Month: March 2016

Task 1: Swipe Exercise

This task had two separate exercises to it, first we stood in pairs, static in the space and had to swipe our arms round the space. Taking our arm across the body to the top and bottom corners and the left and right sides while shifting the weight between our feet. If at any point there was a match between the partners we’d have to, depending on the movement, reach from the corner we’re in to the opposite diagonal corner and back again before continuing and if we’re to the side we’d open both arms wide and back to the original side before carrying on. We swapped partners several times within this exercise. I found this exercise interesting because sometimes you’d move too quickly to notice if you’re actually matching your partner, on several occasions I’d find myself slowing or stopping to rethink the last reach myself and my partner did to decide whether that matched or not.

This exercise then led into a moving exercise down the length of the room. Between my partner and myself we labelled ourselves A or B, A’s would use their arms doing similar motions to the previous exercise except instead of reaching the diagonal reaches to the corners of our peripheral vision we reach more out into the space and the side reaches would swipe across in a horizontal line. And B’s in this exercise had to move down the space in front of A’s ducking and rolling out the way of A’s arms. I found that this task was a lot more difficult than what it originally looked because of the spontaneity of the partner’s movements so you never know where the arms are going to move from or to next. In this task you have to be able to react quickly and effectively in the moment which is one of the skills needed in Thomas Lehmen’s System of Communication.

Task 2: Blind Moving Exercise

There were three exercises in this task as well, exercise one kept us labelled as A’s and B’s and had A’s moving down the space, however they liked and B’s would follow behind and copy A’s movements. We then swapped so B’s would move and A’s would copy, and swapped back and had to start testing the habitual movements of ourselves and our partners so we had to think about movements that may be new both of us. This task was relatively easy as you had the freedom to move how you wanted, it was also interesting to see what the partner created when it came to testing the habitual of us both.

The second exercise was a warm up into the final task. This exercise had us using the whole space, walking round with our eyes closed and opening and closing the eyes briefly and quickly as if blinking to make sure we weren’t going to walk into people or objects in the room. Found this relatively easy to do although found myself slowing down as I felt like I was going dizzy.

The third exercise was a development of both these exercises, stood back in pairs down one side of the room we once again labelled A and B in the pairs and A would do as in exercise one and move down the room however they wanted and B would mix both exercises together by watching how A began the movement and then closed their eyes and moved down the room, moving how they though A might be moving and only ‘blinking’ occasionally to see what A was actually doing. This was a very interesting exercise which I enjoyed because although it was difficult without the aid of my vision it was fun while waiting and observing other pairs and seeing what they were doing and some partners movements were quite similar whereas other pairs had completely different ideas on how to move from movements to movement, particular B’s in between ‘blinks’.

Task 3: Impulse Task

This impulse task began with basic points of contact on a partner. I started this task by giving the impulses and found myself starting basically by touching the shoulders, arms, head and legs of my partner but found that the movements they produced were all quite the same so tried to start experimenting with where to place the impulses and starting using different points on the back as well as the stomach and varied the placement on the legs. When we swapped round and I was the one being given the impulses at first I found that I could use many different movements from the points of contact I was given and found I pushed myself well out of my comfort zone to get different movements to work.

We then developed this by adding in imagery to how we passed on the impulse. The three imageries in this task were seaweed, a kitten and a wrestler. At first I thought it was the mover who had to use the imageries so at first found it difficult but when I realised the correct way to perform the task is became slightly easier. These different imageries made the task a lot more interesting and found that I liked the wrestler imagery the best because it allowed a chance to be strong with and really push past habitual movement to come in contact with the partner. I found that the kitten one was the hardest because kittens are playful and light and I found it hard to get into this mind-set.

 

Overall I enjoyed this class because the tasks were slightly different to the kind of things we’d done before and I’m beginning to understand improvisation a little more and finding myself becoming a bit more comfortable to move within the class.

Task One: Working with Counts

For this task we split ourselves into 3 groups of 5 and a group of 6 and all stood in lines one behind the other. Working on counts of 8, the person at the front of each line jumped and on the 8^th count (or jump) would turn to face the person behind them; who would then start jumping for 8 and turning to the back. This would carry on down the line till the last person in the line had turned to face the back. This back person (now the front person) would start jumping for 8 and the same process would happen back down the line.

Then as a whole collective we stood in lines of the same amount facing the same direction and began a similar task. Line 1 would be still while lines 2, 3 and 4 jumped for 8 counts. On the 8^th count line 1 would jump and turn over their right shoulder to face line 2 and start the jumps facing line 2, who would stop for the following 8 counts but jump and turn on the 8^th count to face line 3 who would stop and line 2 would start jumping again and so on till line 4 were facing the back. At this point all lines will be jumping and line 4 would begin bringing the turns back to the front so line 4 would jump for 8 and on the 8^th count turn over their left shoulder to face the front then stop. All lines would do this until they come to a stop. Additional movements were added after we’d practiced this and these instructions were that on count 2 we were told to raise our right arm in the air, on count 5 we would shoot our left arm out to the side and on count 8 we had to land the turn in a plie.

The first part of this task I picked up with ease as well as the start of the second part to the task as this was just jumping essentially, but at the end when the additional movements were added in I struggled with the counts because the arms felt like they were on odd counts. Particularly the arm on the 5^th count, I found this is the movement that threw me most throughout the exercise.

Task Two: Imagery Task

From a position we felt relaxed in we were one by one given the following instructions to use as an image to influence our movements.

1. Knifes for legs
2. Spaghetti for arms
3. Head trying to touch sit bones
4. Nose lower than lower half of body
5. Cells racing

After we tried these on our own we split into two groups and collectively chose which of the previous or new imagery we wanted to use; as a group we chose cells racing. Being able to observe and participate in this task was interesting because watching others allowed me to pick out on things that I do similarly to them. When I was participating I found that I was using my chest and stomach to start movements, meaning I was starting to use more internal parts of my body but in the feedback from the audience we were told to try start using more internal body parts. I also found that I was repeating some of my new movements at times when I found a sequence I was comfortable with.

Task Three: Thick-Skinning

At the start of this task I found it really awkward and I was unsure on what I was really meant to do so found it became repetitive. If I was to do a task like this again I would try to play more with my movement and maybe use my partner more for support.

Task Four: Improv Jam

The start of today’s improv jam had us entering the centre in groups or ‘tidal waves’, meaning that a group would enter the circle at exactly the same time and leave at the same time, no one could enter individually or leave alone. People seemed less confident about entering the centre during the start of this task – I know I was nervous about it.

Following this we were given freedom to enter the space and this was when people began to move more frequently and confidently. While in the circle many attempted thick-skinning for a second time to see how it worked in bigger groups.

 

By the end of this lesson I felt that I was starting to become more comfortable and confident in the space and found myself willing to try more movements and push boundaries of my habitual