Such a moving interview... especially when Nancy describes the image of throwing the 'wedding' bouquet behind her back, for us all to receive and to share. Rest in Soft Power x
oh, i took y9our class in maximum flexibility in the mid 80s. i discovered contact improv on my own. i never really engaged with OTHERS at the dance site, but i learned to flow with others around me. i can navigate a crown effortlessly. sort of a cool superpower. just sayin hi.
Somewhat late, I'm buying your ebook today Martin. Being grateful of your intensives I once followed at Freiburg (2016?) Thank you so much for being so authentic and lovely as a person. It deeply moves me at this moment. Death seems to enter in my current experience emotionally; hopefully yo'll be around for a long time! I'm intensifying Contact Impro again this year, so I'm looking forward reading your undoubtedly beautiful book. 🙏💞
Thank you for sharing this, Martin. I was so pleased to watch and listen to her, and stunned to see the two dates under her name at the end. I am seeing this for the first time. There's a sinking feeling in my heart and soul. Simultaneously, a realization of the gift she brought to humanity and the world.
Well I've recently discovered the hands so I've gone in the opposite direction of emphasizing them. But I can see your side. Possibly using the whole body would come from relaxing and aid relaxation. On the other hand (ha ha) the hands are an exceptionally good-feeling part of the body so there might be a tendency to concentrate on what they're feeling and doing?
Depends what you mean by fear. I want fear to give me a sense that something is threatening, or I'm about to be hurt. Nothing wrong with that, it's evolutionary, and those who ignored fear didn't live to procreate. I think you mean not be ruled by dysfunctional fear - I'm all in for that.
This was so beautiful, both the dance and the underlying talk. I loved every piece of it. I just realized that CI has a very own sense of humor... Even the audience was alive and I could feel direct communication and contact. I recently meditated on something and it had to do with contact improvisation. To be honest, I want to learn this dance with my whole heart and teach others! <3
So fun to hear your stories told like this. Just little vignettes....inspiring to me as I want to do something similar. Thanks Martin. The peanut butter bit reminds me of a Jimmy Buffet song I used to listen to in my 20's--there's a line, "Who's gonna steal the peanut butt, I'll get the can of sardines...running up and down the isle of the Mini Mart, sticking food in our jeans...". Love the short story. Keep 'me coming! <3
I love how the moments of tenderness are allowed to happen in this dance. I've found this is the next level of CI for me....to surrender to and embrace this tender affection that spontaneously arises as we connect in this total way with another human being.
yay! for you, Martin. I love your videos...and look forward to reading your new book! let us know when/where we can get it! oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! ;)
Absolutely beautifully well done. superb commentary and movement . Contact improvisation is for me, by far one of the greatest experiences in dance/movement . thanks for putting this on you tube. .
20 years of beginning an investigation of spirals, that seems about right. I find the subject of offering feedback fascinating. While in the dance, I enjoy using differences of pressure to discover how one is listening with their body. A play with sound offers me feedback of how playful one may be.
I, too, have always had an issue with the thought of if CI is an art form. If people consider watching someone waking up art, consider walking on one's knees around a big pile of salt art, then two or more people skillfully sharing weight and momentum is definitely art. The question of if the viewer likes that is another one. But I do agree with Lisa about wanting a modicum of choice and consciousness in an art work. The tendency for listening to outweigh choice making, I think, creates the state. That, though, is another discussion.
Hey! you rocks and touched my heart! I started dance (classical) around the age four, but my parents doesn't take it so seriously, then many years ago I decided to hear them about to study a "real / serious career" with the promise that after that I could make a contemporary dance career... at 21?!!! well, life it's great because after I finish and started work and by a moment I forgot that dance dream... after a great collection of ups and downs in my life and with a "serious and great" job, I started with contemporary classes at 23-24! I never though that a day I could have my own dance company or do some kind of profesional dance. Time after, I found the contact improvisation, at this time and parallel my life was changing. So I decided to let the "conventional" jobs fly, and follow the feeling that told me that i was born to die dancing. Yeah! me too, I dance for die, to discover the life after that death. Thanks for share and make us know that are a lot of crazy and "dead" people around the globe.
Thank you for your insights, Martin! i appreciate the challenge you offer here regarding music. I've noticed similar influences on jams with music. Yet music can offer a bridge for folks to get comfortable in the jam space, especially before they enter into first physical contact with someone. I think this might be especially true for some folks new-ish to the form. It softens the stark silence a bit. But I think your comparison to alcohol is apt, and worth considering. I love your 'solution' about naming and including the role of witness to focus individual and group energy and attention. Have you noticed that once someone vocalizes in a jam that has been silent, (not words, but sounds, or maybe brief words that are directly related to their immediate dance experience, not chatting) suddenly lots more vocalization occurs? It's like permission to express has occurred. And I think we often don't realize that our vocal expression is being held in until we have this kind of permission to let it out once someone breaks the 'taboo'. It's a gift when someone opens the options for everyone like that. Love to you, Martin! I love how totally candid, embodied and authentic you appear here. You are an inspiration to me!
