Free Contact Improvisation class

Contact Improvisation is a field of research through movement initiated by Steve Paxton in 1972 in the USA. Practiced with partners in physical contact, it resembles wrestling, social dancing, tumbling, fucking, napping, acrobatics, and all that is in between those forms. In 1975, Simone Forti defined as an art-sport. Steve Paxton, later on, called it “a martial art, but without the martial… an art-cooperation.”

Every Sunday, from March to July 2019, Culturgest will host a free Contact Improvisat0ion class inside the walls of Drafting Interior Techniques, a retrospective exhibition dedicated to Contact Improvisation’s founder and American dancemaker Steve Paxton.

During this Sunday morning class, from 11am to 1pm, local and visiting teachers will hold a space for practice, giving tools to explore with sensivity the potentials of entering in collision, lifts and tumbles with partners. The exhibition’s “room 3 / a study in touch” will be the home for these Contact Improvisations: gym mats on the floor, Contact Quarterly in the walls, and archive videos to practice from will provide the context for the dance.

The series of classes is co-curated with Portuguese dancer and choreographer Rita Vilhena.