Hey Stranger, Let’s Roll on the Floor by Dylan Roth

After completing almost a full semester of contact improv, I truly do feel I have learned a lot of useful material to use later on in my dancing career. At the beginning of the semester, I did not know too much about contact improv. I was not too comfortable with the idea of touching someone and roll around on the floor with them, especially if I did not already know them. This minor fear distracted my focus and did not allow my attention to be at a hundred percent. I had the trouble of getting in a rhythm of getting into a contact improv dance. After several classes and exercises learning how to develop a trust with a partner, the touching has become more comfortable and therefore I am able to focus more productively and produce a substantial contact improv dance.

The main battle I found I had to conquer for myself was definitely establishing a type of trust between my partner and me. I always found the warm up dance to be very awkward, because it was the first person I would be touching for the class. However, the warm up dances did help get a lot of the awkwardness out of the way so it would not occur later on during class. Naturally as time went on, the overall level of awkwardness lowered and lowered, but when we stopped having warm up dances I was relieved and scarred at the same time at first. I was relieved I would not have to deal with any awkwardness, but I was scared that some awkwardness would still be present in more important dances, not letting me perform well.

Around the same time though that we eliminated warm up dances, we started spending most, if not all, of the class period with the same partner. At first I would be thinking “okay, when are we going to switch partners” but then that feeling would past and at the end of class I would realize I had a really good dance. Since I had spent so much time touching and rolling with the same person, the awkwardness was not there. After spending many classes with one person (a different person at each class) I feel now and in the future that I will be able to automatically match up with them and have the trust automatically established.

After watching some partners closely, I realized time can be very helpful. A contact dance does not have to be really slow or really fast. Speeding up at moments and pausing with stillness at others changes the dynamic greatly. I need to start incorporating the use of time because I keep feeling like everything needs to be continuously and constantly going in a dance. Having the reminder of stillness is great. Stillness allows me to give all of my weight into my partner and lets me feel all of their weight as well. Stillness also lets me have time to clear my head for a second and prepare for whatever will come next. As I watch other duets, I see some really cool moves that are produced and wonder if in my duets I am giving off the same vibe. It is hard to not “grab” your partner and take control, and is equally as hard when my partner is “grabby”.

During the December 7th’s class, we did the “soul train” line. I really enjoyed this because we were partnered up instantly and had to do a contact dance right then and there, but it did not last for a really long time. I felt since the time period between duets was so short, that I needed to try and make everything count and not just float by. At the end of the class Julia told us we were starting to look like real contact improvers. I am not so sure if that is so true for me, but I defiantly feel ten times better as a contact improviser now than I did at the beginning.

Contact Improv And Our Love-Hate Relationship by Sarah Wattles

This semester of contact improv has proved to be interesting. Upon entering the class, strictly for the credit to be honest, I was dreading the work. Throughout my career as a dancer I’ve rarely participated in work where I was required to avidly partner with somebody. Though I enjoy it in reparatory work, I don’t have the desire to roll around with other people just to do it. I’ve spent a lot of time in the city, and even though I lived in land of the hippies in Colorado for some time, I never became a touchy-feely person. However at the conclusion of these fifteen weeks, I can say that I have become much more comfortable with the form and even found myself utilizing it in some of my own work.

There were definitely some exercises that were more comfortable than others. I found that when we were working on specific exercises or tricks it was much easier for me to concentrate than during warm-up dances or round robins. That also really depended on who my partner was. I discovered that when partnered with men I had a lot easier time rolling with the movement and not over-thinking it. Especially when working with Josh from the class. I don’t know if it was because the partner dancing I have done, such as swing and salsa, has been with male partners or if it was a feeling of security when giving my weight. However when practicing rolls or lifts or back walkovers, I worked better with the women. The back walkovers were definitely my least favorite thing we ever did. I completely feel that there is justification in pushing your comfort zone and boundaries, but this typically just left me feeling sick. So if I ever decide to put that in my work it will be on someone else!

