Why Contact Improvisation can be psychologically and emotionally healing

The contact improvisation community in Bristol has welcomed me in with open arms and open hearts. This short series of three articles attempts to capture some of the magic of this form of dance.

It’s a dark wet November night as I struggle to squeeze my small car into a tiny parking space near the Scout’s hut on the edge of Bristol. I take my bag and quietly enter the warm room, the lighting is low, there’s floaty music, and a group of people are dancing contact improvisation.

I remove my shoes and socks, take a sip of water, and gently enter the space finding a spot on the floor to warm up and stretch a little. As I feel more comfortable in the room I move towards the middle and find an arm and a willing person to begin dancing with.

At that point my attention is (as much as possible) on our mutual point of contact, our sharing of weight, on practicing to follow them at the same time as following my own movements. It’s a dancing meditation where time slips by and a deep state of embodiment and calm is reached."

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Exploring a new form of dance

I’m exploring a form of dance known as contact improvisation (CI). Since finding this kind of dance when living on Ibiza in 2013 it’s been a part of my life. Now living in Bristol I’m enjoying getting to know the thriving CI community here.

Contact improvisation is a (fairly) niche form of dance in which two, and sometimes more, people are in contact with each other and moves are improvised. You can get an idea from this video here (these guys are pros):

Trusty Wikipedia described the dance as involving

the exploration of one's body in relationship to others by using the fundamentals of sharing weight, touch, and movement awareness.

This three part series shares reflections on my experience of this dance. I’m particularly curious about how this practice promotes psychological development and emotional healing, teaches the important (and transferable) skill of improvisation, and provides a way to nourish our human need for touch and intimacy in a playful communal setting.

Let’s dive into part 1.

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Part 1.  Why contact improvisation can be psychologically and emotionally healing

((Disclaimer: I’m not a dance teacher, nor do I have any professional dance training. This may be something of an advantage when it comes to exploring the nuances of this dance. I’m coming from a ‘regular’ person’s perspective. I’ve no special dancing abilities nor particular skill in being super embodied or present. I think that makes my exploration all the more interesting; and as I’ve got so much out of this it shows that same experience is available to you - Oh most regular of persons!))

Witnessing our internal state

When dancing CI we get the chance to witness what’s going on for us internally. We can then bring healing to wounded or stuck parts of us by engaging in the dance in subtly different or new ways. Let me see if I can explain this..

Our psychological and emotional inner state is reflected in the way that we are in our bodies.

Contact improvisation helps us become aware of, and reflect on, our internal state. In order to dance with somebody you have to focus on your body, you have to be embodied. You can’t really do this dance with your attention elsewhere. 

Through this pulling of our attention inwards and then into relationship with our dance partner we become embodied and have the opportunity to witness our state of embodiment in relationship to another person. For example; if we are stressed and our body is tense we’re going to notice this immediately in our dance. Or if we are courageous and our body feels alive and open we’ll be bringing this energy into our dance. 

Perhaps more psychologically oriented, if we are feeling shy or lacking trust then this will also be obvious in our dance, the same goes if we are always somebody who follows the instructions, or leading energy of another person. We’ll see this pattern emerging in the way we dance.

You won’t just be thinking or feeling your inner state, you’ll be dancing it out.

This mirroring of our inner state is valuable, it’s not often that we are gifted with opportunities in life where we can show up so vulnerably and authentically with other people.

Once we’ve got a handle on what’s going on for us internally, we’re not feeling confident for example, we are then gifted the opportunity to bring healing or wholeness to that part of us. 

Below I share two stories to explain these ideas in practice.  

James learns to trust

Two weeks ago I was in a beginners workshop dancing with a guy called James (I’ve changed their name for confidentiality). I’m six foot and fairly broad, and he was significantly taller and broader than me. During part of the class learning lifting technique we partnered up as we were closest in size. It was easy for him to lift me up, he was strong, yet much harder for me to lift him. In fact, unless we got the technique right, and unless he was really trusting and could fully give himself and his weight to me, it was almost impossible for me to lift him well.

There was a beautiful moment when we slowed down because things weren’t working; I had an idea. I shared with him that this wasn’t about our physical bodies any longer, there was somthing underneath (or internal) about a willingness to let me take his weight completely. To trust that I had him, that I could support him.

It took a moment of processing, and for us to slow down the psycial movement, but the next time we tried I easily took his weight on my hip because he had completely trusted me to do so and therefore leaned closer placing his weight over my centre of gravity.

In order to do that he had to trust me completely. 

On returning to the ground he placed his hands on his knees and ‘needed a moment’ - I could see tears in his eyes. When, I wondered, was the last time James had been able to trust somebody so completely?

