Dancing Deeper Still: The Practice of Contact Improvisation

by Martin Keogh

You went to your first Contact Improvisation (C.I.) class, or a friend invited you to the weekly jam, and you're captivated. Or perhaps, you've been dancing and investigating for years. What's next? What discoveries await you in your dance? In 1972, Steve Paxton convened a group of athletes and dancers to research the principles of Contact Improvisation. Since then the form has matured into a worldwide, collaborative experiment with no central control. Everyone who enters adds their findings and permutations to this inherently unfinished dance form. Dancing Deeper Still is a sourcebook of essays on Contact Improvisation, a philosophical treatise, and a handbook. This compilation of 30 years of writings is meant to accompany and support your investigation as you discover new pathways and dynamics in your dancing. It includes chapters Whether you are the improviser who savors the slow rivers of sensation…or who delights in spontaneous acrobatics…or any of the bountiful realms in between, this book was written for you. Your discoveries enrich the community-held body of knowledge in our ever-evolving form. I invite you to dance deeper still.

254 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 6, 2018

Reviews

[Juha Viitamäki · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am very critical of some of the content of this book. Specifically I mean the content of the book regarding the first rule of contact improvisation, Take care of yourself, and how it has affected the contact community.

I recommend reading the critiques of Michele Beauliex on how Martin Keogh has addressed the question of the first rule of contact improvisation.

These critiques are accessible in her articles:

"How the First Rule [Take Care of Yourself] Brought #MeToo to Contact Improvisation," published in Contact Quarterly. And in "Starting by Believing Maria: Responding to Sexual Violence in Safer Brave Contact Improvisation Spaces" in the CQ Contact Improvisation Newsletter

[Martin Keogh · Rating 5 out of 5]

From the back cover:

You went to your first Contact Improvisation (C.I.) class, or a friend invited you to the weekly jam, and you're captivated. Or perhaps, you've been dancing and investigating for years. What's next? What discoveries await you in your dance?

In 1972, Steve Paxton convened a group of athletes and dancers to research the principles of Contact Improvisation. Since then the form has matured into a worldwide, collaborative experiment with no central control. Everyone who enters adds their findings and permutations to this inherently unfinished dance form.

Dancing Deeper Still is a sourcebook of essays on Contact Improvisation, a philosophical treatise, and a handbook. This compilation of 30 years of writings is meant to accompany and support your investigation as you discover new pathways and dynamics in your dancing. It includes chapters on:

· Contact Improvisation in performance
· Boundaries and sexuality
· Political activism
· Dancing while aging
· Expanded teaching research notes
· Advanced skills

Whether you are the improviser who savors the slow rivers of sensation…or who delights in spontaneous acrobatics…or any of the bountiful realms in between, this book was written for you. Your discoveries enrich the community-held body of knowledge in our ever-evolving form. I invite you to dance deeper still.

[Michele Beaulieux · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book contains Keogh's 2003 article, "101 Ways to Say No to Contact Improvisation: boundaries and trust." I suspected by the title that the article was bad news and I was correct. I wrote about what I find problematic about Keogh's assumptions in my article, "How the First Rule [Take Care of Yourself] Brought #MeToo to Contact Improvisation," published in Contact Quarterly. And in "Starting by Believing Maria: Responding to Sexual Violence in Safer Brave Contact Improvisation Spaces" in the CQ Contact Improvisation Newsletter, I rewrote the story of Roland that Keogh tells.
I have no interest in reading any more of this book.

[Hannah Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

When I first read this I found it very insightful and enjoyed the tracking of Steve Paxton's early teachings and commentary of the form. As I've gotten more into CI, I've found texts written by women more helpful and relatable.