I did find it interesting how scientific this form can be. It taught me a lot about distributing my weight and how to give and take it better. I’ve been this size since I was twelve, so I’ve long had a lack of trust for people being able to take my weight, usually due to the height difference. I was dropped on my head once while swing dancing and that left a pretty deep imprint on my trust in the physical strength of others. It takes a lot for me to trust someone in both life and dance, so this was one of my personal challenges. Although I wouldn’t say the class made me a more trusting person overall, it did open up my confidence in the dance realm.

I most recently found myself using contact improv during a fight scene in my senior show. It was inspired by an exercise we practiced one day in class where we were partnered up and began by simply applying varying amounts of pressure to our partner on the floor. Progressively the floor partner would begin to try to move and the other would continue to push down one their body in different areas. This is exactly how the scene started out. Granted in turned into something more intense and forceful, but I was able to approach it differently so that I think it became more natural and believable. Also we rolled across the stage together which is something that before this class I probably wouldn’t have thought of.

Due to injuries I’ve had to sit out and observe a few classes. They ended up being close to the beginning, middle and end of the semester. I’ve found that in technique classes I spend more time looking at and considering my own movement, but with contact I’m more interested in what other people are doing. I don’t feel as judged, if you will, in contact the same way I do in ballet. Granted it is improv so that may sound a tad redundant, but watching the growth and development of the rest of the class has been one of the most interesting aspects for me. There was an interesting mix of students in our class, many senior and many sophomores, and each group originally preferred to stay within their cluster when partnering. I think there is definitely some credit in that especially when trying to begin the initial exploration, but as time went on and the groups intermixed, the class became much more relaxed as a whole. I had to observe about half of the class yesterday, and it was fascinating to see the growth in ability and risk-taking of the dancers. So although at the beginning of the class I found a great discomfort with the form, I feel that at the conclusion of the semester I am at least taking some new skills and ideas with me.

Compare and Contrast - Contact Jams by Shante Readus

I chose to write about the Jams given that it was a time for me to explore total freedom to do whatever came to mind. It was not based on what technique I wanted to improve or even set by set instruction on what I was given to accomplish. It allowed me to pour out my strengths, my weaknesses and my emotions. I did not have to worry about being judged. The contact jams was based upon what I was inspired to show and give to either myself or to the person or persons I chose to dance with. As I wrote in my journal, I realized the differences and similarities from the jams that took place at the dance theater and at the studio (in class). What did I enjoy? How was it different? What was similar? Did the music help or complicate the dance? As I asked myself these questions, it prompted me to write about the two.

I must say in comparison, I truly enjoyed both jams. In similarity I was able to be free at both jams, which is what I ultimately enjoyed. The freedom to move across the space, the freedom to be myself, and perform in my own way made me want to dance even more. The freedom allowed me to be more involved and investigate what I was developing. It pushed me to give my all and it was an amazing experience. At both jams I noticed that I was not apprehensive to touch my partners. As my partner and I analyzed the progression of touch, our movements became more fascinating. We were not afraid to try new movements. We felt comfortable with thinking outside the box. For instance, through Josh and I connection, we discovered that dancing on the floor was great! We tried difficult movements and succeed. The floor became our friend, whereas before the floor was always known as the place to get stuck, which meant the dance was done or incompleted. This discovery was the same at the second jam when I danced with Jordan. We experienced weight, lifts and connections that moved us to the next movements in space rather it was on the floor or standing.

In contrast I observed that I was more comfortable dancing at the second jam than the first jam. This is in reasoning that the first jam we were in the dance theater and the second jam was in class. I believe anyone would have a more calmness about themselves and what they are going to perform around people who have been in the same situation as the other. The first jam was unfamiliar territory. The other dancers that were not apart of our class was not likely to perform contact improv dancing. This made me shy away from others and I internalized my dance movements alone at a period of time.

