What is Contact Improvisation?
Contact Improvisation (CI) is an open ended dance of bodies moving through contact. It is a style of partner dance that involves the exploration of one's body in relation to another. Each movement is a spontaneous reaction to touch. It is a dance of impulse and sensation rather than rhythm and choreography.
Contact dance was created to be done by anyone regardless of dance experience. American dancer and choreographer Steve Paxton originated Contact Improvisation (CI), and it has been developing since 1972.
Marissa creates containers for people new & experienced to enter & feel comfortable in. She breaks-down the fundamentals of contact dance & decodes the movement in a way the body can feel & the mind can comprehend. She emphasizes the importance of consent & boundaries while exploring within a touch & movement space. Marissa utilizes an array of techniques & exercises focused on CI fundamentals, consent, body awareness, physics, surrender / trust, touch, & movement exploration.
MORE THAN A DANCE...
"The improvised dance form is based on the communication between two or more moving bodies that are in physical contact and their combined relationship to the physical laws that govern their motion—gravity, momentum, inertia. The body, in order to open to these sensations, learns to release excess muscular tension and abandon a certain quality of willfulness to experience the natural flow of movement. "
-Early definitions of CI by Steve Paxton & others.
-
CI is a dance that builds trust in one's body & movement
-
CI is a practice of surrender
-
CI induces a state of play & exploration.
-
CI builds awareness of space, body, and movement.
-
CI has a foundation built upon the physics of movement
-
CI releases oxytocin, a happy chemical from the brain
-
CI helps strengthen & build community & relations
-
CI is a practice of consent while exploring personal edges
Some of the benefits of contact improvisation
