Contact improvisation is a dance technique which uses physical contact as a starting point for exploration. The form grew out of Steve Paxton's movement studies in the 1970s, into a technique used by dance therapists, dancers, choreographers, and performing artists.

How do you use CI in your ensemble?

As our performers have all various levels of movement training, contact improvisation is one of the easiest ways for us to develop a common movement language as an ensemble. We use it as fundamental practice to build ensemble, as well as to choregraph images and scenes.

For example, we have used contact improv in our auditions, as it immediately tells us how comfortable someone is in movement, and how open they are in listening and developing rapport. It tells us how creative and present they are, as participants allow the moment to unfold and build upon each others' proposals.

When appropiate, we have also used Contact Improvisation to develop actual scenes in our pieces. In (No)rwegian wood, we used this to develop the physical contact between Naoko and Watanabe.

Are there any other Contact Improv opportunities in Hong Kong ?

Yes. Kongtact Square runs monthly jams at the CCDC dance center at Wong Tai Sin.
>Here's their facebook page.

Having jammed in many cities, we've discovered that different cities have slightly different styles or vocabulary. So what is our culture of Contact like? Does the sense of touch have a different cultural nuance, or are we universally human? Can we draw naturally on our traditions, like tai chi? These are the questions that we are exploring as we are do Contact Improvisation here in Hong Kong.