I still remember the first time I experienced Contact Improvisation—stepping into an open studio, feeling both excited and unsure, not knowing what would happen next. Two bodies met in space, moving without a script, without choreography. A shared center of gravity appeared between us, a silent conversation through touch, weight, and momentum. It felt like discovering a new language—one spoken entirely through the body.
What is Contact Improvisation in dance?
Contact Improvisation is a dance form rooted in the physics of the body, a practice of trust, presence, and playful exploration.
It invites us to meet ourselves and others with openness, to embrace the unknown, and to listen deeply—far beyond words.
Gisela Creus in Contact Improvisation
My experience with Contact Improvisation
During my time as a practitioner, I’ve come to see Contact Improvisation not just as a dance technique, but as a way of being. It has grown into a rich, multi-layered practice that shows up in countless forms around the world.
It is not only a foundation for contemporary dance training but also a tool for somatic exploration, therapeutic work, and interdisciplinary research.
In this article, I want to share some of its history, key principles, how it’s practiced today, and how it has deeply influenced my own journey as a dancer, educator, and human being.
The Principles of Contact Improvisation
At its core, Contact Improvisation is an unscripted exploration between bodies.
There are no set sequences or predetermined steps. Instead dancers connect dynamically, exchanging weight, responding to momentum, and exploring shared gravity. Connection often begins before physical touch—through shared space, awareness, and mutual listening. The focus is not on external appearance but on the internal experience of movement.
Lifts
One dancer supports or raises another using shared balance and momentum.
Fluid Floorwork
Seamless, grounded movement on or near the floor, emphasizing continuous motion.
Counterbalance
Dancers lean away from each other while maintaining a shared point of contact, using opposing forces to stay balanced.
Rolling Point
A shifting point of contact that moves smoothly across surfaces, allowing continuous flow and connection.
Rolls
Smooth weight shifts across surfaces or bodies to maintain contact and flow.
Weight Sharing
Partners distribute and support each other’s weight to move together safely and responsively.
Point of Contact
The physical spot where two bodies touch and connect during movement.
Momentum
The energy of movement that carries the dance forward, often shared between partners.
These ideas reflect both technical skills and relational sensory principles, essential for deepening one’s CI practice. The dance constantly evolves in real time, depending on the environment, the partner, and the moment itself.
Brief history & pioneers of Contact Improvisation
Steve Paxton in Contact Improvisation
Contact Improvisation was initiated by Steve Paxton in 1972. Trained in modern dance and Aikido, Paxton was a key figure in the groundbreaking Judson Dance Theater*, a 1960s collective that radically redefined what dance could be.
Artist profile highlight
Steve Paxton
1939-2024 · 🇺🇸 American
Challenging traditional ideas of performance, technique, and virtuosity, Paxton began exploring spontaneous physical contact, shared weight, and the use of gravity as fundamental components of dance. His investigations gave birth to CI, emphasizing improvisation, touch, momentum, and responsiveness between bodies.
Steve Paxton. Contact Improvisation 1972
Contact improvisations are spontaneous physical dialogues that range from stillness to highly energetic exchanges. Alertness is developed in order to work in an energetic state of physical disorientation, trusting in one’s basic survival instincts. It is a free play with balance, self-correcting the wrong moves and reinforcing the right ones, bringing forth a physical/emotional truth about a shared moment of movement that leaves the participants informed, centered, and enlivened.
—early definition by Steve Paxton and others, 1970s, from CQ Vol. 5:1, Fall 1979
The influences of Nancy Stark Smith
Although Paxton is centered in this dance history, I feel equally as important to the form’s evolution was Nancy Stark Smith, one of CI’s earliest and most influential practitioners. Her decades-long collaboration with Paxton and her role in founding Contact Quarterly—a journal for dance improvisation—helped spread CI globally.
Together, both Paxton and Smith, along with their contemporaries, laid the foundation for a dance form that emphasizes equality, exploration, and relational movement.
CI in Contemporary Dance Today
Contact Improvisation has become a vital tool for many contemporary dancers and choreographers. Although pure CI performances—improvised in the moment—still occur, it’s more common for CI principles to feed into structured choreography.
This means many contemporary works involve partnering, where CI offers a deep well of techniques for negotiating weight, momentum, and space between bodies. Dancers trained in CI often bring greater adaptability, presence, and relational sensitivity into performance.
Distinguishing Partnering from Contact Improvisation
Partnering typically involves rehearsed, choreographed interactions—common in ballet, contemporary, and theatrical styles—where precision and repetition are key, whereas, CI is fundamentally spontaneous. It prioritizes real-time responsiveness over fixed outcomes and invites vulnerability, play, and unique moments that cannot be exactly replicated.
Jams
CI is often practiced through open improvisation sessions called Jams. They are leaderless environments where anyone—experienced dancer or complete beginner—can explore CI ́s characteristics together and practical differences.
For example, some Jams happen weekly for a few hours while others take the form of intensive festivals lasting several days.
Contact Improvisation – art of jamming – Sasha Dodo and Dolores Dewhurst Marks
CI choreographer highlights
These choreographers have used CI principles in creating set work or improvisational performance:
Meg Stuart
CASCADE
2022
Incorporates the principles of CI into her performances.
David Zambrano
Stage Improvisation
1993
Though known for “Flying Low” and “Passing Through,” his improvisational work aligns with CI.
Roser López Espinosa / Lowland
TRAMA
2019
Though known for “Flying Low” and “Passing Through,” his improvisational work aligns with CI.
GN|MC Guy Nader | Maria Campos
NATURAL ORDER OF THINGS
1993
A dance company that is based on the exploration of weight and gravity.
Suggested resource
Gravity
by Steve Paxton (2018)
“Birth is not so much a beginning as it is an abrupt change in which suddenly there are different factors than those in the womb, and there is gravity. Withgravity a new negotiation begins, and these terms condition us for the rest of our lives.”
Conclusion
For me, Contact Improvisation has been one of the most transformative practices in my dance life. It’s much more than a movement technique, it’s a way of learning about myself.
Through CI, I’ve discovered how to listen with my whole body, how to trust, how to stay open even in moments of uncertainty. It teaches me that real connection—whether in dance or in life—starts with being present with myself first. It seeks equality through equity, in every jam, every exchange, regardless of where you come from, how much experience you have, or what your body looks like. It is a meeting place where we encounter movement, curiosity, and shared exploration. In a world that often pushes us toward competition, performance, and perfection, it is a dance form that brings us back to something more essential—a reminder of why you, me, we, dance at all.
