What is it that makes me feel ‘I am dancing’? And is that all I want from the dance?

There are these moments in my practice where I suddenly think and feel ‘Now I am dancing!’ What makes me feel that? And what am I doing, when I don’t feel like saying that?

A participant of our CI training programme asked this question. And I noticed that I have given conflicting answers in writing and teaching about it.

Doing what I need & want? – Thoughts about Jamming and Workshopping

I am more and more intrigued by the mystery of focussed spaces. I guess it is a mayor part of my dedication to Contact Improvisation. I am almost getting used to being in a space, where people follow their own interests, diving into a personal investigation that is still in touch with the group. Moments when this dense and generous atmosphere disappears make me realize how special and also fragile a focussed space is.

In a good jam or a well created dance frame in a workshop I feel the space to go for what I need and the freedom to do what I want. I guess most contacters share this experience. But how aware are we, that it is actually not true? We are very much not free to do whatever we want!

Beglückende Überforderungen und Irritationen – ein Tanz mit Katja Mustonen

Katja Mustonen und ich hatten ein sogenanntes Dancedate in Berlin: ein bisschen reden, ankommen, checken wer was braucht und dann die simple Struktur eine Stunde lang zu schauen, was so passieren will. Sie als Contact Skeptikerin wünscht sich Gewicht zum Anfangen, ich als Contact Monofokussist wünsche mir Phasen von purem, nicht direktivem Hands-on. Nach 40 Minuten fühle ich mich erinnert an meine Anfangszeit. Es ist alles so viel, irgendwie viel zu viel, so atemberaubend komplex.

Hands-on work – Why does it touch me so much?

A highlight and red thread of a workshop in Warsaw became a very simple hands-on exercise, kind of the most simple version of it: One person is moving, the other one follows with the hands on the movers body without giving any directions. That’s in a way it.

What is the work? The work is mainly to not do many things we usually do.

Round Robin Transformations – an alternative or addition to Jamming?

I never really liked the Round Robin structure and wasn’t sad that it seemed to almost disappear in the last 25 years. Many fresh practitioners might not even know what it is, though …

The Round Robin is the core format to practice and perform Contact Improvisation in the very early days of the form, when jams hadn’t been invented yet.

Aesthetics of Contact Improvisation – thoughts from a Jam experience

In this Jam yesterday, in my perfectionist and very alive flow I was also the one who created the most ‘bumps’, landing with ungraceful noise. Interesting moments.

I hate warm ups – thoughts about jamming

For many years I was struggling with warm ups for jams, more under cover than really consciously or even outspoken. To understand myself I find it helpful to remind me about the experiences with Jams I grew up with.

Fear and fun in making choices – Improvisation (not only) in CI

When the fear begins we almost automatically fall into established habits. For improvising, learning and growing personally we need to be able to notice the upcomming fear, we need to look for the discomfort and research alternative options – which can be actually fun.

Performing Improvisation – What are we doing here?

I have big doubts about beforming Improvisation, especially Contact Improvisation. Under the pressure of satisfying the audience’s needs we easily fall back into our fear patterns and start doing childish or selfish things nobody really needs to see. I am grateful when I have the opportunity to understand more deeply, the motivations and traps in performing. Here some thoughts and experiences through working and performing with Chris Aiken.

‘Witnessing’ or: ‘eyes on work’!

Most people who have practiced CI will have been confronted with the word or concept of ‘witnessing’. And I guess the vast majority was – at least in the beginning – irritated. I use the term ‘witnessing’ quite a lot in my teaching but I still struggle with the word. It sounds so sterile and distant. A breeze from the court world with the concept of eventually judging a case makes me shiver a little.