There are many perspectives on what Contact Improvisation dance is. Here are some:
Contact Improvisation dance supports us in being present, fully embodied and physically intelligent through movement exploration and deep listening in contact with another person. Contact Improvisation is a free play between two or more moving bodies. Practices includes following a physical point of contact and supporting and giving weight to a partner. Sometimes quiet and meditative, sometimes wild and athletic, it is a dance open to all bodies and enquiring minds.
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Contact Improvisation is an evolving system of movement initiated in 1972 by American choreographer Steve Paxton. The improvised dance form is based on the communication between two moving bodies that are in physical contact and their combined relationship to the physical laws that govern their motion—gravity, momentum, inertia. The body, in order to open to these sensations, learns to release excess muscular tension and abandon a certain quality of willfulness to experience the natural flow of movement. Practice includes rolling, falling, being upside down, following a physical point of contact, supporting and giving weight to a partner.
Contact improvisations are spontaneous physical dialogues that range from stillness to highly energetic exchanges. Alertness is developed in order to work in an energetic state of physical disorientation, trusting in one’s basic survival instincts. It is a free play with balance, self-correcting the wrong moves and reinforcing the right ones, bringing forth a physical/emotional truth about a shared moment of movement that leaves the participants informed, centered, and enlivened.
—early definition by Steve Paxton and others, 1970s, from CQ Vol. 5:1, Fall 1979
Contact improvisations are spontaneous physical dialogues that range from stillness to highly energetic exchanges. Alertness is developed in order to work in an energetic state of physical disorientation, trusting in one’s basic survival instincts. It is a free play with balance, self-correcting the wrong moves and reinforcing the right ones, bringing forth a physical/emotional truth about a shared moment of movement that leaves the participants informed, centered, and enlivened.
—early definition by Steve Paxton and others, 1970s, from CQ Vol. 5:1, Fall 1979
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Contact improvisation is a dance with gravity, momentum, and everything else that is happening in the moment, including the physical and energetic contact the dance-partners share. It is a whole-body study in the subtle art of non-verbal collaboration and co-creation. Often a meditative practice, improvisation is done without music, to allow space to tune into what is happening and the moment-to-moment impulses of the body.
– Tanya Williams – Kitchener-Waterloo Dancer and Teacher
Contact improvisation is a dance with gravity, momentum, and everything else that is happening in the moment, including the physical and energetic contact the dance-partners share. It is a whole-body study in the subtle art of non-verbal collaboration and co-creation. Often a meditative practice, improvisation is done without music, to allow space to tune into what is happening and the moment-to-moment impulses of the body.
– Tanya Williams – Kitchener-Waterloo Dancer and Teacher
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Demonstration and Instructional Videos of Contact Improvisation Dance
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Contact Improvisation: An Intuitive, Non-Verbal and Intimate Dialogue: Itay Yatuv
Contact Improvisation: An Intuitive, Non-Verbal and Intimate Dialogue: Itay Yatuv
Schiller and Wass in Spring/Fall
Riccardo Meneghini & Danya Elraz
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Introduction to some basic contact improvisation skills:
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Exploring the point of contact, pivoting, rolling, sliding, pushing with partner and without.
How to start moving at a jam, what to focus on, how to warm up, making conection with yourself and others
Introduction to priciples for lifting with some excercises to practise
EveryBodyDance 
