The final week of contact and it’s time to perform the duets and in the underscore. After the weeks of preparing for the duets I was so nervous that I just hoped that it would go well and I would be able to present everything that I had learnt from over the past 10 weeks. The underscore is something we looked upon last year which is why I understood some of the terminology, but adding it into contact seemed difficult for me.

I knew from the beginning that everyone’s duets would be different, I was especially nervous about ours as I wasn’t able to be active during the sessions that involved lifting and connecting with a partner to build trust. This made me worry a little because I didn’t have the proper training for preparing in to a lift. My partner Lizzy made it easier for me during rehearsals with showing me each step and performing lifts we were both capable of doing. A struggle we did eventually overcome was fluidity through movements, as we both perform differently while improvising, me – fast and low kinesphere movements and Lizzy using slow upper kinesphere movements we continuously improvised until we found moments of connection that wasn’t forced.

Nancy Stark Smith’s Underscore was somewhat familiar as last year we learnt just about improvisation through scores. As this score allowed freedom- with or without contact, I felt myself revert back to solo improving. It was good to feel connected and to explore and challenge myself, especially in the high kinesphere because it’s a lot more open and people could view my movements and not necessarily like it which is why I prefer to use my lower one. With this being such a long score I felt myself daze and wanting to stay away from other people, unless another joint with me, but I wouldn’t contact for long. It made me realise how much I walked around the space, observing others and possibly get inspiration for when I was stuck.

Previous to starting contact improvisation I just assumed it was a different way to create a duet that involved lifts but with more habitual performance dancing. Including contemporary/lyrical style dancing between the lifting. As we began from week 1 I remembered feeling happy that we could explore habitual patterns but in new dynamics, this has been my format through the entire 10 weeks and as a result I feel completely different. Contact has made me more aware of my body, how capable it can be as well as how I use is to gain confidence in myself and dancing.

My main obstacle I that overcame was being able to do different lifts or stunts that require upper body strength and trust in myself that I can do it. As each week went on, we travelled the room doing different variations of cartwheels and other strengthening exercises. My strength comes from my thighs and back and having to do theses and flips and rolls of people’s back really challenged what my body could do. Learning all this not only did that but also give me a way of moving in and out of contact, and without that I would have been stuck and not been able to explore my own movements.  It was a tough module, but I felt I learnt a lot about it as well as myself and knowing that mind set is an absolute key to being able to achieve anything is vital.

Nancy Stark Smith (2013) An Emergent Underscore: a conversation with Nancy Stark Smith, London . Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzG609NWp1Y [accessed 29 November 2015].