Recently, I’ve explored contact improvisation, it is a modern dance style that combines body contact and improvisation invented in 1972. After a few sessions, I began to appreciate the charm of improvisational dance and how it enhances bodily perception. Here, I summarize two key benefits I’ve observed.
The first is the “awakening” of body perception . A common exercise involves one student acting as the “leader” and another as the “follower” who keeps their eyes closed. The leader lightly touches, pushes, and pulls different parts of the “awake’s” body. Each touch prompts the follower to perform improvisational movements. Initially, beginners might be stiff, but they tend to relax and exhibit their unique body language style within a few minutes.
The second benefit is the recognition of “inertia”. By acknowledging the inertia in one’s movements, one can perceive similar patterns in their thoughts and behaviors, inspiring a desire for change. For instance, I noticed that some people prefer to touch lightly without specifying a direction, while others prefer to grab and guide movements. These tendencies reflect individual character traits.
Studying drama and dance has taught me that our bodies can be powerful tools for creativity. By using our voices, breath, limbs, hearing, touch, and vision to observe, communicate, perform, and interact, we can unlock an entirely new world of expression.
This article was written in Jan, 2022. I’ve tried methods to learn more about my creativity and contact improvisation was one of useful ones for me.
If you also have explorations in creativity, please tell me about it.
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