Contact Improvisation (CI) is a dance technique in which points of physical contact provide the starting point for movement improvisation and exploration. Contact Improvisation is a form of dance improvisation and is one of the best-known and most characteristic forms of postmodern dance. Dance improvisation is the creation of improvised movement and is usually associated with 20th century concert dance but is not exclusive to that genre. ... Postmodern dance is a 20th century concert dance form. ...

History

Contact Improvisation was initially developed by a group of dance artists, led by Steve Paxton and Nancy Stark Smith, as an exploration in improvised dance. Today Contact Improvisation is practiced as a dance form in its own right and is ideologically different from Paxton's early practice. It continues to evolve and be developed by practitioners around the world. Nancy Stark Smith is a dancer and founding participant in contact improvisation. ... Dance improvisation is the creation of improvised movement and is usually associated with 20th century concert dance but is not exclusive to that genre. ...

The first performance work recognised as Contact Improvisation is Steve Paxton's Magnesium (1972), and was created for students at Oberlin College. Paxton followed this with the first Contact Improvisation performance evening at the John Weber Gallery in New York City. 1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1972 calendar). ... Oberlin College is a small, highly respected liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio. ... Nickname: The Big Apple Official website: City of New York Government Counties (Boroughs) Bronx (The Bronx) New York (Manhattan) Queens (Queens) Kings (Brooklyn) Richmond (Staten Island) Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Geographical characteristics Area Total 468. ...

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 want. These dance jams are similar to the practice of jazz musicians bringing themselves together and using the time to explore the limits of the form. It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Performance dance. ... Social dance is a major category or classification of danceforms or dance styles, where sociability and socializing are the primary focuses of the dancing. ... Jazz is an original American musical art form originating around the early 1920s in New Orleans, rooted in Western music technique and theory, and is marked by the profound cultural contributions of African Americans. ...

The longest running weekly contact improvisation jam is in Toronto, Canada. It has been going on for over 28 years.

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:

• Alexander Technique
• Body-Mind Centering
• cognitive science
• emergence
• Feldenkrais method
• Ideokinesis
• Laban Movement Analysis
• martial arts, especially Aikido
• Newton's laws of motion
• Skinner Release technique
• tango
• yoga

Due to the improvised nature of CI and depending on the choreographic structure used, a CI performance may contain little physical contact. The Alexander Technique teaches how to recognize and overcome habituated limitations within a persons manner of movement and thinking. ... Rendering of human brain based on MRI data Cognitive science is usually defined as the scientific study either of mind or of intelligence (e. ... A termite cathedral mound produced by a termite colony: a classic example of emergence in nature. ... This article reads like an advertisement. ... Laban Movement Analysis (LMA) is a system and language for observing, describing and notating all forms of movement. ... Hawaiian State Grappling Championships. ... Aikido (合気道 Aikidō, also 合氣道 in an older style of kanji), literally meaning joining energy way, is a gendai budo — a modern Japanese martial art. ... Newtons First and Second laws, in Latin, from the original 1687 edition of the Principia Mathematica. ... Tango in the streets of Buenos Aires. ... Yoga is a family of ancient spiritual practices that originated in India, where it remains a vibrant living tradition and is seen as a means to enlightenment. ...

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. Choreographic techniques are methods used to create choreograpies A list of choreographic techniques: improvisation Dance improvisation Contact improvisation body mapping Related articles choreography choreographer composition dance notation Further reading Blom, L, A. and Tarin Chaplin, L. (1989) The Intimate Act of Choreography. ... Choreography literally dance-writing, also known as dance composition), is the art of making structures in which movement occurs, the term composition may also refer to the navigation or connection of these movement structures. ...

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)

• Barrios Solano, M. (2004) Posthuman Performance: Dancing within Cognitive Systems. http://dancelab1.dance.ohio-state.edu/~barrios/cord.html
• Paxton, S. (1997) in Fall After Newton. Videoda / Contact Collaborations, Inc. (video)
• Stark Smith, N. (1987) in Fall After Newton. Videoda / Contact Collaborations, Inc. (video)
• Touchdown Dance (2002) Contact Improvisation http://www.touchdowndance.co.uk/graphic/contact_improvisation.html

Nancy Stark Smith is a dancer and founding participant in contact improvisation. ... Look up Phenomenology in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Aesthetics (or esthetics) (from the Greek word αισθητική) is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty. ... Hondas intelligent humanoid robot Artificial intelligence (AI) is defined as intelligence exhibited by an artificial entity. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with robot. ... Rendering of human brain based on MRI data Cognitive science is usually defined as the scientific study either of mind or of intelligence (e. ... Biology is a branch of science, dealing with the study of life. ... Self-organization refers to a process in which the internal organization of a system, normally an open system, increases automatically without being guided or managed by an outside source. ... A termite cathedral mound produced by a termite colony: a classic example of emergence in nature. ...

See also

• Steve Paxton
• Nancy Stark Smith
• Lisa Nelson
• Nita Little

• Grand Union
• dance improvisation
• Judson Dance Theater
• Choreographic technique
• List of dance style categories
• choreographers

Nancy Stark Smith is a dancer and founding participant in contact improvisation. ... See also: Grand Union Canal, Grand Union supermarket Track arrangement of a street railway Grand Union In North American street railway practice, a grand union is a rail track junction where two two-track railway lines meet, usually at a street intersection, and railroad switches allow any streetcar coming from... Dance improvisation is the creation of improvised movement and is usually associated with 20th century concert dance but is not exclusive to that genre. ... Judson Dance Theater located at the Judson Memorial Church, New York the group of artists that formed Judson Dance Theater are considered the founders of Postmodern dance. ... Choreographic techniques are methods used to create choreograpies A list of choreographic techniques: improvisation Dance improvisation Contact improvisation body mapping Related articles choreography choreographer composition dance notation Further reading Blom, L, A. and Tarin Chaplin, L. (1989) The Intimate Act of Choreography. ... This is a list of dance style categories. ... Choreography (also known as dance composition) is the art of making structures in which movement occurs, the term composition may also refer to the navigation or connection of these movement structures. ...

Further reading

• Novack, C, J. (1990) Sharing the Dance: Contact Improvisation and American Culture. University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 0299124444
• Tufnell, M. and Vaughan, D. (1999) Body Space Image : Notes Toward Improvision and Performance. Princeton Book Co. ISBN 1852730412

External links

• Contact Quarterly - CI journal
• proximity - CI journal
• contactimprov.net - Global Directory of Contact Improv Groups and Classes
• ContactImprov.info - Principles and Ideas for Exploring the practice of Contact Improv
• ContactImprovLA.com - Los Angeles-based contact jams
• History of Contact Improv - Anya Kamenetz, "On Balance," The Village Voice, December 4 - 10, 2002.
• Contact Improvisation with Karl Frost- A video of a Contact Improvisation Workshop by David Olivari