Jan 23 Performance & workshop @ klpac Open Day

Feb 24-28 Performances @ Buka Jalan Festival

Topics to be covered in classes include release technique, ensemble awareness, and core skills for contacting. And don't miss the jams. And the labs at the Botanic Gardens. All happening at the Contact Improvisation Weekend Intensive in Singapore!

Here's a report written by an audience member (a university student) a while back in response to Ensemble 11's performance (of which a few of us Contactors were a part of -- me, Iylia and Dira):

Ensemble, an assemblage of parts.

Minutes before Earth Hour.

Ensemble 11 performing at Black Box.

27th March 2010.

LOCATION: Black Box.

The room was pitch black.

There was a hurl of monotone humming that gradually continued into a mass of voices belting out words that I could not fathom. Not literally words-- but sound with expressions attached to them. The 'voices' came from the mouth of a woman in black tank top at the other side of the stage.

Then, it was the sound of a somewhat electric frequency that was synchronized with the movement of the hand that was moving on the 'frequency machine'. By looking at the pattern of his movement, one could simply make an equation:

The lower the hand gets to the machine = the lower the octave of the sound

The higher the hand from the machine = the higher the pitch of the resulting sound.

But, I could be wrong.

The 'equalizer man' at the slightly far bit of the stage controlled the sound outputs by tuning knobs, and increasing/decreasing the fixed set of frequency ranges of the audio system. The mild visual soundscape grew into an orchestra of sounds. Like a noise distortion, the sound of the saxophone galloped in such a wild manner, accompanied by the words and hums of the woman behind the microphone. After a while, 'dancers' (more like actors, and I have lost count of them!) came onto the stage, swaying their bodies to the orchestra of analog-digital reverbs.

The choreography started in slow, elegant steps. Another girl came onto the stage, and preceded the other girl's movement by leaping into energetic-yet-still-slow-and-elegant movements. Looking at these 'characters' and the sound that was accompanying the 'theatre', it reminded me of a famous quote by Horace Walpole,

"The world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those who feel".

The visual and aural orchestra that was going on right before my eyes at the time seemed to complement each other very well-- even though I could not fathom a single word that was being murmured by the woman who was standing right before the microphone.

The slow elegant steps of the dancers alternated with wild acrobatic movements. The dancers' shadows casted on the wall behind them made the performance a visual treat. The audiences were left in confusion, we did not know which one to look at. There were so many things going on at once! The visuals casted on the wall were smooth and calming, in contrast to the hectic sound of the orchestra. The sound in the background seemed to mock the people who were 'dancing' on the stage. It was like a metaphorical drama, except that there were no words, there were only sounds, and it depends on how an individual in the audience interprets it.

The performance did not end there. Time duration was projected onto the wall behind the dancers. The somewhat countdown left the audience in anticipation, again. Later, an image of a woman was projected onto the wall. From one image, it multiplied into series of images. The image, to me, was like a portrait. Like the famous saying,

"A picture says a thousand words",

the performance that was going on the stage was like the life that has come out of the portrait. Instead of telling the story of her life straightforwardly, the life inside her goes out of the portrait, and tells the story to the audience through aural and visual movements. To me, the peak of the performance was when the body of the girl dancer conjoined with the body of another dancer.. and their off-stage-rustling-towards-the-audience moment.

I could not help but get the flashbacks of Björk's videoclip, "Where Is The Line", from her 2004 album, Medúlla, stuck in my head. The sound of Ensemble 11 was made by convergences of instruments, timbres and textures of the human voice. The movements on the stage were like of the video, minus the costumes and slime, which is a good thing, I must say.

I was one of the people in the crowd, and I believe the performance was indeed a contemplative work of art. However, not everyone can relate to the performance. I could tell from the looks on the faces of the people near me. It is surely not a thing for people with short attention span. One thing for sure, it was surely a unique Earth Hour experience. Like the name 'Ensemble 11', the performance would be incomplete if one of the 'parts' is missing.

Every Ensemble 11 plays important role in the performance, and they did a great job by 'holding on to each other's hands'. Kudos.

