Contact Improvisation Fundamental Orientation
by
Ken Manheimer
—
last modified
Jul 10, 2023 11:03 AM
CI is organized differently than many practices, and mixed messages
Why I Write About CI
I love a kind of physical cooperation that can happen in practicing CI, and the extraordinary opportunities the practice offers for developing the skills to cultivate this opportunity. I don't want to do without it. I want partners, and in general want everyone who might enjoy the practice to have the opportunity to do so.
Why I'm Writing This Essay
CI organized is differently than most practices, and there are mixed messages about what you're supposed to do:
The dilemma: the principles we practitioners voice is in tension with the more simple-to-get-our-heads-around practice that we often wind up doing
- The principles - what people say they're doing:
- Non-directive, sensing based mutual following of the points of contact.
- Versus the expedients - more easy-to-identify "things to do", on which people tend to focus:
- Variants of "I lift you then you lift me", or "give me your center", or "don't use your hands so much", and other prescriptive - but often covert - instructions.
- When the expedients eclipse the principles, the clarifying motives in the point of contact (and, in my framing, sharing of balance) are lost.
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