Touch

Recently, as a further step in my own personal dance development I have been exploring the theme of touch. It’s amazing, intense and such a wild theme. My feeling is that touch is something that you can only really experience. It is physical, stimulates the senses and evokes many emotions. As I explore the theme in a physical and dance setting, I am continually surprised as to my new discoveries (for me) and how many components to touch there are to unpack. I am also surprised at how little I know and my limited awareness of touch, especially because of how big a part of life it is. It is something that we use and experience every day!

Touch is a basic need. As we enter the world, our first method of sensing where we are is touch. Time spent in the uterus gives over to the warmth of skin. Touch orientates us and is our primary attachment, the first sense we rely on. It is so strong and dictates our first experiences of the world… preverbal, pre-visual. It is connective, stimulates the emotions and transmits to the brain many messages both for us and to others. As we grow, we develop and use our other senses to explore the world, communicate and make sense of all that is around us. We become less reliant on touch, but it remains still the biggest and strongest sense. And I would argue the most intensive.

In dance we are aware of our bodies. A lot of the time we move alone or adjacent to others. Yet in working with other dancers, there is a sense of togetherness when touch is required. A lot of touch in dance, like how much of dance is taught, starts out as mechanical. It becomes function to execute movement especially when one needs to dance together. Yet this, just as producing movement without feeling, hides its greatest potential - to experience, immerse, communicate and express.

Touching is sensual. It communicates. There is intent behind each and every touch. Calming, controlling, playful… Being aware of touch can be likened to experiencing a language. It’s very familiar and intuitive but how much do you really understand? And how aware are you of the messaging when you touch someone or someone touches you?

Touch is also very intimate. It steps over a boundary and into someones personal space. It therefore requires trust. It can close the gap between people when desired or be invasive (when undesired). There is the moment just before touching/being touched which is riveting in anticipation.

Something that I am just discovering and getting my head around is how touch bridges the gap between form and feeling. Look at an object, then imagine how it is to touch this object and be aware of the physical reaction in your body… What happens?

And is all just scratching the surface of what touch is!

A short improvisation on touch with Ioulia Kokkokkiou