Contact improvisation

All you want to know about Contact improvisation

« Jam » of contact improvisation
« Jam » of contact improvisation

Contact improvisation (CI) is a dance technique in which points of physical contact provide the starting point for exploration through movement improvisation. Contact Improvisation is a form of dance improvisation and is one of the best-known and most characteristic forms of postmodern dance.

Contents

History

Contact Improvisation's earliest roots lie in the 1972 explorations of a group of dance students under the leadership of Steve Paxton. Many of the those in Paxton's initial group were from Bennington College and Oberlin College. Today Contact Improvisation is practiced with a variety of intentions, having expanded ideologically beyond Paxton's early work. However, the core of Paxton's original work remains as a basis, expressed or not, of most if not all of Contact Improvisation's current forms. For instance, Contact Improvisation has been used by artists, performance artists, and dancers. It has been used in sensitivity trainings and in dance therapy. It has also been the subject of college dance courses, graduate level degree theses and scholarly books.

The first performance work recognized as Contact Improvisation is Steve Paxton's Magnesium (1972) which was performed by Paxton and dance students at Oberlin College. Five months after Magnesium Paxton led the first Contact Improvisation performance series at the John Weber Art Gallery in New York City where dancers performed Contact Improvisation in marathon fashion on mats in the middle of an art gallery surrounded by the paintings on display. The ongoing dance was presented as part of the gallery’s installation.


Contact or CI, as it is often known, continues to evolve and be developed by many curators, teachers, students, practitioners and participants around the world. In CI's 35th year Steve Paxton, Nancy Stark Smith and Nita Little, from that earliest group, continue to teach and perform Contact Improvisation.

Practice and theory

Contact improvisation can be practiced as concert or social dance form. In the social setting contact improvisation meetings are called "jams" in which participants can participate or watch as they choose. The name is perhaps derived from the "jams" of jazz musicians, who come together to spontaneously explore musical forms and ideas.

The longest running weekly contact improvisation jam is in Toronto, Canada. It has been going on for 32 years (2008).

Contact improvisation is often practiced in duet form but can also be performed in groups or as a solo using physical objects (floor, walls, chair, etc.) as the point of contact. As many teachers say in introductory classes, the floor is your first partner.

Contact improvisation techniques can include weight transfer, counter balance, rolling, falling, suspension, and lifting. CI practitioners may also draw on:

Due to the improvised nature of CI and depending on the choreographic structure used, a CI performance may contain little physical contact.

When used as a choreographic technique, movement sequences that emerge during a jam may be adapted and set to form a part of a fixed choreographic score.

Quotes

If you're dancing physics, you're dancing contact. if you're dancing chemistry, you're doing something else. - Steve Paxton (1987)
When an apple fell on his head, Newton was inspired to describe the three laws of motion, that carry his name. ... In his attempt to be objective, Newton overlooked the question of how it feels to be the apple. When we put our bodymass in motion, we raise above the law of gravity and go towards the swinging, circulating attraction of the centrifugal force. Dancers ride upon, and play with these forces. - Steve Paxton (1987)
The earth is much bigger than you are so you'd better learn to co-ordinate with it. - Nancy Stark Smith (1987)
Contact Improvisation or CI is "a contemporary game" says Steve Paxton. CI started in the US as a means to explore the physical forces imposed on the body by gravity, by the physics of momentum, falling and lifting. CI is a complex but very open form with infinite possibilities and is a dance form that is made by the dancer in the moment of dancing. - Touchdown Dance (2002)
Some movement improvisation artists and theorists, (eg: Steve Paxton, Bonnie Bainbridge-Cohen, Simone Forti) as specialists of the phenomenology and aesthetics of human movement have reached theoretical and practical insights about human interaction and embodiment that are closely related to the ones that are found recently in the fields of artificial intelligence (embodied robotics), cognitive science (embodied cognition) and new biology (self-organization and emergence). - Barrios Solano, M. (2004)

See also

Further reading

  • Novack, C, J. (1990) Sharing the Dance: Contact Improvisation and American Culture. University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 0-299-12444-4
  • Pallant, C. (2006) Contact Improvisation: An Introduction to a Vitalizing Dance Form. McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN 0-7864-2647-0
  • Tufnell, M. and Vaughan, D. (1999) Body Space Image : Notes Toward Improvisation and Performance. Princeton Book Co. ISBN 1-85273-041-2

External links

  • kontaktimprovisation.se - Contact Improvisation in Sweden, lists jams, workshops and more in Sweden.
  • contact madrid - all the information about contact improvisation in Madrid. Jams, workshops and performances.
  • contactimprov.com - CI-related info, news, discussion, jam/event listings, teachers resources and products including CI-related artwork, clothing, photography, and music.
  • contactimprov.net - Global Directory of Contact Improv Groups and Classes
  • contactimprov.ca - Canadian Directory of Contact Improvisation
  • Contact Improv Ann Arbor Detroit - A group of SE Michigan Contact Improv enthusiasts promoting jams, workshops and performances.
  • Contact Improvisation Los Angeles - Los Angeles and Southern California jams, classes, and events. Includes information and advice for those new to contact improvisation.
  • Contact Quarterly - the original CI journal, edited by Nancy Stark Smith and Lisa Nelson
  • <proximity> magazine - Australian CI journal, since 1998
  • Earthdance Retreat Center - Earthdance invites you for workshops, contact improv jams, personal and group retreats throughout the year.
  • History of Contact Improv - Anya Kamenetz, "On Balance," The Village Voice, December 4 - 10, 2002.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contact_improvisation"

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