Centre of Gravity

“Another way to define centre of gravity is the point around which the body is perfectly balanced”. (Woodhull, 1997, 43) If you put something through the centre of the body it can turn any way and still be balanced. The pelvis is what keeps the body balanced so if the pelvis moves to far we will go off balance and fall. The normal balanced position is standing, “The centre of gravity can move around 6 to 8 inches from its standard position in the body”. (Woodhull, 1997, 45) This means that you can move up to 8 inches before you start to lose balance and fall. The head and the torso are heavy than below the pelvis, it is 55% of the total weight of the most people.

“In Contact Improvisation, we purposely change centre of the gravity in order to move”. (Woodhull, 1997, 47) I think this means that because we change our weight constantly in Contact Improvisation, we are meant to go off balance and test our limitations within the duet.

Woodhull believes that the centre of gravity rarely helps within dancing as do we think about gravity and the centre of it when dancing. “Contact is about communication and sharing one element we share is playing with the consequences of physical law”. (Woodhull, 1997, 48) This sums up how Contact Improvisation and we use gravity within the dance. I agree with Woodhull because I don’t think we really think about our centre of gravity when dancing, I know it plays a major part as we test how far we can go off balance before we fall. Overall it is important to know how our centre of gravity works and what causes us to fall off balance but I do not think it should be over analysed.

Bibliography

Woodhull, A. (1997) Center of Gravity. Contact Quarterly/ Contact Improvisation Sourcebook I Vol. 4. Northampton: Contact Editions.