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—submit your responses by Friday night so I can read them and plan classes that integrate your experience

—we explored: Direct Touch that feels good

yielding, toning, pushing, and will further explore transforming

Listening with, to, and through

You can either

—take a photo of your notecard and share your questions + please share (in text, voice note, or a drawing) anything that came up for you from this week’s practice

—let’s think about different qualities of touch: brushing past someone in busy city streets, “creepy touch”?, loving and grounding touch (how to tone: body, hands, awareness, attitude), listening through touch (that can potential develop into weight transfer)

—share thoughts/impressions freeform

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This class is really new and different for me -- I've danced informally/for fun in the past, but never taken a dance class. Some aspects of the class can feel a little intimidating (mostly because I don't want to look stupid) but it's been so reassuring seeing everyone from different dance backgrounds try their best and be supportive of one another. I've found I actually quite enjoy the touch element of CI; it's really cool to explore how you can lean on and balance against a partner, and it has helped me to build trust with my classmates. Most of all I've enjoyed how mindful the practice is, and I've found each class to be so relaxing and grounding.

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I think for me CI is very liberating and healing in a way that I didn't expect. When I think of touch with another person sometimes I think about the negative aspects of it. I tense up when a new person hugs me, get anxious when my thigh brushes the thigh of the person next to me, or become awkward when a friend tries to lovingly hold my hand. Touch is such a difficult sense/interaction for me, but I've found an unexpected peace in this class. Today when we did a contact partner dance I was nervous that I was doing something "wrong", but after I got more connected to my partner I no longer felt that way. I was able to flow with them even if it was a little hard at first. Although I still feel a bit awkward when dancing with another person I know that over time it will become more natural. Beyond interactions with others, I've also found this course liberating in my dance. I never let loose since I was raised to be very rigid in the way I move through life. However, in this course, I've been able to learn how to feel and listen to my body. I'm also able to fall and not feel judged or scared to try something new haha! I'm so excited for the rest of the semester and to see how much I grow from here.

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The practice of CI is totally new to me so I came in with open expectations. I find it really peaceful so far. I think we've already created a community in class where I feel relaxed and I was surprised by how fast I was able to trust the partners I danced with. It felt good to breathe and sink my weight into my partner and trust that they would support me; the touch definitely felt grounding. I'm excited to keep working on listening through touch and exploring more weight transfers.

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Doing CI this week has been very meditative for me. My background in dance was very formal, and even when I was doing styles like contemporary it felt very rigid. I took this class to repair my relationship with dance and it is already doing that. For the first time in years I have been able to dance for myself and it feels amazing. I am looking forward to learning how to better move with a fully relaxed body, and being able to do that in tune with another person.

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My body tends to be very stiff and tense (in general and from all the stress of the days), and I feel it unlock from that in this class. It's liberating to move without the constant purpose of needing to be somewhere or do something besides be present in your body.

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Not only have I never done CI before, but this is my first ever dance class. Already I feel more relaxed in class than I was expecting. I love how CI incorporates listening and perception of your own body, as well as gently leaning into others. While I know I have a lot more to learn about CI and dance in general, I am excited to open up and dance more freely with and without partners.

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Like many of my classmates, I am new to the world of CI. I started my dance journey as a child in strict ballet and tap classes. I hated them, and they solidly wrecked my relationship with dance in my teen years. But when I got to college, I discovered the folk social dance scene (that's what I'm doing in the picture). Suddenly, I discovered a community where so much joy, expression, and ease came from dancing, and I loved it. It is through these wonderful dancers that I have been introduced to CI. So many of them have expressed its importance, how it fits into their relationship with their dance partner and body. This relationship is what I really want to explore and how to connect it to my relationship with touch and contact. I struggle with touch sometimes. I really want to have a more neutral idea around touch, but I find myself being reactionary and assigning feelings to touch (which gives it more power than I want). Finding moments of touch in class has been interesting. I find myself thinking about connecting with my partner more than the touch itself, thinking about how I can listen and respond to my partner and be in contact, rather than about the specific body parts we are touching. I know at the beginning of class though we had a discussion of consent in CI, and I kinda wish that was carried through more into our exercises

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Contact improvisation is something I never tried before. Seeing people on stage performing really strikes me and gives me the urge to try it myself. Came in with open thoughts and expectations, and I've been enjoying it so far. Compared with interacting with partners, dancing alone is something I am more used to. I love how CI allows me to fully embrace myself in a slow mode. It feels a little weird at first, leaning back to back with others and having to interact, moving with partners, but it turns out to be quite peaceful. I love how we put trust and caring into our movements while interacting with partners.

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The practice of CI is not brand new to me but still one that needs a lot of attention in order for me to grow in it. I really enjoyed being able to practice just letting myself fall in class and pushing myself to let that suspension go just a little farther - kind of like being on my own rollercoaster! The idea of tone as we discussed in class as the ways we use our muscles is new to me, and strange to wrap my head around because I tend to think of tone as the more analytical concept that others also mentioned in class. I really enjoyed practicing the small dance (?) on my own and with a partner, because it forced me to find ways to move and solve the movement puzzle we set in two very different ways.

