Posting by Sara Logan

Contact Improvisation. Those two words I dreaded so much when I entered Columbia’s Dance program. I dreaded them so much that I waited until my senior year to take the “required” class. Before this class, I had not been trained in any contact improvisation or been to any jams in my life. What little I knew about contact came from my small glimpses into this style in my modern classes and a touch in my dancemaking courses. So I was less than enthused to participate in this class, not because I was not open to it, but because I feared the unknown. I’m a perfectionist when it comes to dancing. I enjoy knowing how things should feel and most of all what they should look like in my head. Contact messes with my notion of dance in a way that I feared as soon as I signed up for the class.

For me, I knew that contact would not come easily to me, and it didn’t. I am an extremely “in thought” kind of person. I’m not necessarily judgmental of myself or insecure, but rather I think way too much about things that have already happened and cannot change. So as we began, I found myself trying to turn my brain off to the useless chatter quite unsuccessfully. It took a few weeks for me to feel comfortable about anything we did in class.

So instead of putting myself down, I tried to really open my mind up to the idea of contact. I began to turn of my useless chatter and focus on the things I thought were my strengths in the form of contact. I’ve always thought that I have a lot of physical strength, and this proved to be true when we began using weight to lift one another and support one another. I found that I had an easier time taking weight than giving weight to my partners. I also learned from this exercise that liked to be in control of what was going on within my duets, so I began to focus on letting things just happen and trusting my partners more with each dance.

I think the most interesting thing that I discovered in contact improvisation class was not a trick, lift, concept, or exercise, but it was something that I have been learning and thinking about for a few years. I once had a teacher tell me that dance is a “metaphor for life.” As I analyze and reflect on my experience through the past 15 weeks of contact, I realize that statement rings true in this situation as well. My conflicts and strengths within contact in general reflect ideas, conflicts, and strengths in my own personal life. For example, I constantly over think many different aspects of my life to the point where I cannot turn my brain off. In contact I worked to do just that, and I found in my everyday life, my over thinking began to disappear. Another aspect would be the idea of taking weight and giving weight. In my own life, I can easily help others and give advice to friends. I actually really enjoy doing that for others; however, I struggle to let people into my life to actually help me out. I feel I always need to do things on my own as if to prove myself. It’s unreal how much contact has taught me about myself in just a very short time.

Reflecting back, my journey into the form of contact has been enjoyable, while still providing a challenge. I love a challenge. The last few weeks I’ve really come into the “zone” and have been focused and excited about the new things I discover with my classmates through our duets and dances together. I’m grateful for having to take a “required” course that I would have never thought I would partake in. Contact has really opened my eyes to a world that I am happily open and ready to participate in and use to further my dancing.