Notes from a series of five weekly labs for CI teachers, facilitators, and hosts, called “Beyond Paucity of Experience in Online CI-Inspired Gatherings,” 4/26/20-5/23/20.
These notes are offered by permission of the participants, who attended from Singapore, Germany, Brazil, Jordan, France, and the US.
Notes from 5/23/20:
In OCI, walls are often more accessible than in traditional CI. If partner(s) also have a wall to use, it helps create a shared experience
Using objects in your space can make it more fun and interesting. When your partner has an object too, it creates an opportunity for connection
Synchronicity is important. It is about matching, or opposing, in time and space
In OCI, there is less focus on weight, and more on connection
The sound of the dancing in OCI is so useful, maybe it is a good idea to be less inhibited about making sound, or even exaggerate the sound.
In OCI, your imagination can allow you to follow two different dance pathways at once, in ways that are physically impossible. Your body can “stretch” in your imagination to do things it can’t do in reality. It is like dancing in parallel universes.
“Go with the flow: if we forget the rules just go with the flow, this works better than trying to force a structure.”
“Focusing on a single body part makes for more visceral/tactile contact. Lots of full body response from my partner.”
“In general I found/find letting go of trying to recreate the physical and what was done before works best, although that is hard when it is all we know. But keeping the play and spontaneity works best, just as it does in F2F.”
OCI calls forward the question, which is also present in traditional CI, of how we perceive each other: how “real” are our perceptions of others, versus “projected” or “imagined.”
Moving slowly in OCI helps you stay connected to yourself and to others. Same as traditional CI.
Moving in opposition to partner(s) is like sliding, and is highly informed by past experiences of sliding zones of contact in traditional CI.
Our memory of traditional CI causes us to use patterns of movement and certain “vocabulary” of communication when we do OCI. Would some who had never done traditional CI understand my invitations and my physical communication if we tried doing OCI together? What if someone had never done traditional CI, and started dancing OCI with a group. What would happen if they later met in person and did traditional CI?
In OCI, if one person is on all fours (tabletop or cat/camel), with their back showing horizontally near the top of their screen, it feels like an invitation to be supported. The same position, but with the belly showing near the top of the screen, feels like an invitation for under-support. In both situations, a dance that feels familiar can happen, without giving real weight.
Doing OCI calls to mind the experiences we had when we were newcomers to traditional CI.
Our past, universal, experiences as humans help enable connection with each other. For example, since we all have experienced gravity (and the laws of physics), we can play catch with someone we’ve never met. What are some of the universals that can be used to enable connection? Gravity (and the laws of physics), time, objects and surfaces (floor, walls, furniture, loose objects), breath, and this one: “a history of being thwarted.”
------
Notes from 5/16/20:
Our scores and many of our discoveries this week were about ways to get away from looking at the screen continuously. That feels “liberating.”
Memory can play a key role in online CI-inspired dancing: When we look away from the screen, the echoes and reverberations of what our partner(s) were just doing (or what we were just doing together) in form what we do. Tuning in to this possibility makes it easier to get away from looking at the screen all the time. This is something that can enrich traditional CI.
When our screen “freezes” it offers an opportunity for inspiration. In a traditional CI dance, you can look out into the room, then close your eyes and “freeze” the scene for your use.
In traditional CI, as in online CI-inspired dancing, we can choose our “frame” for how we are perceived, and also for how we perceive.
Online CI-inspired dancing is an opportunity to practice “embracing limitations.” That is something that can enrich traditional CI.
Online CI-inspired dancing is an opportunity to train in imagination and perception That is something that can enrich traditional CI.
You can throw yourself into the space of your partner in online CI-inspired dancing.
In online CI-inspired dancing, an object can serve as “partner indicator,” and you partner can move as if they are that object.
When “witnessing” or “observing” online, if you are further from your camera it can give the other person or people a feeling of “more space;” but being closer can give a feeling of “being held.”
If you hold your hands near your face, close to your camera, it can give your partner the sensation that you are “peeking in” in a nice way. Your hands announce you like a friendly knock on the door.
“We have to be playful.”
“Following” your partner can include following their camera movements. If your partner points their phone upwards into a tree, and spins, you can spin along, and feel yourself under the tree.
