Using contact improvisations
Contact improvisations are spontaneous physical dialogues that range from stillness to highly energetic exchanges.
Alertness is developed in order to work in an energetic state of physical disorientation, trusting in one鈥檚 basic survival instincts. It is a free play with balance, self-correcting the wrong moves and reinforcing the right ones, bringing forth a physical/emotional truth about a shared moment of movement that leaves the participants informed, centered, and enlivened.
Contact improvisation is a developed form of improvisation, usually a duet, between two experienced dancers. Our interest here is in the starting point 鈥 a point of contact. The improvisation is the movement that develops from that. Even if you鈥檙e not a trained dancer, you can experiment with shared movements. Think about how the effectiveness of a stage punch depends on the reaction of the recipient. The movements are associated and work together.
Exercise
You can explore simple contact improvisation in pairs by exploring simple touch, eg starting palm to palm using two basic dynamics of 鈥榯o push鈥 and 鈥榯o pull鈥. You could move onto another simple exercise by maintaining a point of physical contact at all times with a partner. Here you could explore three basic rules:
- to absorb an impulse by the partner
- to resist or ignore it
- to respond to it
Actor Adrian Lester demonstrates how to throw a realistic but safe punch in this clip from
Test your understanding of Physical theatre
Answer the question then check your response against the sample answer.
Question
Suppose that the devised work you鈥檙e doing is based on the idea of fairy tales in a modern or somehow different setting. Your group has chosen Hansel and Gretel. What effects could you create through Physical theatre?
If the trees in the wood are portrayed by the actors, they could invoke fear in the audience. They could do this by moving slowly and ever so subtly closer and closer to the actors portraying an initially oblivious Hansel and Gretel. This could be a very effective scene for the audience to witness. You would have to be careful of veering into comedy so the physical movements by the characters playing the trees would have to be subtle. For example, one tree could just shift ever so slightly to the left followed by another and another. Hansel and Gretel could glimpse this movement but initially think their eyes are deceiving them as the 鈥榯rees鈥 become still and statue like.
It鈥檚 possible in this way to make the characters鈥 journey the stuff of nightmares but also frighteningly realistic. If the setting is modern, it could become an allegory of neglect or abuse.
The scene could end with the trees abandoning all subtlety in movement and aggressively reaching out for Hansel and Gretel, restraining them and perhaps overpowering them 鈥 a homage to the 鈥榞rabbing trees鈥 in Hollywood鈥檚 The Wizard of Oz (1939).
