Handbook in Motion
An Account of an Ongoing Personal Discourse and Its Manifestations in Dance
An account of an ongoing personal discourse and its manifestations in dance. Tracing a period in her life from the 1969 Woodstock Festival through the following years living on the land, this singular dance artist’s direct and poetic writings bring a turbulent transitional era to life. 1974. The Presses of the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design and New York University.
Contact Editions currently publishes and distributes digital books and videos. You will find links to purchase them below. See also a listing of CE's books in print with links to our new distributors.
Since ceasing to sell physical products in late 2020, we are promoting our former titles on contemporary dance, improvisation, performance, and somatic movement arts on a page of Recommended Books and Videos with links to where to purchase them. These titles are by authors and contributors to Contact Quarterly's pages over 45 years of printing. You can access articles by these authors by searching them on our site.
In January 2021, we began transitioning our website to CQ Resource-Archive Site. Thanks for your patience while we update and reorganize our pages. Some of our titles are pending new distributors. Please stay tuned here and through our e-newsletter.
-
CQ/Contact Improvisation 25th Anniversary Sourcebook
Collected Writings and Graphics from Contact Quarterly dance journal 1975-1992
This is the first volume of writings reprinted from Contact Quarterly dance journal concerning the practice of contact improvisation, a ...read more
$21PDF (15 MB) -
CQ/Contact Improvisation Sourcebook, Vol. II
Collected Writings and Graphics from Contact Quarterly dance journal 1992-2007
In celebration of Contact Improvisation’s 36th anniversary, we released this second volume of the multivioiced history of the dance form’s ...read more
$25PDF (43 MB) -
CQ/Contact Improvisation Sourcebook, Vol. III
Collected Writings and Graphics from Contact Quarterly dance journal 2008–2018
This third volume of Contact Improvisation's multivoiced evolution is collected from CQ Vol. 33 through 43, including writings from CI ...read more
$27PDF (10.9 MB) -
This Very Moment
teaching thinking dancing
This Very Moment braids threads of Barbara Dilley’s memoir in and out of a handbook for classroom practices of dance, ...read more
-
Chute (1979)
© Videoda
9:36 min.
Narration in EnglishDocumentary of the first Contact Improvisation demonstrations in N.Y.C. at the John Weber Gallery in 1972. With narration by originator, ...read more
$8Rent (48 hours)add to cartrent
$25Lease (3 years)add to cartlease
$50Download (Individuals)add to cartdownload indiv.
$100Institutions : DownloadRequest contract/pricing
-
Contact at 10th & 2nd (1983)
© Videoda 49:05 min.
Document of the 11th anniversary of Contact Improvisation performance festival at St. Mark’s Church in New York City with seasoned ...read more
$8Rent (48 hours)add to cartrent
$25Lease (3 years)add to cartlease
$50Download (Individuals)add to cartdownload indiv.
$100Institutions : DownloadRequest contract/pricing
-
Fall After Newton (1987)
© Videoda
22:45 min.
Narration in EnglishA sweeping look at 11 years of practice of Contact Improvisation by Nancy Stark Smith and initiator, Steve Paxton. The ...read more
$8Rent (48 hours)add to cartrent
$25Lease (3 years)add to cartlease
$50Download (Individuals)add to cartdownload indiv.
$100Institutions : DownloadRequest contract/pricing
-
Magnesium (1972)
© Videoda
9:33 min.Document of a dance made by Steve Paxton during a Grand Union residency at Oberlin College, Ohio in January, 1972. ...read more
$8Rent (48 hours)add to cartrent
$25Lease (3 years)add to cartlease
$50Download (Individuals)add to cartdownload indiv.
$100Institutions : DownloadRequest contract/pricing
-
Peripheral Vision (1975)
© Videoda
21:05 min.
