Category Archives: Blog Posts

What are the Qualities of an Advanced Contact Improvisation Dancer? Part one

Recently some of the organizers of my “advanced” workshops have turned away students for not having enough of the fundamentals of C.I. to join the group.

In Barcelona this past July the organizers and I asked two people to not continue because we didn’t feel Continue reading

The Difficult Student

I’ve sometimes imagined that there is a student union somewhere that sends one challenging student to each workshop – the one that when you say “find a partner,” everyone flees that person. Because they are often the last one left they frequently end up partnering with the teacher. Advice? What strategies do you have with these individuals? Continue reading

Dream Pools

The Northern California Contact Jam at Harbin Hot Springs is five days of being in a beautiful locale with wonderful people with dancing as the main activity day and night.

During these events we regularly hold “dream pools” where we sit in a circle and the participants put in their dreams and desires for the jam and for their lives in Continue reading

The Ten Sins of a Contact Improvisation Teacher

(Luckily, not mortal)

  1. Not speaking loudly enough for everyone to hear.
  2. Complaining about not having enough time.
  3. Saying, “This can’t be put into words”.
  4. Codifying the material.
  5. Not accepting their own authority.
  6. Having too much enthusiasm, and too little substance.
  7. Not taking care of their own needs and boundaries.
  8. Pushing too hard on a student who is in stasis.
  9. Shaming a student in front of the class.
  10. Letting their own process of inquiry die.