I believe James had an insight into his relationship to trust that struck a deep chord (hence the tears). It seemed that he was unaware of his unwillingness to fully trust me. The weight bearing exercise gave him, and I, an opportunity to see this clearly and for him to then choose a different kind of behaviour. In giving himself to me he had to embody a state of trust.

I’ve since checked in with James and he confirmed with me that this singular moment was powerful and has had something of a lasting impact on his life. He now more regularly and naturally embodies a state of trust. I think that’s pretty huge.

This is why I’m curious about embodiment techniques as methods of healing; because this single moment of embodying trust was worth weeks of therapy and has stayed with him in some profound and lasting way.

Becky learns to direct

Earlier in 2022 in London I found myself dancing with a woman a little smaller than me. Let’s call her Becky. As we moved together I could feel that, although I don’t think I was being particularly forceful or overbearing, Becky was almost always following me wherever I suggested we move. It felt to me like she was always acquiescing to my suggested direction.

We stoped and chatted, I felt there was more than something physical going on here; it wasn’t that she was physically unable to push back, or too weak or didn’t know ‘how’ (she was super strong and competent dancer in fact). 

We wondered together and discovered an inner psychological leaning that had her intuitively responding to leadership with acceptance and acquiescence.

Was this a pattern showing up in other areas of her life? ‘Yes, particularly with men’ she shared with a moment’s introspection and calm reflection.

I shared that this could be an opportunity to witness that pattern (which we were already doing) and then to shift it by embodying a different state.

I invited her to notice my suggested direction and instead of following me to stand up to it, physically stand up, push back, refuse to accept my suggestion and show me where she wanted to lead the movement.

This was her chance to shift her usual relational dynamic and to direct instead. She did this beautifully the next time our bodies were moving together, I leaned towards her and met a powerful, gentle and clear resistance that moved me sideways and back across my centre of gravity. Our dance continued in a far more even and balanced way with the sense of direction emerging more mutually from us both.

For Becky something struck a deeply healing psychological chord. She also needed time to process, reflect, and make sense of what had just happened; Becky had had an embodied experience of responding differently and it had turned out beautifully.

Becky could easily see the mirroring of this dancefloor experience onto her relationships with men. She was freed from needing to follow and acquiess, instead Becky had had an embodied experience of a beautiful and balanced relationship-dance where she had responded with her own leadership and push back.

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Can you see what’s going on here? Through the dance we can heal wounds and learn to be in different ways through moving our body in new ways.

Through CI our body is showing us our inner psychological patterns. Through dancing in a new way we have an opportunity to heal old ways that no longer serve us.

James wass unwilling to trust and lean on another person - both physically and also emotionally. Becky was used to allowing and acquiessing to the desires of the men she was relating with. 

These internal dynamics and behavioural patterns show up in the dance. In developmental psychology this is called making the ‘subject to object’ move. A pattern (lack of trust / acquiescence) that we were subject to - think of it as being inside of the pattern - has, through the dance, become object.

Once object we have some space and distance from the pattern. We can hold the tendency as something object, outside of ourselves. This distance gives us agency and choice.

With this newly empowered agency and choice we can choose a different embodied state and through the dance get to experience this new state in the moment with a partner. We embody a new way of being that heals an old pattern and we then get to experience what happens in relationship to another when we dance in this new way.

This, for me, is the ongoing fascination with CI, we are gifted the opportunity to shift psychological patterns through embodied experience. It’s a fast track to healing prohibitive patterns when it works well.

Of course, this is not always the case and certainly not something that happens in each dance. But as my CI friend Spence recently said:

“Every dance is (like) a conversation that I come away from having learnt something new.”

PHOTO

We dance contact by following certain core principles as opposed to certain steps or ‘scores’. One central principle is that the dance is improvised. One of my favourite teachers, Nita Little, is often quoted for her famous teaching refrain:

‘If you know what you’re going to do next; do something different’

We’ll explore the value of learning to improvise in the next article. It’s a particularly valuable and transferable skill in today’s overly structured and organised world.

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I’m very curious to hear your reflections on what I’ve shared here. Please comment below to build on the ideas I’ve shared. 

I’m particularly curious to know if anybody is teaching contact improvisation from this psychologically developmental perspective. For me it’s an often missing element of workshops.

Here’s what’s install for the next two articles in this series:

Part 2.  What CI teaches us about improvisation as a life practice

Part 3. How we navigate touch and intimacy in the group dynamic of CI 

Peace and love. x

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This focus on principles as opposed to steps means, I believe, our inner state is more clearly visible. There is no set formula to hide behind. If there were set moves it’d be easier for me to ‘hide’ and simply be going through the motions.