Narration in EnglishSelections from a Contact Improvisation concert at Firehouse Theater in San Francisco, CA in 1973: “You Come, We’ll Show You ...read more
$8Rent (48 hours)add to cartrent
$25Lease (3 years)add to cartlease
$50Download (Individuals)add to cartdownload indiv.
$100Institutions : DownloadRequest contract/pricing
-
Soft Pallet (1973)
© Videoda
17:53 min.Selections from a vintage Contact Improvisation concert in Rome at L’Attico Gallery in 1973. With performers: Annette LaRoque, David Woodberry, ...read more
$8Rent (48 hours)add to cartrent
$25Lease (3 years)add to cartlease
$50Download (Individuals)add to cartdownload indiv.
$100Institutions : DownloadRequest contract/pricing
-
Caught Falling
The Confluence of Contact Improvisation, Nancy Stark Smith, and Other Moving Ideas
The inside-out of dancer/CQ editor Nancy Stark Smith's life as seen through the kaleidoscope of the dance form Contact Improvisation. Includes Q&As between David and Nancy; photos of dancing & living; Talk Bubbles from friends, colleagues, and family; the Underscore; Nancy's life stories; and more. 2008. Contact Editions.
Available through Wesleyan Univ. Press - HFS
-
CQ/Contact Improvisation 25th Anniversary Sourcebook
Collected Writings and Graphics from Contact Quarterly dance journal 1975-1992
The first volume of writings reprinted from Contact Quarterly dance journal concerning the practice of contact improvisation. Xeroxed articles, essays, drawings, photos, and quotes from CQ's birth as a newsletter in 1975 through 1992. An indispensable resource for dance students, teachers, and practitioners of CI to experience the roots and track the development of the practice and philosophy of this influential contemporary dance form. 1997. Contact Editions.
Order Print edition through Contredanse
-
CQ/Contact Improvisation Sourcebook, Vol. II
Collected Writings and Graphics from Contact Quarterly dance journal 1992-2007
In celebration of Contact Improvisation’s 36th anniversary, we released this second volume of the multivioiced history of the dance form’s ...read more
Order Print edition through Contredanse
-
CQ/Contact Improvisation Sourcebook, Vol. III
Collected Writings and Graphics from Contact Quarterly dance journal 2008–2018
This third volume of Contact Improvisation's multivoiced evolution is collected from CQ Vol. 33 through 43, including writings from CI ...read more
Order Print edition through Contredanse
-
Handbook in Motion
An Account of an Ongoing Personal Discourse and Its Manifestations in Dance
An account of an ongoing personal discourse and its manifestations in dance. Tracing a period in her life from the 1969 Woodstock Festival through the following years living on the land, this singular dance artist’s direct and poetic writings bring a turbulent transitional era to life. 1974. The Presses of the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design and New York University.
Available through Wesleyan Univ. Press - HFS
-
Inside Motion
An Ideokinetic Basis for Movement Education
Inside Motion is a comprehensive study of anatomical imagery based on the Todd-Clark body alignment work as developed by dancer ...read more
Perfect boundAvailable through Wesleyan Univ. Press - HFS
-
Sensing, Feeling, and Action, 3rd ed.
The Experiential Anatomy of Body-Mind Centering®
Pioneering movement educator Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen’s innovative approach to embodiment, movement analysis and reeducation, Body-Mind Centering®, is the subject of this book of collected essays, interviews, and exercises written for Contact Quarterly dance journal between 1980 and 2009. The 3rd edition includes sixteen additional pages with new articles on inspiration, expiration, and dancing through the transitional fluid, including a subject Index and List of Explorations. 1993. 2008. 2012. Contact Editions.
Available through Wesleyan Univ. Press - HFS
-
86 Aspects of Composition
a tool for open-ended creative research
(deck of cards)Adapted from Mike Vargas’s article, “Looking at Composition is Like Painting the Golden Gate Bridge: 86 Aspects of Composition,” published ...read more
Available through Global Underscore
and Contredanse (EU) -
Action Theater
The Improvisation of Presence
Action Theater is an improvisational physical theater training and performance method that incorporates movement, vocalization, and speech. Packed with over 100 skill-building exercises with photos, this book is an indispensable training manual for actors, dancers, musicians, and all who explore the relationship between mind, body, action and performance. 1995. North Atlantic Books.
