Contact Improvisation

Contact improvisation is a way of dancing playfully with a partner, grounded in physical sensation, which investigates how to play through sharing touch with the earth, with gravity and momentum, and with others or simply the awareness of space.

There are no "moves" to learn, it's more like a moving puzzle. It has been variously described as "an art sport", "a game or two with two winners" and "a physical conversation". Contact dances can range from the quietly meditative to the exuberantly acrobatic, from using little or light touch to sending weight through a partner's body to fly.

The language of the body is sensations and in contact improvisation our sensation is always our guide in giving weight and receiving support, making and breaking contact, rolling and sliding, steering momentum, taking control of and resolving falls, lifting and being lifted...

Dancing contact is like having a physical conversation. Doing it both requires and nurtures a relaxed, open and curious state. People with a professional or personal interest in being 'in their bodies' – from professional to community dancers, doctors to movement therapists, actors to musicians, sighted to blind, young and old – find it a way to explore what that means. And it's fun too!

Origins

Contact Improvisation was Steve Paxton's idea for a series of improvised dance performances in the US in 1972. Many who saw it wanted to learn how to do it and since then it has evolved into a form practised all over the world.

It became of the key-skills at the root of much Postmodern Dance education at the same time evolved into a vital form of social dance with the potential to engender a strong sense of community among those who practice it. It crosses many boundaries and has the power to unite people with many different agendas. It offers a chance for people of all sizes shapes and abilities a way of moving together

My Teachers

Steve Paxton, Nancy Stark Smith, Ray Chung, Kirstie Simson, Karen Nelson, Danny Lepkopf, Andrew Harwood, Felice Wolfzahn, Natanja Den Boeft, Xjamal Xanthia, David Beadle, Lucia Walker, Louise Richards, Laurie Booth

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Introduction
• Jamming
• Learning and teaching
• Underscore
• Classes and workshops
• Links

Contact Quarterly

Contact Quarterly(CQ) is a journal for those interested in the form. Part of the beauty of CI is in its refusal to be defined precised.

CQ's answer has been to publish a number of attempts at defining the form in it's pages over the years.

An anthology of articles covering the first 25 years' development of the form. In it you'll find a number of definitions

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