I’m writing here an organized list of skills central to contact improvisation, clustered into skill levels. It’s basically a re-edited version of something I wrote around 2003. If you are interested in wrangling with the philosophy and psychology of skills and techniques in CI, then maybe the following little ramble will be interesting. Otherwise, just jump ahead to the level descriptions.
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Contact improvisation was started as an exploration of athletes jumping at each other and colliding in the air. Dancers deliberately created together dynamic, uncontrolled, precarious situations to explore functional movement responses. In the early days of CI, CI founder Steve Paxton dubbed it an “art-sport”, and as Mangrove performer John LeFan put it, CI is “10% creativity, 90% survival”. There are unarguable rules governing contact: the laws of physics and bio mechanics. This means that there are objective skills that need to be developed to engage safely in dancing with each other in a way that involves more dynamic, improvised weight sharing, lifts, and falling from heights. The skill set I write out here and its linear development is at least a good approximation of what those skills should be.
As the social world and practice of contact exploration is anarchic, there is no single, standard skill set or set of explorations. Instead of one coherent body of integrated skills, a variety of skill sets have been developed over the years, some of which are horizontal in nature (able to be studied independently) and some of which are more vertical in nature (requiring physically integrated knowledge of some more basic principles before other more advanced ones can be learned effectively).
While there is no formal definition of CI, no copyrighted rules or technique, there are clear rules… the rules of physics and body mechanics. The wide field of contact improvisation practice has morphed and shifted over time with many individual and subjective curiosities, but there is a thread of continued exploration of functional movement, with objective questions of functional awareness, physically sound principles of body-use, power, listening, and efficiency, provoked by a steering into precarious physical circumstance that require such. In this, there is a play of tempered deliberate destabilization that challenges us to develop body-awareness and experientially understand physics. This vertical skill set of physical technique remains a central reference and an exploration of many. Expanding CI exploration further into mutual dynamic off-balance safely, keeping physical risk appropriately contained, requires developing technique.
While to many this is obvious, to those who are devoted to a “radical inclusivity” of CI, this can be challenging, as it means that there are things that some of us do in contact improvisation that are not open to all bodies and that require time and devoted practice to be able to acquire the skills of safe risk taking, not open to those unwilling to pursue disciplined work and self-critique.
There are also those who reject discussion of objective skill levels. This rejection may be motivated by anti-intellectualism, fear of hierarchies of respect that can develop around technical skills, or feelings of insecurity. Rejecting the idea of objective skills blocks development and can also lead to dangerous overestimation of one’s skill level, which can lead to inappropriate risk taking and to injury of self or, worse, one’s partner. Men in contact often seem to be particularly prone to this. I also assert that knowing these skills makes everything more interesting and articulate in contact explorations and opens up physical perception to finer details, especially in more athletic and dynamic dancing but also including the more experiential and psychological.
This set of level descriptions is meant for the central vertical skill set that is the core of the contact work I practice and teach. I think that some of these skills are reference points for many practices of contact improvisation, some are only practiced by more experienced and studied contactors, and a few others, particularly the passive sequencing work and the integration of soft martial arts practices, are more idiosyncratic to my own work.
Just to be clear, I believe that there are many explorations in contact that don’t require this skill set, or at least past some of the most basic skills. Mastery of these skills should not be the measure of one’s personal interest in one’s own explorations at jams. There are many fascinating and mind-body opening explorations which are impossible to reach without them, though. They also represent skills that objectively lead to healthier body use, and it is my experience that they make any other explorations that much more engaging and interesting. They also facilitate a wider range of explorations and thus an ability to enjoy explorations with a wider variety of dancers.
I should make a note on hierarchy. The community of Contact Improvisation has an ambivalent relationship to hierarchies. On the one hand, there are very obvious hierarchies based on charisma, skill levels, centrality in professional event production networks, etc.. On the other hand there is a strong rhetoric of encouraging individual curiosity and a generally warm invitation to participation for beginners, which can sometimes manifest as animosity to explicit hierarchies, even in learning. Paolo Frere, in his work on liberatory educational practices, makes a useful distinction between natural and artificial hierarchies. Natural hierarchies are those associated with quantity and quality of knowledge. If you want to learn how to build a house, you probably want to go to someone who has demonstrated skill in building houses. You would also likely attend more to those who have shown an ability to communicate more sophisticated skills at house building. This is natural hierarchy, based on expertise. Artificial hierarchy is the extension of this natural hierarchy to status outside of the domain of expertise. Continuing the metaphor, this would be looking to a house builder for guidance on how to live one’s life simply because they are good at building houses. The aversion to artificial hierarchy in CI sometimes translates amongst those who are especially phobic of authority to undermining any sense of hierarchy, even that based on displayed expertise: natural hierarchy. I personally don’t want to waste my time with such fear mongering.