Available through North Atlantic Books
-
Basic Neurocellular Patterns
Exploring Developmental Movement
The Basic Neurocellular Patterns (BNP) form the underlying words and phrases in the language of human movement. They have a global influence on our physical, perceptual, emotional, and cognitive functioning and have extensive application in the areas of movement and psychophysical expression. With this book as a guide, Ms. Cohen invites you to directly experience, embody, and integrate your own developmental movement patterns. 2018. Burchfield Rose Publishers.
Available through author
-
Body and Earth
An Experiential Guide
Integrating environmental science, biology, meditations, and creative expression, Olsen addresses the interconnectedness of body and place through a mixture of reflections, information, exercises, and visual art. 2002. Wesleyan University Press.
Available through HFSbooks
-
BodyStories
A Guide to Experiential Anatomy
Thirty-one days of learning sessions bring heightened awareness about each bone and body system as well as providing self-guided studies to activate the learning processes. The book draws on Olsen’s twenty years as a dancer and teacher of anatomy to show how our attitudes and approaches to our bodies affect us day to day. 1998. Station Hill Press.
Available through HFSbooks
-
Caught Falling
The Confluence of Contact Improvisation, Nancy Stark Smith, and Other Moving Ideas
The inside-out of dancer/CQ editor Nancy Stark Smith's life as seen through the kaleidoscope of the dance form Contact Improvisation. Includes Q&As between David and Nancy; photos of dancing & living; Talk Bubbles from friends, colleagues, and family; the Underscore; Nancy's life stories; and more. 2008. Contact Editions.
Available through Wesleyan Univ. Press - HFS
-
Composing while Dancing
An Improviser’s Companion
Dance improviser and coeditor of Contact Quarterly, Melinda Buckwalter mines her direct experience of the improvisational strategies of 26 pioneering contemporary dance artists and their varied approaches to this art form. With a mosaic of histories, methods, sample practices, source writings, and biographies of the artists, including Barbara Dilley, Simone Forti, Nina Martin, Mary Overlie, Steve Paxton, Min Tanaka, Lisa Nelson, et al. Composing offers a much needed and inspiring resource for dancers and dance educators. Watch the YouTube infomercial. 2010. University of Wisconsin Press
Available through uwpress
-
Contact Improvisation
An Introduction to a Vitalizing Dance Form
A devoted practitioner writes about contact improvisation from an experiential viewpoint, discussing its history, fundamentals, and political, social, and cultural ramifications, with questions, exercises, and a teacher's sampler. 2006. McFarland & Co.
widely available
-
Contact Improvisation & Body-Mind Centering
A Manual for Teaching & Learning Movement
Designed to be a manual and study guide, this book supports body-mind integration and the development of an improvisational mind through movement with a blend of play, fundamental BMC exercises, and CI skills. 2000. Body-Mind.net.
Available through author
-
CQ/Contact Improvisation 25th Anniversary Sourcebook
Collected Writings and Graphics from Contact Quarterly dance journal 1975-1992
The first volume of writings reprinted from Contact Quarterly dance journal concerning the practice of contact improvisation. Xeroxed articles, essays, drawings, photos, and quotes from CQ's birth as a newsletter in 1975 through 1992. An indispensable resource for dance students, teachers, and practitioners of CI to experience the roots and track the development of the practice and philosophy of this influential contemporary dance form. 1997. Contact Editions.