----
Notes from 5/9/20:
We present ourselves visually as well as by touch in traditional CI. The question in online CI-inspired dancing that we find ourselves often asking, “What does my partner see?” is a question we sometimes ask and use in traditional CI. Maybe online CI-inspired dancing will teach us about how to use that better.
Online CI-inspired dancing has one area of overlap with our traditional CI jams: In a traditional jam, there is often an interval when you make visual connection with another dancer or dancers, and begin to dance in mutual connection, before contact is made. What we learn from Online CI-inspired dancing can inform the future of the noncontact portions for jamming in traditional contact improvisation.
It is possible to feel connected with a group of dancers on screen. It can feel like “scanning.”
In online CI-inspired settings, you can not only describe a score or exercise by voice and by using a visual demo, you can also use screen sharing to show a printed version of the score.
Some people are resisting online CI-inspired dancing, because “it’s not going to be the same.”
Online CI-inspired dancing can inform the future of contact improvisation.
It is not only the apparent SIZE of things that is influenced by being close or far from your camera. The SPEED of movement is also distorted. A slow movement close to the camera appears fast, a fast movement far from the camera appears slow.
A gesture where you presenting both of your palms to the camera can appear as a gesture that feels like “stop” or “keep back,” but presenting both of your palms to the camera when they are close to your face and framing the face appears much more welcoming.
Dancing in view area of your camera can feel like trying to put on a shoe that is too small.
Looking at your own image on the screen can be a distraction. Using “hide self-view” feature helps avoid this, but then you have to be aware of whether you are actually in the view of your camera. You also lose the sense of how others are actually seeing you. For example, you might not be able to know whether your hand is in front of your face or not, in the image that others see.
Movements that include impact, and sound, like jumping, self-friction, and self-percussion, can create a sensation of shared sensory experience beyond vision.
-------
Notes from 5/2/20:
If you use a Bluetooth microphone that travels with you in the room, then your partners are always with you. It makes the dance feel more intimate, even when you are farther away from your camera.
Feeling sadness about not having that “together feeling.” How can we achieve that now?
Three ways noted to achieve more connection in online dances: 1) Hand and face dances up close to the camera. 2) Moving slowly. That makes the lag less of a problem. 3) Center yourself in the screen and move your camera, so the background moves and you stay in the same place in your video frame. Your partner moves their camera in relation to your camera’s movements. The two of you stay centered in your screens the entire time.
While dancing, wondering, “Am I being seen?”
The sounds that we make while dancing are important. The sounds of our bodies on the ground, and the sounds we make that reflect feelings like effort or release. When we are in a breakout room with just one or a few people, these sounds convey meaning. In a very large group, the sound is more confusing.
An idea: use a selfie stick with your phone on Zoom.
A decision that we make when dancing online: how much effort do we spend taking care of what others see in our camera view. That effort can be a distraction from our dancing, or it can be a part of the dance.
When the camera perspective is shifted, so that “down “on the screen is not the same as “down” in the dancer’s room, then long hair that hangs down gives a clue as to how gravity is working on the dancer.
The score that we used today called “Swimming in Gravity” presents rich possibilities. The dancer and the camera of the dancer interact in many ways to reflect relationships with gravity. And also, the witness can experience gravity in different ways, not only through seeing the actions of the mover (and the mover’s camera), but also by changing their own viewing perspective from the usual position while watching the screen.
When you use your camera as part of your own dance, you are like a film director.
Dancing with the camera makes us aware of how we compose and present ourselves to our partners. In “real” CI, what are the ways that we compose and present ourselves? What can we learn about composing and presenting as part of our dance with cameras that can translate into dancing “real” CI without a camera?
It is possible to position the camera, for example pointing it directly at a blank ceiling, so that body parts that are in the view of the camera have no clear relationship to the overall space or to gravity. This can create a very pure experience of the body, and a sensation of floating.
There can be a rich experience for the dancer with objects and the space of the room they are in, different from in an empty studio.
In an online duet, if you are in a “witnessing” role, it may be helpful to use Zoom settings to either make your image small to yourself, or nonexistent. That way you are not distracted by looking at yourself when trying to witness only your partner.
The “frame” of the camera view is a reminder of the frames that we can use for dancing. For example, if you dance on a bed, the edges of the bed become a frame. You do not always have to stay within a frame.
