quodlibet

speed metal turned liquid

is sensitivity only gained through s l o w n e s s? current approaches to contact improvisation (CI) would imply so; they begin by listening quietly.

in stillness we can bring awareness to the ‘small dance’. with careful attention we can comprehend the shifts in momentum. the detail of a single sensation, is valued above concurrent sensory clarity.

the ‘lab conditions’ of silent studios, can leave students disorientated in noisy contexts. they begin to favor known vocabularies of weight sharing. improvisation slips into the cracks between floors and backs.

noisy contexts? contact improvisation has a variable signal-to-noise ratio. recreational CI has a strong signal and little noise. the ‘known’ vocabulary and slow/medium speed facilitate sensory comprehension.

when improvisation takes focus, collisions are often fast(er) or unpredictable. here the signal of sensations is smothered in nose; rather than comprehension, clarity is the key. a clear signal can be reflexively responded to, comprehension takes too long.

learning is contextual; my preference is to teach CI in noisy contexts. medium to fast collisions are explored, before slowing down. the first CI work «magnesium» also takes this approach, but the similarity is unintentional.

is ‘embodied sensitivity’ lost by working at speed? no, a forward roll requires you to sense and embody; stop listening and you start hurting. instead of slowing the sensory flow, you learn to ride within it. relaxing in the multitude dilates time; many senses can be attended to.

the main hurdle to starting with speed/noise is confidence. but accepting the possibility of collisions is integral to CI. cosseting students fears constrains their practice, the core skills keep them safe.

drugelis

i’ve been encouraging the students to make ‘semiotic’ narratives on my choreography. so rather than performing layered abstractions, they find their own meaning(s). two students decided the last phrase i gave them was about catching butterflies.

the local brownfield is teaming with pieris rapae, but i hadn’t made an intentional connection.

magnesium

The contemporary dance world has been accused of “fawning over” athletic, powerful images of masculinity as projected by artists such as Wayne McGregor and Hofesh Shechter, at the expense of promoting female choreographers. [Charlotte Higgins]

i’m wondering if ongoing discussion around Higgin’s article affected the perception of my presentation at CORD. the contact improvisation practice i shared (dampening) is at times ‘dynamic’, and promoted questions of “athleticism”.

Four female students demonstrated the work with me. perhaps this was part of the issue, would the question have been raised if i was working with males? the other concern was a lack of perceived embodiment. in somatic practices the work tends to be slow, dampening encourages sensitivity at speed.

i also have to remember dampening isn’t an ‘easy’ practice to engage with. contact improvisation is usually used as an ‘entry point’ to dance.

i find it interesting that an dynamic/athletic aesthetic was questioned outright. especially given the dynamic of early contact improvisation works. was the dynamic and structure of skills seen to be defeminizing? was i perceived as an agent of patriarchy?

many questions to ponder and respond to as i write the paper for publication.