This week we explored contact improvisation. This video is by contact improvisation teacher Carl Frost who was at our last jam. He teaches contact improv all over the world and this video is from a work shop in France. It's always good to have a number of teachers and in this video Carl speaks a bit about the form and the way he teaches it.
What was your experience of Contact Improv this quarter? What would you say were your successes? Challenges?
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This quarter has been a really awesome journey for me going deeper into contact improv. The more I dance with different partners and the more I do the exercises like we did in class, the more I learn and in turn, the more I enjoy contact improv. From the jams, I learned a lot about listening and improving my ability to go with the flow and take risks. Then transferring that into class was interesting because the roles were then reversed. I was then dancing with someone that had less experience than me. Instead of dancing with someone that could teach me, I became the teacher in a sense. And I still had to try to listen while also trying to help someone else listen better and find comfort in our unplanned dance. This was a challenge for me, dancing with people who weren't quite comfortable letting the dance unfold and instead were trying to make it happen. It was a good challenge because I developed my skill to respond even more. My successes were in finding a new found confidence with this dance form. I love it and always have but for a long time have been so nervous and scared of it that I would only allow myself to open up so much. This quarter I feel I really broke through that and am on a totally different level than last quarter, as far as how willing I am to explore this form. Thanks!
ReplyDelete-Kimberly
Contact improv in class was highly interesting. I had done some activities similar to the exploring touch and weight in the past, but they were all with friends who I had danced and performed with for at least 3 years, to say the least I was very used to how they moved and it was easy to predict what they would do next. While I really enjoyed the following and listening concepts of contact improv, I had a very difficult time getting out of my head. I would find myself in the mists of one movement and already thinking about what I was going to do next or what my partner would do to react to what I was doing. I generally like having a plan of action in dancing or life or anything really. Trying to get myself to a place where I can stop thinking through minute details and simply relax and move was a hard thing to do. I feel like the only way to explore my ability to interact with other dance in such close encounters.
ReplyDelete~Caitlin Bannan
My experience with contact improv this quarter was really great. Doing it last quarter was interesting and I really enjoyed all of the exercises, but I feel like this quarter I came to truly understand how to follow the point of contact and not "cheat" it in a sense. It was a really great feeling to let go of all of my thoughts and solely listen to the conversation going on between my partner and I. I began to truly allow each contact point to be fully developed or listened to. I think that working with someone who had been through the same learning process really helped me get to this point as well. I definitely feel much more comfortable with the dance form, and with letting it go where ever the contact may lead. I think that I have learned to listen more carefully and not to rush the movements that evolve as well. It was difficult at times to connect with other dancers who would slide over contact points rather than use them for sharing weight. I think that going to more jams would really help me to improve and also to get used to working with a range or variety of dancers.
ReplyDeleteWatching the video made me see how there is no right and wrong way to do improv. I now realize that the more I understand this idea and the fact that there are different ways or doing and teaching contact improv, the more comfortable I will become with performing it. I loved the quote from Carl Frost, “5% creativity and 95% survival," because it addressed my issue of worrying so much about being creative and making it look right instead of allowing myself to just be in the moment. When I was able to dance with Louis during class, I really felt like it was mostly survival. I could feel myself just trying to trust my partner, and I felt like I was finally moving from a connection of friendship and trust.
ReplyDeleteSomething I feel like I really succeeded in was letting the contact happen. I felt I was finally able to let any part of my body touch a part of someone else body with out worrying and feeling awkward about it. It was a big break through. One area I want to have another break through in is being able to really listen to my partner. I think I get so much inner energy that it makes me want to lead, especially when we are both new to improv. Being able to dance with Louis and the male stranger at the improv jam were very powerful experiences in changing my enjoyment of improv. I now am not afraid, and in fact am excited, to do contact improv again.
I enjoyed the contact improvisation that we worked on last week. I have done a little bit of contact in the past and this was a bit of a refresher. I liked starting from one point of movement, with the fingers... and slowly developing from there. I found that during that exercise, I lost where I was in space and I had a hard time, listening and trying not to lead. As the exercises progressed, it started to get easier to find the point of contact and follow it. However, when it came to allowing myself to trust another person with my weight, I got stuck and because of that, I think that it was harder to allow movement and to allow contact to be fully engaged. Once, I trusted myself and trusted my partner, the dance became easier... the movement was softer and more open, I felt a stronger connection with my partner and it allowed things to happen naturally. I also found that the movement happened naturally, when I was not focused on it, or at least not seriously thinking about it and wondering if I am doing it right, if I am leading, following... or need to do something different. Louis, I really enjoyed dancing with you... I felt like I was able to let my thoughts go and just dance; I was able to clearly feel the movement and listen to what was happening... I appreciate, your suggestion about moving my arm to not disrupt the point of contact; at first, I was not even aware of my arm being in the way. I am extremely interested in exploring contact improvisation in the future and I am glad that we were able to learn about it in this class.