Order Print edition through Contredanse
-
CQ/Contact Improvisation Sourcebook, Vol. II
Collected Writings and Graphics from Contact Quarterly dance journal 1992-2007
In celebration of Contact Improvisation’s 36th anniversary, we released this second volume of the multivioiced history of the dance form’s ...read more
Order Print edition through Contredanse
-
CQ/Contact Improvisation Sourcebook, Vol. III
Collected Writings and Graphics from Contact Quarterly dance journal 2008–2018
This third volume of Contact Improvisation's multivoiced evolution is collected from CQ Vol. 33 through 43, including writings from CI ...read more
Order Print edition through Contredanse
-
Dancing Deeper Still
The Practice of Contact Improvisation
Through numerous detailed essays on the practice and teaching of Contact Improvisation, longtime Contact teacher Martin Keogh presents Dancing Deeper ...read more
Available through author
-
Embodied Lives
Reflections on the Influence of Suprapto Suryodarmo and Amerta Movement
Since the mid-1980s, Suprapto Suryodarmo's moving/dancing has inspired many thousands of people in the West, and many more in his ...read more
Available through Triarchy Press
-
Encounters with Contact
Dancing Contact Improvisation in College
Through a series of student writings and essays by established artists teaching in universities throughout the U.S., Encounters considers the ...read more
Available by email
-
Gravity
In this elegant pocket-sized book, dancer Steve Paxton traces a lifetime in the company of gravity. In pithy prose essays, ...read more
Available through Contredanse
-
A Guide to a Somatic Movement Practice
The Anatomy of Center
Making available the full text of somatic dance education pioneer Nancy Topf's manuscript, The Anatomy of Center, for the first time in print, this introduction to Topf Technique/Dynamic Anatomy® helps professionals, teachers, and students of all levels integrate embodied, somatic practices within contexts of dance, physical education and therapy, health, and mental well-being. 2022. University Press of Florida.
Available through University Press of Florida
-
Handbook in Motion
An Account of an Ongoing Personal Discourse and Its Manifestations in Dance
An account of an ongoing personal discourse and its manifestations in dance. Tracing a period in her life from the 1969 Woodstock Festival through the following years living on the land, this singular dance artist’s direct and poetic writings bring a turbulent transitional era to life. 1974. The Presses of the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design and New York University.
Available through Wesleyan Univ. Press - HFS
-
Inside Motion
An Ideokinetic Basis for Movement Education
Inside Motion is a comprehensive study of anatomical imagery based on the Todd-Clark body alignment work as developed by dancer ...read more
Perfect boundAvailable through Wesleyan Univ. Press - HFS
-
A Kinesthetic Legacy
The Life and Works of Barbara Clark
revised editionA Kinesthetic Legacy presents the biography and writings of Barbara Clark, who devoted her life to the preservation and creative ...read more
Available through Thinking Body Institute
-
The Knowing Body
The Artist as Storyteller in Contemporary Performance
This hands-on guidebook offers a behind-the-scenes look at the creative process involved in transforming personal stories to theater. Including journal ...read more
Available through Penguin...
-
Landscape of the Now
A Topography of Movement Improvisation
Based on a series of interviews with master teachers who have developed unique approaches that are taught around the world—Steve Paxton, Simone Forti, Lisa Nelson, Deborah Hay, Nancy Stark Smith, Barbara Dilley, Anna Halprin, and Ruth Zaporah—De Spain takes readers on a deep journey into the underlying processes and structures of postmodern movement improvisation. 2014. Oxford University Press.