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I have pretty limited experience in CI, I have learned a little about it in improv classes I have taken but I have never taken a CI class. So far the work we have been doing has already been eye opening to me. The community the class is building feels very trusting and peaceful which is so nice because this can be difficult to cultivate in many dance classes and other parts of life. This is something I have enjoyed a lot about this class so far. Something else I have begun to realize is how aware CI makes you as a mover. I often get lost in dance sometimes and can't feel where my limbs are in space nor my weight. But the ways we have began practicing CI so far I have already began to feel my body in space more clearly.

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One thing I was interested in on the first day was CI as a dance form that seems to be about practice and experience more than performance. Even so, watching my classmates dance in the growing/melting exercise we did on Thursday was transformative. I am enjoying building trust through touch and collaboration with my classmates -- it is a cool feeling to dance together and have so much physical trust even if all we know about each other is our names! Previously I have used contact improvisation as a theatrical tool -- how can bodies in contact tell a story about growing plants? fire? changing relationships over time? When watching classmates dance, I wast thinking about what stories the score might be telling. I hope to further explore that in this class, but also explore letting my practice and sensation be without ascribing a story to it.

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Like a lot of my classmates, CI is completely new to me and is a new form of social dancing that I'm excited to experience. I started dancing as a young kid doing modern dance, tap, jazz, and then ballet for a couple years. I started to resent ballet when I realized my body was only there to serve as a part of an aesthetic. When I no longer felt like I fit into that aesthetic, I quit. I did musical theater for ten years, up until college and that was a social performance art, but I didn't get into social/folk dancing until a year ago. The huge difference between contra dance and the other dance forms is that the connection and changing tension between dance partners is the main focus and drives the dance forward. These dances give me a prescribed space to dance with, touch, and make eye contact with the members of my community with pre-set expectations and boundaries which makes the space feel extremely safe. I love the rush of oxytocin during and after a dance from the amount of physical contact with others. The video above was taken during the setup for a contra dance when the musicians were warming up. One of my friends and I were enjoying the music so much that we started dancing together and our other friend quietly filmed it. Dancing in community has been so incredibly impactful on my life and well-being. I love the connection aspect of dance, which is why I wanted to give CI a try. The exercises we've been doing in class have placed me inside my body in a way that's sometimes a bit overwhelming. I think I tend to tune out or go somewhere else when there are too many sensations to focus on and thoughts running through my head, so keeping my brain attuned to my reality is something I'm looking forward to working on. I also agree that it feels like we've created a supportive and accepting class community where it feels okay to try new things and make mistakes. When we were showcasing our melting and rising exercise on Thursday, it was really hard to stay in my body and stay focused on my movements and intentions (I tend to get anxious when I feel like there are eyes on me). One thing I want to get out of this class is staying with my thoughts and feeling the moment without letting my emotions or reactions dictate my experience and prevent me from moving the dance forward or taking risks.

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I have been dancing for a while but not in this form. I came in feeling sort of unsure of myself because I wasn't sure how naturally this stye would come to me. Many people have told me I dance like I have a CI background and I sort of didn't want to disappoint them. But since I've been in class I've come to realize it doesn't matter whether or not I am good at CI because we have created a safe space as a group where we all are supported at whatever level we're at. I also have done some social folk dancing/contra dancing and I find the places where it is similar and different from CI really interesting: they both work with creating tension with another person and responding to them to create a dance. This is especially true when you add flourishes in contra dancing because the flourishes are outside the official instructions or "choreo" of the dance. The biggest difference it that with contra there is a caller who tells you what moves to do. I look forward to tapping into my body more and getting better at responding to people's touch and expressing ideas through touch without needing to use my words.

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CI is really cool! I have a weird relationship with dance because of all the competing I used to do as a child, which made for a toxic dance environment. It is nice to be in a class where perfection is not the goal. Just this first week of CI has been really healing for my inner dancer child. It is also nice to be somewhere where I can just move without worry about how I am being perceived. Upon exploring direct touch in class, I discovered I am really tense and need to relax my body more. I am not naturally comfortable with touch, even with close friends, so I am excited to explore that some more.

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What were the qualities in touch / contact experienced in class this week that felt good for you?

Was it easy or difficult to express verbal consent to partners you did or did not know?

Was it easy or difficult to express non-verbal consent?

How did you give non-verbal consent? What are some strategies you deployed in class or in life (if you think it's related to this discussion and would like to share)?

Next week we will work on:

Sending and receiving invitations—what are ways to invite a partner/partners into a dance? How do we (/not) accept them?

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I honestly thought the tapping activity to learn whether touch is comfortable in a certain area was a nice experience. I told a friend that it felt like physical asmr in a way because you were relaxed, but also tuned in with your body and the movements of the other person. I'm not going to lie I was almost lulled to sleep during this section of the course. I also really enjoyed the final activity where we curled into our partners. It felt like a system reset when we could feel our breaths and stomachs fall and rise together. Now, when it came to non-verbal consent I think sometimes it was a bit hard because I wanted to make sure that I was not doing anything that my partner was uncomfortable with so I would break the non-verbal cue to ask. As we kept dancing together I got more used to their non-verbal cues, but at the beginning, I was less confident in my ability to "hear" those cues. I think I gave non-verbal consent by physically opening up my body for my partner to lie wherever made sense to them. However, if there was a spot that felt a bit uncomfortable then I would sway myself a bit to encourage a shift from them.

