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.