Contact Improvisation is the best-known form of Post-Modern
Dance and for some is an exploration of what it is like to be in contact with yourself and another person and how to navigate that both physically and emotionally. It involves the exploration of one’s body in relation to others and the space of presence they visit, by using the fundamentals of sharing weight, touch, and movement awareness.
Six weeks session taught by John Bainbridge and produced by The Carrboro Recreation, Parks, & Cultural Resources Department. Cost $48 for Orange County Residents, registration at
https://register1.vermontsystems.com/wbwsc/nccarrboro.wsc/iteminfo.html?module=AR&fmid=40093345&InterfaceParameter=NewUI
FWIW:
I'd like to thank all my CI teachers for sharing their insights, experience, and pedagogy with me over the years as well as all the people I've danced with, particularly those that challenged me 😉 . They helped shape who I am today as a dancer and a person... JB
Early influences that provided a wonderful foundation and whose work still speaks to me:
Terri Carter (U of Oregon) - My very first teacher whose material and strong pedagogy changed my life
Gretchen Spiro
Carolyn Stuart
Later major influences that built upon that foundation:
Nita Little
Nancy Stark-Smith
Chris Aiken
Keith Hennessey
Martin Keogh
Ray Chung
Brad Stoller
Alicia Grayson
Teachers that added variety to my practice of the form:
K. J. Holmes
Felice Wolfzahn
Jacqueline McCormick
Shel Wagner Rasch and Stefan Fabry
Daniel Lepkoff
Karen Nelson
Andrew Harwood
John LaFan
Sue Stuart
Sharon Thomsky
Scot Wells
Kirk Andrews
Estzer Gal
Julie Oak
Jez Parus
Tomaj Trenda
Carol Swann
Vitali Kononov
Quinton Bennett
Jess Curtis
Mark Koenig
Stephanie Cohen
Ricardo Morrison
Ralf Jaroschinski
Karl Frost
Andrew Wass
Daniel Burkholder
Patrick Gracewood
Patrick Crowley
Shakti Smith
Norman Johnson
Leah Stein
Robbie Kinter
Ken Manheimer
Cheryl Pallant
Robert Funk
and if you made it this far...
In January 1972 Magnesium, a dance for 12 men created by Steve Paxton, was performed during a residency of 'Grand Union' at Oberlin. There Nancy Stark Smith, a creative writing and dance major, witnessed the performance and asked Steve to keep her in mind if he pursued that type of work in the future.
Afterwards, Paxton went to Bennington College in the spring of 1972 and taught a composition class. As part of this class Nita developed an improvisational score, 'No Trumpets and No Horns', which originally consisted of one dancer finding a way to climb another and then climb back down again.
It appears that after witnessing a demo of it he had concerns for the safety of the dancers, and invited Nita to work with him to learn Aikido based falling and rolling skills to help keep them from getting bruised. As to whether he had any other thoughts at that point you would have to ask Nita. 😀
A recounting of some of what happened can be found at
https://www.nitalittle.com/published-writings/blog-post-title-one-arrz3
During this process a number of ideas were explored and incorporated into the piece. Later, in June of 1972, funded partly with a grant of $500 (around $3,800 in 2025 dollars) from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Steve invited a number of dancers to convene in NYC, including Nita, Nancy, Daniel Lepkoff, and Curt Siddall among others (around 20 in all).
The work they performed, after a week or two of experimenting with what was possible (aided by the new technology of video), at the John Weber Gallery was titled 'Contact Improvisations.' The ideas from this work ultimately went viral 😀 and in varying 'dialects' is now practiced around the world.
and for even more information, Keith Hennessy wrote a great article...
https://www.foundsf.org/The_Experiment_Called_Contact_Improvisation
Also check out other Workshops in Carrboro, Arts events in Carrboro, Dance events in Carrboro.
