Having read about, but not yet practiced Contact Improvisation I am curious to hear how you might define it. Select four different definitions of Contact Improvisation from the Contact Quarterly Sourcebooks. Firstly identify the key attributes of the form in each definition and secondly come up with a definition of your own, explaining why and how you have arrived at the definition.
Contact Improvisation over the years has developed and has had many different definitions, I am going to look at some of these definitions and from these I will define Contact Improvisation in my own words.
Danny Lepkoff believes that “Contact Improvisation is a duet movement form. Two people move together in contact, maintaining a spontaneous physical dialogue through the kinaesthetic sensual signals of shared weight and common or counterpoised momentum. The body, in order to open to the sensations of momentum, weight, and balance, must learn to release excess muscular tension and abandon a certain amount of wilful volition to the natural flow of movement at hand.” (Contact Quarterly’s Contact Improvisation Sourcebook, 1997, 16). The key attributes from his definition are that it is a duet, two people moving together and keeping in contact with each other but all the movements are spontaneous. This is the basis of his definition, he goes on further to define that momentum, weight and balance are key aspects to forming Contact Improvisation and are used throughout the dance.
Curt Siddall also agrees with Lepkoff in that Contact Improvisation is a duet. “Contact Improvisation is a movement form, improvisational by nature, involving two bodies in contact. Impulses, weight and momentum are communicated through a point of physical contact that continually rolls across and around the bodies of the dancers” (Contact Quarterly’s Contact Improvisation Sourcebook, 1997, 54). From this definition it shows that Contact Improvisation is a continuous movement with contact. Changing of positon and posture of the two bodies while using each other’s weight and momentum to move throughout the piece is a common theory with Lepkoff. The dancers do this by communicating through their bodies. In this definition Siddall says that nature is involved in improvisation, I believe that this means that you use the environment around you such as the floor to move around.
“Contact Improvisation is an activity related to familiar duet forms such as the embrace, wresting, martial arts and the jitterbug, encompassing the range of movement from stillness to highly athletic.” (Contact Quarterly’s Contact Improvisation Sourcebook, 1997, 66) This definition is contrasting to the others I have looked at, it is different as this definition describes the forms used within Contact Improvisation. It still states that Contact Improvisation is a duet which all the other previous definitions have stated. With this definition it is interesting because of the different art forms that are used vary from wresting and jitterbug which shows a wide range of styles used to create Contact Improvisation.
“Contact improvisation may be described as spontaneous mutual investigation of the energy and inertia paths created when two people engage actively-dancing freely, with their sensitivity to guide and safeguard them. Parts of the body may come to support weight which are unused to this, and several weeks of conditioning are essential to strengthen and communicate to the muscle what new stresses they may expect.” (Contact Quarterly’s Contact Improvisation Sourcebook, 1997, 79). Steve Paxton states that Contact Improvisation is for two people, a common idea throughout, and it is also is spontaneous. This definition differs from the rest by saying that Contact Improvisation is an investigation of energy and the two people investigate it by dancing freely. It also varies by saying that it takes time and practice for your body to become accustom to Contact Improvisation. Paxton’s definition is interesting because it has similar ideas to other definitions but also explains that Contact Improvisation needs training.
Throughout all of the definitions I have read, I have found common elements in each define but also I have found extra information in each definition which has made myself think of what Contact Improvisation is. Contact Improvisation is two bodies moving together in a spontaneous and free moving dance that revolves around the sharing of weight through one another. It is relying on who you are dancing with in the moment and keeping in contact throughout the piece. The dancers have to communicate with each other and the environment through touch. I came to this definition as each definition had a shared quality of it is a duet or more than 2 people and they stay in contact throughout the piece whilst sharing their weight and balance between each other. They have to rely on each other to be able to take each other’s weight and there is a trust formed while dancing together. I thought that it was necessary to mention communication through touch, as I think that it is a vital ingredient of what is Contact Improvisation.
Bibliography
Contact Quarterly’s Contact Improvisation Sourcebook. (1997) Massachusetts: Contact Editions.
As a dance and drama student how might you consider the study of Contact Improvisation to be beneficial to your development? You may wish to consider the technical training, the philosophy and the politics and the political movement as key components to consider.
In this essay I am going to explore how I think Contact Improvisation is benifical to my development as a dance and drama student.