Relatedly, it is my feeling that a lot of people, particularly men, get stuck very early at relatively low levels of skill development. I think this is because of a misunderstanding of the implications of the lack of a consensus skill set. The misunderstanding is that because there is not such a consensus agreement or a copyrighted standardization, that implies that there is no reference skill set or that any skills are obvious and can be developed by anyone just by “doing contact improvisation” at jams uncritically. There are many people who have been practicing contact for years, including people who teach contact improvisation, who by the objective skill system described here would not be more than an intermediate level dancer. It takes a very peculiar person who is lucky enough to get exposed to the right information to be able to find many of these things on their own. I can really only claim to have found one or two of them on my own. The rest have come from study with others, in contact improvisation and in other physical disciplines (martial arts, contemporary dance technique, anatomy and physiology, physics, post-dramatic theater practices, etc). Learning from teachers, while not strictly necessary, is at the least exceptionally useful. (For a little story from my martial arts training about the arrogance of the intermediately skilled, check out this blog post on “blue belt syndrome”.)
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I’ve organized this ranking of skill levels as a list of skills comfortably acquired by a given level.
Generally speaking, levels 15 are primarily about getting to know the classic Contact Fundamentals better. These are the core techniques and skills that defined the central reference of contact improvisation as practiced back in the 80s and early 90s. Past level 5 is mostly developing what I call the Passive Sequencing work, which for me is a natural extension of some of the higher level skills and studies of classic contact improvisation. Some of these higher level skills in passive sequencing are practiced by very skilled dancers who have their own vocabulary and exercises to communicate these skills. I think my systematizing of them is unique, though I would be delighted to find others who work this way independently.
The descriptions involve a kind of short hand that I use in specific ways in my classes. Some of the terms I use here are used to mean different things by different people, which may generate some confusion in interpreting what I mean, for those not taking my classes regularly. Take it all then with a grain of salt, and I encourage you to primarily use it to spark curiosity.
In reality, no one falls neatly into a category, and that is what makes life and the dance of contact improvisation interesting. Asymmetric skill development is more the norm than the exception. I put these categories out on the one hand as benchmarks where people can feel their progress and conceptualize what would be most interesting to work on next, and, on the other hand, as a means of organizing classes so that higher level skills can be worked on more efficiently and safely after more basic work has been integrated to some level. This is not meant as a strict divider and not meant to categorize with whom it is more or less interesting to dance, although certainly some territories are impossible to get to without specific levels of these skills. These skills do not define all that there is to an interesting dance, and in the end, part of the skills that I work towards is the ability to enjoy and find curiosity in dances with a wider range of people. That said, new, wonderful, and interesting phenomena emerge with dancers working together at higher levels: for pleasure, aesthetic exploration, and health.
Skill Levels
The levels start with 1, rather than 0, to emphasize the fact that CI builds on existing bodyuse knowledge. Everyone comes in already with some of the necessary or useful skills of practicing contact, with more or less depending on life history. I tend to think of level 1 as “novice”, level 2 as “beginner”, level 3 and 4 as “intermediate”, and level 5 and up as “advanced”, though there is certainly no consensus on these terms. It is a widely noted phenomena that men tend to overestimate their own skill level and women tend to underestimate their skills, though I can surely think of exceptions in both directions.
Level 1 – novice
Level 2 – At this level, one has gotten oriented to moving with someone in contact with weight/force/pressure, attending to structure, physics, and the basics of safety while working with weight exchange and falling with each other.
