Month: February 2015

In this week’s improvisation session we started with an exercise that was purposely made with the intention to loose our habitual movements. This is the aspect of mine that has started to slowly improve, however I still found it challenging, because Kayla told us to incorporate these specific themes into our improvisation.

Firstly we had to move whilst imagining our legs were knives. I did this by moving my legs in a sharp motion and always keeping them straight whilst moving. Secondly we had to move whilst imagining our arms were like spaghetti then moved on to making the back of the head opposite to our belly button. Afterwards we had to move in the position of which the nose was in contact with the floor whilst the bum was in the air. Finally we moved on with the idea of all the cells in the body having a race with each other. These mini exercises helped me to think about moving my body in different ways, which therefore helped me to forget about habitual movement.

The exercise that I thought helped me to shake off habitual movement was the one that made me imagine that every cell in my body was having a race. This was because I was moving my body in a very fast way, which therefore gave me less time to think about what movements to do next. This meant that I would just move my body without over-thinking it, which made me create more interesting shapes with my body.

We then moved on to create a score, which involved seven dancers, lasting for ten minutes. I was one of the dancers and I had to start off the score with the idea of my head touching my sit bones. This challenged me as I had to think of improvising movements whilst always trying to complete this challenge and movement shape. However the main purpose of this score was having the idea of developing or echoing movements that other dancers in the space were doing. This could mean making the movement bigger or smaller or developing current movements already happening in the space. We also had to focus on exiting the space, whether this was to exit the space or exit the wing to move into the space. I feel that there was a lot of rules to this score which made it more challenging to try and remember it all and then apply them.

Buckwalter says “orchestra of senses” (Buckwalter, 2010, 91). This implies that Buckwalter believes improvisation is not all the visual side but can be kinesthetic to the dancers as well. This then links into the scores we do in our lesson because I have to be aware of the other dancers in the space.

In the jam we experienced two new experiments whilst improvising which were called thick skinning and impulses. These experiments involved partner work. Thick skinning was interesting because this was the first time we did intimate partner work. I found this interesting as I had to think on the spot, but not only from my body, as I also had to work with what material my partner was dancing. Impulses involved us to physically touch our partner, with my decision on how to touch my partner impacting the decision in which my partner moved. This was interesting to see Millie performing movements based on what decisions I made.

We then completed a score in which the people in the wings impacted what was happening in the space. This was because there were dancers moving in the space and if the rest of the dancers in the wings thought that the movement was established they would walk across the stage in a straight line, which then made all of the dancers exit the stage. This motion looked like a wave and made the dancers as a group have more of an impact on the structure of the score. I thought this was interesting and different because we had never done a score like this.

In this weeks session it was mainly involved through the aspects of space and time. Our first exercise was for us to walk around in the space however move to a spot where we could hear something. For example at one moment a train went past so I walked to the window to see as that’s where my ears took me. The second exercise was different as it was all about where my eyes took me. Throughout the exercise there was not a specific pattern in what made me want to move. For example sometimes I moved in spaces where no one was in and then sometimes I moved into places where there was already a clump of people. I believe this exercise was useful because it made me explore the space before I improvised in it. Zaporah says ‘the first thing I do is to walk around that space because every space has its power points’ (Zaporah, cited in De spain, 2014, 109) That exercise fits in with that quote as I was discovering the space before improvising by slowly walking around it.

We then discussed time. I found out that there are two different types of time, which are body and site time. ‘Site time, but then there’s body time’ (Halphrin, cited in De spain, 2014, 115) body time is the time our body thinks and site time is correct time. We challenged how close our sense time was to clock time. We did this by completing an exercise where we sat down, and Kayla put on the stop watch two minutes and we had to get up when we thought the two minutes were up. The site time for me was longer than my sense time as I stood up way before the timer went off. We then did this activity but walking instead. My sense time was much closer to site time as I was only a few seconds out. I don’t really know how this happened. It might have been because this time I was moving around the space and before I was just sitting down.