I investigated the music that was played at both jams and I found that the music was totally different. Although the musicians set out to accomplish the same job, it brought a different affect. The first jam was very musicality. The musician played the entire time, but with pauses in between. When he stopped playing the dancers stopped dancing. In this jam the musicians controlled the dance, therefore making them the power of the dance piece. However in the second jam, it was not quite the same. The musician was not the focus. As a matter of fact, we danced while the musician was in the process of setting up his equipment. We did not depend on the music to lead us. The dance was formulated around what we created. Therefore the music stood out as a prop that we used at certain times of the dance, but it was not our focus.

In summary, comparing and contrasting the jams was a great tool to use and observe how I have grown in my contact improvisational class. I discovered my comfort points, as well as what made me uncomfortable. I discovered when I had to move on if the other person is not willing to dance. I sought out how to stabilize my mind and give my all in the dance. I even cultivated how to use the music to my advantage. I explored a great deal of information from attending the two jams and I look forward to depositing what I have learned into others by hosting my own jam in the near future.

Posting by Jamie Antonick

I found the Contact Improvisation class with Julia Rae Antonick at Columbia College extremely beneficial and inspiring. I feel that this class has helped me to solidify my future aspirations in dance. It has guided me in finding a community that I feel a close connection to at Columbia College and within the dance world at large. Due to this course, developing my own artistry has been a natural process of enjoyment, instead of a struggle. I am fully confident that contact improvisation is and will always be a very important aspect of my dancing and I am left feeling inspired to continue my studies in this form.

I feel that contact improvisation is useful to dancers of all forms. It introduces new processes to creating movement, gives options for partnering, and creates a greater self-awareness. I am grateful that contact improvisation is a required class and that Columbia College recognizes its significance. I am, however, disappointed that contact improvisation in the classroom has to come to an end because the course was completed. This is the main form that I am interested in and would like to focus on, and I would like to pursue this practice further at Columbia College. Along with many other students, I wish that there were an opportunity to be in an advanced contact improvisation class at Columbia College. Having completed essentially an introduction to contact improvisation, many of us feel eager for the opportunity to develop further and to proceed to more advanced work and concepts.

In the last couple weeks of the semester I have recognized my own improvements, as well as the growth the class has experienced together. We are now able to have fruitful dances and jams. Whether we were exploring a new idea of touch or a different aspect of the body, working out kinks in how to fall or jump, we were leaving each contact class or practice feeling successful. The explorations were endless and the discoveries always rich. I believe that having an advanced contact improvisation course would allow for our progress in this form to flourish. I would be one of many students to sign up for an advanced contact improvisation course if Columbia College offered it. This would create a community that would be beneficial to the students and would offer the Chicago dance community a flow of Columbia graduates well-versed in this important form.

Do you want to DANCE? by Analy Gamino

At the beginning of the semester when I was introduced to Contact Improvisation I couldn’t really understand why I had to take it. My feelings toward the art were very bitter. I tried to figure out why I had to take it as a dancer major. Contact Improvisation to me wasn't a form of dance in the beginning. I just couldn’t see Contact Improvisation being a form of dance, yet I saw it as a physical experience.

When I began to take the class all I thought the class was going to involve was rolling around on top of one another and bodies touching all the time. I didn’t see that as a form of dance at all. I would get so bored in class and frustrated that we weren’t connecting in a mental or emotional way. It was so hard for me to focus because I wasn’t used to physically connecting with someone in such a way that involved full body connection. I didn’t see that being dance at all. I felt as though it had no meaning, story, or emotion. However, I was trying hard not to hate it so I wanted to find out about it.

I didn’t want to make assumptions of myself as to if Contact was really a dance form or not. When I read about it and looked for definitions on what Contact was I would find many similar definitions – and they all involved dance. One definition was that Contact Improvisation “is a dance where points of physical contact provide a starting point of exploration through movement improvisation. It is also a form of dance improvisation.”

In the history of Contact we are given a more detailed definition. It has to do with your whole overall body. Reading online on ContactImprov.net I was able to get a better understanding of it. I read that contact originated by an American choreographer Steve Paxton in 1972. He comes to understand that it was based on the communication between two or more bodies in movement that are in physical contact. That allows them to move through gravity, momentum, and inertia.