Skills acquired
- static support and use of skeletal architecture for strength, rather than orienting on muscle effort
- understand basics of rolling contact vs sliding and physical possibilities that open up through them
- comfort giving weight to someone and dealing with receiving weight from someone
- moving while connected through force and mutual off-balance
- basic movement into and out of the floor (falling, rolling, sliding, etc)
- starting to work on physical listening skills: feeling another body’s structure
Level 3 – One is starting to “get” the classic contact improvisation duet, here, following a rolling point through supports, lifts, and movement into and out of the floor
Skills acquired
- taking, offering, and tracking moving support
- efficient use of structure in static lifts
- waking up sensing into the back space and falling off balance backwards into support
- basic lift vocabulary (back to back lifts, fireman’s carry, various table supports, hip carries, shoulder lifts)
- movement into and out of floor while maintaining weighted connection to partner
- using torso and pelvis for connecting and initiating movement
- falling comfortably out of lifts (aikido rolls, side rolls, shock absorption, main “landing gear” of hands and feet readily available).
Level 4 – the dancer is starting to get more dynamic in the contact duet, using momentum more and following/allowing. One is taking the dancing up higher through shoulder lifts and starting to get a sense of softening to keep the dance pleasurable and safe while accessing power
Skills acquired
- readiness to catch/support falling partner when coming out of a lift
- ability to set partner down out of a lift through falling offbalance, rather than muscling partner down
- basics of keeping efficient body organization while moving with weight sharing
- starting to organize partner’s body and allow organization of one’s own body
- softening (1st layer of passive sequencing/release work)
- wider array of lifts (shoulder lifts, jumps and catches, etc) and comfort organically integrating shoulder lifts (and other lifts) into a dance
- comfort with nonforcing manipulation and offering adaptive support
- comfort and awareness through inversions
- comfort with back space and articulating the back, dynamic sensing and tracking off-balance into the back space
- comfort with “no hands” dance as an articulate and interesting dance, but able to integrate hands without losing attention to the torso as connector
Level 5 – the dancer is is able to stay more continuously, “honestly” connected to the partner through the continuous giving and receiving of weight and control, allowing more profound surprises in the dance through a wider arrange of configurations. Off-balance is becoming more integrated in the dance as part of the recipe of an honestly mechanically interconnected dance. One is able to feel and sense more continuously, including as things get more wild.
Skills acquired
- continuous readiness to deal in a soft and articulate way with dynamic incoming weight (one does not get distracted)
- ability to stay off balance & track partner’s structure while off-balance
- organizing into efficiency and power through offbalance and spiral
- effort is less about “muscling mass through space” and more about speed and 3-dimensional complexity
- solidly comfortable with moving into and out of contact and supports through inversion
- equanimity of body articulation into contact (subtle and sophisticated use of all of body (low back, legs, etc), as opposed to a few preferred locations of articulation (hands/arms, etc)
- minimizing reactivity to allow for more continued soft, powerful, intelligent engagement with partner’s structure and momentum
- regulated switching between released sequencing of movement through the body and activation and active organization
- feeling the two bodies as one system in motion
Level 6 – subtle level awareness of self and other, which should have been developing all along, is now central. This is not just about mechanics, but also about nervous system sensitivity, steering into present, moment-to-moment awareness for both self and partner, rather than bodies in mutually reactive triggering.
Skills acquired
- subtle level structure tracking and tracking of nervous state and reactivity of partner
- more nuanced study of efficiency and use of dynamic structure for power
- have rolling contact at more advanced level, involving off-balance and passive sequencing through a rolling contact’s traction on the system through fascial chains (requires higher level release work)
- beginning to get passive sequencing work in more dynamic, fast-moving and fast-changing contact… able to regulate better between deep release and activation.
- safe use of a greater degree of range of motion in joints through released passive sequencing and a wider range of body-organization during more dynamic dances
- working more deeply on functional awareness through a wider variety of physical orientations
Level 7 – taking the nervous activation/release sensitivity into more profound states investigation.
Skills acquired
- tracking nervous/muscle activation & body state of self and other and delivering force in a way that is not triggering or less triggering of reactive activation
- deep level passive sequencing and organization of partner’s body into efficiency and ease
- integration of body use with partner’s bodyuse
- invoking release and healthy organization in partner’s nervous system (lasting healing/integration work).
Some Further Notes:
These skills are not meant to define all that is interesting in CI. Some fields of knowledge in ci have a more horizontal character (one can start anywhere and pick up material in a process of random acquisition) and others have a more vertical character (one must have step A down before you can really get step B, step B before step C, etc). This set is for me a central vertical knowledge set for ci practice, but there are also a lot of other very interesting things within CI that don’t require its mastery, that can be explored from level 1. There are also horizontal fields that open up at each new level. These levels are meant to be an objective measure of progress through what for me is the central physical exploration of contact.
