Contact Improvisation
DANCE 356
Leslie Seiters
Course Description
Contact Improvisation (CI) is a movement form that began nearly 40 years ago and has profoundly
shaped dance since. CI continues to vitally inform many contemporary dance forms with its’ practices
of skills like rolling, falling, giving weight, taking weight, spiraling, ease with being inverted and off
'balance, and an embodied 360 awareness. We will practice CI together.
Objectives:
 Be in sensitive relation (to others, gravity, floor) and the distinct interplay of function and
expression in this form
 Develop ability to shift attention away from evaluating what you and the dance looks like.
 Investigate how weight, touch, momentum, friction, and muscular engagement/release
influence movement possibility.
 Explore potential to plan ahead while remaining sincerely open to interruption and divergent
pathways
 Investigate how to shift “state” of awareness to promote improvisational immediacy and
responsiveness
 Identify what assumptions and movement habits constrain CI skills and action.
 Demonstrate an ability to communicate through movement by learning to kinesthetically
“listen” and “speak” at the same time.
 Demonstrate increased personal body awareness and an understanding of how physical forces
act on the body in motion
 Learn from each other
 Practice and demonstrate relationship to below skills:
 listening (full-bodied listening)
 knowing/sensing where the floor is (while your orientation to it might be changing)
 catching and riding momentum
 being ready
 working with what is immediately available (while sensing the near future without
anticipation)
 fully being in the detail and depth of sensation while maintaining a wide awareness.
 the fundamental groundwork: roll, fall, spiral, comfort upside down and off balance,
modulate muscular tones, share weight (giving and taking), calibrate distribution
of weight, lead (90% listening), follow (without being behind), articulate joints,
support through bones, be light/buoyant, take care of self (safety) [without being
careful]…
 Dance each class…a lot. (there is much to be gained from the dance that happens when you feel
too tired to continue.)
 Participate in the egalitarian approach to and understanding of this ever-evolving form.
Health and Hygiene:
Attention to your own health and it’s effects on others is critical. If you think you are, or may be
contagious (cold, flu etc.) please do not expose others by dancing with them. Use your two
unexcused absences (that will not affect your grade) wisely. It is important to arrive to class washedup with clean clothes you can dance in comfortably.
Grading:
 Attendance, promptness and active, engaged participation in class
(More than 2 absences will affect your grade)
60%
 Quality of artistry, degree of concentration, application of
Movement concepts introduced in class
30%
 Attendance at 1 contact class and jam at stage 7
10%
Extra Credit is available if you attend contact class and jam at stage 7 (beyond the required one.) This
can counter absences if you miss more than the allotted 2 absences. Stage 7: 3980 30th St, San Diego,
CA 92104. Monday nights 7-8 (class) 8-10 (jam).
*Observation notes and response: If you are ill or injured, you may observe class two
times with instructor's consent. See me prior to class. Typed notes and a response based
on your observations must be submitted by the next class meeting if credit is to be given.
Notes should go beyond just listing what the class activities were. Make correlations
between what you see, what you hear, and what you personally experience when you are
physically participating in the class. How does observing class further enrich your
kinesthetic and cognitive understanding of dance?
Student Responsibilities:
Students interested in how their participation is being noted over the semester are welcome to meet by
appointment to discuss progress. It is the student’s responsibility to contact the instructor with
any grading questions or concerns over the course of the semester rather than at semesters end.
Late students are responsible for making sure they are marked as present at the end of class. 2 late
arrivals count as one absence.
You are welcome and encouraged to schedule a meeting with me anytime you want (to discuss class,
grades, departmental questions, personal issues, etc.)
If you are a student with a disability and believe you will need accommodations for this class, it is your
responsibility to contact Student Disability Services at (619) 594-6473. To avoid any delay in the
receipt of your accommodations, you should contact Student Disability Services as soon as possible.
Please note that accommodations are not retroactive, and that I cannot provide accommodations based
upon disability until I have received an accommodation letter from Student Disability Services. Your
cooperation is appreciated.
My posted office hours for this semester are:
Monday 10-11/Tuesday 2-3
Or by appointment