After reading these definitions and applying it to what I had been doing in Contact I finally saw a connection. I understood the background of it and how it all connected to becoming a form of dance. However, I had yet to experience it. Every time I had a dance with someone in class I never felt it being a dance. I simply saw those partnerships as a time of rolling points on each other. However, when I watched people like Josh, Julia and Jaime do their dances I saw all the components of dance in it. I could see them releasing their muscles to let go and simply discover different movement. There was a certain flow of movement in their dances that I wish I had.

It was until after midterm week that in my mind Contact was a form of dance. I walked in class that day very tired and wanted to avoid every partnership I could. I just wanted to spend time focusing on my own dance. However, that class turned out to be the most eye-opening of the semester. I partnered with three different people in class that day. My first duet was okay. I wasn’t feeling all into that partnership because all I was thinking about was class ending of how tired I was. However, the dance began to start flowing, but towards the middle it began to lack commitment so I decided to end it.

My second duet got a lot better. It was a fun partnership because we found a certain detail to focus on and play with. My nails were a bright red color in class that day so we decided to focus on hand movement and direction. The dance started with just me dancing and focusing on my body and arms. When Sarah noticed what I was doing she came over and joined. She began to mimic some of my movement until we both became drawn to my nails. After a while the dance became driven by both of us. We both wanted to lead so there were certain hiccups in the dance.

I began to feel as if I was never going to reach that high point in Contact Improv where I would experience the complete dance form. I began to get frustrated and didn’t want to dance at all anymore. When I noticed that Brittany was approaching me to dance I began to move away slightly to indicate that I didn’t want to. However, I felt bad in doing so that I ended up partnering with her. Today I’m so thankful that I had the courage to take the third partnership. Like they say thirds times a charm. Partnering with Brittany that day opened my eyes and allowed me to experience Contact as a dance. When we partnered it felt like a performance full of emotion and movement.

That partnership allowed me to see that it is a form of dance. I was able to see that it was a performance. I felt as if I was on stage just expressing myself through movement. I realized that dance doesn’t have to be choreographed. My partnership with Brittany to me was a performance. I realized that contact improv could have ins and outs, pauses, and communication. It was simply amazing for me to feel the connection with it. I felt as if we had a story going on and the emotion was there. Contact to me isn’t rolling on one another anymore. It is an improv of all types of movements such as plies, lifts, rolling, falling, support, upside down movement, etc. It is dance.

Today I’m really thankful for having had Brittany as my partner that day because I was able to release my mind and body and be driven by movement. I was allowed the experience that I had been longing to discover – contact improv as a dance. It was simply amazing. It simply took patience to discover it.

Posting by Keiran Baliban

Before coming to Columbia, I hadn’t had much experience with improvisation – just a few classes here and there – and I’ve never felt too comfortable with the idea of it. I think I lack a lot of confidence in myself when it comes to dancing, and I don’t trust that the moves or ideas I come up with will be, in a sense, good enough. However, when upon being accepted into a summer intensive program in 2008, the Kentucky Governor’s School for the Arts, I had one contact improvisation class, and that was the first experience that sparked my interest. I supposed it was the thought that contact improvisation is less about doing your own improvisation, but more about learning how to move your body with others’.

After a few weeks of classes, I was really nervous about how this class would be for me. I worried that I rushed into it too quickly, and maybe should have waited a semester or two to take it. But I don’t think I would be getting as much out of my first semester experience had I not taken it now. I find myself relating a lot of key concepts from my contact class into my other dance classes. One major thing would be breathing. Breath is so important as a dancer, not just so you can keep moving, but it allows you to expand and find movement from within. In contact, if ever I feel stuck or lost in a duet, it’s incredible what stopping to take some deep breaths can do; it opens up a whole new set of doors.

