Editing Contact improvisation (section)

==== In North America ====

===== Styles =====
Following the first performance of ''Contact Improvisations'' in New York in 1972, the participants scattered to different parts of the [[United States]] but soon began to teach the practice.{{r|Kourlas}} The syncopated, risky, raw and awkward style of the first performances gave place rather quickly to a variety of aesthetics within the form.

One of those aesthetics was the development of smooth, continuous, controlled flow of quality in the late 1970s and early 1980s, running parallel with the opposite trend of interest in conflict and unexpected responses, including previously avoided eye contact and direct hand contact.<ref>Novack, 1990 op cit p. 156-8.</ref> Says Nancy Stark Smith,

<blockquote>Within the study of Contact Improvisation, the experience of flow was soon recognized and highlighted in our dancing. It became one of my favorite practices and I proceeded to "do flow" for many years-challenging it, testing it: could we flow through ''this'' pass? Could we squeak through ''that'' one, and keep going?<ref>Nancy Stark Smith, "Back in time", Contact Quarterly, vol.11/1, Winter 86, p. 3</ref></blockquote>

Regardless of those aesthetic choices, the central characteristic of contact improvisation remains a focus on bodily awareness and physical reflexes rather than consciously controlled movements.<ref>Novack, 1990 op cit p. 152</ref>  One of the founders of the form, Daniel Lepkoff, comments that the “precedence of body experience first, and mindful cognition second, is an essential distinction between Contact Improvisation and other approaches to dance.”<ref>{{cite journal|last=Lepkoff|first=Daniel|date=Winter–Spring 2000|title=Contact Improvisation|journal=Contact Quarterly|page=62}}</ref>  Another source affirms that the practice of contact improvisation involves “mindfulness, sensing and collecting information”<ref name=":3">{{cite book|title=Contact Improvisation:Moving, Dancing, Interaction|last=Kaltenbrunner|first=Thomas|publisher=Meyer & Meyer|year=1998|location=Aachen (Germany)|page=93}}</ref> as its core.

===== Languaging and observing =====

In 1975, the dancers working with Steve Paxton considered trademarking the term contact improvisation in order to control the teaching and practice of the dance form, consequently for reasons of safety. This idea was rejected in favor of establishing a forum for communication: this became the ''Contact Newsletter'' founded by Nancy Stark Smith, which evolved into the bi-annual journal [https://contactquarterly.com/ ''Contact Quarterly'']<ref>{{cite journal|last=Smith|first=Nancy|title=A question of copyright - some history|journal=Contact Quarterly: A Vehicle for Moving Ideas|year=1998|volume=23|issue=1|page=35}}</ref> which continues to be published online by the non-profit Contact Collaborations (incorporated in 1978) after a final print edition came out in January 2020.<ref name=":2">{{cite web|title=About Us|url=http://www.contactquarterly.com/about/cq_aboutus.php|publisher=Contact Collaborations|access-date=2 November 2013}}</ref>{{r|Kourlas}} The journal, now co-edited by Nancy Stark Smith and Lisa Nelson, brings together different reflections of contact improvisation teachers and practitioners and cements an international community by equipping it with a communication organ, as well as hosting several other orders of reflections, including writings by [[contemporary dance]]rs and [[Somatics|somatic practitioners]]. According to the magazine's statement,<blockquote>''Contact Quarterly'' is the longest living, independent, artist-made, not-for-profit, reader-supported magazine devoted to the dancer's voice. Founded in 1975, ''Contact Quarterly'' (CQ) began as a forum for discussion of the emerging dance form Contact Improvisation. Serving as a meeting ground for a worldwide network of contact improvisers, ''CQ''quickly grew to include writings and interviews on postmodern and contemporary experimental dance, somatic movement practices, improvisational dance, mixed-abilities dance, teaching methods, creative process, and performance.<ref name=":2" /></blockquote>While the development of contact improvisation has benefited greatly from Nancy Stark Smith and Lisa Nelson's editorial work to support the writings of dancers in their exploration of the form, it also owes much to the cameras of Steve Christiansen and then Lisa Nelson, who documented many moments of the work (especially in performance) and allow the contactors to observe themselves with meticulousness.[[File:CIJam.jpg|thumb|left|Contact Improvisation jam in Montpellier, France (2004]]

===== Development of art-sport =====
Since the mid-1970s, regular jams are present in most major cities in North America (New York City, Boston, San Francisco, and Montreal). Other multi-day residential spaces (such as the Breitenbush Jam, which has existed since 1981) have been in existence since the late 1970s. Remembers dancer Mark Pritchard,
[[File:Earthdancestudio-outsideview.jpg|thumb|Earthdance artist-run residency center in western [[Massachusetts]]]]
The 1979 Country Jam was a first of its kind in the Contact world: over fifty people from the western United States and Canada came together for twelve days of non-structured existence, life and dance: neither a workshop, a conference or a seminar, but an improvisational gathering, with the sole aim of creating a space for dancing and living in flux... Our days were without structure, except for meals: at the beginning, we planned to keep 90-minute slots for the courses, but the idea was quickly abandoned thanks to a system based on Supply and demand, in which each could suggest a topic to be dealt with and offer to lead a class.<ref>Mark Pritchard, "Country Jam", ''Contact Quarterly'', <abbr>vol.</abbr>  5 (1), 1979, <abbr>P.</abbr>  36</ref> These residential events (workshops, festivals, long jams) represent a parallel economy that invited the creation of dedicated spaces of practice, the model of which was provided very early by Earthdance, a residential center built in 1986 by a Boston community of dancers.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.earthdance.net/resources/articles/1996/09/earthdance-survives-changing-vision-changing-times|title=Earthdance survives changing vision, changing times|date=1996|work=Daily Hampshire Gazette}}</ref>