Paper Short Abstract:

Contact Improvisation, as a dance-based investigation of the physics of weight sharing, momentum and touch, has migrated from the U.S. across the globe, with centers of practice on many continents. How do communities establish and sustain themselves, given the form’s anti-capitalist, nonheirarchal ethos? Case studies will be shared.

Paper Abstract:

The dance form called Contact Improvisation developed as an investigation into the physics of weight sharing, momentum and touch during the 1970s, and has since migrated around the world, attracting postmodern dancers, body workers, those interested in alternative and self-organizing communities, play enthusiasts, and others. It differs from adjacent practices, such as yoga and contemplative dance in being an intentionally unpatented and noncodified form. One does not get certified to teach Contact or to host contact jams, retreats or festivals. In keeping with the principals of radical inclusivity, contact workshops, jams and retreats are typically donation-based or offered at cost. Nevertheless, the dance has taken root and been maintained over decades in locales throughout the U.S., Europe, South America, Asia, and Australia, well beyond the influence of the form’s U.S. founders. In this presentation I will explore the qualities necessary to introduce and sustain a practicing Contact community over time. How, given the anti-capitalist ethos of Contact, can skilled practitioners continuously create new generations of dancers? After defining the jam as the quintessential form of the practice, I will present case studies of established scenes in cities like Melbourne, Chicago, and Montreal as well as smaller locales, such as Mazomanie, Wisconsin and Calca, Peru to explore the structuring principles for the community of practice, recognizing that tensions exist between the many ways that Contact is currently appreciated and understood.