Skip to content
1981
  1. Home
  2. A-Z Publications
  3. Journal of Dance & Somatic Practices
  4. Volume 16, Issue 1
  5. Article
1-2: 6th International Dance and Somatic Practices Conference - Reconnections: Looking back, moving forward, enacting change
  • ISSN: 1757-1871
  • E-ISSN: 1757-188X

Abstract

Like many western dance and somatic practices, contact improvisation (CI) has long centred a concept of ‘the body’ that ignores culture, identity, privilege and power. However, for many dancers, identity-based power dynamics do affect how they interact, what risks CI poses to them and how accessible the practice is. This article examines consent practices as one response to identity-based risks in CI. It determines that, to most effectively limit the effects of identity-based power dynamics, the responsibility for consent practices must be shared amongst dancers of all levels of privilege in a CI space. Such distributed consent practices have the potential to address power differences without reifying them, as they allow dancers to modulate risk without naming specific identities. Although increasing consent practices in CI poses a number of challenges, this investigation indicates future potential for consent practice as a strategy to acknowledge and address identity in CI.

© 2024 Intellect Ltd
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/jdsp_00122_1
2024-12-06
2025-05-18
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Ahmed, Sara (2017), Living a Feminist Life, Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  2. Baird, Haley (2021), ‘Weight shifting; An ethnography of contact improvisation’, MA thesis, Montreal: Concordia University.
     [Google Scholar]
  3. Bay-Cheng, Laina Y. (2020), ‘No choice but “yes”: Strategic consent to unwanted sex’, University of Buffalo School of Law Baldy Center Blog, 9 November, https://digitalcommons.law.buffalo.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1006&context=baldy_center_blog. Accessed 10 July 2023.
  4. Beaulieux, Michele (2019), ‘How the first rule brought #MeToo to contact improvisation’, Contact Quarterly, 44:1, pp. 46–50.
     [Google Scholar]
  5. Bibler, Zena (2020), ‘What can disorientation do?’, CQ Unbound, 25 October, https://contactquarterly.com/cq/unbound/index.php#view=what-can-disorientation-do. Accessed 20 July 2023.
     [Google Scholar]
  6. Bindler, Nicole (2020), ‘Beyond sex: Consent as liberation’, Consent Culture in CI Symposium, virtual, 18–19 April.
     [Google Scholar]
  7. Bullock, Emma C. (2018), ‘Valid consent’, in A. Müller and P. Schaber (eds), The Routledge Handbook of the Ethics of Consent, Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 85–94.
     [Google Scholar]
  8. Campise, Florencia and Ijpelaar, Meldy (2023), ‘Practices with-in practices: A Poemary/Bestiary of (non)copyright with-in contact improvisation’, Zenodo, 30 September, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8395286. Accessed 30 September 2023.
  9. Drury, Lindsey (2022), ‘What’s in a name? Somatics and the historical revisionism of Thomas Hanna’, Dance Research Journal, 54:1, pp. 6–29.
     [Google Scholar]
  10. George, Doran (2020), The Natural Body in Somatics Dance Training, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  11. Gottlieb, Sarah (2018), ‘Myths to break down: Moving toward ethical communication and ethical sexuality in CI’, Contact Improvisation, 24 April, http://contactimprovblog.com/myths-to-break-down-moving-toward-ethical-communication-and-ethical-sexuality-in-ci/. Accessed 12 June 2023.
     [Google Scholar]
  12. Hassmann, Joerg (2015), ‘Sexual energy in contact improvisation’, Joerg Hassmann-Writings on Dance and Contact Improvisation, 18 May, https://joerghassmann.wordpress.com/2015/05/18/sexual-energy-in-contact-improvisation/. Accessed 27 February 2024.
  13. Hennessy, Keith (2019), ‘Questioning contact improvisation’, In Dance, 1 October, https://dancersgroup.org/2019/10/questioning-contact-improvisation/. Accessed 30 June 2023.
     [Google Scholar]
  14. Heydon, Leslie (2020), ‘The colour of consent with Leslie Heydon’, Consent Culture in CI Symposium, virtual, 18–19 April.
     [Google Scholar]
  15. Horrigan, Kristin (2024), ‘Integrating consent practices in dance education’, Journal of Dance Education, online first, pp. 1–11.
     [Google Scholar]
  16. Horrigan, Kristin (forthcoming a), ‘Moving towards consent: An autoethnographic case for consent practices in college dance classrooms’, in S. Barr and K. Schupp (eds), Stories We Dance/Stories We Tell: Our Lives in Higher Education, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc.
     [Google Scholar]
  17. Horrigan, Kristin (forthcoming b), ‘Gender, power, and equity in contact improvisation’, in A. C. Albright (ed.), Resistance and Support: Contact Improvisation @ 50, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  18. Keogh, Martin (2003), ‘101 ways to say no to contact improvisation’, Contact Quarterly, 28:2, pp. 61–64.
     [Google Scholar]
  19. Kimmel, Michael, Hristova, Dayana and Kussmaul, Kerstin (2018), ‘Sources of embodied creativity: Interactivity and ideation in contact improvisation’, Behavioral Sciences, 8:6, pp. 52–88.
