Over each session of contact improvisation, I am becoming increasingly aware of my own body. I am becoming internally and externally aware of movements I shy away from and points of contact I am not comfortable with. With each of these personal discoveries made throughout class on Tuesday I aim to challenge and explore the movement I found difficult and gain a better understanding of how to make myself aesthetically aware and confident during the Contact Jam.
Throughout our practice our bodies are conditioned to abide to specific mannerisms. We are told to stand, behave and move in a certain way. “The understanding of personal space is social/habitual and since that habit is defensive, having that space invaded can be shocking” (Paxton, 2010, 133). We are trained to be spatially aware during technique classes and performance and as a result our bodies become physically isolated. As a result of this we become afraid of proximity, respond to crowding by avoiding contact however by abolishing our bodily restrictions, movements become free and exploratory (Paxton, 2010, 125)
Through the exercises in this week’s jam I managed to take quite a few observations out of what lead to a successful flow of movement. During the Aikido roll there needed to be a constant connection, once the connection was lost, the flow of movement became broken and the Aikido roll was unsuccessful. I really struggled with this movement as I was uncomfortable giving my weight to my partner. The anxiety I feel towards moments of touch, aren’t from a lack of trust in my partner but a lack of trust in myself. Contact improvisation is about quality to quality work, receiving what is given. (Paxton, 2010) By having a lack of self-confidence I am not transmitting the same quality of connection to my partner as I am receiving, hindering the movement process before it has even begun. The more encouragement that was given by one participant the better the movement was. As I discussed last week, I have found that eye contact can be a very successful link to a deep internal connection with a partner. This week I did find that it was difficult to maintain throughout some movement explorations and it was often perceived as intimidating when one person was lacking confidence. However a foundation of trust was still successfully developed which led the next exercise to be marginally easier.
Bibliography:
Steve Paxton’s “Interior Techniques”: Contact Improvisation and Political Power. By: Turner, Robert. TDR: The Drama Review, Fall2010, Vol. 54 Issue 3, p123-135, 13p, 5 Black and White Photographs
Aaron Brando. 2010. Contact improvisation: Blake Nellis & Brando @ Earthdance. [online]. [Accessed 14 October 2016]. Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQRF2sLK1vY
Knyokn. 2011. Contact improvisation 1972. [Online]. [Accessed 14 October 2016]. Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FeSDsmIeHA
Forti, . 2005. Interview with D.Lepkoff. December 2005: http://www.daniellepkoff.com/Writings/Daniel%20Simone%20Interview.php
