Week 10
Our final contact improvisation session felt summative and reflective, as we experienced Nancy Stark Smith’s Underscore in front of an audience (12 photography students). Nancy Stark Smith’s Underscore “is a score that guides dancers through a series of “changing states”, from solo deepening/ releasing and sensitizing to gravity and support” (Stark Smith, 2008, 90) which sums up my contact experience, I have been through a vast array of states, emotions and reactions and the final session felt as though it encapsulated all of the knowledge and skills that I have experienced throughout my practice so far.
The main issues that I faced at the start of my practice were confidence, entering the space, flow, breath, release and weight bearing. I felt less fear during the final session and I felt more comfortable working with different bodies. I allowed my movement to flow instead of resisting and not feeling proud of it. I felt less tense or anxious, which aided my release technique and the trust that we have acquired as a group helped me to weight bear.
Word bank:
- Activating the eyes and head
- Releasing the head
- Counter balance
- Weight bearing
- Non touching
- Skinesphere
- Interchangeable role of under and over dancer
- Rolling points
- Small Dance – Steve Paxton
- Momentum
- Surfing
- Inwards and outward gaze
- Being present
- Eye contact
- Release
- Proprioception
- Breathing
- Guiding
- Safe practice
- Habitual movements
- Kinesphere
- Letting go
- Exploration
- Aikido
- Going down to go up
- Anchors and leavers
- Resistance
- Collaboration
- Imagery
- Trust
- Touch
- Dialogue, communication
- Sensory knowledge
- Connection
- Equal forces of weight
- Frames
- Pendulum
- Scores
- front to front connection, side to side, back to back, pelvis, head
- Internalizing
The score provided a supportive container, it informs you about the mind of the body and arriving into body time creates awareness and safe practice. I have learnt that information provided goes somewhere, it may not make sense right away, but at some point it will. I feel that I am now more prepared for surprise, so whatever my partner throws at me it will not throw me off track.
Nancy Stark Smith highlights the following (Stark Smith, 2013):
- Not set pedalogy of training, improvise the way we work with people
- Stark smith felt trapped by her own materials, wanted to open up the space again, generate a state of movement
- Score identifies ‘different parts of class’
- Score is a combination of prescriptive and descriptive, helping you talk about what you’ve experienced
- Research tool
- Prescriptive form – container for the improvisation, coherence
- Attentive to what is happening right now, sensitive, the score protects and challenges us
- Experience and practice – builds dimensional knowledge, curiosity, physicalizing what we don’t understand, learn about the mind of the body through experiencing it
- Experience revealing knowledge
- Term body time – arriving into body time, enough time to register senses, sense of space to the mind/body, practice is safe because of this awareness
- Information given by others goes somewhere, into the minds and bodies of others
- Preparing each other for surprise
- Permeable solidity
- Co-presence
Overall, I have learnt that the skin is an extension of the brain, the brain runs through the body to the extremities. I can now internalize and immerse myself into the zone/bubble surrounding a partnership, in which there is a constant flow and communication. At the start I limited myself to the role of the under dancer, but throughout my practice I have explored the interchangeable role of the under and over dancer and how this can be seamless, fluid and mutual. The term proprioception is key, as having this awareness creates a more balanced body, which I found even more important as we started to go up. I have become aware of my own body and mind, noticing the fine details, such as Steve Paxton’s small dance, which allows me to perform more intricate and innovative movement. Before I made eye contact but with glazed eyes, I now feel that I communicate with my eyes, the eyes can initiate and invite. Similarly releasing the head causes the head to lead movement, it can extent the line of the body and if the head is not released there will be tension through the body. Contact Improvisation’s political power provides a person the change to experience personal decision making and power, at times the body can be led by others, but your interior techniques are always coming from your personal identity. I feel more aware of my own centre of gravity and how it can change. The physics should be considered, to aid safe practice, but contact is fundamentally about humans and communication. Our life experience comes into play with contact improvisation, our everyday lives can be used positively, in terms of pedestrian movement, authenticity and commitment and negatively, in terms of brining stress into the body or tension. The skills that I have acquired from contact improvisation, including creativity, risks taking, mind and body awareness, endurance, flexibility, partner work and communication will transcend into the rest of my dance practice. I have learnt to twist, tangle, push, and pull my body and mind.
Bibliography:
Stark Smith, N. (2008) Caught Falling, The Confluence of Contact Improvisation, Nancy Stark Smith, and Other Moving Ideas.
An Emergent Underscore: a conversation with Nancy Stark Smith, London. (2013) Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzG609NWp1Y (accessed 08/12/16)