Through the convex lens: converging journeys of contact improvisation practitioners.
A presentation for ICTM World-Conference 2019, Bangkok, Thailand.
Contact improvisation is a low regulated dance which is joined by practitioners from different backgrounds in specific modalities. From my ethnographic fieldwork in two European summer festivals (in Barcelona and Freiburg), I encountered dancers who had travelled from different places, and diverse movement practices. Following phenomenology of dance, I propose, it is relevant to inquire how the previous background of the dancers is relates to the practice of contact improvisation, considering the concept of the natural attitude of the body in such a free atmosphere. Geographically, the previous backgrounds not only refer to movement practices themselves, but places where practitioners have gathered, and techniques that have been inscribed on their bodies, which implies a journey of their bodies. Contact improvisation as a dance relies on minimum requirements in a wide range of possibilities, and the discourse is inclusive and welcoming regardless of age, gender, dance experience or disabilities. As a consequence, it attracts migrants from places and movements. The research combines both movement material recorded in jams, and interviews of the same dancers. I will present the movement analysis which was developed based on the minimum requirements using the concept of relationships between the dancers (e.g. nearness, contact, support) from the labanotation structural system, as well as the interviews about the process of the practitioner’s life of searching for artistic endeavors, and how they find in contact improvisation a space for creative exploration. As part of this exploration, summer festivals are a meeting point in which the dance is transmitted body-to-body, renewing the interest and enjoyment of the practitioners. It describes the diversity of experiences and approaches to dance contact improvisation.
Based on my Master Thesis: https://www.academia.edu/37623482/Through_the_Convex_Lens_affinities_and_movement_practices_of_contact_improvisation_practitioners
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