Editing Contact improvisation (section)

===== 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>