Contact Improvisation

Contact: being connected to yourself, to the earth, to life, to others, and above all to the space between bodies.
Improvisation: spontaneous movement created here and now.

Contact Improvisation is a movement encounter — a dance style based on physical communication between dancers, enabling exploration of touch, weight, direction, and momentum.

Contact is an approach to movement, to dance, to a real and refined encounter of the dancer with their own body, with gravity, with the floor, and with another dancer — in a way that enables sophisticated, new, and enjoyable movement creation. Moving in contact while simultaneously listening to ourselves and our partner allows for unique communicative expression, as well as wonderful acrobatics. Attentive improvisation leads our body and mind to moments in which fixed patterns step aside and open up new possibilities.

The technique began developing in New York in 1972 by a group of dancers led by choreographer Steve Paxton. Over several years they experimented with it both in studio training and in open improvisation performances for audiences.

Today the technique is taught both in open classes for the general public and in professional dance schools as a technique for improvisation and partnering. Well-known dance companies in Israel and around the world (such as Vertigo Dance Company, Inbal Pinto, etc.) use contact to train their dancers, and even use the movement language created from this organic encounter in their choreographies.

Contact and Jam Classes in Tel Aviv

At Naim there are weekly contact classes and once every third Saturday there is a contact class with a special theme followed by an open contact jam.

In keeping with the nature of a contact class, each class is different from the previous and focuses on specific topics related to it. The goal is to build movement intelligence and strength coming from the skeleton rather than the muscles, to achieve release in the body, to know it, and to detach from logical thinking and surrender to instinctive and free touch and flow.
The class requires no prior experience. Come in comfortable clothing (sweatpants).

The tools we will learn and refine:
– Balance
– Correct structure and posture for bearing weight
– Working with gravity and the floor
– Grounding
– Softening
– Using the skeleton instead of muscular force
– Anatomy in movement
– The nervous system responsible for movement information
– Sharpening physical senses
– Awareness of the space around us
– Finding the dance within us while creating a safe personal space for expression
– Listening to our body and to another's body
– How to give and receive weight while dancing and using momentum
– Communication through movement
– Trust in our body and in another's body
– Tools for participating in a contact improvisation jam

Experienced contact dancers who want to refresh the fundamentals are also welcome. We'll switch partners so we can experience dancing with people of different body types and experience levels.

Each class begins with an inward arrival — getting to know our body and refining our movement, continues to a technical topic, and closes with open practice in a circle (round robin).

For a first trial class at the studio click here
To purchase an additional single class click here
For membership click here