This weeks class was mainly focused on balance and gravity. A way to introduce us to the idea of gravity constantly affecting our body was the ‘small dance’ exercise. Firstly we watched a video on youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sJKEXUtv44) which I didn’t understand and was a little bit reserved about at first as I wasn’t sure about the concept of it or how the body could move in such a way without being able to control it, however we then got onto our feet and applied this practice ourselves. Steve Paxtons ‘The Small Dance’ involved standing alone with the feet in parallel and the eyes closed. You then had to draw your attention into your own body in order to feel the subtle shifts and changes that are constantly occurring. We then adapted this small dance exercise and began moving our body more in the space dependant on how we felt gravity was affecting us as the time. This lead to us falling and relaxing into the space. I really enjoyed this exercise as it was an extension of the head exercises we had done the previous week, and due to me not relaxing my body much prior to these classes I feel as  though my movement is becoming less and less habitual each week. We then applied this freedom of movement and application of weight to the ‘cat’ exercise that we did in pairs. I worked with Beth and the aim was to use each other as a surface by pressing our weight into each others bodies and balancing through contact.  This was a really interesting exercise as it felt very trust based and this is something that I feel I have always needed to work on. Throughout this exercise I felt as though mine and Beths movement complimented each other well. This may be because we have worked together in the past and trust each other, as I feel we weren’t afraid to experiment with movement or weight. This exercise has been my favourite so far as it involved our whole bodies to be aware and free to use as a surface to balance on or experiment with in movement.

This weeks contact improvisation class was based on activating the eyes and releasing the head.
Exercise number 1 was exploration work on the floor that involved keeping our heads grounded to see how this would affect the extent of our own bodies movement. This exercise helped us as a group to break away from habitual movements and also helped to highlight ways that we could move our body without the head being activated to travel around the room. I found this exercise quite challenging at first and I realised that this is due to the fact that habitually when I move I often use the weight of my head to get from one side of the room to the other. We then joined heads with a partner to explore the movement from the head together however we were now allowed to move our heads from the floor but not apart from each other. I found this easier then working with our heads on the floor as I felt as though I had a wider range of movement available to me, the real challenge however was having to work together with someone to ensure that we stayed connected.
This third exercise was a trust based exercise. We took our partners weight into our hands and controlled their movement firstly in an isolated space and then extended this exercise to moving around the room whilst supporting their weight securely. This exercise really helped me to release my body more and also relax into movement rather than being stiff or forced. I felt a lot more comfortable giving the weight of my head to my partner in this exercise due to how we built up to it with the 2 prior exercises.

Overall, this week has really helped me understand how to give and receive weight more, and how relaxing the body can be beneficial to this as it improves the fluidity of the body. I believe this is important as it means that the risk of injury is reduced, and this is something that always needs to be focused on during contact improvisation.

We began the lesson by getting into partners (myself and Anya worked together) and were then instructed that one of the two should lie flat, face down, relaxing into the floor. Anya decided to lay down first as everyone who wasn’t laid down was instructed to lay over the top of our partners body. In order to prevent injury we had to slowly put all of our weight into our partners torso until we were laid flat, on a 90 degree angle from them. Once our weight had comfortably been placed on our partners we began experimenting with rolling up and down there bodies. It was important to keep our own bodies relaxed as any tension could of been really painful to Anya. This exercise (when swapped around and tried on me) made me realise that I can take weight on my body, rather than just being the one whi’s weight is lifted all the time. In turn I think this has helped me realise that when It comes to contact inmprovisation I need to take more risks and see how far I can push my own body.

Once we had got used to the release of our own weight in our bodies and the feeling of being relaxed but alert, we then sat upright, back to back with the same partner. This next exercise was referred to as ‘the wave’ and involved partner A laying down from the upright position whilst being mirrored by partner B, and then rolling away from partner B while they had to follow and place their torso over partner A’s moving body. This exercise really challenged me as I felt as though I wasn’t in control which is something that I have realised I don’t like.

We then entered the space and did some improvised movement with and added ‘pause’ instruction from our partners. Once paused our partner would then have to find a way to balance themselves in a way that involved them with our bodies. This was really tricky at first, but once we got the hang of it then it became quite fun to do.

We then applied all of the lessons technique into a 3 minute piece.