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I really enjoyed experimenting with traveling this week, and rolling over each other across the floor. I was surprised to also enjoy the tapping/squeezing/brushing from the beginning of class -- I was hesitant about it at the beginning.

This class is giving me an opportunity to treat touch as a neutral form of connection/communication, whereas in the outside world it is often charged with a lot more context and feeling.

I think a mix of verbal and non-verbal cues are vital when working so closely with people, especially people I don't know super well yet. When giving touch, I find it's helpful to check in verbally if I'm sensing a non-verbal cue that I am having trouble reading.

I look forward to more dancing next week when the weather is milder!

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What qualities in touch/contact experienced in class this week felt good for you?I really enjoyed the rolling exercise. It was fun working with different people. I also enjoyed the conversations one of my partners and I had afterward about what felt good and what felt weird about the experience. We talked about how having contact with our stomachs felt comforting. Then, we discussed what was weird and what could have gone better, such as how to be more graceful.Was it easy or difficult to express verbal consent to partners you did or did not know?Previously, I didn’t know any of my partners, but it felt easy for me to express verbal consent. In all my partnerships, we discussed what felt good and what felt awkward or weird.

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Even though I've only been to one class, I've loved my experience with CI so far! It was very interesting exploring the different ways that touch can feel, both on different parts of the body and when alternating pressure. I found verbal consent to be easier to express than nonverbal consent, and even expressing verbal consent was awkward since I don't know anyone in the class. I feel as though my partners and I fell into similar movement patterns or repetitive movements because I at least am still very new to the practice ad was unsure of how to initiate a new type of movement or new areas of contact with the body. This is something I will try and work on next week, because a lot of the different CI work other people were doing were very inspirin for me to safely step outside of my comfort zone!

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The best feeling for me was the rolling activity, specifically feeling the full weight of my partner or fully releasing my weight onto them. I felt comfort in the pressure which allowed me to relax. It was really nice to synchronize my breath with my partner's. The rolling also felt very playful, it was fun to just sort of flop around in a controlled manner. In general I found myself noticing that contact with more weight/pressure behind it (as opposed to light, barely-there brushes) was the most satisfying to me.

Consent was interesting to think about because in the past I've typically only come across conversations about consent in the context of sex, so it was a little weird for me at first to think of it outside of that context. Once I got past that, I felt comfortable seeking and giving verbal cues. It was a little more difficult to tune in to non-verbal consent, but I'm sure that will become easier with practice.

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I have really been enjoying contact improv classes and I was a little sad to miss a day because of the snow! There was a moment when we were warming up on Tuesday and moving around each other's negative space and moving our arms where I had a spark of unbridled joy in movement, that I have felt before in dancing with my sister in our kitchen. Touch-wise, I really enjoyed the tapping exercise and also rolling over each other across the floor. I feel like a big component of confidently doing CI is just getting to know one another better and comfortable with touching each other in ways that we typically wouldn't outside of class. Now that I know some of my classmates better, and I know the context of consent that the touch is happening in, it's easier for me to relax and both touch my partner and get touched myself. I also really enjoyed the restorative touch lap-laying at the end of class: might have to look into a restorative touch workshop! I typically gave non-verbal consent by shifting my body away from the touch, but tbh it didn't need to happen that often.

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I have to be honest, I was a little sad when I got news of the snow day because I was looking forward to contact improv... however I'm excited for class next week and continuing with all the cool stuff we've done so far! There were a few kinds of touch I really enjoyed in class on Tuesday. First, I loved the exercises where we practiced tapping/gently squeezing each other. It felt like I was taking care of my dance partner, which was really sweet. I also was thinking about what kind of tapping/squeezing would feel good for me and tried to replicate that for my partner. We had to communicate some about ticklishness/ avoiding areas that would tickle, which is something I'll continue to consider when interacting with my dance partners in the future. I enjoyed the moments of stillness when lying under/on top of my dance partner as well, and just feeling each other's breathing. My dance partner and I experimented with lightly tracing our fingers over each other's arms. This form of gentle touch felt really nice. Overall, I like that I'm pushed outside of my comfort zone by incorporating touch into the relationships with my classmates - usually this kind of gentle caretaking is something I only incorporate into relationships with people close to me. I also think it's just a cultural norm in the U.S. not to touch strangers in this way. However, I've found it soothing and it's helped to connect me with my classmates and build trust!

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I loved tuesday's class! The tapping exercise was so insanely tingly, I haven't had goosebumps like that in awhile. It was also nice to be the one giving the touch because it felt like I was taking care of my partner. I also loved experimenting with the rolling and seeing what was different when we were on our stomach vs back vs side. It was also interesting to figure out how to land gracefully because it's easy to throw yourself/the other person off when the roll was complete. I had so much fun with it and couldn't stop laughing at some points, and I think it was because it made my inner child very happy. The stomach exercise made me conscious about chest vs belly breathing and I felt a strong sense of calm during it.

I think giving verbal consent in the beginning is quick and easy, but I can also understand that some people (including me sometimes) can have trouble with expressing boundaries because of people pleasing - like if someone who has less boundaries expresses theirs first, a people pleaser with more boundaries might feel pressured to not express them.

