My first contact session was refreshing and courageous; which I am thrilled for the weeks to come. Viewing the videos, before we got practical, gave the class a taste of what we have ahead of us. LaLaLa Human Sex and Blush by Wim Vandekeybus are both incredible fast-paced pieces of fiery contact – showing that contact improvisation is best and safest in duets. From these pieces it is obvious that the contacters are well experienced and had rehearsal – which almost seems choreographed rather than improvised. In addition, we watched two other videos – Berlin K77 and Angela Donny and Athos. These videos are a lot more slowly moving and more realistic for our class to relate to. Showing more of an experimental, connected atmosphere which I hope our classes will turn out over these next few weeks.
The first exercise in partners felt more fluid than last semester in improvisation. The touch gave me more momentum to move in different ways to last year. The touching eventually developed into slight contact improvisation for me and my partner – which felt natural to do. Observing this exercise seemed extremely rushed; slowing down this task made it feel and look better as it gave more time to think of movement material.
Walking round with my eyes closed and coming into contact with my peers gave me a huge confidence boost, it prepared me to expect the unexpected contact. However I found it difficult to identify my peers!
Experimenting with weight distribution in partners was interesting to participate in and observe. It was hit and miss for myself – for example I worked well with people a similar height to me but it was hard to get the balance right with anyone of a different build to me. Observing people was easier to identify the problems different pairs had, giving them feedback helped improve their weight distribution – for example altering the angle of their body or the force.
Unfortunately we had no improvisation jam this week, but looking forward to next week’s lesson.