Falling Practice: "Always Falling Sometimes Up"

I'm delighted by vital engagement and alertness that I can find in contact improvisation practice, and I'm curious about ways to cultivate that vitality in solo practice. Over many years I've enjoyed exploring growing movement from the small dance, often making it part of my warm-up and solo moving. Not long ago I had an idea about using a very dynamic action that I enjoy - deliberately falling - as the basis for solo movement. As I explored this idea an elementary progression emerged:

• Start from a stand by falling with as much release as I can must muster without hurting myself.
• Gradually modulate the falls so that I could redirect into continuing movement
• Eventually use the redirection of the momentum of falling into exploring flowing movement with varying qualities.

I've continued exploring this as a solo practice. It offers an opportunity to dynamically inhabit and explore moving in the mid-levels between fully upright and fully reclining – a realm we usually pass through rather than inhabit. Our bodies are not organized to be stable in the mid-levels (unless we're steadied by a structure like a chair). While the instability in this realm can be daunting, it can also be engaging, provoking the kind of activation that dancing with others can inspire.

I latched onto this idea when invited by a local dance choreographer and colleague, Nancy Havlik, to come up with a performance for a movement / dance showcase as a phase of the COVID-19 quarantine was ending in 2022. I have a video from that performance to share:

• Watch: Always Falling Sometimes Up