Back from after a week off and it felt so unusual trying to connect to another body. This week’s task was to start developing contact work by practicing lifts. We started the lesson as usual by strength training and travel work to loosen us up, which I found difficult for some reason.
After the warm up I sat out for the majority of the lesson but it’s interesting to watch everyone else try to attempt each lift, coming from last year I can see a massive improvement in the trust they have in themselves and that’s what I could see when they attempt the lifts as well as the drive to be able to get them right.
Kirsty started off with just small counter balances this week, not anything we haven’t tried in lessons before but with more focus on getting in and out of the positions smoothly. The first exercise was for the under dancer to be in table top position and the over dancer to roll over their back but with a slight flip of the legs. With each pair taking on the balances as an observer I could see the struggle they had with starting or even doing it, and while watching I wanted to correct them; lift the hips higher, or move the supporting arm closer but then understanding that if I were in the same situation I would also make the same mistakes and that’s the part of the process between partners, to build a strong relation.
The lifts started off pretty small just to build up the trust and confidence that we would need to be able to perform them. To develop on the relationship between partners the next exercise was to hold on to each other’s wrist and swing each other across the room and eventually build enough momentum to fly partway. This was interesting to watch as a few pairs had their own variation of the exercise; some were too scared to jump and others weren’t using the weight from each other to fully travel. The next lift was something I generically thought is something that once a pair has built enough trust to be able to perform is a form of the dirty dancing lift; holding the over dancer above the head while they balance with legs and arms out. This was definitely a lift I saw a few people struggle with, from what I could see it was to do with how high they would be lifted. The next was a pencil jump with a preparation, this tested how in tuned the partners were and whether they were in sync so the under dancer could catch the over dancer at the precise moment.
The reading from the week went on to explain centre of gravity and how to connect to it when balancing and also when acting as the lifter/lifte. After watching everyone during the lesson I can see how this can be applied for next lesson when I attempt it for the first time, my worry is seeing how everyone at one point or another struggled whether I would too. As a person my strength isn’t as strong as everyone else’s so I wouldn’t want to put anyone at risk as well as being of smaller height, the limited amount of people I can work with without complications.
Woodhull, A. (1997) Center of Gravity. Contact Quarterly/Contact Improvisation Sourcebook I, 4, 43-48