Nonverbal consent can be harder to pick up on because what someone does physically will not always match up with how they feel. Moving away and/or tensing can express boundaries, but it's harder to find whether someone has given consent, if that makes any sense.

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I really liked being able to do the tapping/squeezing activity because it gave me an opportunity to talk to my partner and get comfortable before we moved to more involved contact.

I found it relatively easy to express verbal consent with partners in the rolling activity when I would tell them something like "I'm going to put weight on slowly, tell me to stop if you need," and I felt like that opened up my (and hopefully my partner's) comfort levels for expressing verbal consent.

I'm not sure that non-verbal consent was as clear-cut, but I tried to provide it by offering where I was comfortable being touched (i.e. holding out a hand, opening up my back). When I was reaching a new point of contact for the first time, I tried to give my partner time to recognize what I was going for and decide if they were okay with it.

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-The qualities in contact that felt good where a lot of the ones involving weight on parts of my body I am. Specifically the the being rolled over and laid on as well as the squeezing

-it was pretty easy to express verbal consent with both partners I knew and did not know, but it felt a little harder to express it non verbally, I would do this by starting off gentler with touch then increasing in pressure

-another way to apply non verbal consent is listening to how the other person reacts to what is being done

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I have a bit of experience doing the tapping, squeezing, brushing exercise, so I found it comforting to do something kinda familiar. I am also such a big fan of the tapping. It's just a really nice sensation. I also enjoyed the rolling more than I thought I would. There was something very freeing to my brain about being given such a direct task. Sometimes I get caught up in what I think “isn’t allowed” and to be told to do something directly, like “roll over your partner,” helped me get out of my head a bit and focus on the connection and flow instead. I had a good time with verbal consent. I liked how we incorporated that into class more. I still struggled a bit with non-verbal consent. I think in a dance style where connection is so important, I have a hard time determining how to express boundaries or consent without breaking that connection or confusing my partner. And on the flip side, I think I would have a hard time reading if my partner just wants to flow into something else for the sake of doing something new or if it’s because they were uncomfortable with what we were doing previously.

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I learned that having my head squeezed felt really nice. It felt like the tension in my body was released. I also enjoyed having someone put their weight on me, it allowed me to think more about how I was positioned and the compression was surprisingly relaxing. I also really enjoyed how we curled around eachother at the end of class. It was a bit uncomfortable at first to be in such a comforting close position with someone I didn't know but I quickly became very comfortable with it. Being able to find relaxation in contact with a stranger is a uniquely beautiful experience as you connect with someone just as people without any external factors. It was pretty easy to express verbal consent to my partners, and although I didn't really use non-verbal consent in class in life to express non-verbal consent I have generally opted to just repositioning myself/someone else to a place that was more comfortable.

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I enjoyed qualities of touch that felt fluid. I found this mostly in my back. I enjoyed slowness and movement that felt collaborative. I didn't express much verbal consent. However we navigated constant in a more nonverbal consent. I can imagine eye contact being a great invitation. I am not so sure how one could indicate their declining of an invitation.

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Week 2 (but first week for me) Reflection

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Week 2 (but first week for me) Reflection

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So far I only had one class, so I didn't really grasp what toning means. But I was able to try giving non verbal consent by not moving and just letting it happen. I think it's because my role was the first to give touch, and due to nervousness/ politeness I only touched their shoulders and limbs, so my partner followed my pattern when they're giving me touch and didn't try many other body parts. I was able to sink more into it in later part of the class, when my friend and I initiated lying across each other. Contact with another person in general is a bit new to me, both in dance and in life, but my love language is actually physical touch. When I'm with someone I can be relaxed with, I find physical contact is important and soothing, so we've had that weight shifting in our sleepovers many times and just brought it out naturally in class😂. It's kind of like how weighted blankets can calm people down and help with anxiety/ touch deprivation. I loved it in life but haven't relate it to dance before, as dance was something of harsh disciplines to me. I learned some dances and instruments growing up, but they were never meant to be improvised. It made me felt like I don't know the dance/my instrument at all because I'm only trying to copy other's techniques, like there's a certain way to do things and I'd never exceed them. In college I finally started finding myself in those things and in life. It's a gradual process, even intimidating, but I want to take every step towards myself, break the old sets and establish new ones. And this class feels like a great help on that way!

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There were a lot of moments this week where I explored new places of connection between my partner and I. The hips and stomach were the two that I remember exploring the most in class with the rolling exercise. During undirected contact (when we were without a given task) I was often unsure of where to move next and having trouble listening through my partner. Sometimes it felt like they were getting away from me or I didn't understand what they were trying to communicate. The rolling exercise was very cathartic and relaxing. The moment I loved the most was when my partner would connect by laying on top of me and there would be a moment where I could feel us sinking into each other before beginning to roll.

During this exercise, I found it really helpful when you told us what to be looking and listening for (in terms of listening to the connection, contact, where to take moments to connect, breathing, etc.). I think the scariest part of trying something new is going in with no direction so having a framework in which we could improvise and explore was amazing. I came out of it feeling like I had learned a lot about myself and contact.

Nonverbal consent was tricky, I usually asked verbally before initiating contact if there was anywhere my partner didn't want to be touched but I would love to go over more exercises in nonverbal consent to be able to understand and communicate better in contact.