Sincerely reported by, Aisyah Rahman

2010 has been a crazy year so far for us. Although there hasn't been much in terms of jamming or classes, there's been a bunch of performances that some of us contactors have been a part of. These include performances in Say Goodnight Twitterverse at Cloth & Clef, Dancebox FUSED at Lot 10, and as part of Ensemble 11 at the MAP Arts Festival. Much thanks to Tshiung Han See, Bilqis Hijjas and Kok Siew-wai for their generosity in having us at these events.

- David

Saturday, April 3, 2010.8.30pm-11pm. MyDance Studio. RM25.

In our last class, I had a new student ask me about the history of contact improv and what it was all about, amongst a variety of questions. She might've started to worry if she was asking too many questions, but in fact, I was so eager and happy to share what I know. Surprisingly, it was actually the first time in class that I'd ever gone to great lengths to describe CI and it's wonderful history. And the best short description for CI? "A moving meditation". :-)

On another note, after much deliberation, I've decided to increase the price of class to RM25 and jam to RM10. For 2 hours of dancing & learning, that's still considered very affordable! Hope you will continue supporting Contact Improv KL!

- David

Recently in July, I had a short dance/movement piece performed at the Short+Sweet Dance Malaysia festival. The piece, although rooted in improvisation, was more of a mixture of different movement forms that I had been exploring recently, which eventually made the piece quite fixed in its structure.

After the run had ended, I was scouring the net for any writings on the piece and stumbled upon this quote from an audience member's blog:

They were jumping over and off and rolling over each other. It didn't look like some choreographed piece but it looked really fun. To me, the piece was about courage and trust. You gotta trust your friends that they will catch you and you have to trust yourself to take the first leap.

Whether trust comes before or after you take the leap, the leap itself is courage.

It was such a pleasure to read the comment because it was most unexpected. This was because throughout the festival, which was more of a competition, or treated as such by most of the participants, my mind was centered around thoughts such as "Are we good?", "What will people think of us?", "Will they like it?" What was lost amidst all these thoughts was the piece itself. And what it meant to the audience.

Revisiting the quote today leaves me thinking about trust and courage -- words that are commonly bandied about as recipes to success in any situation, be it social, economic, or personal. It never occured to me what, if there was any, the link between the two qualities is. Courage is by no means an easy thing but it's nothing that a little will power can't muster. Trust, on the other hand, seems to have some sort of prerequisite before it is able to be invested in a person or situation. So what does it take to trust someone?

The answer, I think, can be gleaned from the quote above -- You can't trust someone without first trusting yourself. And how do you know if you trust yourself? Trust, after all, is just a word unless put to the test. I think courage is a good barometer, or more specifically, a courageous act. I mean, how can you make a courageous leap, unless you trust yourself to do so? Likewise as the catcher, you can't just make a courageous attempt to catch a leaping partner unless you trust yourself to catch them safely.

A courageous leap is not just a trust in oneself, because when viewed from the perspective of the other person, is a trust in them as well. This then signals to the other person to be courageous themself, "They're putting their trust in me, so I have no reason to not trust them." Therefore, metaphorically and literally speaking, a courageous act is what is needed to spark a chain of trust in those around you.

Having said that, the one thing that contact improvisation teaches so well is the skill to land safely, in the event of a fall. Having responsibility for the other's safety, means first and foremost, being responsible for your own safety. This then eases the mind of your partner as they won't have to feel like they have to take this burden solely on themself.

This does seem to imply one additional ingredient to the equation though -- generosity. But I'm going to stop here and leave the ruminating for you to continue. :-)

All in all, I'm glad to have made the leap.

- David

Musings from Shueh Miin, an audience member of David Lim and Low Shee Hoe's contact improv performance at Improv Lab@FINDARS, The Annexe, Kuala Lumpur, July 2, 2009:

Loved the way David and Shee Hoe reacted to Melvin's music. It was artistic and entertaining (to achieve both of these elements is usually very hard). Was there a theme? Although Melvin did some variation, it was for very short moments, and then he went back to flowing melody/sounds for David and Shee Hoe to move. Loved the ups and downs of the show; ups - when the guys were more aggressive in their contact plus throwing each other against the wall (that was quite an impression), down - when they were more grounded, soft contact, on the floor etc - this was a nice contrast. By the way, was there a story line? I thought David resurrected Shee Hoe from the dead to communicate with him, but then he got aggressive and went overboard, and David tried to send him back but he got a replacement instead (the mat salleh from the audience) and in the end...did David send him back to the wall?

