This week I was ill and was unable to attend lesson but was given the opportunity to go to a contact workshop. My initial idea of this workshop led by other people worried me, I thought it would just be a long jam with experienced people which I didn’t think I was trained enough for and would embarrass myself.

When I arrived at the jam I felt a sense of relief when I saw how casual the ladies were who were running the workshop. They started off with letting us warm ourselves up and then introducing what their jam is based on- partner work. I thought this was interesting as we normally just get straight in to weight baring positions and lifts. We worked on building trust exercises that involved each pair giving the other their weight with added speed, as well as walking around the space with my eyes shut and my partner as my guide. This particular exercise showed me how much trust I lack in other people; I didn’t know the exact reason I wasn’t just going with my partner but all I knew was that I didn’t feel comfortable enough to fully release myself.

After this for the majority of the jam we practiced different ways of travelling along the room in our pairs, but while doing weight bearing movements that required certain anchor positions (hips, shoulders) that I noticed from the last time I was in a contact lesson. I worked with Claire in this particular part of the session as I felt we both needed to get over the fear of contact; me from being hurt and her from initiating a move too quickly that created the injury. This also gave us the process of building trust within each other so it wouldn’t happen again and because of this I notice how easily we found each other’s strengths and weakness.

During this process I also realised a change in my attitude, I wasn’t afraid to work with other people even if they were taller than me. Having that initial shock from last time made me recognise that accidents happen, it’s how to handle it afterwards is the key to getting over the fear. With these weight bearing positions we also had to figure the best way suited to smoothly come in and out of the, some were easier than most but I think it’s because we hardly do low centre positions.

Leading on from this we worked with just moving across the room in our pairs but making sure to keep a body part connected, I found this quite easy, maybe because I built a good connection with my partner as I normally struggle with keeping in contact as well as continuously moving. Even though this workshop is quite similar to what we would do in lesson it felt completely different in the space while contacting. It was possibly due to it not being in an environment that I’m normally used to, giving me the freedom of exploring more and worried less about what I look like.