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I think giving and receiving touch is really fascinating because there is so much grey area in what it could mean when you are out in the world. It could be anything from a greeting, to a friendly gesture to an accidental touch. That makes it more interesting to have touch in the context of dance: because it isn't necessarily imbued with those subtleties. There is more of an emphasis on "how much weight are they giving/should I give" or "how can I take this contact and turn it into movement" than there is on "what does this mean" but at the same time you can't 100% take out the emotional nuance of physical touch. That is why consent it so important and being able to imbue your touch with "yes-ness" or "no-ness". It can be as simple as moving towards the touch or away from it, but it also has to do with muscle tension: if you tense up as a response to touch it is an indication of a "no" but if you relax into the touch it is probably a "yes" except you don't want to be a wet noodle so some amount of muscle tone is necessary.

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What are some moments in class you enjoyed this week? What are some sensations you’d like to carry on to next week of contact improvisation? Feel free to leave a sonic response, a drawing, description of an image, workings inside your body or how you were perceiving.

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I really enjoyed today's session where we learned about turning/twisting with our partners. At first, my partner and I had moments where we would need to adjust how we supported or interacted with each other. One instance of this was in the back bend skill where I needed to change my back positioning to support her back arch. However, as we kept practicing both that skill and others it got smoother. It was one of the first times I could feel the listening to and listening through aspects of contact improve. I also loved the jam session at the end! I was a little hesitant at first and thought I would just stay on the sidelines at the beginning, but eventually, I got the courage to join! When I connected with someone at the jam it felt like a free flow of movement filled with listening and trust.

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I really enjoyed experimenting with vision on tuesday, i realized that my body slowed down and struggled to keep moving if i gazed at something unreachable, like outside the window. It was also very interesting to watch the rolls and see how the different amounts of spinal curve influenced everyone’s speed and flow!

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This week I experienced overall joy/bliss while dancing but also moments of uncertainty. I think it was because we were experimenting with putting more of our body weight onto our partners that there were moments where I felt less confident. On Thursday when we initially started to do the overdancer/underdancer back-laying exercise I felt a bit of fear right before I put my full weight onto my partner. However, Scarlet's advice of leaning slowly, and generally getting more comfortable not being in control helped me a lot. So far, my favorite patterns have been rolling over each other, both what we did last tuesday and the backwards summersault today. Rolling / inverting myself reminds me of playing as a kid and is just downright fun!

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I really enjoyed building my solo and partner vocabulary this week and was surprised at how "in it" I felt at the end of class yesterday. I was really focused on my partner and blocking out anything else going on in the room which really helped me listen through and move with the partner I was in contact with. The short jam at the end was so fun! I haven't gotten to dance with everyone in class yet so that was a great way to "socialize" and get to be in contact with more people. I'm headed to Flurry this weekend and I'm thinking of going to the jam there. The movements, patterns, and approaches we learned in class will be extremely helpful in navigating that new environment.

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This week I enjoyed listening to the detailed insights my partners shared with me. The knowledge they carry from their own experiences richly informed how I began to experiment with the new moves we explored this week myself. I also most importantly appreciate their positive, gentle, and supportive energy that uplifted my spirit. Thank you!

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For some reason, during this week I had a vision of being a rock rolling down a hill. I think it indicates that I was able to feel my weight and the way I can manipulate it through space and how it interacts with another person. I can learn to lean on the ground/someone else (making sure I have their consent if this is the case) and trust the process.

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Some moment I enjoyed in class this week was learning about some new vocabulary for floor movement and partner weight sharing. This was really fun and valuable to learn as well which was really great to get to be able to see everyone find their own methods and preferences. Some moments of sensation that I would like to carry on is finding new points of contact to go off and improvising off of that with some parameters.

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One of my favorite moments from this week was when we were working on the upper back connection and turning/twisting while maintaining that. It was really cool to find the points where I could slightly relax, and the places where I could hold weight in new ways. I also enjoyed the rolling combinations we did during Tuesday's class, especially the one with the little spin in it! I want to keep that element of play and exploration in mind for this coming week.

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It was really interesting to experiment with putting my weight on my dance partner. It required a degree of trust that I haven't quite built yet, and I noticed myself not wanting to give a lot of weight over to my partner because I was worried it would be too much. I'm looking forward to working on this trust so I can feel more comfortable shifting weight to my partner, which will also hopefully make these movements more graceful! I also enjoyed interlocking heads and practicing rotating while still maintaining that upper back/head connection, and I look forward to more of it.

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Lots of learning combinations this week! I appreciate having more patterns in the toolkit but I'm excited to improvise more soon. I want to spend more time focusing on listening through and sharing weight. I am getting more comfortable communicating with my partners and enjoying their insights in group discussions! The jam at the end of thursday was super cool -- I hope to feel more into participating next time we do it, but watching was fun too!

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This week I felt more comfortable letting my dance partners support all of my weight. I enjoyed the sensations of letting go of holding myself up, and also of holding someone else up. It was nice to alternate between feeling sturdy and supportive and dynamic and supported. I have also enjoyed getting to work with lots of different people and learning what works in different partnerships.

