Contact Improvisation, introduced in 1972 under the guidance of American dancer/choreographer/improviser Steve Paxton, is the art of moving with one or more partners while maintaining a shifting point of contact and supporting each other’s weight. Unlike wrestling, in which participants use strength to achieve control over one another, contact improvisers use momentum, gravity, and friction to move in concert with each other ... rolling, suspending, falling, and recovering together. Contact improvisers often yield their weight into each other–rather than resist–and use body parts to guide, assist, and support each other rather than manipulate.

 

Contact Improvisation “jams” provide an opportunity for practitioners (and those who may be curious about the dance form) to come together in an open format to investigate the form. These sessions are open to the public and offered on a semi-regular basis per semester.