Musings from participants at a contact improv workshop held on May 26 in La Salle College of the Arts, Singapore:

As for the session we had with David.... I learnt how to use our forearms to lay weight when you want to roll on the floor, because many times we forget the breakdown of our body parts. Just like what Elizabeth stresses on the 8 points of the body.

I found the courage to lift and carry my partner through David's guide and demonstration. It was also a discovery of placing our "centre" higher or lower as opposed to our usual "centre" (in our abdomen).

The exercise where we give our weight to the ground and use the weight that the ground gives back was very helpful.

- Jey Jey

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I was surprised I could lift a person and how a slight adjustment could do wonders for the flow of movement... But of course there are some things I don't know how to describe. Like at first it started out weird... I mean when we really looked into the rolls I thought I forgot how to roll but its really just about sectioning the body and then repeating it. Usually I just do it. So when David asked us to do a specific roll I found it really hard to do it...

- Xavier

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The strongest concept that was a 'ping in the mind' for me was the active release into the ground. My articulation of this idea was termed pouring into the ground. But there is a difference. Active release, conjured up the need for muscular tone, a conscious differentiation in the levels of muscle tension and contraction, pouring into the ground is a counter point to active release. Its is a relinquishing of muscle tension, a far more passive release as opposed to the active release.

The lessons learnt (coming from the point of view of being a new teacher) or maybe I should say the enjoyment I got from the session, came from deciphering and experiencing the detail in simple things like rolling on the floor and isolation of pathways of movement.

- Matt

If you're in the lookout for a book that contains exercises for contact improv, check out The Physical Actor by Annie Loui. I just got my copy last week and it has excellent suggestions for partnering exercises, with pictures included. Although the book is meant for actors, with exercises taken from movement improvisation and mime as well, about one third of the book is dedicated to partnering and contact improv exercises. For me, the really wonderful thing is that this is the first book I've come across that actually attempts to meld contact improv with scripted text work.

- David

During the last class, we did quite a bit of discussion following a couple of exploratory exercises, and I am reminded of two concise definitions for contact improvisation -- "a moving meditation" and "a moving massage".

It's a moving meditation because it forces you to really be present in the moment -- to listen to your own being and to your partner -- and to open your senses and respond to kinesthetic and proprioceptive impulses.

And it's a moving massage because the body is invigorated and awakened as it's moving in relation to compressive and tensile forces.

- David

The last class/jam was awesome! We had an unexpected visitor, Deanna from Brisbane, Australia. She had stumbled upon the website and had decided to stop by on her visit to Malaysia.

And then it dawned upon me that that's one of the cool things about contact improv. It's danced worldwide, and contactors just love dancing with one another. And there's something simply magical about meeting someone who's from thousands of miles away, but who speaks the same (physical) language.

Moments like these are rare, but I'm not surprised either. That's the beauty of improvisation. Unexpected moments are always to be found, and savored.

Thanks for stopping by, Deanna!

- David

"If you could do Aikido, surf, wrestle and dance at the same time, you would have an idea of what Contact Improvisation feels like." - Ernie Adams

CONTACT IMPROVISATION is a partnering dance form born out of postmodern dance in the US in the 1970s. There are no fixed “steps” to learn and it is usually danced without music. The movements are based on the exchange of weight between 2 (or more) partners through a shared point-of-contact that occurs in 360 degree space. As such, there is no one “leader” or “follower”. Dancing in the unknown can be full of exhilarating surprises.

Today, contact improvisation is danced by adults of all ages, shapes, sizes, abilities, and from all walks of life. It is taught in actor training programs and dance programs in colleges worldwide, and is commonly used as a choreographic tool or as a performance in itself. In a social setting, known as "jams", it can be danced just for fun or for fitness. It can be as gentle and relaxing, or as high-risk and gravity-defying as the dancers want it to be.