Contact Improvisation is a constantly evolving movement system, initiated in 1972 by the American choreographer Steve Paxton. This form of improvised dance is based on the communication between two moving bodies that are in physical contact and on their joint relationship to the physical laws that determine their movement: gravity, momentum, inertia. The body, in order to open itself to these sensations, learns to release excessive muscular tension and to abandon a certain quality of will to experience the natural flow of movement. The practice includes rolling, falling, being upside down, following a point of physical contact, providing support and giving weight to a partner. (Early definitions by Steve Paxton and others, 1970s, from CQ Vol. 5:1, Fall 1979)

Entirely devoted to Contact Improvisation, this edition provides a broad overview of the evolution of this form, aiming to grasp its history and the context of its appearance as well as to perceive its various developments and its specific contributions to the approach of artists who have been nourished by this astonishing invention.