Photo: Jolene Cartmill
Contact Improvisation
The integrity of intimacy
Sometimes, an unusual turn unfolds in an artist's life — a shift so deep it feels like a change in elemental nature. It's not just about learning new things, but unlearning old frameworks. Such shifts guide the artist through unfamiliar territory: physical, philosophical, psychological, ecological, political, and spiritual.
This past year was the first year I did not perform. And yet, the intensity of practice and mental presence remained. My focus shifted — no longer outward, toward performance, but inward, toward integration. The intention was to build a solid container for the vast body of experiences, connections, and expressions I've gathered — on and off the floor, in studio, theory, and community.
Origins: Roots in Contact Improvisation
My first engagement with Contact Improvisation (CI) began in the early 2000s through my work with movement pioneers Jori Snell and Nicola Visser. Jori and Nicola invited me to co-create with them in South Africa's first dance company for performers Remix Dance Company, then referred to as "disabled" — a term that has since evolved.
My contributions centred around theatrical compositions using performance objects. Some were embedded in African cultural significance — masks, drums, cloths. Others came from the domestic realm — the everyday transformed into metaphor and myth. Our collaborative work culminated in a production co-directed by Jaqueline Dommisse, titled Bluebeard, staged at the old lion's den at UCT.
Touch as Transformation
From performance grew a more introspective and tactile exploration: touch as movement, touch as meaning.
In this spirit, Kristina Johnston, then beginning her PhD research on body representation in movement, joined Thalia and me in several iterations of Extreme Subjectivities — a piece performed in silence, where our bodies responded to gravitational pulls toward and away from each other.
With our faces painted in kaolin clay, the performance offered no spoken words — only the density of contact and affective resonance. What emerged were not dances we "did", but movements that happened to us.
Training, Teaching, and Trust
In 2024, Thalia launched a teacher training program in Contact Improvisation, with 8 participants. These classes were built around an ethic of consensual, respectful, and aware physical engagement — a vital consideration in a world where touch is often forbidden, policed, or traumatised.
To enter the CI space is to step into a vulnerable terrain: one of possible shame, exposure, trauma, or loss of trust. But it is also a space of healing. In the silence of deep listening and physical responsiveness, profound psychological shifts occur — sometimes consciously, often not. The practice became both technical and therapeutic.
Each teacher in the program developed their own style and methodology, offering weekly classes, home-based labs, and extended workshops — some with live musicians. We hosted two 5-day festivals, and the community continues to grow. The transformation witnessed — in participants, in ourselves — has been tangible.
Touch as Radical Act
In today's world, touching another person is radical. Amid global trauma, abuse, and boundary violations, the act of touch with integrity is rare. Contact Improvisation asks us to meet one another honestly — body to body, weight to weight, moment to moment.
This is not only an art form, but a kind of neurological reset — a return to human integrity through careful, consensual presence. The aesthetic beauty of the form is matched only by its healing power.
CI Cape Town: A Living Community
The Contact Improvisation Cape Town community is now a recognised presence internationally. Dancers and teachers from abroad visit, connect, and contribute. What began as exploration has become a living practice, one that continues to evolve with every breath, fall, lift, and stillness.
This is not just dance.This is contact.
This is connection.
This is a new kind of embodied knowing.