Contact improvisation

Hong Kong hosts monthly contact jams*, and for the past two months we’ve had a good group. There’s a good mix of dancers and non-dancers. I need this mix. I need a place where I can feel comfortable dancing my fullest and not feel like I am showing off. I need a place where I don’t feel I need to impress anyone; which means that I have to be in a point in my life where I feel comfortable with myself.

I am home.

My relationship with Contact improv has been an on and off one. I do make the effort to find out where the jams are, whether I am in London, Paris, or back home for the summer. When I am not nourished in a dance practice (even acrobatics class is not the same as dancing), going to a Contact jam is immensely liberating. I am able to access a very important part of myself. When I was in Poland it was fun to rediscover – after the rigor of Jacek’s technique - how my body likes to express itself. And when I was in Paris or London, it was just good to dance and throw myself around the room. Acrobatics and movement analysis are not the same as improving.

And now, I am at a good place to return to Contact again. I really think of Contact and other more free-form dance structures like 5 Rhythms or even Viewpoints like mirrors… and mirrors can only reflect what is there. Thus, in order for my Contact to grow, I need to grow as a mover.

With my tai chi I am growing as a mover in a way I haven’t done since Poland. With both of my teachers interested in pushing me to my full range of flexibility and muscular strength (particulary in my stance, as tai chi is a martial art form), I can really feel the changes in my body. Physically I feel leaner and meaner than I ever have done before – I guess despite all the blips and blops work on my body is somehow accumulative.

*A schedule of HK contact jams (“Kontact Square”) can be found here