Prior to class, we were set 3 separate readings which discuss form, attention and intention. I came across a particualrly interesting quote from the Kent De Spain reading which said “someone who holds too tightly to initial intentions is likely to not open to the magic of the unexpected.”( De Spain, 2014, 69) This quote made me question my way of working when improvising, as I usually base my movement upon intention thinking about where I want to be in the space and what kind of shapes I want my body to make. For example, in my practice I often ask myself what will my arm do if i twist it this way? What shape will my body make if i apply more pressure to certain parts? This inspired me to think less about intention and more about moving naturally and actually seeing where my body takes me. Deborah Hay says “there is no time for intention” (De Spain, 2014, 70) and Steve Paxton questions whether having an intention means you are actually improvising. He tries to “not intend and to find out.”(De Spain, 2014, 70) This is what I wanted to try and achieve as I believe my movement was becoming restricted because of this, which made opening up to new creativity difficult.
We began the class by walking around the space and then as a group, having to find stillness before carrying on. To start with, we found the activity difficult as you had to make a collective decision when to stop in the space. Once we got used to the concept of there not being a clear leader, the exercise got slightly easier. We then increased to jogging round the room which was hard to find a moment where we could all stop at once, I think the fact that we were moving our bodies more and filling gaps in space made it difficult for there to be exact stillness within each of us.
The first exercise was a ‘flocking’ exercise which we carried out together as one whole group. The individuals at the front had to improvise movement to which the rest of the class followed. When at the front you rely on your peripheral vision to make a mutual decision of who is going to start the movement. Movement started becoming quite habitual. I noticed a lot of side bends and arm movements being repeated. When at the back it is also difficult to repeat the movement straight away because you rely on the people in front of you, there were some pauses hence some movement been performed later. When we split into two groups it was a lot easier to replicate the movement because there wasn’t as many of us.
The second exercise we did was in pairs, we labelled ourselves A and B. A’s had to improvise movement whilst being observed by B, they had the opportunity to tell us to change movement, develop movement or continue the movement. My movement began to be very habitualised and repetitive, often performing the same floor work. When my partner shouted ‘change!,’ I started to explore different levels. For example if I started on the floor I would come up to standing and improvise something on a rise. I would also change the dynamic of my movement. My improvised movement began slow and sustained but to change this, I would make my movements more sharp and angular. After a good 10 minutes into the exercise, I noticed I began to move away from my habitualised movement and became more exploratory trying hard to create something completely different. When observing Tasha, I noticed her stopping for thinking time. Once she got more relaxed into the exercise she started to become less repetitive and more fluid in her improvisation. When her movement began to look similar or have the same dynamic I would shout ‘change,’ to try and push her movement further.
For the third exercise we came away from our partners and improvised in the space. Kirsty would suggest ways of how to move by giving us imagery to work, this helped when trying to combat habitual tedencies. Some examples of imagery were : only allowing movement to lead from the head, one arm has to stay on the floor at all times, having to lead from the left hip etc. These restrictions allowed for the improvisation to look less stylised and more new, I felt that my movement wasn’t habitual due to the restrictions of my body and having to think of how to not move certain parts of the body. I also noticed that I started to become more internal and simplistic when improvising. As a spectator, it was very interesting to watch the rest of the class and see how much they had already developed since week one. After thinking I couldn’t ever improvise, this exercise gave me the confidence to tell myself that things will only get better with time and gave me the confidence to not give up on myself.
The final exercise was carried out as a collective. We split the studio into four different stages. In the top right hand corner of the studio our movement was limited, you could only run, walk, turn, kneel and fall ( likewise for the top left hand corner of the studio) The third stage was half of the studio space where you had the option of any movement but you had to develop and continue it. The same score applied for stage four which was the whole of the space. To begin with I was stood at the side being quite timid observing the others and trying to find the right moment to enter into the space. This was what I found most difficult about this exercise. When someone had a moment of stillness I would run into the space as I found this a good an opportunity to start improvising. I often found myself copying their movement or complimenting it. I also contrasted peoples movement by performing the movement on a lower level if they were on a higher level and performing the movement with a different body part. Trying to compliment some people’s movement was more difficult than others because their movement was more complex than simplistic/internal. This was a good exercise to find a connection and interact as a trio or quartet with other dancers. If I was to do the exercise again, I would definitely try and be in the space more as the only way to improve in the module is to throw yourself into the exercises and to explore movement as much as you can.
I found the Buckwalter reading particularly interesting when discussing form saying form in dance is the “shape of the body in movement, arrangement of bodies in space, or the shape a dance takes overtime.”( Buckwalter, 2010, 34) I particularly like this idea of ‘space’ which gets discussed and think this will help me in my future improvisation making my movement more abstract and original.
Bibliography
Buckwalter, M. (2010) Composing while dancing: An improviser’s companion. Madison, Wis: The University of Wisconsin Press.
De Spain, K. (2014) Landscape of the Now: A topography of movement improvisation. New York: Oxford University Press.