Butoh

This week began with a lecture on Butoh founders Hijikata, Kazuo Ohno and the influences of Mary Wigman, Ausdrunkdanz and World War II. On Tuesday, we took a journey through the eye balls all over the surface of our bodies until we mated and decayed and blew away.

On Thursday, Joan Laage taught a fantastic master class that I cannot begin to describe.

What will you harvest from this week on Butoh? How do you think Butoh fits into this course of Moving from Within? In what ways does Butoh connect to some of the other topics discussed in this course?

Contact Improv Concluded

The week we addressed some of the specific needs of the class in terms of contact improvisation. We began by working on spirals. Students worked with partners and engaged the spirals in the body first by physically leading a partner into a spiral
by drawing an arm or leg across the center line of the body. Students rolled one another over onto their fronts and backs and worked on finding the spirals tipping points. Afterward, we we worked with these new physical realizations individually by rolling and falling into the floor.

Monique Courcy and I demonstrated some of the common problems that sometimes happen with contact. The arms as speed bumps. Getting caught in patterns and the thought stream.

On the jam day, I played music and the class found its way. We jammed, flowing in and out of contact for an hour and twenty minutes of the class. I spoke briefly at the beginning and then, let the space do its thing. It took about twenty minutes for any of them to make contact. I just danced today. I allowed myself the space to teach as a participant.

On Wednesday evening, there was a jam and many of you came to that. It was a great time of dancing. I really felt that many of you came alive and the community was there to meet you half way. Personally, I think this is the best way to teach contact. Through osmosis. Through the body.

In the last half hour of class, I played Fall After Newton, the video that describes contact and its creation with Steve Paxton arrating. The footage is fantastic. The fact that we can see the first piece Magnesium and the evolution of the form in the short time that it was existed is pretty amazing.

What will you harvest from this week of contact improvisation?

Skinner and Contact Improvisation

Skinner Releasing

Building on our master class with Stephanie Skura, we continued to explore the work of Joan Skinner. We began with a whispering dance that traveled throughout the body. On the floor, we explored gossamer strings attached just above our ears, at the base of our middle fingers and at the tips of the knees. We allowed an exterior puppet master to play with these strings and surrendered ourselves to their movement.

Adding the partner graphics that Stephanie gave on Thursday, we added the suspended ribcage and the deep valleys of the hip sockets. In trios, our dance partners continued to remind us of this work as we moved slowly in space.

At the end of class, I gave a short lecture on Dr. Skinner and her journey to create Skinner Releasing Technique. From her career in New York with Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham, her healing process through Alexander Technique and the creation of her own technique at the University of Illinois and here at the UW.

What will you harvest from this class?

Contact Improvisation

Deepening our practice in contact improvisation, we began today by deepening into weight sharing, yielding our weight and pouring weight through the point of contact. We started in stacks, releasing our weight into our partners. We poured weight through our hands and torsos. We poured weight in and out of our partners through our backspaces while back to back seated on the floor. We practiced rolling over one another by maintaining contact and rolling over our partners waist.

On hands and knees, we draped and poured weight into one another as table tops. We then moved to standing and followed the rolling point in short sequences of movement. We listened to one another as we stopped and started again without words to signal our beginnings. At the end of class, we explored with our partners for 15 minutes before coming together to share.

What will you harvest from this class? What new information did you incorporate into your contact practice?

Stephanie Skura - Skinner Releasing Masterclass

The masterclass with Stephanie Skura on Thursday offered up a fantastic new version of moving from within. We covered so much material in class that could occupy many months of exploration.

We began swaying, creating softness in our feet, ankles and knees which then accelerated through space and speed. We melted into the floor, melted into rolling, melted into rising and came to standing. We worked with partner graphics: head strings, knees strings the reach down into the earth, shoulder and floating head. After each new idea we played with the idea by moving through space and exploring. We did the floppy shoulder dance, and the tippy head string and grounding force. We floated around the space and melted into contact with one another. And so much more!

What will you harvest from this introduction into releasing work?

Contact Improv Primer and Jam

On Tuesday, we prepared for the contact improv jam on Wednesday. After the warmup of running around avoiding people and walking in their footsteps, we listened to the point of contact through our fingertips. We continued to warm up our bodies with a game of pass of the golden ball of light as it rolled around the inside of our skin. We brought the idea of the rolling point of contact to our forearms. We followed the point of contact as it rolls over the connected surfaces of our skin.

We also spent some time taking weight and sharing weight with a partner by sitting back to back, rising and falling. We did this face to face holding wrists and side by side touching hips.

Then, we had the jam! What are your first impressions of contact improv? What are your questions? What are the joys and the challenges?