widely available
-
My Body, The Buddhist
Through a series of imaginative approaches to movement and performance, choreographer Deborah Hay presents a profound reflection on the ephemeral ...read more
Available through HFSbooks
-
On the Edge
Dialogues on Dance Improvisation in Performance
Bilingual: English/French
Fourteen interviews with dancers/improvisers whose creative process derives directly from instant composition: Steve Paxton, Yvonne Rainer, Katie Duck, Lisa Nelson, Julyen Hamilton, Pauline De Groot, K.J. Holmes, Suzanne Cotto, Simone Forti, David Zambrano, Mark Tompkins, Alessandro Certini, Frans Poelstra, and others. 1997. Contredanse/Nouvelles de Danse #32/33Available through Contredanse
-
ONE SHOT
dialogues on real time composition
Bilingual English/French
Two seasoned dancer-improvisers have created a book of conversations, interviews, performance transcripts, and images about real time composition. An investigation of sensations and perceptions, a study of presence and play in improvised performance, a handbook for survival. Images by Gilles Toutevoix. 2022. Éditions L'ŒIL D'OR.Available through L'ŒIL D'OR
-
The Place of Dance
A Somatic Guide to Dancing and Dance Making
The Place of Dance is written for the general reader as well as for dancers. It reminds us that dancing ...read more
Available through HFSbooks
-
Questioning Contact Improvisation
Hennessy’s zine, coming from decades of practice and questioning of CI, interrogates whiteness, racism, heterosexism, and white supremacy in the ...read more
Available through circozero
-
Sensing, Feeling, and Action, 3rd ed.
The Experiential Anatomy of Body-Mind Centering®
Pioneering movement educator Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen’s innovative approach to embodiment, movement analysis and reeducation, Body-Mind Centering®, is the subject of this book of collected essays, interviews, and exercises written for Contact Quarterly dance journal between 1980 and 2009. The 3rd edition includes sixteen additional pages with new articles on inspiration, expiration, and dancing through the transitional fluid, including a subject Index and List of Explorations. 1993. 2008. 2012. Contact Editions.
Available through Wesleyan Univ. Press - HFS
-
Sharing the Dance
Contact Improvisation and American Culture
In Sharing the Dance , Cynthia Novack considers the development of contact improvisation within its web of historical, social, and ...read more
Available through UWpress
-
Standing In Space
The Six Viewpoints Theory & Practice
“Observe the ingredients, the materials of performance, contemplate the particles. Once you find them, train yourself to listen, allow them ...read more
Available through sixviewpoints
-
Taken by Surprise
A Dance Improvisation Reader
Twenty-one essays by prominent practitioners and scholars reflecting the development of improvisation as a compositional and performance mode. Including considerations of contact improvisation, recent innovations in tap dancing, and improvisation in everyday life. Including essays by Susan Leigh Foster, Steve Paxton, Sally Banes, Nancy Stark Smith, Simone Forti, Janice Ross, Ruth Zaporah and many others. 2003. Wesleyan University Press.
Available through HFSbooks
-
Terpsichore's Deck
Terpsichore’s Deck (named after the muse of dance) is an instructional and inspirational creative text for novice and advanced dance ...read more
Available through author
-
This Very Moment
teaching thinking dancing
This Very Moment braids threads of Barbara Dilley’s memoir in and out of a handbook for classroom practices of dance, ...read more
-
Through the Back
Situating Vision between Moving Bodies
In today’s visual regime, contemporary dance operates as a critical force. It questions univocal representations and dominant cultural ideals of ...read more
Available through Books on the Move
-
Wisdom of the Body Moving
An Introduction to Body-Mind Centering®
A comprehensive guide to the basic philosophy and key elements of Body-Mind Centering®, the innovative approach to embodiment pioneered by movement educator Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen; with concrete and poetic explorations, clear exercises, and extensive anatomical drawings and photos. 1989. 1995. North Atlantic Books.
Available through Pengiun...
-
Anna Halprin, Dancing Life/Danser
la vie (DVD-Rom)This interactive DVD-ROM presents the unique approach of this groundbreaking dance artist through more than six hours of video covering the entirety of a 2012 workshop in Paris, previously unpublished interviews, and extracts of precious archive material. 2014. Contredanse.
