Buddhist ethics and the contact improvisation practitioner

This article explores what a Buddhist practitioner/contact improviser/dance artist/educator can contribute to a discussion of ethics in somatically informed dance practice. The discussion looks at the links between Buddhist ethical practice and the implicit ethics within contact improvisation. In talking about contact improvisation this article assumes that extrapolating these reflections out to any of the somatic practices would bear similar fruit. The goal of Buddhism is vimukti/freedom, but it starts with ethics. Buddhist ethical precepts are sikkhapāda/training steps; it is this sense of undertaking training that offers a different perspective on ethical practice. Ethical mores within the contact improvisation community are strong but implicit, and yet there is a tangible consensus internationally about the values that inform the practice. Articulating the similarities between the two, there is an offer to a wider debate on ethics in somatically informed dance.