November 04-10 Bytom, Poland

PWST w Krakowie, Wydział Teatru Tańca w Bytomiu                                                                                                   (Dance Department -Bytom, of the Polish National Theater School, Krakow.)

SUMMARY: 2 hour Partnering Class

The class time was scheduled in 5 blocks of increasing skill demand. Students who either have or have not had physical activities before the class nonetheless benefit from focusing on themselves in a specific way for weight bearing exchanges so we begin with a "warm up" which focuses the mind on the health and fluidity of the torso and the deep tissues in and around the hips and shoulders.

Then we move from Contact Improvisation based studies and role plays slowly into simultaneous partnering activities where the roles are changing between giver and receiver, supporter and flyer. We move from horizontal to vertical in stages. Then towards the end we introduced particular moves that demand certain skills to be healthy, clear with oneself and the partner to communicate non-verbally and efficient enough to be repeated without damage to creativity or body structure. At this point, particular attention is payed as to how partners communicate verbally and non-verbally to each other: when is one better than the other? Do they maintain the specificity in (body)language that has been established or do they immediately switch into a person to person personality dialogue which undermines the focus?

The last segment instigates a mutual collaboration on making repeatable 'set' material that is complex and interdependent. The parters take turns in co creating a duet segment how ever they feel inspired to do so. 

THE CLASS SCHEME

 1. Warmup (20 min)

-Floor based > torso oriented

-Floor as your first partner

-Deep muscular skeletal access / core strength and flexibility

2. Reviewing the Passive/Active role play (30 min.)  

-Taking turns (15 min. per person per role )

-Giving and Receiving contact, pressure, weight and direction.Building sensitivity/listening/and interpreting in both roles (one active one passive). Lead by voice commands so that the active person can also concern him/herself with how they move between contact points (CPs). This wakes up the functional improviser in the active person and wakes up the inhibition to anticipation in the passive person.

3. Mutually Active Improvised Exchange 15 min.

When the repertoire of options for giving impulse direction weight and force opens up,  a flow emerges as the passive person gradually takes responsibility for his/her full body, while still receiving (instead of instigating) and continuing the impulse from the active giver. The giver uses any body part, and the receiver starts to interpret the impulse (assisting, following thru, organizing the rest of his her body) and soon enough there are new CPs emerging randomly and the exchange can become equally mutual: alternating giver receiver roles. CP's roll and slide and appear and disappear. Interpretations become impulses and impulses become interpretations, negotiated through touch, direction, pressure, force, speed, intensity, body part. Close attention is suggested to be payed on "back tracking" (reversing the path as soon as there is a lack of impetus or idea) "Symmetry" as an imagination killer, and the proportion or accuracy of the interpretive response (not creating too many simultaneous ideas too soon).

 4. Acrobatic Exchange Study - (20 min)

Set moves which demand certain self-management skills from both the supporter and the flyer.

-giving and receiving direction with Momentum

-sourcing the healthy power Loci Torso/Arms/Legs and the sequence through the giver's body.

-maintaing Volume as supporter and flyer, avoiding unhealthy structural collapse at the beginning or at the end or underway.

-maintaining directions as supporter and flyer > beyond the Da Vinci "idea" How to create flow and find opportunity with flow: not simply transporting, lifting and dropping, squeezing is not supporting, maintaing space between partners, "room for negotiation" 

 5. One for One (35 min)

-participants create material that employs inter-dependancy by alternating turns of the creative role. 

- creating from the last partnering situation onwards

-limiting the actions to a few in order to examine the flow of the exchange

-employing the various skills in a sequence

-mixing skills = mixing discourses = innovation

-avoiding the pitfalls of both contact impro and the neo classical (seeking collapse and gender stereotypes respectively)

-creating and interpreting: opinion, discourse, conflict, resolution