Contact improvisation

In preparation of our devises, during the process of exploring different ideas sparked from stimuli, we investigated into an element of physical theatre, contact improvisation, to help, expand our knowledge and abilities, and potentially use in our pieces.

Contact Improvisation is a dance form originally, in which the point of contact with another provides the starting point for a movement exploration. It is most frequently performed as a duet, but can be by more people. There can be music or it can happen in silence. It is about sharing weight, rolling, suspending, falling, passive and active, energy and awareness, to share and advance a story, and emphasise certain emotions.
Originated by American choreographer Steve Paxton in 1972, contact improvisation is based on the communication between two or more moving bodies that are in physical contact and their combined relationship to the physical laws that govern their motion - gravity, momentum, inertia.

Creating and exploring contact improvisation in pairs at first, investigating the flow and ideas of it, led to, in our groups, creating a piece of physical theatre - centered around contact improvisation - using another one of our ideas. My group and I liked the idea of using our slavery idea to really experiment into the struggle and pain and revolution, through the art of improvisational form of contact movement.
What we found difficult when in rehearsals was the staging of our piece. Where contact improvisation is meant to be improvised on the spot with no hesitation or thought, it was hard to sort of get across through the group the general idea and the blocking. On bits and gaps where we struggled to find something to do or show, throughout the group we individually performed a static contact improvisation (where no contact is made, but the feeling of others is there) that led into some normal contact improvisation - all at the words "just do whatever comes".
During rehearsals, the one thing that I did find interesting, and almost quite ironic, was the fact that simply rehearsing contact improvisation before performing sort of illuminates the whole illusion and idea of the art - it no longer being improvisational for the performers, and the spontaneity is lost.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMFxle6VnFE
















This is a clip from the bed scene in a performance called 'Ignition' by theatre company Frantic Assembly, that practices and explores a lot of physical theatre and contact improvisation. The main thing I like about it, is the chaotic spontaneity and expression of stylistic aggression. The story that it tells throughout comes across has beautiful and moving but the way it is presented contradicts this - by the edge and dangerous flair it has to it. When creating idea and pieces, I would like to play on this paradoxically presentation of stories, messages and world crisis.