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Crosscurrents

Challenging assumptions about contact improvisation dance

Craig Baurley
Dancers Shel Wagner Rasch and Taisha Paggett practicing contact improvisation

 

 

If you don’t know much about dance, seeing contact improvisation might be a little puzzling.

There's people tumbling and moving seemingly at random, without music, while touching each other at almost all times. It’s a dance form that's been around for over 30 years, and it's beloved by all kinds of people - even those who don’t participate in other kinds of dance.

Cathie Caraker and Rajendra Serber are helping to organize this year’s West Coast Contact Improvisation Jam. where everyone from experienced dancers to beginners can come and dance together for over five days.

CARAKER: You can go into a class or a jam and have a dance with a complete stranger — and never even know their name — that might be very intimate in some ways.

The https://vimeo.com/160937577" target="_blank">West Coast Contact Improvisation Jam starts on June 29th and runs through July 4 on the UC Berkeley campus.

 

Crosscurrents