We then moved on to doing a partner exercise which explored our own timings of beginnings, middles and ends. I improvised infront of Rachel three times and as I was dancing I said when I was changing to the from the beginning to the middle section and then from the middle section to the end. From the beginning two trys at this exercise Rachel informed me that both times my endings were much shorter than my beginnings and middles. I think this was because I sped up my endings as I thought I would be over the 2 minute time limit. So then on the first try I tried to even out the three sections. It was a success as the third try the ending was longer and didn’t seem as rushed. I dod the same for Rachel and her pattern was that she had a longer beginning and she said she thought this was because she finds it hard to establish the movement in the first place.

We then finished the session off by doing a score. The rules of this score involved we always had to dance in a duet, trio or a quartet. This meant that we had to work with others and to feed off each other. I found this exciting, as I never knew what would happen as in what other dancers would move like. It was fun to develop their actions and to continue to move and change their actions.

Banes, S. (2003) Spontaneous Combustion: Notes on Dance Improvisation from the Sixties to the Nineties. In: Ann Cooper Albright and David Gere (eds.) Taken By Surprise: A Dance Improvisation Reader. Middletown, CT, USA: Wesleyan University Press, 77-85

Buckwalter, M. (2010) Composing while dancing: An Improviser’s Companion. Madison, WI, USA: The University of Wisconsin Press.

De Spain, K. (2014) Landscape of the Now. New York, NY, USA: Oxford University Press.

Midgelow, V. L. (2012) Dear Practice…The Experience of Improvising. Choreographic Practices, 2 (1) 9-24.

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We started our session by the thinking about the possibility of either continuing, developing or changing our movements. These three ideas were the core of our session. We then did a partner exercise, which was based around the idea of continuing, developing or changing the movements. With this in mind our partner watched us improvise and noted down which movements we frequently did and observed which category we did the most for example continue, develop or change. My partner Zoe noticed that I did lots of turns and spins and then did a lot of actions that incorporated the wrists. The second time doing this exercise was different, as Zoe had to shout change whenever she thought a movement was established. For me, I had more difficulty with this exercise, as it was hard to think of different kinds of movements as soon as Zoe said change.

This exercise required me to open-minded and to explore different types of movements that are out of my habitual range. I believe this relates to Deborah Hay quote ‘There’s only time to notice what’s happening now, and now, and now, and now, and now’ (Hay, cited in De spain, 2014, 70) I think this links in with the exercise because I only had time to think of what new movement I could do in a split second when Zoe shouted change. Which therefore makes me only concentrate on what movement I was doing then instead of planning my sequence of movements and having pre ideas already.

The third development of this exercise was when Zoe said change I had to not only change the type of movement but also the change my attention. For example where I was looking or where I was concentrating. I also found it interesting when observing Zoe as it was interesting to see any repetition or habitual movements within her improvised material.

In this weeks jam we explored different pathways whilst using different parts of the stage. The score was split into four sections, in section one we used upstage right, section two we used upstage left, section three we used all of down stage and then section four we used all of the stage. We were only allowed to do certain movements, which were walk, run, turn, fall, kneel and stand. I found sections one and two easier because we were only asked to change or continue these movements however, in section three and four, we were not only asked to continue and change the actions but to develop the actions as well. What I enjoyed about this score was we could dance in solo’s, duets, trio’s and quartets.

I liked dancing with other people and it made it more exciting because I began to forget about all the movements I was doing but instead trying to make relations to the other dancers and making different forms. I concentrated on which movements I could join in, with other dancers and then was interesting to see how we developed each others movements and fed off one another. This shows that I am not only thinking about myself when improvising but instead making decisions on what others are doing and then reacting to these movements and including myself or/and developing on the movements. ‘But otherwise I find myself doing things’ (Zaporah, cited in De spain, 2014, 71) I feel this quote is beginning to link in with my own movements. At the start of this course I felt like I was thinking to much about the movements when improvising. However after this jam I do feel like movements are coming to me more naturally and flow better, so I believe this quote relates to how I feel and therefore my confidence in this style is growing.