Tag: improvisation

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A Couple Thoughts onGravity

A brief discussion of gravity on WhatsApp with my Lower Left colleagues in relation to dance styles got me to think about how/if I relate CI to gravity. I do occasionally refer to gravity especially when teaching partnering pathways, of how at the top of the arc a person has no weight because for a moment gravity is no longer acting on them, and how weight lessens as someone goes up and increases as they go down. Making them easier to move on the way up and at the top, rather than down. Also this week in my CI class at Marameo, I referred to the altas vertebra, having people tilt from there to sense the pressure change under their feet.

So one current hypothesis is that the earlier generations of CI practitioners were heavily into gravity because they were looking for an outside source to move and inspire them, rather than predetermined movements. That it was a post-modern move to relinquish agency to an outside source other than the individual’s will to generate the movement, a mode of killing the choreographer.

I tend to focus on the creation, operation, and dissolution of surfaces of contact, i.e., the improvising of the contact surfaces, their number, location, size, degree of pressure rather than gravity. 

For me the focus on gravity relates to the first two phases of CI, sensing and mechanizing. Once a dancer is familiar with those phases, they can venture into the third phase – improvising. Another hypothesis is that much of CI teaching remains within sensing and mechanizing, and merely lets the improvising happen as a result of adapting to failed attempts at repeating pathways, at least that is what I would say from a lot of what I see here in Berlin, rather than having the improvising with and in contact be a conscious artistic choice in the moment.

(at some point, I will write more about the three phases of sensing, mechanizing, and improvising)

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Dance Improvisation as diagnosing

Below is a modified text and the original text from page 247 of Richard Sennett’s The Craftsman. I think a person experienced in improvising, dance for example, is similar to an experience doctor diagnosing a patient. The person with experience thinks in larger units of time, makes me think of the movemes from the chapter on Tango in the Oxford Improvisation in Dance tome. I think also a person with experience can also think in smaller units of time, thinking of Nita Little’s Thin Slicing of time. An person with experience can oscillate between large and small units of time, anticipating on several scales.

Modified Text

The experienced improviser, as one would expect, is a more accurate diagnostician.This is due in large part to the fact that he or she tends to be more open to oddity and particularity in movement, whereas the novice is more likely to be a formalist, working by the book, rather rigidly applying general rules to particular cases. Moreover, the experienced improviser thinks in larger units of time, not just backward to cases in the past but, more interestingly, forward, trying to see into the dance’s indeterminate future. The novice, lacking a storehouse of histories, has trouble imagining what might be an individual moment’s fate.

Original Text

The experienced doctor, as one would expect, is a more accurate diagnostician. This is due in large part to the fact that he or she tends to be more open to oddity and particularity in patients, whereas the medical student is more likely to be a formalist, working by the book, rather rigidly applying general rules to particular cases. Moreover, the experienced doctor thinks in larger units of time, not just backward to cases in the past but, more interestingly, forward, trying to see into the patient’s indeterminate future. The novice, lacking a storehouse of clinical histories, has trouble imagining what might be an individual patient’s fate.

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Hauert stating the obvious

But basically, improvisation is the interaction between our focus, attention, conscious command, sensual feedback, reflexes. – Thomas Hauert

What actions do we do are not an interaction of our focus, attention, conscious command, sensual feedback, and reflexes? Either Hauert is saying that all physical action is improvised, or he is simply stating the obvious.

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A neural perspective on SIDM

Consider the problem that dancer has to solve in the context of complex action planning, say engaging in solo improvised dance/making (SIDM) for 20 minutes within a given stage space. A variety of goals and subgoals – with their concomitant perceptual cues and motor tasks – need to be coordinated in such a way that the distal temporal end-state is reachable via a series of successive previous states, each of which must be ordered in relation to each other in space and time. Moreover, the dancer must be sensitive to changes in the external environment. A problem at a given stage necessitates the re- coordination of an indeterminate number of intermediate stages, which must be adjusted flexibly, accurately, and perhaps quickly, in order to reach the end-state. In addition, unforeseen intervening stimuli must be judged to be relevant or irrelevant, and the correct ordering of spatial and temporal sub-tasks must be maintained despite distracters.

original text

Consider the problem that a control system has to solve in the context of complex action planning, say finding the right type of spaghetti at the supermarket. A variety of goals and subgoals – with their concomitant perceptual cues and motor tasks – need to be coordinated in such a way that the distal temporal end-state is reachable via a series of successive previous states, each of which must be ordered in relation to each other in space and time. Moreover, the system must be sensitive to changes in the external environment. A problem at a given stage necessitates the re- coordination of an indeterminate number of intermediate stages, which must be adjusted flexibly, accurately, and perhaps quickly, in order to reach the end-state. In addition, unforeseen intervening stimuli must be judged to be relevant or irrelevant, and the correct ordering of spatial and temporal sub-tasks must be maintained despite distracters.

from Uithol, Sebo, et al. “Why We May Not Find Intentions in the Brain.” Neuropsychologia, vol. 56, 2014, pp. 129–139.

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SIF and Dance

The right dance therefore does not need to be “determined” in advance. There is no fully specified end-result on the basis of which the dance is realized. On the contrary, the dance is realized in practice because it is getting increasingly determined or developed within the landscape of affordances. The process of dancing can even have the determining, directed, character of nesting affordance for the dancers, because they are in the process of enacting a satisfying dance.

Original Text:

The right design therefore does not need to be “determined” in advance. There is no fully specified picture or description of the end result on the basis of which the design is realized. On the contrary, the design is realized in practice because it is getting increasingly determined or developed in acting within the landscape of affordances. The process of designing the sculpture can even have the determining, directed, character of nesting affordance for the architects, because they are in the process of enacting a satisfying design.

from –

Foregrounding Sociomaterial Practice in Our Understanding of Affordances: The Skilled Intentionality Framework

van Dijk L and Rietveld E (2017) Foregrounding Sociomaterial Practice in Our Understanding of Affordances:

The Skilled Intentionality Framework. Front. Psychol. 7:1969.