In “Taken By Surprise, A Dance Improvisation Reader,” Anne Cooper Albright mentions an exercise she uses called “the small dance,” one I’m quite familiar with. As you relax and stand on two feet, you can feel the tiny adjustments and corrections your body makes to keep you upright without your brain having to think about it. This so closely relates to my daily life as I constantly do small things without thinking twice to keep me succeeding. Anything from eating a small snack when I’m hungry, to writing a paper before the day it’s due, all contribute to keeping me on my feet and ahead of the game.

Anne Cooper Albright also discusses the “Gap” in Taken By Surprise, A Dance Improvisation Reader” and how the beauty of this empty space of life is often ignored. I think college is a perfect example of the Gap – the unfamiliar environment brings a mix of feelings, emotions, and uncertainty that can’t be fixed. And this Gap was not just for a moment, but for the first few weeks. Reading this article helped me make connections back to that time of lack of control and confusion, a feeling I have forgotten. I now appreciate the barrier I’ve overcome in adjusting to this new lifestyle and I know I’m now better prepared for the next Gap I’ll have to face – going home for winter break, starting new classes next semester, graduating from college – the list goes on. But what’s most interesting, I think, is that one wouldn’t initially relate this idea to improvisation. I would have explained it as a moment to grow as you figure out how to adjust, but now I see that’s exactly what improvisation is.

I think as much as I understand how a lot of the activities I participate in require improvisation, it’s just as important to understand how to improvise when you need to. Life is full of disappointments – a restaurant closes before you get there, a store doesn’t have the pair of shoes you love in your size, you fall ill unexpectedly – all things that can’t be fixed by a small snack or anything of that matter. There are times when we all catch ourselves stuck in disappointment, unwilling to move on from these hiccups in life, and improvisation is essential in avoiding just that, and finding something else to do. Not just taking contact improvisation, but studying it in class brings more into perspective about improvisation as a whole. There aren’t many things in dance that pertain to the real world, but this is one thing that truly carries over into everyday life.

Posting by Sara Logan

Contact Improvisation. Those two words I dreaded so much when I entered Columbia’s Dance program. I dreaded them so much that I waited until my senior year to take the “required” class. Before this class, I had not been trained in any contact improvisation or been to any jams in my life. What little I knew about contact came from my small glimpses into this style in my modern classes and a touch in my dancemaking courses. So I was less than enthused to participate in this class, not because I was not open to it, but because I feared the unknown. I’m a perfectionist when it comes to dancing. I enjoy knowing how things should feel and most of all what they should look like in my head. Contact messes with my notion of dance in a way that I feared as soon as I signed up for the class.

For me, I knew that contact would not come easily to me, and it didn’t. I am an extremely “in thought” kind of person. I’m not necessarily judgmental of myself or insecure, but rather I think way too much about things that have already happened and cannot change. So as we began, I found myself trying to turn my brain off to the useless chatter quite unsuccessfully. It took a few weeks for me to feel comfortable about anything we did in class.

So instead of putting myself down, I tried to really open my mind up to the idea of contact. I began to turn of my useless chatter and focus on the things I thought were my strengths in the form of contact. I’ve always thought that I have a lot of physical strength, and this proved to be true when we began using weight to lift one another and support one another. I found that I had an easier time taking weight than giving weight to my partners. I also learned from this exercise that liked to be in control of what was going on within my duets, so I began to focus on letting things just happen and trusting my partners more with each dance.

I think the most interesting thing that I discovered in contact improvisation class was not a trick, lift, concept, or exercise, but it was something that I have been learning and thinking about for a few years. I once had a teacher tell me that dance is a “metaphor for life.” As I analyze and reflect on my experience through the past 15 weeks of contact, I realize that statement rings true in this situation as well. My conflicts and strengths within contact in general reflect ideas, conflicts, and strengths in my own personal life. For example, I constantly over think many different aspects of my life to the point where I cannot turn my brain off. In contact I worked to do just that, and I found in my everyday life, my over thinking began to disappear. Another aspect would be the idea of taking weight and giving weight. In my own life, I can easily help others and give advice to friends. I actually really enjoy doing that for others; however, I struggle to let people into my life to actually help me out. I feel I always need to do things on my own as if to prove myself. It’s unreal how much contact has taught me about myself in just a very short time.