The realities of opportunity of study in the contact world usually means that we don’t move through these explorations in a systematically logical way, but “catch as catch can”. Asymetric skill development is likely more the rule than the exception. There is also sometimes something useful about jumping ahead a bit, so that one can start to get a sense of why the fundamentals are so important. Further, many come into contact practice with some of the skills of contact already existing in their bodies from sports, martial arts, body work, or dance. It is possible to have some intermediate or even advanced level skills, but be missing fundamental skill development. In fact, this is quite common, which is why it is important to continue to revisit the fundamentals. As with most physical arts, this skipping of real integration of fundamentals is usually the biggest block to progress.
This asymmetric skill development can either be something we use to pull us forward or an impediment to further learning, depending on our sense of humility and willingness to self-critique. I experience that it is important to continuously go back and work the fundamentals with a sense of beginner’s mind, dropping attachments to proving to anyone that I am more advanced, without worrying about how good I am compared to another except as a motivation to improve myself.
Efficiency in motion and present ability to track self and other and to be able to continuously alter course is a life-long work. This is not to say that moving with minimal effort is the be-all-end-all of self study of body use. There are fascinating explorations to be had of the experience of effort itself, and we want to push our muscle use at times in order to maintain physical fitness. Such purposeful effort and play with resistance can also lead to cathartic psycho-physical explorations. The point is that as we understand efficiency, we are able to translate muscle use into greater power and more complex maneuvers and act in a more present and refined way. This enhances our purely physics/bio-mechanical dances as well as those that are more experiential pr psychologically motivated. We don’t want to waste energy in a way that we are not in control of, but apply it where needed. Also, as one is locked into efforting, one tends to force others to effort. If we want to play with others, it’s good to know how best to “play nice”, so that we get into a “wrestling” dance out of choice rather than compulsion.
These skills are not strictly dependent on how long one has been practicing contact. Some people progress through them quickly, particularly if coming from a sports or dance background. Others have been practicing contact for years and/or are teachers and yet are not at an advanced level in terms of this skill set. This may be because of a lack of a lack of interest or focus on study, personal/philosophical resistance, and/or a lack of opportunity. While I am passionate about development of practice, I try not to impose my interests on others who are not interested in pursuing them, but instead work and dance with others with whom I share an affinity of passions and interests.
As mentioned previously, some contact terms are used differently by different practitioners, as people are quite cavalier to pick up popular terms and run with them in their own direction in CI as they understand them. This is exacerbated in CI by the culture of “openness of interpretation” which can manifest as a phobia of objective analysis and critique. This can make a bit of a mess when trying to have a clear conversation. This is partly why I continue to use the odd and technical sounding “passive sequencing” work to describe my own advanced CI work, to avoid the confusion.
With regards to talking about “someone’s level” within this system, I sometimes think of someone being solidly at a certain level and sometimes centered at a certain level, but with deficiencies characteristic of a lower level and/or some skills of higher levels. Again, asymmetric development is probably more the norm than the exception.
Contact improvisation is accepting of many explorations and is generally a friendly place. It’s important to know one’s limits for one’s own and others’ safety, but I hope that laying out a course of development is a source of pleasurable exploration rather than insecurity.
Some who come to contact carry distress around evaluation and self criticism. CI offers a space where people are encouraged to find and follow their own curiosity and challenge artificial hierarchies based around learning. I think it’s healthy to let go of bad feelings around evaluation and certainly artificial hierarchies should be rejected. I also think it is important to not throw out the baby with the bathwater. I personally don’t think it is very constructive to waste energy on feeling insecure or awkward about recognizing the limits of one’s knowledge and worrying about someone else being better. There are always limits and it’s usually not too hard to find people better at something or other. I prefer to focus on the pleasure of learning what I need to work on.
I hope the organization of skill development is useful or at least sparks interesting conversation
Karl
PS Take this model of skill development as just that… a model. As a scientist, I would assert that all models and theories are “wrong” in the absolute sense. They are just sometimes useful in helping us organize ourselves in the world. I hope this is never interpreted in a way that limits personal curiosity.
P2.S Here is a link to a Facebook thread on injuries in contact… a read through it can serve as motivation for studying technique.
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