Contact Improvisation Basics

What does Contact Improvisation (CI or Contact Impro for short) mean? 

Contact Impro is a type of improvised dance. In preparation for the dance, we explore (alone or in partner work) how our bodies can organize themselves effortlessly and organically in contact with the floor.

Communication in contact creates a very subtle and precise interplay of weight that can guide us through all levels (on the floor and in the air) and dimensions (behind us and overhead). Contact Improvisation was initiated in 1972 by Steve Paxton (US). 

What does a contact improvisation practice involve?

In CI, both proven movement patterns and concepts are tried out, and an interest in not knowing, in letting things happen and emerge, is cultivated. All participants can practice based on their own level and state of mind, learning with the questions that are currently relevant to them and thus actively experiencing, applying, and increasingly internalizing the principles of contact improvisation. The following topics are addressed within Contact Improvisation: 

• Orientation and communication through touch
• Connectedness, permeability, and independence in one's own body
• Becoming physically and mentally present, receptive, and active in every moment
• Trusting one's own weight to the floor and partners, and thus
• Falling and landing safely
• Taking the weight of the partner in movement, supporting it, and passing it on
• Becoming familiar with disorientation