Steve Paxton developed Contact Improvisation, with his knowledge of dance from years of studying with Merce Cunningham and Jose Limon and then becoming one of the founders of Judson Dance Theatre, he developed Contact Improvisation with the intention of letting the dancer make their own decisions. “He developed the technique of contact improvisation. With this method, dancers are continuously interacting with each other to create a series of movements.” (Bonin, 2006). As well as the dancer being able to make the decisions within the piece he also wanted there to be contact throughout. With each performance there was a meaning, even though it was improvised the surrounding and how the performances danced aimed to make the audience think about what the dancers were trying to say. With this came the politics of dance “The individual became the main subject of the piece, and became an expression of dance, rather than the dance performed by the individual to be an expression of some idea. The movement placed an emphasis on the elements of dance itself by exposing raw aspects of it, and glorified the human body by making it a form of expression rather than an instrument of expression”. (Primamanandharsasaki, 2013) This meant that performances had raw meaning to them. “I began looking for ways to initiate a dance and cause movement to arise among people I was interested in seeing move but without me being a figure whom they copied or who controlled them verbally or through suggestion.”(Novack, 1990, 54) Paxton wanted his performances to make people think about the subject of the performance without pinpointing a particular person just think about the subject at hand. In Contact Quarterly they summed this up “Improvisation forces people to make decisions on their feet and to live with those decisions. It helps people to see how their decisions affect others.”(Contact Quarterly’s Contact Improvisation, 1997, 132) They explained what is happening to the dancer but what is also happening to the audience, Contact Improvisation provokes thought in the audience but I think also in the dancer.
Steve Paxton’s performances were among some of the most controversial and his work has influenced what Contact Improvisation is today. “Contact Improvisation’s influence can be seen throughout modern and post-modern dance choreography, performance, and dance training worldwide, especially in relationship to partnering and use of weight.” (Contact Quarterly’s Contact Improvisation, 1997) A key aspect of the technique training is the use of weight, as Contact Improvisation is about supporting each other’s weight, with this they also need to learn to roll and other basic fundamental principles of Contact Improvisation. “In addition to sensitizing oneself to weight and touch, a student of contact improvisation must accept disorientation and learn to be turned upside down or sideways, moving usual axial motion of everyday action.”(Novack, 1990, 151) another basic part of Contact Improvisation I believe is touch, “Vital information about direction and quality of the dance exchanges through this dynamic touch site. Here information about weight, energy, strength, balance and sensitivity relays back and forth between partners” (Pallant, 2006, 22) touch in Contact Improvisation is how you communicate between you and your partner, if they is not communication giving your weight to someone else will not work.
To develop Contact Improvisation classes and contact jams happened regularly. “Contact Improvisation jams are leaderless practice environments in which dancers practice the dance form with whoever gathers—friends or strangers, old, young, experienced, novice. Some jams take place in a studio for a few hours once a week. Longer retreat jams might last several days, sometimes held in hot springs resorts or other retreat locations where dancers can practice at any hour of the day in the studio/lodge or take a rejuvenating soak or steam in the mineral waters. A few of these ongoing.” (Contact Quarterly’s Contact Improvisation, 1997) Jams help the dancer experiment in a free and non-judgemental environment which is key to progressing in Contact Improvisation.
With the all the information I have gathered I believe that Contact Improvisation is benifical to my development in several ways. Firstly Contact Improvisation is about giving your weight to someone else, I struggle to do this. I do not mind taking someone’s weight but them lifting me is something I find hard, Contact Improvisation is all about having to give your weight to someone else and I think this will benefit me as I will be pushed in to doing this but it will make me more confident and I will also learn ways to not make myself a ‘dead weight’. I will learn to support myself while giving all my weight to my partner. Another way Contact Improvisation will benefit me is to make me think about what it is I am dancing about and for. I also feel that contact jams will help my progression, as it is a non-judgemental environment if there is a mistake made no one will judge that mistakes, but in Contact improvisation can there be mistakes. As I have not been able to dance Contact Improvisation only been able to read and watch about it, I think that it will benefit me and make me a more confident and open dancer.
Bibliography
Bonin, V. (2006) Steve Paxton. [Online] Available from: file:///C:/Users/Owner/Documents/Steve%20Paxton%20(biography).html [accessed 8 November 2014].
Contact Quarterly’s Contact Improvisation. (1997) Massachusetts: Contact Editions.
Pallant, C. (2006) An Introduction to a vitalizing Dance Form Contact Improvisation, United States of America: McFarland and Company.
Novack, C.(1990) Sharing the Dance Contact Improvisation and American Culture. United States of American: The University of Wisconsin Press.
Primamanandharsasaki (2013) Steve Paxton and Post-Modern Dance [blog entry] 28 September. Available From: http://macaulay.cuny.edu/eportfolios/uchizono13/2013/09/28/steve-paxton-and-post-modern-dance/ [Accessed 8 November 2014].