ReplyDelete- Katelynn C.
I think in almost every modern, comp or 490 class that I have taken at UW we have learned something about contact improv. This quarter it felt as though I could really explore the concepts that were presented because they were not new ideas anymore. I think that my favorite contact exercise is when one partner has their eyes closed and they respond to touch. I also really struggled with this exercise because when we switched partners my eyes were still closed and my unknown partner was kinda poking and pushing instead of nicely touching and I closed up, found myself tense and not wanting to respond. That is a challenge for me when I’m dancing with someone I don’t jive with or really want to dance with. Another thing I loved about this exercise was that it was structured and we had to work within a certain framework. I went out salsa dancing recently and realized that it is just a form of contact improv in a specific structure or framework.
ReplyDeleteOn a side note word automatically changes improv to improve. I think I caught all of them but just in case ; )
I think my main challenge with contact improv is that I have some trouble listening and being creative thru coming up with new movements at the same time. I guess its really just a different state of mind to be so in tune with different parts of my body (and someone elses body). There are certain areas where I’m used to feeling contact e.g. hands and feet.. but then there are other areas e.g. the area between your arm pit and waistline, of which I’m not used to reacting to pressure or touch as much. I think because of this, I have a more extreme response to contact in these areas (sudden movement or slower response, depending on the area). This sometimes makes the contact improv experience a bit of a bumpy road. Even so, I feel like the more I practice the smoother things become because I am becoming more used to responding to contact in those generally closed off areas. With the added need to come up with creative movement along with the give-and-take between a partner, the cognitive load is sometimes a bit much for me.. which I guess could be part of the issue, maybe I need to relax and stop thinking so hard about what’s supposed to happen and just let things fall into place.
ReplyDelete~Casey
I personally had a lot of trouble with contact improv. I enjoyed the experience because I, at times, could really understand the attraction because it felt really organic and intimate. The trouble that I had with it was that when we actually got to doing mini improv jams as a class, I felt like I couldn't truly open up and find that organic movement that would allow me to connect to the other person. Instead, I felt like I continually repeated the same movement and used only specific parts of my body. In class after our first mini jam, you commented on the fact that we all were very symmetrical (ex. back to back, head to head etc.) which I felt I constantly fell victim to. It was really difficult to find a true connection and allow myself to move freely enough to start branching out with my movement. Because I found it so difficult it began to frustrate me. I would watch you improv with another (slightly more experienced improv-er) and it looked so beautiful. I could tell that both you and the other dancer really felt the connection and the movement reflected that. However, it made me really want to be able to do it but when it came time for me to actually get to, I couldn't connect on the same level. Still, despite the frustration that I experienced, I enjoyed the experience of something so new. It was great to be able to access certain parts of my body in such conscious ways that I had never done before.
ReplyDelete-Jessica
i feel like i already said a lot of what i wanted to say in my previous blog about the improv jam the other week. so i don't want to be too redundant. but i'll try to elaborate a little more...
ReplyDeleteimprov, as i'm sure i've mentioned before, has never been my forte. we seem to be a class of "thinkers" which tends to get in the way of allowing our bodies to express ourselves to the fullest extent possible. contact improv is especially challenging because not only are you dealing with your own body, you have to consider, at all times, two very separate, very different bodies and the center that they need to siumulatneously utilize. the idea of "listening" to the point of contact is CRUCIAL to making this kind of improv work.
if you allow your bodies to do the dancing and your minds to hold a seat secondary to what's going on, it feels better, looks better, and just ends up being BETTER.
Well ... contact improv has been hard for me. I have issues with touching or being touched by people I don't know very well. I would get extremely nervous and overwhelmingly uncomfortable. The first time I think I might have sat out the whole thing. I made a few friends in the class and I formed a strategy to try to deal with this. I would just dance with somebody I had begun to get to know. It became easier for me that way. I was still nervous but it helped me to get started. Louis would have us switch partners sometimes for different exercises and by the end of class everyone was dancing with everyone. As our contact improv sessions would become longer, I would become more nervous. A few times I had to eventually sit down and watch. But I was making progress, which I felt was good. I still have a long way to go to reach that completely free point when I will feel totally comfortable dancing with anyone. I think it will be worth it when I get there though.
ReplyDelete*Kali