Reflecting back, my journey into the form of contact has been enjoyable, while still providing a challenge. I love a challenge. The last few weeks I’ve really come into the “zone” and have been focused and excited about the new things I discover with my classmates through our duets and dances together. I’m grateful for having to take a “required” course that I would have never thought I would partake in. Contact has really opened my eyes to a world that I am happily open and ready to participate in and use to further my dancing.

A Reflection on an Experience by Brittany J. Branson

It was mid-term week and everyone around the Dance Center was exhausted. Academic classes were having huge tests and technique evaluations were sending most on an emotional roller coaster. By the time five o’clock rolls around on Thursday afternoon, my last class of that stressful week, the last thing I expected to happen was a break through in contact improv. However, that’s exactly what happened.

Up until this day I had always thoroughly enjoyed the “idea” of being able to take part in contact improv, but was frustrated by not being able to have my experiences live up to what I wanted. My biggest wall I needed to overcome was fear for my grade. With Julia watching me, all I could think about was doing contact “right” or “wrong.” I was very focused, almost to focused, but on the wrong thing. For me, the time that Julia spent giving others evaluations was a golden opportunity to not worry about “right” or “wrong,” just do. Maria Macsey and myself were both doing some improvisation of our own and just naturally let our paths cross one another. I believe it is important to mention that Maria and I are very good friends and have spent the last year and half sharing many dance experiences in Chicago. She was the first real friend I made in college. For that reason I feel a very high level of comfort with her. This comfort leads to a feeling of trust, which I feel is the most important quality for one to have with their partner. When it comes to Maria, I trust her one hundred percent. Although I feel comfortable with everyone in class, I think there is much to say about relationships outside of class affecting how one dances with their partners. There are some things that just cannot be left at the door no matter how hard one might try.

With no inhibitions holding me back and with a partner I felt very comfortable with, I was able to let loose. Our dance started very natural with rolling point of contact on the floor. We gradually progressed to standing. However, even if we were off the ground, we continued to share a very grounded feeling. She was giving me all her weight and I was giving her all of mine right back. Before I knew it, we were flying around the room. Both Maria and I were finding ledges on each other that I had never thought of before. We were so in tune with one another’s movements that I would find myself in Maria’s arms and completely off the ground without any hesitation or noticeable preparation. The smoothness and flow made the dance feel great and continuous. Something I learned from this dance was that continuous does not mean nonstop movement. One of my problems before this dance was not being able to find dance within the stillness. After this dance, however, I found that feeling. Maria and I would find moments of stillness that would calm us from the athletic movements we just finished.

Although this dance taught me many lessons, the most important one I learned was the lesson of time. The most valuable tool I found when learning contact was to allow the dance to blossom. If the dance gets frustrating, just keep dancing. If the dancer does not have time to become comfortable with the dance, it can never reach its full potential. Time is everything. During my duet with Maria, I lost track of that time and I believe that was the key to our successful dance. Before I knew it, Maria and I had danced over a half hour! I was so involved in our dance that I did not even notice when Julia came into the room or that we were the only couple left on the dance floor. We came to an end standing next to each other and matched our breaths to one another until we came to a mutual feeling that our dance was over.

From that point forward, I could not wait until contact class time. I was so excited to have that feeling of a successful dance once again. I wanted to dance with Maria again. I was sure that it was our combination that contributed to the success. However, Maria got sick and was out of class for three weeks! I was so frustrated. Nevertheless, other duets happened and much to my surprise I was feeling the same level of comfort and success. Even with Julia in the room, I could completely focus on the dance because I had reached the point where I understood it was not about “right” or “wrong.” Success can be found if one puts all their effort into it, grades will follow suit.