Daniel Trenner also teaches Contact Improvisation. Yesterday, he took me to Northampton centre for arts, where they have a beautiful hall on top, with large windows and high ceiling and beautiful floor and there was contact improvisation jam.
Contact Improvisation is a partner dance form based on the physical principles of touch, momentum, shared weight, and most quintessentially - following a shared point of contact. This dance practice explores the skills of falling, rolling, counterbalance, lifting using minimal effort, how to make ourselves light when being lifted, centering and breathing techniques, and responsiveness to our partners and surroundings.
A style and technique based on improvisation, in which the dancers support and utilize each other's body weight while in motion; attributed to dance artist Steve Paxton working in the United States, beginning in the 1970's; normally performed as a duet and without music, the emphasis is on touching, falling, lifting, leaning, sliding, counter-balancing, and supporting the weight of another person. Characteristics of sharing, cooperation, egalitarianism, and informality define the social atmosphere amongst performers and with the audience.
Contact Improvisation is an honoring of every moment. There is a sweet surrendering that happens when our bodies stay faithful to what is happening now, and now... and NOW! One learns to recognize and differentiate subtle impulses in our movement choices and our partner's choices. We begin to decipher the cues that we give and receive which tell us when to lead or follow, when to go up, when to go down, where to touch, how to lift, when to slow down, and when to be still. In this form one learns to stay in integrity with each choice, never forcing, never rushing. When Body, Mind, and Spirit are united in their instinctive wisdom one finds ones-self at home in every moment expressing ones true nature. - Mark Moti Zemelman
