This week I have been questioning how to allow contact work to improve my technique when improvising. What am I experiencing throughout class, internally and externally? Do I understand how my body should feel or move? Will I be able to let go of these feelings of apprehension I carry with me throughout class?
Through this week’s reading, Bannon and Holt, Touch: Experience and knowledge, I was able to gain a wider understanding of the process of contact work and improvisation. By breaking down and analysing the text I was able to take some of the key elements of touch that were explained and described throughout this journal and use these to motivate my movement.
Through each session of contact work it is very clear that I am great at connecting with the internal, closing my eyes and allowing myself to feel my way through the movement. However, eyes open I am far more concerned about the external, how things should look opposed to how they feel. This often restricts movement flow when working with a partner and I revert back to the habitual. Bannon and Holt state that, “it is the quality of touch rather than the quantity of touch that is of primary importance” (Bannon and Holt, 216, 2012).
So how can we use touch to move away from habitual movement? It is deeply important that this quality of touch is mutual throughout the working partnership and that an internal connection is established as well as an external understanding of each other’s bodies.
- The first step towards a deep internal connection I found was eye contact. When carrying out exercises with a partner I often feel uneasy, as soon as it was brought to my attention to use eye contact I could feel a pull towards my partner. Eye contact offers a level of intimacy that you generally only give to somebody you are comfortable with, allowing your partner to become a part of that gives an almost immediate instinct to be close to them.
- Secondly the use of breath. Breath can not only be an opportunity to gain a connection with our partner but is also an important factor in the flow of movement. During slow paced movements synchronising breath with a partner allows two bodies to feel like one. It gives us an awareness of each other and makes the perception of touch to seem less intimidating. Using breath throughout movement helped me to release any tension and apprehension I was experiencing about being taken on an unfamiliar movement pattern.
- The last step and arguably the most important is trust. “That we touch and are touched is important but it is, how we are touched that affects us, teaching us how to define boundaries in response to sensory information.” (Bannon and Holt, 216, 2012). Driving our partner’s movement rather than simply initiating it stimulates curiosity and encourages them to experiment and experience things they may be hesitant towards without that support. Through experience and observation it is very clear when there is a lack of trust between partners and the flow of movement is often broken and repetitive.
How does our understanding of touch help during contact work?
Bannon and Holt’s journal, discusses the preconceptions associated with contact improvisation. It analyses the corporeal process we experience throughout contact work and gives us a detailed image of the things we may experience during exercises in class. This step by step walkthrough of the things we feel externally when working with a partner allows us to fully understand what we are experiencing through touch and that we are not alone. Having this awareness and knowledge to carry with us through our experiences encourages students to relieve any anxiety or prejudgement we may have before class.
Bannon, Fiona; Holt, Duncan. (2012) Touch: Experience and knowledge, Journal of Dance & Somatic Practices Vol. 3, pp 215 – 227.