Csikszentmihalyi says ‘… to pursue mental operations to any depth, a person has to learn to concentrate attention and that without this sense of focus, consciousness remains in a state of chaos.’ (Csikszentmihalyi 1997:26). At the beginning of each contact jam my mind has felt in a complete state of chaos, placing barriers and negative thoughts towards movement before I have even begun. This week I allowed my mind to relate back to my readings and enabled my body to put into practice the knowledge I have been gaining, to push my body through the limitations and restrictions I create for myself each week. This formed a higher level of trust within myself and with my peers and enabled me to lift and be lifted with confidence, experimenting with things I would have been hesitant towards previously.
How does sensory knowledge impact the way we communicate through contact improvisation?
We decided to base our research lab around Banon & Holt’s journal “Touch: Experience and Knowledge”. The exercises we constructed aimed “to explore the complex intermingling of experience, perception and knowledge in relation to our human understandings of touch” (Bannon and Holt, 215, 2012) and help us to come to a closer understanding of ‘how sensory knowledge impact’s the way we communicate through contact improvisation’.
Banana Roll: The aim of this exercises was to allow the rolling participant to feel all sensations of the body whilst being assisted by a partner. “As the significance of action is from moment to moment, at a distance the activity has little meaning or shape.” (Brown, 1980-81, 74) Taking away the need to move one’s own body gives us the opportunity to track through and make an embodied connection with each point of contact we can feel, whether it is with material or another body.
Through observation it was clear which partners allowed their body to be completely relaxed and entrusted their partner with the movement. Occasionally the bottom half of the body was much easier to relax, if the body wasn’t in complete relaxation, the partner laying often found themselves stuck in one position.
Feedback:
Did you find it challenging or easy to release whilst being assisted by another body?
We received fixed feedback in regards to how it felt to release. Many thought it was easy to relax into the flow of the movement and allow their partners to be in complete control, whilst others found it difficult not to initiate the movement themselves from the points of contact.
Were you able to sense what areas of your body were making contact with the floor whilst being assisted by another body?
It was interesting to hear how the movement felt opposed to how it looked. The people who were rolling described the exercise as distracting and reported that it was often confusing as to where the points of touch were coming from, which led to a disconnection of focus at moments throughout.
Sensorium: “The sensory apparatus of the body as a whole; the seat of physical sensation, imagined to be in grey matter of the brain.” The aim of this exercise was to put restrictions of movement into the body and encourage partners to explore contact through parts of the body that may usually be neglected due to difficulty, ‘defying boundaries in response to sensory information’. (Bannon and Holt, 2012) We wanted the dancers to focus on the smaller sensations and points of contact rather than overall movement enabling “awareness of the small dance implies the opening of freer communication throughout the body” (Brown, 1980-81, 75).
What were the sensation that you felt when tracking through the body, connected to your partner?
The group described that they found it quite difficult to track through the body whilst moving and that there was a limited range of movements that could be performed when restrictions were put in place, so movement often became lost and bodies got stuck in certain positions.
Did you find the limitations restricting or did they assist in exploration throughout the body?
The group expressed that the limitations we put into place were difficult however it restricted habitual movement as all the movement being explored was new and nothing could be repeated. This new found range of movement also enabled them to discover that most of their movement initiated from the pelvis and this allowed for a firm, natural base for weight bearing movements.
Overall Feedback:
Do you have a better awareness of how sensory knowledge transmit through the body and how would you apply this through contact improvisation?
Our overall feedback was quite positive, although the initial exercises proved difficult for the group the information they took out of it will be beneficial towards the rest of their practice. The expressed that our research lab made them aware that simplifying exercises and allowing their bodies to feel the sensations of small dance will initiate movement naturally rather than delving straight in with complex phrases and getting stuck. This new found knowledge has helped with exploration of movement and steered the body away from the habitual.
Bibliography:
Bannon, Fiona; Holt, Duncan. (2012) Touch: Experience and knowledge, Journal of Dance & Somatic Practices Vol. 3. pp. 215 – 227
Brown, B. Is Contact a Small Dance? Contact Improvisation Sourcebook I. Vol. 6
Paxton, S. (2009) Small Dance. Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sJKEXUtv44 [accessed 18 October 2016].
Sensing weight in movement’. Full text available By: Ravn, Susanne Journal of Dance & Somatic Practices, 2010, Vol. 2 Issue 1
Sensorium. (n.d.) American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. (2011). Retrieved October 12th 2016 from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/sensorium
Integration Training (2013) Contact improvisation rolling exercise. Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZ7WLqpR2qI [accessed 12 October 2016].