Having duets or trios in breakout rooms can increase the ability to relate more fully online, compared to larger grids of people.
One way to make a transition from dancing to speaking about dancing (in a discussion after an exercise for example): Reflect back on what happened while you were dancing (most of us closed our eyes for this, without any invitation to do so). Then respond to that reflection in movement, and gradually put words internally to what you have reflected upon. Then you might be more ready to share in words about your movement experience.
In “real” contact improvisation, we are able to sense each other without the use of vision. How can we do that online?
When we witness another person dancing while we are stationary, and then we respond in movement afterwards, we are not only responding to what we have observed, but we are responding to the fact that we have been stationary.
-----
Notes from 4/26/20:
*Where are things like successes and failures being collected online, and where are online offerings posted?
A few answers:
contactimprovblog.com/virtual
and
https://www.facebook.com/groups/CIWWF/
and
https://www.facebook.com/groups/ci.jeo/
and
https://www.facebook.com/groups/864303740703369/
* It's a plus to be able to dance with people who are far away, and a chance for people who have moved away from others to re-join groups they have lost
*Looking at the screen all the time is an obstacle. Using voices might be a way to help let go of the visual.
*Filling your dance space with "stuff" can increase the sensory palette for your dancing.
*You can use your voice to "narrate" some things you are doing, so that others don't have to watch you all the time.
*Using sound is much easier when in smaller groups, like in a Breakout Room.
*There is a challenge to knowing "am I on camera?" What parts of yourself are visible to others? Someone suggested taping lines in your space (if your camera stays in one spot), showing where the edges are in what the camera sees.That can help, but it doesn't show the full shape of the space visible to the camera. (Note, this is called the "View Frustum. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqEP79loyQE )
*Wearing glasses presents challenges and opportunities. What is a challenge for one person can be an advantage for another.
*"I love the discombobulation of this."
*I wonder what the other person is seeing
*Sound is a way of activating the limbic system. CI activates that system. Adding sound to online dances may help us get that thing that we miss. (Note: Limbic System: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limbic_system )
*One participant has used a duet score online where one person created a soundscape for the other, for example by drumming on their chest.
*Stereo sound (widely spaced speakers or headphones/earbuds) is richer, more immersive, creates a sense of space and potentially spatial movement. Problem: the signals we are sending with our voices or bodies in zoom are not in stereo.
Notes from 5/23/20:
In OCI, walls are often more accessible than in traditional CI. If partner(s) also have a wall to use, it helps create a shared experience
Using objects in your space can make it more fun and interesting. When your partner has an object too, it creates an opportunity for connection
Synchronicity is important. It is about matching, or opposing, in time and space
In OCI, there is less focus on weight, and more on connection
The sound of the dancing in OCI is so useful, maybe it is a good idea to be less inhibited about making sound, or even exaggerate the sound.
In OCI, your imagination can allow you to follow two different dance pathways at once, in ways that are physically impossible. Your body can “stretch” in your imagination to do things it can’t do in reality. It is like dancing in parallel universes.
“Go with the flow: if we forget the rules just go with the flow, this works better than trying to force a structure.”
“Focusing on a single body part makes for more visceral/tactile contact. Lots of full body response from my partner.”
“In general I found/find letting go of trying to recreate the physical and what was done before works best, although that is hard when it is all we know. But keeping the play and spontaneity works best, just as it does in F2F.”
OCI calls forward the question, which is also present in traditional CI, of how we perceive each other: how “real” are our perceptions of others, versus “projected” or “imagined.”
Moving slowly in OCI helps you stay connected to yourself and to others. Same as traditional CI.
Moving in opposition to partner(s) is like sliding, and is highly informed by past experiences of sliding zones of contact in traditional CI.
Our memory of traditional CI causes us to use patterns of movement and certain “vocabulary” of communication when we do OCI. Would some who had never done traditional CI understand my invitations and my physical communication if we tried doing OCI together? What if someone had never done traditional CI, and started dancing OCI with a group. What would happen if they later met in person and did traditional CI?
In OCI, if one person is on all fours (tabletop or cat/camel), with their back showing horizontally near the top of their screen, it feels like an invitation to be supported. The same position, but with the belly showing near the top of the screen, feels like an invitation for under-support. In both situations, a dance that feels familiar can happen, without giving real weight.
