by experimenting with the speed and tone of the work to see which one was the best for staying in contact.
-Beginning to incorporate lifts into the previous movement and experimenting with different surfaces of the body to assist this.
-Using the previous 3 exercises but now incorporating different levels into the movement. Once this was secure we experimented with traveling from point ‘A’ to point ‘B’.

We began with the cat exercise and agreed as a group that it felt really forced and unnatural to be in contact at all times during this. This therefore then lead to us becoming stiff and took away the fluidity of the movement. A way to avoid this clumsiness would of been to of allowed travel in the body however we had set ourselves a rule that we had to remain as static as possible to see the effects that this would have on our movement quality.

(The image above shows Toni and Charlotte performing the first exercise, it appears to be quite static, clumsy and not very fluid. This is something that we wanted to avoid so we changed the exercise.)

We then allowed travel/movement to be allowed into the cat/owner exercise to see the difference this would have on us and we saw a development instantly. The movement instantly became more fluid however we also noticed that out of habit we kept losing contact with each other and breaking off into small solo sections. This is something that we all need to work on improving individually.

(The image above shows Sophie and Charlotte doing the last of our exercises. We decided as a group that this was the exercises where we felt more comfortable and free to do lifts or balances so will continue extending this exercise in the upcoming weeks.) 

We finally added a pathway that we had to follow in our duet. This had to be done at the same time as exploring different levels, using lifts and also remaining fluid for the remainder. I personally enjoyed this as i feel that i work better when i have more direction given to me. The only thing that i noticed about my movement after this however is that i have a tendency to try and rush movement to get it over with faster with a partner. This is something that i will work on myself.

Reading:

Albright, A. C., & Gere, D. (2003).Taken by surprise: A dance improvisation reader. Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press. Pp.229-238

This lesson focused on going up in lifts and coming down safely and we began by  watching a video on youtube of Mirva Mäkinen and Otto Akkanen. This video highlighted how important it is to remain in contact at all times to make the movement more fluid and exciting to watch, i found this particularly helpful as i often feel as though there are gaps within contact imrpvisation where i need t work on my fluidity and movement quality. Secondly, to prepare our bodies for this and get ourselves familiar with some of the movement that may be helpful we began the lesson by practicing some rolls along the floor. The rolls involved reaching our bodies and really stretching ourselves across the space. Over the last few weeks i’ve really been struggling with dizziness and nausea and therefore I feel that these rolls didn’t benefit me in the way that they may have done the other classmates as i couldn’t give 100% however I was still able to feel the stretch needed from my toes right up to my fingertips which were raised above my head which is still a beneficial feeling when going up in lifts as it meant that I felt more in control and focused within my own body.

My favorite lift of the session involved using the rolls from the start of the lesson. You began by positioning yourself side to side with your partner, who would then lunge into your waist area. The person who was then going up into the lift would pour their weight onto their partners back and balance themselves there. Once balanced comfortably the aim was to use a twist in the pelvis to roll up your partners back and finish at their shoulder level. This was really difficult to achieve as it involved a lot of engagement from the core muscles however i really enjoyed attempting it.

Works Cited/Reading:

Omegabranch (2011) Contact Improvisation Mirva Mäkinen and Otto Akkanen. [online video] Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMLbWxujoGw [Accessed 17 November 2014].

Curtis, B. (1988). Exposed to Gravity. Contact Quarterly/ Contact Improvisation Sourcebook I, Vol. 13. Pp.156-162.