Sharing the Dance: Contact Improvisation and American Culture (New Directions in Anthropological Writing)

Rating:
Summary: A must for anyone involved in contact
Review: Sharing the Dance is in part a historical perspective on the origins and development of Contact Improvisation, but also an excellent cultural approach to a dance often misunderstood by the outsider. To the uninitiated contact can often seem insular, clumsy, reeking of the 'group grope' theatrical tradition of Schechner, and - for lack of a better term - just plain weird. Contact arouses the curiousity of many, but alienates a great percentage of the curious because of this.

I used to think that 'doing' was the only way to understand contact; while it may be the best, it certainly isn't the only. Moreover, for aforementioned reasons, those that feel alienated by contact will certainly prefer another approach.

Sharing the Dance is filled with a lyric tone that lends to the imagery of the form it seeks to describe. Aside from being a necessity to any CI practitioner, it is also an excellent introduction to a form otherwise misunderstood. Moreover, it provides insights into perspectives of human interaction through touch that shape our everyday actions. Countless photographs throughout the book offer excellent support to the content. I reccommend it highly.

Rating:
Summary: movement as language
Review: This book brings insight to a dance form that remarkably integrates all aspects of awareness: the physical, the emotional, the social, the intellectural, the political. If we view contact improv as a form of expression, as a language then we can 'hear' the conversations between all dancers, unedited, authentic and sometimes disturbing. The book aptly shows that the dance is a reflection of ourselves and our society.