Contact Improvisation – Page 2 – Creative & dance journal

Residuals: mark-making investigation

In December, I investigated surfaces and mark-making for the residuals project with Oxfordshire artists Hugh Pryor and John Hazel. Canvas, paper and various grades and sizes of carbon (charcoal) were investigated. We used hands, feet, broom and sponge to research mark marking.

Kinetic sculpture: Clock at Slower than Slow

In June, I attended a workshop entitled ‘Slower than Slow’ with Eva Karczag in Budapest, Hungary. On the second day, Wednesday 28 June we used our feet to contact each other in a sequential production. We created a kinetic sculpture with our moving bodies which I named Clock.

Grounding exercises for contact improvisation

I attended a class on 10 June lead by Justin Philpot with Soledad at CI Goldsmiths, University of London. Two exercises which he presented, left me questioning how we teach and what the exercises taught us. Here, I discuss and analyse them.

Kinetic sculpture: Waterfall at Co-Creative Practices in Contact Improvisation

I attended a movement and dance workshop with Nita Little teaching at Wainsgate Chapel, Yorkshire on Friday 3 June – Sunday 5 June. We practiced falling and catching a partner in continuos contact. I named this kinetic sculpture: Waterfall.

Dance making + Mark marking = Residuals

I started a new dance project in April. Initially, I held a stall at the jumble sale of the Oxfordshire Visual Arts Development Agency and their Osney Mead studio space in Oxford. Read more about the project.

Jam! Dance session for contact Improvisation, February 2023

In February 2023, Oxford Contact Dance held a dance session for contact improvisation in the dance studio at the Old Fire Station, Oxford. One of the dancers – Marta Wasielewska – who is also photographer, took some wonderful photos – presented here. Thank-you Marta.

Captioning Contact Improvisation 1972

This year 2022, is regarded as the 50th anniversary of contact improvisation. In 1972 there was a performance – recorded on film – at the John Walker gallery in New York City showing contact improvisation. To aid understanding by everyone, I created a set of captions for the film which you can see online and download. The captions are a transcription of the film’s narration by dancer Steve Paxton.

Dancing with Georgica Pettus

Dancer Georgica Pettus and I created movement sequences at the end of June which she set to music with ‘nonsense’ captioning. The result is ambiguous, comic and arresting. The strong graphic elements of the dance space – a dojo (martial arts hall for Aikido), combine with improvised dance practice, and leave us wondering and questioning.

Corona chaos 2022!

In the winter of 2021, I started to plan for a return to dancing in physical contact (no social distancing) at Oxford Contact Dance. However, a new variant of Covid – the Omicron variant – stopped that. Eventually, I restarted the class and dance sessions for contact improvistion on 29 May 2022 – almost two and half years since the start of the pandemic.

Torus 2.3.3 – a dance #LandscapeDance #FoundDance #Voluism

This dance was recorded on two occasions in January 2022. While this is a solo performance. It is also a duet. For I dance with the embodied memory of my previous dance. Thus the past is present: always present.