Beyond skin boundaries in contact improvisation and poetry

The author, a practitioner of contact improvisation and a poet, discusses how she applied improvisational elements from contact improvisation to writing poetry. Her aim was to reinvigorate her writing after a loss in motivation and vision. The article focuses on a technique of sound replicating a partner and using it to propel writing. The author shares sections of her published poems to illustrate her sound sense and shows how it leads to a polylinear, experimental style. She recognizes meaning need not be homogenous nor dictated by the writer. An open, improvised, visceral approach to writing welcomes reader participation. Readers are invited to read with an open mind and the entirety of their body.