What is Contact Improvisation?
+ “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)
+ “For some people, it’s a post-modern folk dance. For others, it’s a process for finding new choreographic ideas. Some people perform it, others do it as a practise or discipline. Some people look at it and
see gymnastics, or wrestling, or swing dance. What are the “mere facts” about it? It’s usually done as a duet (but sometimes solo or in larger groups), it’s usually in silence; and it’s improvised. Dancers are as likely to be on the floor as standing, and sometimes they’re flying on someone else’s shoulders.”
By Jim Davis
+ “Contact Improvisation is a moving massage. It is a dance that fine tunes your senses and wakes up your ability to listen and respond to what is happening in the moment. If you could do Aikido, surf, wrestle and dance at the same time, you would have an idea of what Contact Improvisation feels like. What makes Contact different from other dance is that partners are often moving in and out of physical contact while rolling, spiraling, springing and falling. They find ways to “enjoy the ride” and improvise while mutually supporting and following each others movements. The dancing is unpredictable and inspired by the physical and energetic contact the partners share.”
By Ernie Adams
+ “The simple pleasure of moving and living through one’s body is what I think matters most here. And the pleasure of dancing with someone in a spontaneous, unplanned way, free to create without disturbing one’s partner. It’s an extremely inspiring form of dance.”
Steve Paxton, interviewed on CBC Radio in March 1977, quoted in Contact Quarterly, vol III, no 1.
+ “Contact improvisation is the beauty of natural movement combined with complete communication”
Curt Siddall, in Contact Quarterly, vol III, no 1.
+ “The notions developed in CI end up having an effect on everyday life.
(No Ratings Yet)