Preparing for this week’s contact session I had read an article ‘Exposed to Gravity’ by Bruce Curtis and Alan Ptashek which gave me an understanding on the use of resisting gravity in dance.The article was written from a disabled person’s perspective which I personally found really captivating in the sense that if someone in a wheelchair can move efficiently by building trust with a partner, then so can I. The main message which stood out for me was that in contact improvisation you should continue to sense and connect with the other person no matter what and you then may be surprised with a positive outcome.
‘What is most important to remember is that each body, disabled or not, is unique and presents another opportunity to explore what movement is possible.’ (Bruce, 1988, 157)
Alongside the article we also watched some videos at the beginning of the lesson which presented the importance of sensing each others movement. I noticed in particular in a video of two dancers Mirva and Otto, they would never loose contact and made lifts and balances look so effortless because of there correct positioning, mainly pelvis alignment. This week I decided I would make a personal aim for myself in trying to use efficient use of my pelvis to help move in and out of lifts more efficiently.
In the lesson we had worked with sharing our body weight with others in different lifts, some which I had found easier than others at the time. By the end of the lesson, I feel I had progressed a lot, and was able to trust almost everyone in the room with my weight, something which I had been afraid of doing in the past. There was a particular exercise where we all walked around the room, sensing each others movement and seeing how this could transform in to a lift. I figured that genuinely the more relaxed you were when being lifted, the more successful it would be, and don’t think I worked with anyone where this wasn’t successful which I was really pleased with.
Taking in to account what I had learned from the reading, there was a point where I was standing up leaning forward with Charlotte’s full weight rested on me. I then suddenly couldn’t keep my balance which made us both fall down to the floor. Although this slightly make us loose focus from the impact and shock of falling, we both did our best to stay connected to each other and continue the fluidity of the movement and I was really happy with the outcome of it all. From the first lesson of contact which I found a bit daunting, until now, I think the progression is really clear. The first lesson I would not have trusted myself to lift other people in this way, and if I had of fallen with someone on my back it is very unlikely that I would have recovered it the way I did this week.
References:
Curtis, B. (1988). Exposed to Gravity. Contact Quarterly/ Contact Improvisation Sourcebook I, Vol. 13. Pp.156-162.
Omegabranch (2011) Contact Improvisation Mirva Mäkinen & Otto Akkane. [onlinevideo] Available from, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMLbWxujoGw [Accessed, 10th November.]