Doing OCI calls to mind the experiences we had when we were newcomers to traditional CI.
Our past, universal, experiences as humans help enable connection with each other. For example, since we all have experienced gravity (and the laws of physics), we can play catch with someone we’ve never met. What are some of the universals that can be used to enable connection? Gravity (and the laws of physics), time, objects and surfaces (floor, walls, furniture, loose objects), breath, and this one: “a history of being thwarted.”
------
Notes from 5/16/20:
Our scores and many of our discoveries this week were about ways to get away from looking at the screen continuously. That feels “liberating.”
Memory can play a key role in online CI-inspired dancing: When we look away from the screen, the echoes and reverberations of what our partner(s) were just doing (or what we were just doing together) in form what we do. Tuning in to this possibility makes it easier to get away from looking at the screen all the time. This is something that can enrich traditional CI.
When our screen “freezes” it offers an opportunity for inspiration. In a traditional CI dance, you can look out into the room, then close your eyes and “freeze” the scene for your use.
In traditional CI, as in online CI-inspired dancing, we can choose our “frame” for how we are perceived, and also for how we perceive.
Online CI-inspired dancing is an opportunity to practice “embracing limitations.” That is something that can enrich traditional CI.
Online CI-inspired dancing is an opportunity to train in imagination and perception That is something that can enrich traditional CI.
You can throw yourself into the space of your partner in online CI-inspired dancing.
In online CI-inspired dancing, an object can serve as “partner indicator,” and you partner can move as if they are that object.
When “witnessing” or “observing” online, if you are further from your camera it can give the other person or people a feeling of “more space;” but being closer can give a feeling of “being held.”
If you hold your hands near your face, close to your camera, it can give your partner the sensation that you are “peeking in” in a nice way. Your hands announce you like a friendly knock on the door.
“We have to be playful.”
“Following” your partner can include following their camera movements. If your partner points their phone upwards into a tree, and spins, you can spin along, and feel yourself under the tree.
----
Notes from 5/9/20:
We present ourselves visually as well as by touch in traditional CI. The question in online CI-inspired dancing that we find ourselves often asking, “What does my partner see?” is a question we sometimes ask and use in traditional CI. Maybe online CI-inspired dancing will teach us about how to use that better.
Online CI-inspired dancing has one area of overlap with our traditional CI jams: In a traditional jam, there is often an interval when you make visual connection with another dancer or dancers, and begin to dance in mutual connection, before contact is made. What we learn from Online CI-inspired dancing can inform the future of the noncontact portions for jamming in traditional contact improvisation.
It is possible to feel connected with a group of dancers on screen. It can feel like “scanning.”
In online CI-inspired settings, you can not only describe a score or exercise by voice and by using a visual demo, you can also use screen sharing to show a printed version of the score.
Some people are resisting online CI-inspired dancing, because “it’s not going to be the same.”
Online CI-inspired dancing can inform the future of contact improvisation.
It is not only the apparent SIZE of things that is influenced by being close or far from your camera. The SPEED of movement is also distorted. A slow movement close to the camera appears fast, a fast movement far from the camera appears slow.
A gesture where you presenting both of your palms to the camera can appear as a gesture that feels like “stop” or “keep back,” but presenting both of your palms to the camera when they are close to your face and framing the face appears much more welcoming.
Dancing in view area of your camera can feel like trying to put on a shoe that is too small.
Looking at your own image on the screen can be a distraction. Using “hide self-view” feature helps avoid this, but then you have to be aware of whether you are actually in the view of your camera. You also lose the sense of how others are actually seeing you. For example, you might not be able to know whether your hand is in front of your face or not, in the image that others see.
Movements that include impact, and sound, like jumping, self-friction, and self-percussion, can create a sensation of shared sensory experience beyond vision.
-------
Notes from 5/2/20:
If you use a Bluetooth microphone that travels with you in the room, then your partners are always with you. It makes the dance feel more intimate, even when you are farther away from your camera.
Feeling sadness about not having that “together feeling.” How can we achieve that now?
Three ways noted to achieve more connection in online dances: 1) Hand and face dances up close to the camera. 2) Moving slowly. That makes the lag less of a problem. 3) Center yourself in the screen and move your camera, so the background moves and you stay in the same place in your video frame. Your partner moves their camera in relation to your camera’s movements. The two of you stay centered in your screens the entire time.