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This week I liked the backbending exercise. it was really nice both to release my full weight backwards and trust my partner to carry it, and to feel and support the weight of my partner. I’ve found weight sharing in general to feel the most pleasant. I really enjoyed rolling over eqch othef again as well. I aslp had good moments of verbal communication with my dance partners to make sure we were understanding the mechanics of the movements we were doing so we could maintain safety.

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i enjoyed rolling with each other and feeling gravity through the floor. I also enjoyed observing and hope to do more of that.

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Molly, Scarlett, and I all went to a dance weekend, and I took a video of a fusion dance that I did with Molly on Friday. We tried to purposefully incorporate some contact moves into this dance. I also found myself throughout the entire dance weekend using the concepts I had learned from CI to improve my dance skills in all the dance forms I tried. Padlet really hates me for even trying to upload a tiny clip, so here is just a snippet of the dance.

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Because Afton Molly and I were all at the dance weekend this is coming a little late, sorry about that! I found it was really cool to go to a CI jam while I was there and experiment with weight sharing with people I didn't know at all. I found it was easier than I expected because I knew that they were there because they knew a bit about contact and are comfortable with sharing weight. It was also really fun to dance with people that were bigger than me because I trusted that they could lift me well (and they did!). Also I was surprised that it was natural to move from one partner to the other: there's this loose amoeba where people are dancing in pairs but almost on top of each other and then I just accidentally made contact with someone (who wasn't my partner) and decided to keep the connection and then the dance evolved and it was really cool! I can't wait to incorporate the things I learned into this class.

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I have always had trouble yielding both to others and to my body. However, in trusting my body today (and the partners that I had), I was able to re-establish some of that trust with both my physicality, my environment, and the people around me! I also really enjoyed the sensation of flowing between yielding and moving, of heaviness and tone. I was able to get into some really deep stretches just by exploring different directions to reach!

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Hi all, I am putting together a Class Glossary pulled from your words from classes and reflections. This will be a constant reference point for movement and concepts we'll be exploring throughout the semester:

Weighted blankets

Fluid

Gracefully (falling and rolling)

Gradualness (while yielding)

Please add to this in this week's responses. What are the words and imageries that you would like in there?

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There was something so beautiful about the spontaneity in which dances would break out during our jam session! I feel like everyone in class, including myself, is getting more comfortable trusting both themselves and each other with their dancing. Additionally, the experimenting with weight when rolling (leading with hands or feet) was fascinating to watch - leading with legs definitely led to a more fluid roll rather than an abrupt shift of weight.

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backspace

floor

gaze

reach

grip

tension

gradual

gravity

breeze

invite

experiment

weeeeeeeeeee~

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limbs

flow

falling

risk

gravity

weight

pushing

connection

listening

consent

support

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Flow. Invitation. Tone. Tension. Release. Gentle. Softly. Landing.

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Flowing (transitions)

Surrender

Explore (in jams)

Trust (your partner to catch you)

Rest (don't be afraid of stillness or slowness)

Expanding

Falling

Reaching

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gentle

reaching

giving (as in giving weight, support, trust, etc)

finding balance (with self and with others)

exploration

trial and error

release

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organic

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-backspace

-feel through

-connect

-enter

-exit

-shift

-gradual

-continuity

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Amoeba

Observe

Learn

Touch

Feel through

In Contact

I'm a banana

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Trusting

Melting

Releasing

Listening

Balancing

Yielding

Play

Connection

Whimsy

Shifting

Natural

Consent

Support

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playful

childlike

awareness

allow

let go

roll

stretch

take up space

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Touch Therapy

Release

Uninhibited

Basic

Joyful

Feel

Connect

Listen

Slime mold

Roll

Twirl

Communicate

Collaborate

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shift

flow

traverse

listen

confide

reach

become

drift

magnet

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drag

flow

attuned

connection

breathing

my back spaaace

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grow

stretch

warp

melt

sweep

feel through

trust

invite

consent

thank

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I was sitting out with an injury and here were my observations from 2/25 class: "We started out with our legs and arms holding a ball and then rocking around like a baby. To continue with the baby theme, we held onto our feet and continued rolling around. I tried to roll as best as I could with my knee, and the force of the floor hurt my pelvis. As I tried rolling around, the weight of my pelvic bone was crushed against the floor. Now we’re in pairs, and trying to lean our weight on each other. I see two people with their legs against each other, one leg leading and one leg following. Yun said that the point of contact has to always remain. Yun also said to try to find that sweet spot where both spines connect, and you can feel and lean on the other person comfortably. The point is to maintain connection. It is really pretty. It’s like vines growing off of each other. I also like how people are listening to the music, in this case the twin peaks theme, and moving their bodies as the music crescendos."

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I first want to give a shoutout to Scarlet for checking in with me about my injury /other disabilities during our improvisation and for allowing me space to succeed in doing a back bend! I also really enjoyed experimenting with physical / warm touch in different areas. Activating the ventral side definitely made me feel longer, and I took that with me into my dance. Other touches, like tapping behind the head / neck, gave me goosebumps! I don’t think we as humans really appreciate the volume that we hold in ourselves and that others hold, and the warm touch and even CI in general is a good way to remind ourselves of this.

