Losing senses is a movement simulation of lost senses i.e. losing your hearing through C.I(contact improvisation). This is a brief I am covering at school. So I have to create a simulation that will give that particular an experience of losing one of their senses.
C.I[Contact Improvisation]
Contact Improvisation is a dance form that came from the 70's when several choreographers decided to go against the established dance forms like ballet. They wanted more of a voice in their work and more of a real take on dance.
Contact Improvisation starts by establishing contact (physical or otherwise) with a partner, group or an idea; using your body to create movement.
The beauty of C.I is that one can create and say anything with their bodies through different senses i.e. using skin, hearing to initiate ideas or movement. Learning C.I is an emotional and mental process. One needs to live through each moment and be fully aware of their consciousness;where it is situated in a certain moment. This means that one's consciousness can be situated anywhere in the body, and that your whole body is mind.
The point is to communicate what is on your mind through your body. It is also important to let go of controlled or habitual movement so that new possibilities in movement can take place. This is especially important if you are working with a partner. If you have habits that your partner is not familiar with, it may cause some miscommunication.
In a case that one loses a sense, one can use their body to communicate a message. In cases where one has not had access to dance techniques, their body would need to learn different sensations in order for their bodies to attempt certain movements.
In this project I will be putting together a Contact Improv jam at the design center in Greenside. I will post the date, time and exact place. But it will be a free jam open to anyone.
My findings in the last week
Here I placed my headphones during class to experience being partially deaf, funny thing is I was partially deaf not so long ago, my ear just closed up after a shower. After a month of not hearing properly in one ear, my ears would take turns being partially deaf. I had to read my lecturer's lips in cases I couldn't hear right. I'd have to tilt my hearing ear towards any speaker's face. My sense of balance went sometimes, I was slightly disorientated and more understanding towards people not understanding that I had a hearing problem.
Thing is people get frustrated when they have to repeat themselves, this happened a lot. And I also had to raise my voice cause I couldn't hear my voice, so I couldn't judge how loud I was or if I was audible.
20 September:
First day of the deaf simulation. I put on my headphones and it felt like the volume on everything had been turned down so that we could all hear each other.
21 September:
I placed them on today, and I noticed that it seemed like I was getting used to them(the head phones) and the amount of sound going through my ears. I also noticed that it was easier to find ways to listen and understand because I was partially deaf not so long ago. So when I couldn't listen, I'd read and when I couldn't I'd lip-read.
22 September:
I put on my headphones and today I realised that it wasn't that bad to make sense of what was being said, I just had to pay attention to my surroundings. I started thinking about how people perceive deaf people, assuming that they need to shout at them etc. I also started concentrating on how exactly this feeling felt like, I isolated the actual feeling.
In a way I felt more at peace and not bombarded by so many things at once. I felt that it was my decision when I wanted to engage with the world and the pace I wanted to engage with it.
23 September:
Did not attend.
This week:
26 September:
No headphones today. We presented ideas for our projects. It was suggested that I work on the Contact Improv jam.
27 September:
Today we had a "magick class", that just means we had no concrete work, but instead had to ask questions to the lectures on how we can do certain things on different programs.
28 September:
Today we concentrated on doing our own work, so I did more research on Contact and other contact groups I had heard of and worked with.
Check out the following link:
http://www.facebook.com/comfusao.platform?ref=ts#!/comfusao.platform?sk=info
http://vimeo.com/10911544
The other link is to the right, in my links under Agulhas Theatre Works.
And...of course the Peenutt Batha Jahmz(look through my posts for more information on the group)
http://www.facebook.com/groups/peenuttbathajahmz/?ref=ts
29 September:
I looked up basics for Contact Improvisation and found videos of Contact basics on youtube.
30 September:
I started preparing my production for the weekend and week ahead.
3 October:
We went through the presentation again, as we had Jewish students and they had holidays and needed to catch up on work. We had to show what work we had done so far.
4 October:
I collected the camera...finally. My friend who's a photographer slash film cat said he'll come through to film.
5 October:
Day of jam.....preparing the space and my mental space.
I started preparing the space for the workshop, with the technical staff at the College (these gentlemen were so helpful) they helped move the tables in the space and set up my presentation.
I ran through the presentation so that my participants would find the space prepared for them.
15minutes before my allocated time, I was told to move out of the space by a lecturer (who's class didn't appear at administration) who class usually takes place in another class. I found this strange, but when you have trained as a performer you are taught to roll with the punches and find solutions...even if you have to teach a class under a tree.
As nature would have it, my camera guy came through on time, my participants from outside the college were also on time. So they decided to help me set up in a different class. Which was obviously dirtier than the last.
My presentation started on time with two participants and a camera guy. Just a bit later my other lecturer came to see what my presetation was about, but he had to leave soon afterwards.
It was great to get support from lecturers from the college. In my many years of being educated and being an educator, I have learnt that although the learner can always do their work independantly,it is always better for learners to receive feedback from their educators as they can give feedback to the learner.
We went on to finish the workshop, completing all exercises and an extra one before the jam. We then packed up to go start the jam outside the college premises. As fate would have it, we didn't exactly start immediately, random strangers weaved themselves into conversations and networking took place.
We jammed through Greenside streets, like no-one was watching and did whatever we felt like during the jam. There were interesting moments on the jam, at one moment there was a passerby that joined in some movements. People stopped to just look, other people told us not to touch their windows (and that shop pretends like it's in the middle of Tokyo) while some people kept walking but staring at the action.
We decided to turn back and go back to College, still jamming. We headed out to have some refreshments and food, as doing C.I can leave you tired. We all networked and shared ideas around views we had and interesting work we have seen. Sitting at a table that had people who travelled in different parts of the world and still chose to come back to South Africa and build the industry is quite interesting.
There were a lot of looks and remarks during the jam, but some few questions still plaque me:
I had invited people outside the College to be apart of this, and students from the College. I had maily given people flyers and told them personally about the jam and emphasized that " If the jam was no interest to you, drop in and see what we are doing". While many had obviously started that they could not come because of classes, I still wonder what about students that had said would come but didn't.
Is this a reflection on our (dance) industry as a whole?
Why do targeted audience never make it to shows, even when events have been marketed?
Is there truly not interest for performing arts in general?
I had the opportunity to go to Germany some years ago to perform a piece, this piece included a lot of Contact Improvisation. We had a workshop during the two weeks of our stay. We had the opportunity to speak to other groups that do what we do, and we all agreed that even in countries where funds were available, the arts were not supported by the public which would include the government.
It is also interesting that our dance industry has not grown from the early 70's. Our industry that still opporates like back in the apartheid government, still has the majority working for a minority that still hold ideas from pre-Contact Improvisation. So it can be said that this also contributes to the lack of exposure around Contact Improvisation.
In these days and times where we need to re-think technology and its influence in our lives, can we really afford not to have something that connects us as random strangers?
6 October:
I reflected on the work I need to compile to finish off my project. I had to bind and cut my final advocacy/ proposal document....done. Then I had to update my blogg, and collect all questionnaires that I handed out. I had some interesting feedback from the gentleman from Angelos(a store that sells small goods...its a kiosk that was on our path), he said that he had seen this type of movement in "So you think you can dance" in Greece. It is still unusual for someone to have seen this type of genre in South Africa.
I went around to the other stores to collect my questionnaires and most of the shop owners were not present. I will be collecting more of them tomorrow.
7 October:
I need to just add some technical things around the presentation of my work...mara adawise, I'm almost homefree.