While dancing, wondering, “Am I being seen?”
The sounds that we make while dancing are important. The sounds of our bodies on the ground, and the sounds we make that reflect feelings like effort or release. When we are in a breakout room with just one or a few people, these sounds convey meaning. In a very large group, the sound is more confusing.
An idea: use a selfie stick with your phone on Zoom.
A decision that we make when dancing online: how much effort do we spend taking care of what others see in our camera view. That effort can be a distraction from our dancing, or it can be a part of the dance.
When the camera perspective is shifted, so that “down “on the screen is not the same as “down” in the dancer’s room, then long hair that hangs down gives a clue as to how gravity is working on the dancer.
The score that we used today called “Swimming in Gravity” presents rich possibilities. The dancer and the camera of the dancer interact in many ways to reflect relationships with gravity. And also, the witness can experience gravity in different ways, not only through seeing the actions of the mover (and the mover’s camera), but also by changing their own viewing perspective from the usual position while watching the screen.
When you use your camera as part of your own dance, you are like a film director.
Dancing with the camera makes us aware of how we compose and present ourselves to our partners. In “real” CI, what are the ways that we compose and present ourselves? What can we learn about composing and presenting as part of our dance with cameras that can translate into dancing “real” CI without a camera?
It is possible to position the camera, for example pointing it directly at a blank ceiling, so that body parts that are in the view of the camera have no clear relationship to the overall space or to gravity. This can create a very pure experience of the body, and a sensation of floating.
There can be a rich experience for the dancer with objects and the space of the room they are in, different from in an empty studio.
In an online duet, if you are in a “witnessing” role, it may be helpful to use Zoom settings to either make your image small to yourself, or nonexistent. That way you are not distracted by looking at yourself when trying to witness only your partner.
The “frame” of the camera view is a reminder of the frames that we can use for dancing. For example, if you dance on a bed, the edges of the bed become a frame. You do not always have to stay within a frame.
Having duets or trios in breakout rooms can increase the ability to relate more fully online, compared to larger grids of people.
One way to make a transition from dancing to speaking about dancing (in a discussion after an exercise for example): Reflect back on what happened while you were dancing (most of us closed our eyes for this, without any invitation to do so). Then respond to that reflection in movement, and gradually put words internally to what you have reflected upon. Then you might be more ready to share in words about your movement experience.
In “real” contact improvisation, we are able to sense each other without the use of vision. How can we do that online?
When we witness another person dancing while we are stationary, and then we respond in movement afterwards, we are not only responding to what we have observed, but we are responding to the fact that we have been stationary.
-----
Notes from 4/26/20:
*Where are things like successes and failures being collected online, and where are online offerings posted?
A few answers:
contactimprovblog.com/virtual
and
https://www.facebook.com/groups/CIWWF/
and
https://www.facebook.com/groups/ci.jeo/
and
https://www.facebook.com/groups/864303740703369/
* It's a plus to be able to dance with people who are far away, and a chance for people who have moved away from others to re-join groups they have lost
*Looking at the screen all the time is an obstacle. Using voices might be a way to help let go of the visual.
*Filling your dance space with "stuff" can increase the sensory palette for your dancing.
*You can use your voice to "narrate" some things you are doing, so that others don't have to watch you all the time.
*Using sound is much easier when in smaller groups, like in a Breakout Room.
*There is a challenge to knowing "am I on camera?" What parts of yourself are visible to others? Someone suggested taping lines in your space (if your camera stays in one spot), showing where the edges are in what the camera sees.That can help, but it doesn't show the full shape of the space visible to the camera. (Note, this is called the "View Frustum. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqEP79loyQE )
*Wearing glasses presents challenges and opportunities. What is a challenge for one person can be an advantage for another.
*"I love the discombobulation of this."
*I wonder what the other person is seeing
*Sound is a way of activating the limbic system. CI activates that system. Adding sound to online dances may help us get that thing that we miss. (Note: Limbic System: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limbic_system )
*One participant has used a duet score online where one person created a soundscape for the other, for example by drumming on their chest.
*Stereo sound (widely spaced speakers or headphones/earbuds) is richer, more immersive, creates a sense of space and potentially spatial movement. Problem: the signals we are sending with our voices or bodies in zoom are not in stereo.