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I enjoyed rolling like a baby or wobbly man, rolling over each other's back, the warm touch and the improvise between several pairs jamming together intertwined with constant rolling contact. The pointing on top of the head and squeezing of the waist made me more mindful of my height and breath, but the warm touch is the most powerful information for me as the feeling of that warmth and pressure stays like a pattern imprint on me.

The warm touch in jam weirdly remind me of zombie movies where the main characters were stuck in an island in the middle of city and zombies reaching to lay hands on them. But the vibe is the opposite here, safe and firm.

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Sorry I'm late!!

Glossary words :)

touch

pressure

laugh!!!

backspace

ventral space

mycelium

leap risk trust

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The compositions today were very reminiscent of renaissance paintings, with one or two figures standing and the rest on lower levels. Everyone in the composition was so inclusive and intentional with their touch, and the way that they looked / gazed sort of added to that renaissance vibe! I also loved towards the end when Yun stepped in and spun someone, and that sort of higher energy movement reverberated through the composition and led to more dancing / less stasis. There was also one moment involving Sam and another dancer, where one of them gently pushed against the other’s lower back, and the one who was pushed bent forward. It was such a wonderful example of listening through your partner, and accepting/following direct touch!

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Loving hands. Warm and direct touch. Light. Illuminate. Negative space. Stillness. Dispersed. Composition. Collectivity. Pull to join. Pull together. Energy. Witnessing. Making a shift. In and out. Shifting the composition. Finding stillness. Shapes. Leaning in. Influenced in the distance. Waves. Embracing.

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This week we worked a lot with touch with multiple different methods. On Tuesday the touch we received and gave for me impacted how I thought about moving as a reaction towards pressure and points that were made contact with. Thursday that contact we worked with made me focus more as collective shapes and imagery as well as diving into negative space from a sense of touch. This was really cool to be a part of and witness. One of my favorite images I saw was people floating once we went from stillness to slow moving.

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Observing our jam today, I noticed: touch, hesitancy, laughing, unfurling, exploration, closing, light.

I was noticing where people's eyes were in the stillness -- sometimes still moving, sometimes looking at each other, sometimes avoiding eye contact!

I hope to explore more sharing weight and shed some of my hesitancy.

I loved our name game and also an awesome moment with Ronja where her foot ended up on my shoulder!

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some imagery from this week: bridges and architecture, weaving and lattices, roots, crystals and stalagmites, ocean water, strings, plants growing towards the sun, bouncing molecules, magma, spirals, lights, carrying and holding, landscape.

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These were my sketches from today (not sure if they will show up) but today's shapes reminded me a lot about nature, especially weather - something about the movement felt like it came from a force that wasn't human. I also saw themes of power dynamics/hierarchy when people towered over one another, and codependence when they'd sorta work off and hold onto each other.

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I had a lot of fun flowing in and out of our jam in class today. Observing and seeing what other people were doing was really useful to figure out what I should incorporate into my dances. Here are some of my main takeaways -

1) use of levels is satisfying to see as an observer. I liked when the dance groups had a variety of dancers who were lying down, sitting, kneeling, standing, as opposed to all lying down.

2) I loved seeing the dancers very interwoven with each other and utilizing the negative space. When everyone is under one person and over another, everyone look very connected.

3) I liked seeing people use their dorsal surfaces! For example, when someone is on their back and extends their arm or leg upward to gain some height variation, and then someone else leans against the limb - it looks very cool!

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Molly and I shared a page, so these aren't all my notes. I really found the lines and shapes of each structure very interesting. So often, there were interwoven lines and beautiful arched shapes. As I mentioned in class, I saw a lot of waveform imagery. The ideas of the stretch of connection, the push and pull, like an oscillation or frequency. There were also a lot of structures that made me think of people drowning (that stereotypical image of a hand rising out from the water). Also a lot of creature imagery like starfish and rat kings. There was a moment as an observer where Scarlett and Ronja, who were also observers, were leaning on each other and laughing, and I also drew that because it was so pretty and striking even if they weren't the ones dancing.

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The warm touch giving / receiving from tuesday reminded me of an exhibit I saw at one of my favorite museums- The Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philly. It was called "Group Hug" by Risa Puno and consisted of two different paths through the gallery, "caring for others" and "being cared for". If you chose the first path, you played a giant whack-a-mole game with a hammer and lit up buttons that represented finding and responding to various needs. If you chose the second, you sat in giant massage-bed type chairs that were powered by the whack-a-mole game. The more needs people on the other side attended, the longer the massage chairs worked. It reminded me of how its fun to both receive, and give, care. I felt this in the exercise as well.

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Are You Ready to Be Cared For? Experience "Risa Puno: Group Hug"

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I tried to quickly doodle the shapes I saw from class yesterday that stood out to me when I was observing. I really enjoyed the jamming, it felt very caring and everyone had a sense of humor alongside their focus.

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My favorite observation I heard from Thursday, I think it was Scarlet who said it, was that we were becoming each other's negative space. I felt that was really true to the way I was moving in those group exercises- whenever I saw an empty space, I moved to fill it. I also really liked the exercise where we held different parts of each other with pressure and walked away; I could still feel the ghost of the touch as I left, as if my partner was still holding onto me.

