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.
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There are no "moves" to learn, it's more like a moving puzzle. 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.
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Many Dance companies train in contact improvisation to bring a physical strength and agility to the dance, or to create a fluid close contact duet with a more sensory feel. Contact Improvisation is very adaptable but it is no longer Contact Improvisation once the moves become set for a performance, contact improvisation is improvisational and sensational only in this context.
In contact improvisation the sensation is always the 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...
Steve Paxton was the pioneer of Contact Improvisation, a founder member of the Judson Dance Theatre in 1962 and a founding member of the improvisational Grand Union in 1970. His choreography eschewed an advanced dance technique and he incorporated everyday movement into his vocabulary. In the early 1970s Steve Paxton’s work led him to develop Contact Improvisation, a system of movements based on ‘the communication’ between two moving bodies and their combined relationship to the physical laws that govern their motion; gravity, momentum, friction and inactivity.
The technique based on trust between dancers, uses a performer’s own weight as the pivot for movement which closely involves another.
Originally instigated as a performance experiment, it has evolved and branched out in many directions. On the one hand, its investigations have become the underpinnings of many of the principles of contemporary theatre dance, whether with a partner or not. On the other hand, it has spread across the world as a kind of folk-art practice, where people gather in what are called “contact jams” to explore the form as a kind of social dance or body-awareness practice.
Like jazz musicians, contact dancers practice their art by jamming together and, again as in jazz, a jam doubles up as a social meeting place. Styles vary according to where you go but in general when people jam it is without recorded music though sometimes a live musician will come along and jam too.
 
Though most people take some classes at some time, many people's first contact with contact is on visiting a jam and popular contact mythology has it that there are some very capable dancers who've learned the form by only going to jams.
Jams often begin with people taking time on their own to 'centre themselves' and warm themselves up into movement before going on to find others to dance with.
Dances can be long or short, with one or more partners. People also take time out to watch others. As a jam draws to a close people often warm down together with some form of bodywork or massage, or maybe by taking time alone for quite reflection.
Interested in Contact Improvisation and related disciplines?
Body Surf Scotland are hosting a series of Summer Workshops in May and June.
Eva Karzag - Anatomy through the senses
(11 - 14 May)
This workshop will focus on developing a personal movement language that is clear and articulate, efficient and effective, by exploring and experiencing anatomy through the senses.
Catherine Hossenloop –
Body-Mind centering: Self Awareness & Self Exploration Trough Movement
(24 - 25 June)
This workshop will explore the basic principles of Body-Mind Centering through focusing on infant developmental movement work. The workshop is open to all those interested in exploring the relationship between body and mind through direct experience in the body.
For further information and to book please contact
Body Surf Scotland
The Universal Hall
Findhorn IV36 0TZ
T: 01309 691 661 E: bodysurf@findhorn.com
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