Editing Contact improvisation (section)

==Spaces of practice ==

=== Universities ===
In June 1980, Elizabeth Zimmer, organizer and director of the American Dance Guild, put together the conference Improvisation: Dance Considered as Art-Sport.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/sharingdancecont00nova|url-access=registration|quote=improvisation dance as art sport.|title=Sharing the Dance: Contact Improvisation and American Culture|last=Novack|first=Cynthia J.|date=1990-08-15|publisher=Univ of Wisconsin Press|isbn=9780299124441|pages=[https://archive.org/details/sharingdancecont00nova/page/99 99]|language=en}}</ref> The conference was mainly dedicated to contact improvisation, which had been referred to as an "art-sport" a few years earlier by [[Simone Forti]], and introduced contact improvisation in the American academic world.  Contact improvisation is now taught in a majority of American universities offering a choreographic curriculum ([[New York University]], Oberlin College, [[Bennington College]], [[Smith College]], [[Ohio State University]]) as well as in many contemporary dance festivals ([[Jacob's Pillow Dance|Jacob's Pillow]], [[Bates Dance Festival]]).
[[File:Contact Improvisation Trio Dojo Florence.jpg|thumb|left|A contact improvisation trio (2017)]]

=== Jams ===
In the mid-1970s, the term "jam" appeared to describe, like [[Jam session|jazz jam sessions]] and [[Milonga (dance)|milongas in tango]], an opportunity for free practice where dancers who do not know each other can meet and negotiate together their dance or observe the practice of their partners.<blockquote>Every week in dozens of cities that make up an international network, members of this Contact Improvisation "community of experience" meet for a few hours in a dance studio for a jam. This hybrid practice seems to me to work halfway between a bodily meditation, a psycho-kinesthetic therapy, a sports training, and a dance improvised session.<ref>Deva Davina, "Some notes of a contacter ethnographer", ''Nouvelles de danse'', <abbr>Vol.</abbr>  38-39, Bruxelles,  1999, <abbr>p.</abbr>  101</ref></blockquote>

Jams also occur at multi-day residential courses led by a dancer or a group of dancers at conferences or festivals, where the days can alternate between free practices, courses by guest artists, and debates regularly bring practitioners together.

==== Inclusion ====
Some have argued that this relaxed space of practice favoured contact improvisation's inclusivity towards disabled movers:<blockquote>Unlike a structured workshop or a performance, the Contact jam setting allows for open-ended dancing, a mode particularly conducive to dancers with different abilities. For one thing, it is a lot easier to rest or stop and talk with your partner... More than any other genre of dance, Contact Improvisation has nurtured and embraced dancing that can integrate multiple abilities and limitations. In fact, many of the most renowned nondisabled Contact practitioners (including Steve Paxton), spend a lot of time teaching, facilitating and dancing with disabled communities.<ref name=":7">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OYbHhwUpxAMC&q=contact+jam&pg=PA210|title=Taken by Surprise: A Dance Improvisation Reader|last1=Albright|first1=Ann Cooper|last2=Gere|first2=David|date=2003-10-24|publisher=Wesleyan University Press|isbn=9780819566485|pages=210|language=en}}</ref></blockquote>

==== Sexual harassment ====
Women have expressed feeling uncomfortable on the dance floor and in the community, especially with men who overstep intimacy, bringing unwanted sexual energy into the connection.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Yardley |first1=Brooks |title=Respecting Boundaries/Coexisting Genders: A Zine about Women's Experiences of Feeling Unsafe in Contact Improv |journal=Contact Improvisation Newsletter |volume= 42.2 |issue=Summer/Fall 2017 |url=https://contactquarterly.com/contact-improvisation/newsletter/index.php#view=respecting-boundaries-coexisting-genders |access-date=14 October 2019}}</ref> As a result, some people organized #MeToo disruptions of jams.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Harrist |first1=Cookie |title=#MeToo DISRUPTION at the 2018 West Coast Contact Improvisation Jam |journal=Contact Quarterly |volume= 44.1 |issue=Winter/Spring 2019 |pages=50 |url=https://contactquarterly.com/cq/article-gallery/view/how-the-first-rule-brought-metoo-to-contact-improvisation.pdf |access-date=14 October 2019}}</ref> To address sexual harassment issues, many jams are establishing jam guidelines and instigating other measures.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Pierce |first1=Benjamin |title=A Compendium of Contact Improvisation Jam Guidelines and related material from around the world |url=https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Os8c2ukZRS5cnJhJv0SuBX5MrpGKAMZk6U3i-Pbfezk/edit#heading=h.axpp7s2sk9zp |access-date=14 October 2019}}</ref>