Resources for Contact Improvisation

What is Contact Improvisation?

• Contact Quarterly's About Contact Improvisation

• Harvest: One History of Contact Improvisation by Nancy Stark Smith

On Boundaries and Consent

See the CI-Specific Discussions and Resources section of A Compendium of CI Jam Guidelines. 

The following works are by Chicago's Michele Beaulieux, partially in response to Martin Keogh's classic and problematic 2003 essay "101 Ways to Say No to Contact Improvisation: Boundaries and Trust"

• “How the First Rule Brought #MeToo to Contact Improvisation”

• “Starting by Believing Maria: Responding to Sexual Violence in Safer Brave Contact Improvisation Spaces” 

• “Can’t We Just Dance?: Not If We Want to Create Safer Brave Contact Improvisation Spaces”

• “Just Say “No” to Teachers Who Troll: Counterstories”

Chicago's Sarah Gottlieb wrote Myths to Break Down: Moving Toward Ethical Communication and Ethical Sexuality in Contact Improvisation 

• Myth #1: It makes people uncomfortable to talk about boundary setting and sexuality right before dancing together.

• Myth #2: It’s okay to massage me after we dance.

• Myth #3: Saying "No" is easy

• Myth #4: It's okay to heal me with contact improv

• Myth #5: I can handle it myself

• Myth #6: Written guidelines keep CI spaces safe (Part 1 of 2)

• A Helpful Supplement to Myth #6: “It’s just not my thing” — addressing facilitator doubts (Part 2 of 2)