RC August 2014 report

Report from Radical Contact 18 – 24 August 2014

This was the fourth meeting on contact improvisation and body politics to take place in Sweden. This year we met for a whole week in the countryside of southwest Sweden, at Tokalynga Teaterakademi. We were 34 participants including 1 child, from 6 different countries. We were a mix of people, with a diversity of interests in movement, radical politics, art, personal change… This year Radical Contact was organised by four people, all of whom had attended earlier meetings.

Safety and atmosphere

RC 2014 began in the evening of Monday 18 August with a physical session on arriving and grounding, and on putting our safer spaces policy into practice. This was followed by a discussion on restorative justice and conflict resolution. The following day there was a lab on consent and boundaries (another one took place later on in the week). We formed base groups to give all participants a chance to meet daily in smaller groups to share and discuss. Every evening there was a general assembly / circle for everyone to share information and discuss issues that had come up during the day. We did several rounds with peoples’ names and what gender pronoun they preferred.

The organisers put a lot of emphasis on safety, in the hope that on this basis we would be able to challenge ourselves, in different ways. In the evaluation, participants said that, together, we did indeed manage to create an atmosphere of asking questions and not taking things for granted,and that asking questions and checking in with boundaries did create an openness to play, and made it possible to sometimes “go wild”… It was said that there was an acceptance of the differences between between people, of where everyone was at. Proposals were made to put more emphasis on the physical basics of contact improvisation and our physical safety in the future. Some also said that – in addition to the exchanges that took place before the meeting on our mailing list – it would have been great to have had a possibility to hear from people directly, right at the beginning, what they are passionate about and interested in. It was also proposed that the “newbie meetings” – meetings for people who were at RC for the first time – should start as early as possible during the week.

Classes, labs, discussions and jams

Every morning there was a class on contact improvisation held by different people.

The focus of the first class was “bonding and bounding” and basic technique: moving through the kinesphere, waking up the senses, inviting playfulness, exploring possibilities in trios, learning contact improvisation essentials and then meeting as a group in the “Round Robin” score.

Another class was about Flying, Jumping und Falling. Working with imagery (using the image of a starfish) we explored the relation between the centre of the body and the limbs in a trio constellation. We practised a lift in which the underdancers support the centre of the overdancer while s/he finds support on the underdancers’ shoulders to fly. Sensations of release and recovery were explored in a “falling in pairs” exercise. A jam closed the morning session.

The main theme of another class was Listening and Responding. In this session we worked with the breath and micro-movements of reaching out to another body.

Also in the morning, every day, there was a chance for adults and kids to play and dance together. There were sessions inspired by Contakids, co-counselling play days and Original Play. People who were interested had the chance to do get involved in taking care of the child. Although only one child was present at the meeting (originally quite a number of people with children had wanted to come but then all had to cancel for various reasons), the parents felt that this meeting was the most child inclusive contact improvisation meeting they had ever been to.

In the afternoons there was space for experimental and collaborative labs. In the latter part of the week there was room in the programme for ideas expected to come up during the week. The labtrans_body_emotions explored issues of trans and non-transbodies in contact improvisation.

The racism/racialisation of the body lab gave participants the opportunity to reflect on experiences of racism and anti-racist strategies within dance spaces and in society at large. ThePlay Fight lab was about finding ways of having/playing dramatic fights safely.

One afternoon, a performative jam came to life by using a random choreographic score. It consisted of a task structure meant to challenge the rational mind in order to break movement patterns, invite playfulness and add a humorous touch to the group experience. Tasks included: If you see a dance, start crying; if you see someone crying, start cleaning…

There were also discussions over lunch and in the evenings, on: ableism, disability and perceptions of difference, identities and hierarchies; art and activism; polyamory and relationship anarchy; methods for handling trauma.

Teater Albatross, who runs the venue, did a presentation, including a short film about their long history and work. On Friday evening we were invited to an unorthodox, Jewish feminist celebration of the beginning of Shabbat.

Several people said that the schedule was quite packed and tight, with too little time and too many choices. On the other hand there was also a lot of appreciation for the fact that the meeting had space for new things and that the organisers took in experiences and ideas from many people, sharing the leadership.

Some people felt that there was a good mix of theory and physical practice, while others thought that there was too much talking, at the expense of time available for movement and dance.

In the evenings there were jams, sometimes labs with themes. The different bodies jam tried to give a warm-up inclusive of people with different abilities, ages, body shapes and kinds of dance experience. In a focused jam called Dance your Question people got to speak and write down questions they had about dance, the body and society and then explore them in a jam setting.

At another jam, the 3/3/3 score suggested to agree upon three main foci during the jam: my personal intention/wish/task for tonight, the question of how I can best support the space right now, and finding moments of stillness to witness or contemplate. The intention was to use this structure to create a safer space jam. It worked. In the end the jam turned into what might best be described as a feminist pop culture disco party…

The next night there was a music jam, and parallel to it an oil action for women and trans*. This included a discussion on physical and emotional safety, a 45 minute oil bath session with a focus on personal, sensual experience and a closing round of sharing and supporting.

The last evening began with a session on asking for specific kinds of touch, saying yes or no, practicing verbal consent. Then half the space was opened for a free dance jam, while the other half remained a slow touch space.

In the evaluation some people expressed the wish to integrate issues of safety and body politics even more into the jams, and also to have more times of moving together as a whole group.

Evaluation and future

Towards the end we took some hours for an evaluation and futures session. In addition to what has already been mentioned above, people liked the venue, for the dance spaces, all the art, the fact that everyone could sleep in a bedroom, the sauna, and, last but not least, the dishwasher and the washing machine!

The closing session was very much about giving and getting appreciation. People appreciated each other, the flow and co-operation between the organisers, also that they were well prepared, enabling a relaxed atmosphere at the meeting. People also very much liked the vegan food cooked by Organise Organics…

In the talks about future Radical Contacts a wish was expressed that the Radical Contact meeting in Sweden should continue as a regular yearly event, in addition to shorter RC meetings in various places. Small groups further brainstormed on how to bring Radical Contact ideas and practices into local contact improvisation communities, but also to groups working with dance in other cultures, and on how to organise a Radical Contact meeting with a focus on feminism and empowerment. There was discussion on sharing privileges and on being open for people with different backgrounds, abilities and experiences.

Alexandra, Daniel, Erik and Sofia, organisers of Radical Contact 2014