Contact improvisation as a foundational learning tool for contemporary performers : singular complexity

• Main Author: Prigge-Pienaar, Samantha
• Other Authors: Kruger, M. S.
• Format: Others
• Language: en_ZA
• Published: Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University 2015
• Subjects: Contact improvisation; Performing arts > Study and teaching; UCTD
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/97017

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. === ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This artistic research dissertation employs the principles and practices of contact improvisation in a literary performative to describe and demonstrate this somatic form’s potential as a complex system of embodied knowing. For strategic and thematic purposes, chapters in this dissertation are referred to as Streams. The First Stream motivates the methodological approaches and emergent strategies employed in the researcher’s simultaneous practices of teaching, researching and writing about contact improvisation. The Second Stream is offered as an oral testimony of the researcher’s attempt to find practical solutions for the increasing complexity apparent in her work environment during the last two decades. It is written primarily as a first-person narrative with references by other somatic and contact improvisation practitioners embedded in the body of the narrative and presented as personal subconscious/collective unconscious interjections. The Third Stream uses a locally-emergent artistic research strategy termed Secondary Primacy to critically and creatively engage with existing literature. The observations of theorists and practitioners from the researcher’s own context (theatre and drama), as well as from a diversity of interrelated disciplines (including psychology, sociology, evolutionary biology, quantum physics, pedagogy and visual art) are presented in an autonomous authorial voice employing the performative strategy of what if. This strategy serves to demonstrate the researcher’s experience of the link between personal subconscious and collective unconscious motivations for action and exposes the transdisciplinary ground upon which many of the ideas and observations voiced in other Streams, in particular about contact improvisation as a complex system of embodied knowing, are implicitly dependent. The Fourth Stream discusses contact improvisation as a complex system foregrounding the particular characteristics of nonlinearity, paradox, emergence and additional capacity introduced in the Second and Third Streams. The Fifth Stream demonstrates convergences and overlaps between contemporary theories about agency, embodiment and transformation as they may apply to educators in tertiary educational performing arts contexts. This discussion is interspersed with accounts of the researcher’s own attempts – through her performing arts educational practice - to understand agency and transformation as workable elements. The Sixth Stream is offered as a personal philosophy of action. The implicit values and strategies of the researcher that were exposed in previous Streams are here distilled and presented as affirmations and Actions motivating the sustained use, by the researcher within her localized educational context, of contact improvisation as a foundational somatic approach for performers. In keeping with the positioning of this dissertation as artistic research, the literary framing devices of a Foreword and Afterword are used to draw a reader’s attention to the practicebased nature of the subject under discussion. === AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie artistieke navorsingsverhandeling gebruik die beginsels en praktyke van kontakimprovisasie in ‘n literêre performatief om hierdie somatiese vorm se potensiaal as ‘n komplekse sisteem van verpersoonlikte kundigheid te beskryf en te demonstreer. Vir strategiese en tematiese doeleindes word daar in hierdie verhandeling na hoofstukke as Strome verwys. Die Eerste Stroom motiveer die metodologiese benaderinge en voortspruitende strategieë wat aangewend word in die navorser se gelyktydige onderrig van, en navorsing en skrywe oor, kontakimprovisasie. Die Tweede Stroom word aangebied as ‘n mondelinge betuiging van die navorser se poging om praktiese oplossings te vind vir die toenemende kompleksiteit in haar omgewing oor die laaste twee dekades. Hierdie Stroom word primêr as ‘n eerste persoon narratief aangebied met behulp van verwysings deur ander somatiese en kontakimprovisasie praktisyns wat in die narratief geanker en aangebied word as persoonlike onbewustelike/kollektiewe onbewuste tussenwerpsels. In die Derde Stroom word ‘n plaaslik ontwikkelde artistieke navorsingstrategie, naamlik Sekondêre Voorrang, gebruik om die konvensionele literatuurstudie op kreatiewe wyse te herinterpreteer. Die waarnemings van teoretici en praktisyns uit die navorsers se eie studieveld (teater en drama), sowel as uit ‘n verskeidenheid van interafhanklike studievelde (onder andere psigologie, sosiologie, evolusionêre biologie, kwantum fisika, pedagogie en visuele kuns) word aangebied as ‘n outonome outeursbedoelde stem en maak gebruik van ‘n performatiewe what if. Díe strategie dien as ‘n metode om die navorsers se ervaring van die implisiete afhanklikhied tussen persoonlike onderbewussyn en kollektiewe onbewustheid motiverings vir aksie te demonstreer, en die transdisiplinêre grond van idees en waarnemings, in die besonder oor kontakimprovisasie as ‘n komplekse sisteem van verpersoonlikte kennis, te ontgin en bloot te lê. In die Vierde Stroom word kontakimprovisasie as ‘n komplekse sisteem bespreek en die eienskappe van nie-liniariteit, paradoks, ontluiking en addisionele kapasiteit wat in die Tweede en Derde Strome bespreek is, is verder op die voorgrond geplaas. Die Vyfde Stroom toon die sameloop en ooreenkomste aan tussen teorieë oor tussenkoms, verpersoonliking en transformasie soos van toepassing mag wees op opvoeders in ‘n tersiêre opvoedkundige performance konteks. Hierdie bespreking is afgewissel met vertellings van die navorser se eie pogings - deur haar uitvoerende kunste opvoedkundige praktyk – om agentskap en transformasie as werkbare elemente te verstaan. Die Sesde Stroom word aangebied as ‘n persoonlike filosofie van handeling. Die implisiete waardes en strategieë van die navorser, soos bloot gelê in die vorige Strome, word hier gesuiwer en aangebied as bekragtiging en Aksies vir die volgehoue gebruik, deur die navorser in haar eie gelokaliseerde opvoedkundige konteks, van kontakimprovisasie as ‘n grondleggende somatieke benadering vir performers. As deel van hierdie verhandeling se posisionering as artistieke navorsing word ‘n Voorwoord en Slotwoord gebruik om die leser se aandag te vestig op die verpersoonlikte aard van die onderwerp onder bespreking.