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.