Title of the Lab: Bio-tensegrity Lab
Date-time: 07.08.2018 17.15-19.00
Facilitator: Michele Tarento
Inquiriy of the lab:
Experiencing bio-tensegrity structure in the body and in contact
Participants:
Simonetta Alessandri, Keith Henessy, Nuria Bowart, Marion Raimirez, Dilek Üstünalan, Marcus Hoft, Jordan Fuchs, Eryn Rosenthal, Jungwoong Kim, Michele Tarento,Dorte Bjerre Jensen, Bastien Auber
Documentor: Dilek Üstünalan

Flow:
Definition of tensegrity model by Michele: self-stress, compression and resistance - counter forces
Using balloons and tensegrity models as materials to experiment
Exercises offered for group:
1. touch your body and feel the resistance of different layers of fascia
2. Touch your body with a rhythm and feel the elasticity
3. Try to stretch cross-side extremities and feel the elasticity of fascia: reach out with your right foot and left hand and vice verse -> counter-forces give a volume
4. Try to use the two opposite forces through your arm to stand up or hand stand
5. Partner exercise: one is immobile, giving counter resistance and other is turning around her/his body, experimenting both her own and her partner’s tensegrity and volume (before sharing weight)
6. Trios: improvisation with all these tools; 1 duet and 1 observer (notes down words); change role every 8 minutes
Reflection on the experience in the big group:

Trio 1
Simonetta Alessandri:
My experience was that I was going very slow, I didn’t really want to move when I was on my own.
In my trio, I can see even doing and also watching, there was some I would say a specific physicality;  less weight or a different transfer of weight.
I could really see the counter-force inside, I can read.
I think this gives the sense of detail, doing also, reading different details.

Keith Henessy:
My notes are just really like list of words: slowly, reaching, feeling, sensing
But it was the idea that I could see the sensing when people were reaching.
The other is I was watching their feet and it seemed like that was something different. There was something, I wrote careful; the foot was careful but it was also stable and strong; there was not a lot of off-balance of the feet.
I also felt like I could see a more visible relationship from the arms or the legs to the torso; like not just an arm but arm extending from the body.

Nuria Bowart:
I felt like I was moving my mind round in my body, my attention, trying to counger? a quality, multiple qualities.
I noticed something that felt like ligamentist tissue or like fascia that is more connected to bone. That feels more familiar, so I was trying to go for this. This kind of fascia, maybe is light and soft. Then just putting my mind in that way, was very transformative in changing my movement choices or qualities. I kept making a sound (making a sound of that quality). Feeling of the other was hard, strong and dry. And then I was going for strong but elastic, juicy.
 
Trio2
Marion Raimirez:
My two partners I was seeing one organism with two bodies. So there was one common center with all these kind of limbs that are both offering tension and compression at the same time.
It was very beautiful to kind of soften my eye to not see the details of two bodies but see one organism.
Careful yet strong feet.
Delicate shift of weight; that is not throwing itself in the space; it depends on the other but it is not totally co-dependent.
Something I experienced dancing was... you now we talk a lot about the connection between the end of an extremity to center, as a way to move each other... So I understand that in my mind and I practice it but somehow thinking about this compression coming back in; I was just leading him with a finger and his whole body was totally coming in compressing back in the same for myself... Actually I could feel the connection through the bone, and the joint connects with the other joint and the center; finally there is kind of a power that needs very little muscular effort.

Dilek Üstünalan:
When I was watching I saw one organism; two bodies sometimes bouncing into each other. t was so soft and so connected... I noted words like air, bouncing, hands reaching out... And also I noted moments of trial before taking weight because the dance I observed continued like that; not taking much weight, it was very delicate, always trying this how much, how and from where. It was really delightful. It was the same in my dance. We also experienced fascia connection on the skin level. We first felt the direction on the skin, then we went through the space, and it also brought a different quality.

Marcus Hoft:
Many things already said. Difference of getting a direction and I had the image of the skin as a dancer; this part was dancing with the other connectig parts. There is no clear direction, shifts are so quick, so it’s like two micro dancers here (on the skin).

Trio 3
Jordan Fuchs:
Watching my partners helped me expand my possibilities of what I thought was possible with it. Couple of things interesting to me were again the balloon and compression, another word that can be used for that is resiliency. That softness and how much resiliency as they had any contact point.
Then I also saw the reach functions almost like a levers into space from that resiliency. Torquing and twisting of the shapes through the reach...
Reach but yield / reach vs. push...

Eryn Rosenthal:
I was very interested in the bounce back. It is also present in the torquing in the reaching.
I really appreciated returning back to the exercises that we did at the beginning. The simple stretch in opposite direction and then finding the counter balance, I think helped me to find that boing in the elasticity. Finding the space and resiliency within that.
I found myself fascinated watching two dance and I thought I was learning with each duet; the expansiveness...

Jungwoong Kim:
When I was in solo the beginning was a bit challenging for me. I felt like I have a heavy coat on my body.
And then I thought of changing my mind. That is a concept. How you use that? In summer it is uncomfortable but in winter it is comfortable. Then I changed my mind and I felt comfortable with that.
When I was watching because I’m not dancing I could see more. When I’m in I don’t, but when I’m out I see. It is very nice to see two bodes, even the space in-between as you pressed.
Here another balloon they have, imagination balloon; they were pushing into it.
There is momentum and impulse and then a clear decision: You already create something together, then you go somewhere clear, you understand that. That makes it clear why they are there.
 
Trio 4
Michele Tarento:
Clearly I can see something changing in the dancers’ movements when they use this kind of proposal.
And also what is very important for me is security and engagement in the space.
I’m very concerned with safety in my body.
For me ensegrity is a beautiful tool to go further for more security and stability.
Change about feet is remarkable, and also concept of volumes in innovative.
For me it was a very creative and touching moment when I was watching duet in my trio.

Dorte Bjerre Jensen:
I wrote something on a paper and I also folded? it a little bit, and then moved around with it.
So I wrote: following the volume of attraction
Volume was the thing that really resonated with me when I was moving but also observing.
To see that it doesn’t have a beginning or end and this spherical sense of body organism.
It made more experimental when in solo and also when meeting each other.
So the volume is just bouncing back, but not only body but also I’m interested in air. I was leaning into the cushing? of air all the time; that cushing is bouncing. And also air is small molecules hitting my face all the time, how do I use that? That is a force, it is like the wind. To lean into that all the time, that forms kind of a volume in the body, air, and also in-between.

Bastien Auber:
As a witness I was watching a lot the feet.
I have this moment that I imagined the floor as a mirror? and earth as a balloon.
Maybe it is very small but we move somethings (in earth).
As a dancer in duet, I was curious about the space, compression and extension...
Because it was not a duet like staying close to each other. And also the wish to go in other duet...
We create a spider net.
I was influenced by also the other lab - tensegrity in the gym hall.
 

This document is created based on the consent of all the participating teachers during the contactfestival freiburg Teachers Meeting 2018. 

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