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I really enjoyed the jam on Thursday because it felt free flowing and structured at the same time. I would love to collectively experiment with different movement qualities because I think what feels most natural to me (and most of my classmates it seems) is this sort of slow contemporary amoeba. I would love to play around with sharp movements or ones with more tonality or faster movements, but I think those tend to be a bit harder to follow so it makes sense that we wouldn't default to that. That being said it was also really lovely to see the shapes that emerged within our slow amoeba. I tried to sketch them but I don't know how successful I was because they were so intricate. There was one that I tried to draw when Ronja pointed out that there was someone's foot sticking out of the shape that at first glance looked like a hand and it was cool to try to trace that back to the person and how they were interacting with the rest of the group.

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Being united in movement, lots of boats, water

(could not figure out how to photoshop George washington taking a selfie)

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I absolutely loved the group dance along with the duets! One thing that stood out to me is that the clumps that formed during the last group jam all found their own rhythm and synchronicity with the music, and were always in alignment with each other even if they differed from the other clumps of people. The introduction of touch to the exploration of negative space also spiced up that exercise - the image of Molly exploring the negative space around Miriam with her feet before letting her feet land on Miriam’s hips was such a cool and creative move! I’d love to do more things like that, moving in and out and between negative space with intentional moments of touch.

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Lots of cool shapes and motion. I tried to capture the motions I saw from people as I observed the whole time. I liked seeing the layers of overlap between groups of people. I drew the lines I saw being made with movement rather than just still shapes as the movement is constant and cant really be captured stagnant.

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I saw a ton of really cool shapes in class, most of them involved curves or moving through another person in some way. I also noticed different ways to hold onto someone else to build a more solid structure or connection.

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From the past few weeks alone, class on Tuesday (3/4) was by far one of my favorite class sessions so far. I loved searching and discovering movement through the the jungle gym and mover rhythm. It reminded me of puzzle pieces merging and coming (and going) together, which made me feel complete. Most in particular, I full-heartedly enjoyed my duet with Scarlet. Our dance together brought me an overflowing abundance of joy, laughter, and excitement. And because of that, I am looking forward to exploring the jungle gym and mover rhythm more in my personal life with the people I love. I am also incorporating pieces of the practice in my mid-term group dance performance for another dance class I am taking here at Smith, Dance for Everybody (:

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Time is flying! I feel like we are coalescing as a group and I am really enjoying our jams. I have been thinking a lot about Cohen's drawings and the expressive shapes and spirals happening. I have enjoyed interacting with the architecture like the walls and piano in the studio, and watching others do the same! I also have been relishing the laughter that comes up during jams. I would be excited to further explore scores and improvising to different scores and transitioning from observer to dancer and back.

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I really enjoyed our jam session on Tuesday! It was really fun to experiment with negative space and also touch at the end. I felt like I could curl my body in new ways that wouldn't have made a lot of sense in past classes. I think what I want to learn more about is contact with change of rhythm or change in style (?). At the end of our final jam on Tuesday, we had a lot of changing song genres and verbal encouragement from Prof Yun to experiment with different pacing/body movements. So I think learning to feel the music while doing contact improv would be really fun!

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So far, my favorite activities in class have been the jams where we are encouraged to frequently switch partners / come up with new ideas / build off of each others ideas. I like it a bit better than a duet where it can get a little repetitive after a while of doing a similar thing. I enjoyed the jams at the end where we got time to both observe and participate and transition fluidly between the two. One thing that I noticed was feeling mild FOMO/jealousy when I was observing, mostly because it is so fun to dance, and I get so inspired watching my classmates that I want to find the right moment to jump in!

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I wanted to second Ellie's post about enjoying the jams where we get to switch partners. I enjoyed experimenting with different styles of dance/vibes with different people. Every time I switched I felt like the dance I entered was totally different from the last one. I could also tune in to how I was feeling, whether I wanted to continue, switch partners, or exit the dance and be a witness. As a witness, I enjoyed seeing what other people were doing because it gave me ideas for things I could try in my next dance.

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I really loved the energy we collectively had on Tuesday. The jungle gym activity was filled with such childlike whimsy and wonder. I enjoyed observing and seeing the creative ways people interacted with the space at each other. The giggles when something unexpected happened reinforced how joyous this form of dance can be. I also liked experimenting with different qualities and speeds of movement, as well as trying to sense where your partner was in the room without necessarily looking for them.

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On Tuesday I really loved the jungle gym analogy. It brought a new sense of fun and play into the room and I loved being able to experience that and see other people find it. My favorite part of it was seeing how everyone used different things in the studio to be a part of their jungle gym. Another part of the jungle gym exercise I would love to work with more would be finding the in and out more smoothly. I was definitely struggling to find a smooth exit so I would love to keep working with this.

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It was cool to partner up with someone and have one person do the movement. I personally tend to feel the obligation to match someone's level of movement so it was cool to do an exercise when one person was supposed to be still while the other one moved. Witnessing this one compared to the last jam was interesting because there was a lot more "broadness" to it - it filled up a lot of space and it made me think of seeds spreading across soil, as opposed to one plant.

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I enjoyed our exploration of negative space on Tuesday and how we explored varying proximity to each other. It was also a fun experiment to intentionally take turns with movement, and practice sensing when another person is done moving.