     [Google Scholar]
  20. Kleinig, Joseph (2010), ‘The nature of consent’, in F. G. Miller and A. Wertheimer (eds), The Ethics of Consent, New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 3–24.
     [Google Scholar]
  21. Lasdon, Sasha (2020), ‘CI and consent with a Midwestern queer perspective: The power of ensembling in breaking heteronormative touch norms of the form’, Consent Culture in CI Symposium, virtual, 18–19 April.
     [Google Scholar]
  22. Lee, Rythea (2020), ‘Trauma informed CI: A way into understanding consent’, Consent Culture in CI Symposium, virtual, 18–19 April.
     [Google Scholar]
  23. Levand, Mark A. (2019), ‘Consent as cross-cultural communication: Navigating consent in a multicultural world’, Sexuality & Culture, 24, pp. 835–47.
     [Google Scholar]
  24. McMains, Juliet (2022), ‘Fostering a culture of consent in social dance communities’, Journal of Dance Education, 22:4, pp. 256–64.
     [Google Scholar]
  25. Mitra, Royona (2018), ‘Talking politics of contact improvisation with Steve Paxton’, Dance Research Journal, 50:3, pp. 6–18.
     [Google Scholar]
  26. Mitra, Royona (2021), ‘Unmaking contact: Choreographic touch at the intersections of race, caste, and gender’, Dance Research Journal, 53:3, pp. 6–24.
     [Google Scholar]
  27. Novack, Cynthia J. (1990), Sharing the Dance: Contact Improvisation and American Culture, Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  28. Planned Parenthood (n.d.), ‘Sexual consent’, Planned Parenthood, https://www.plannedparenthood.org/learn/relationships/sexual-consent. Accessed 21 June 2023.
     [Google Scholar]
  29. Prichard, Robin (2019), ‘From color-blind to color-conscious: Advancing racial discourse in dance education’, Journal of Dance Education, 19:4, pp. 168–77.
     [Google Scholar]
  30. Prichard, Robin R. (forthcoming), ‘Tracing the natural body to move into contact improvisational futures’, in A. C. Albright (ed.), Resistance and Support: Contact Improvisation @ 50, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  31. Rea, Kathleen (2017), ‘“That lady”: The story of what happened when a woman put up a boundary in the contact improv world’, Contact Improv Consent Culture, 3 December, https://contactimprovconsentculture.com/2017/12/03/first-blog-post/. Accessed 25 August 2023.
     [Google Scholar]
  32. Rea, Kathleen (2018), ‘The newcomer experience in contact dance improvisation’, Contact Improv Consent Culture, 2 January, https://contactimprovconsentculture.com/2018/01/02/the-newcomer-experience-in-contact-dance-improvisation/. Accessed 25 August 2023.
     [Google Scholar]
  33. Rea, Kathleen (2020), ‘Supporting neurodiversity in contact improvisation’, Consent Culture in CI Symposium, virtual, 18–19 April.
     [Google Scholar]
  34. Rea, Kathleen (n.d.), ‘Toronto Tuesday dance jam with live music’, Reason D’Etre Dance, https://reasondetre.com/dance-jam-with-live-music. Accessed 30 August 2023.
  35. Suseno, Andrew (2019), ‘My story about people of color’s contact improvisation (POC CI) jams and Parcon resilience’, CQ Unbound, 27 December, https://contactquarterly.com/cq/unbound/view/my-story-about-people-of-colors-contact-improvisation-poc-ci-jams-and-parcon-resilience#$. Accessed 26 August 2023.
     [Google Scholar]
  36. Tafferner-Gulyas, Viktoria (2015), ‘Contact improvisation, a dance technique as a representative art form of the seventies in American culture’, 3rd Mediterranean Interdisciplinary Forum on Social Sciences and Humanities, Barcelona, Spain, 17–19 May.
     [Google Scholar]
  37. Thornhill, Nadine (2020), ‘Why I’m not always enthusiastic about enthusiastic consent’, YouTube, 21 September, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAvWRaXm3iE. Accessed 21 September 2023.
  38. Turner, Robert (2010), ‘Steve Paxton’s “interior techniques”: Contact improvisation and political power’, TDR: The Drama Review, 54:3, pp. 123–35.
     [Google Scholar]
  39. Weidman, Lailye (n.d.), ‘Solo “partnering” workshops’, Lailye Weidman, http://www.lailyeweidman.com/teaching. Accessed 1 September 2023.
  40. Williams, Brynn M. (2019), ‘Nuances of touch: Embodying and communicating nonverbal consent in contact improvisation’, MA thesis, Vancouver: University of British Columbia.
     [Google Scholar]
  41. Yardley, Brooks (ed.) (2016), Respecting Boundaries/Coexisting Genders: Women’s Experiences Feeling Unsafe in Contact Improvisation, Montreal: Zine, http://contactimprov.ca/doc/ci_en6_web.pdf. Accessed 1 September 2023.
     [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1386/jdsp_00122_1
Loading
Risky dancing and consent practices: Addressing identity, privilege and power in contact improvisation
Journal of Dance & Somatic Practices 16, 91 (2024); https://doi.org/10.1386/jdsp_00122_1
/content/journals/10.1386/jdsp_00122_1
/content/journals/10.1386/jdsp_00122_1
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Article
Keyword(s): consent; difference; identity; partnering; power; privilege

Most Cited Most Cited RSS feed

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error
Please enter a valid_number test