Available through Contredanse
-
Contact Improvisation at 36 (DVD)
Perspectives on the Dance Form in its 36th Year
This documentary about Contact Improvisation was shot at CI36, a celebration of Contact’s 36th birthday in 2008 which brought together ...read more
video streaming buy or rent coming soon
-
Force of Nature (DVD)
a performance documentary with Kirstie Simson
Over the course of five years, award-winning director Katrina McPherson filmed improvising dance artist Kirstie Simson performing and teaching across ...read more
Livestreaming at GO/AT
-
Material for the Spine - Steve Paxton (WEB_APP)
A Movement Study
This interactive WEB-APP immerses us in Paxton's world, to experience the logic and invention at the core of Material for the Spine, a technique evolved from his observation of the spine in the practice of Contact Improvisation. Includes original audiovisual essays, motion capture sequences, extracts from lectures, classes, and performances, and each of the forms of the technique is detailed. 2008. Contredanse, Brussels.
Available through Contredanse
-
A Moving Presence (DVD)
Ruth Zaporah and Action Theater
Following sixteen people through a two-week workshop in New Mexico, we enter the challenging improvisational world of Action Theater™ and ...read more
Available through ZAP
-
Videoda Contact Improvisation Archive
Collected Edition 1972 – 1983
Six edited programs in Videoda's Archival Collection of Contact Improvisation track a key period of exploration and discovery through narrated ...read more
Available to stream or download here
-
Workshop with Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen (DVD)
Dance and Body-Mind Centering®
A rare document of a workshop led by ground-breaking movement educator Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen in Brussels in May 2004. She speaks about the evolution of her work and demonstrates her theories of weight, time, and space as they apply to dancing and the body systems. In English, with live translation into French. 2006. Contredanse, Brussels.
Available through Contredanse
-
86 Aspects of Composition
a tool for open-ended creative research
(deck of cards)Adapted from Mike Vargas’s article, “Looking at Composition is Like Painting the Golden Gate Bridge: 86 Aspects of Composition,” published ...read more
Available through Global Underscore
and Contredanse (EU) -
Action Theater
The Improvisation of Presence
Action Theater is an improvisational physical theater training and performance method that incorporates movement, vocalization, and speech. Packed with over 100 skill-building exercises with photos, this book is an indispensable training manual for actors, dancers, musicians, and all who explore the relationship between mind, body, action and performance. 1995. North Atlantic Books.
Available through North Atlantic Books
-
Anna Halprin, Dancing Life/Danser
la vie (DVD-Rom)This interactive DVD-ROM presents the unique approach of this groundbreaking dance artist through more than six hours of video covering the entirety of a 2012 workshop in Paris, previously unpublished interviews, and extracts of precious archive material. 2014. Contredanse.
Available through Contredanse
-
Caught Falling
The Confluence of Contact Improvisation, Nancy Stark Smith, and Other Moving Ideas
The inside-out of dancer/CQ editor Nancy Stark Smith's life as seen through the kaleidoscope of the dance form Contact Improvisation. Includes Q&As between David and Nancy; photos of dancing & living; Talk Bubbles from friends, colleagues, and family; the Underscore; Nancy's life stories; and more. 2008. Contact Editions.
Available through Wesleyan Univ. Press - HFS
-
Composing while Dancing
An Improviser’s Companion
Dance improviser and coeditor of Contact Quarterly, Melinda Buckwalter mines her direct experience of the improvisational strategies of 26 pioneering contemporary dance artists and their varied approaches to this art form. With a mosaic of histories, methods, sample practices, source writings, and biographies of the artists, including Barbara Dilley, Simone Forti, Nina Martin, Mary Overlie, Steve Paxton, Min Tanaka, Lisa Nelson, et al. Composing offers a much needed and inspiring resource for dancers and dance educators. Watch the YouTube infomercial. 2010. University of Wisconsin Press
Available through uwpress
-
Contact Improvisation
An Introduction to a Vitalizing Dance Form
A devoted practitioner writes about contact improvisation from an experiential viewpoint, discussing its history, fundamentals, and political, social, and cultural ramifications, with questions, exercises, and a teacher's sampler. 2006. McFarland & Co.
widely available
-
Contact Improvisation & Body-Mind Centering
A Manual for Teaching & Learning Movement
Designed to be a manual and study guide, this book supports body-mind integration and the development of an improvisational mind through movement with a blend of play, fundamental BMC exercises, and CI skills. 2000. Body-Mind.net.
Available through author
-
Contact Improvisation at 36 (DVD)
Perspectives on the Dance Form in its 36th Year
This documentary about Contact Improvisation was shot at CI36, a celebration of Contact’s 36th birthday in 2008 which brought together ...read more
video streaming buy or rent coming soon
-
CQ/Contact Improvisation 25th Anniversary Sourcebook
Collected Writings and Graphics from Contact Quarterly dance journal 1975-1992
This is the first volume of writings reprinted from Contact Quarterly dance journal concerning the practice of contact improvisation, a ...read more
$21PDF (15 MB) -
CQ/Contact Improvisation 25th Anniversary Sourcebook
Collected Writings and Graphics from Contact Quarterly dance journal 1975-1992
The first volume of writings reprinted from Contact Quarterly dance journal concerning the practice of contact improvisation. Xeroxed articles, essays, drawings, photos, and quotes from CQ's birth as a newsletter in 1975 through 1992. An indispensable resource for dance students, teachers, and practitioners of CI to experience the roots and track the development of the practice and philosophy of this influential contemporary dance form. 1997. Contact Editions.
Order Print edition through Contredanse
-
CQ/Contact Improvisation Sourcebook, Vol. II
Collected Writings and Graphics from Contact Quarterly dance journal 1992-2007
In celebration of Contact Improvisation’s 36th anniversary, we released this second volume of the multivioiced history of the dance form’s ...read more
$25PDF (43 MB) -
CQ/Contact Improvisation Sourcebook, Vol. II
Collected Writings and Graphics from Contact Quarterly dance journal 1992-2007
In celebration of Contact Improvisation’s 36th anniversary, we released this second volume of the multivioiced history of the dance form’s ...read more
Order Print edition through Contredanse
-
CQ/Contact Improvisation Sourcebook, Vol. III
Collected Writings and Graphics from Contact Quarterly dance journal 2008–2018
This third volume of Contact Improvisation's multivoiced evolution is collected from CQ Vol. 33 through 43, including writings from CI ...read more
$27PDF (10.9 MB) -
CQ/Contact Improvisation Sourcebook, Vol. III
Collected Writings and Graphics from Contact Quarterly dance journal 2008–2018
This third volume of Contact Improvisation's multivoiced evolution is collected from CQ Vol. 33 through 43, including writings from CI ...read more
Order Print edition through Contredanse
-
Embodied Lives
Reflections on the Influence of Suprapto Suryodarmo and Amerta Movement
Since the mid-1980s, Suprapto Suryodarmo's moving/dancing has inspired many thousands of people in the West, and many more in his ...read more
Available through Triarchy Press
-
Encounters with Contact
Dancing Contact Improvisation in College
Through a series of student writings and essays by established artists teaching in universities throughout the U.S., Encounters considers the ...read more
Available by email
-
Force of Nature (DVD)
a performance documentary with Kirstie Simson
Over the course of five years, award-winning director Katrina McPherson filmed improvising dance artist Kirstie Simson performing and teaching across ...read more
Livestreaming at GO/AT
-
Gravity
In this elegant pocket-sized book, dancer Steve Paxton traces a lifetime in the company of gravity. In pithy prose essays, ...read more
Available through Contredanse
-
Handbook in Motion
An Account of an Ongoing Personal Discourse and Its Manifestations in Dance
An account of an ongoing personal discourse and its manifestations in dance. Tracing a period in her life from the 1969 Woodstock Festival through the following years living on the land, this singular dance artist’s direct and poetic writings bring a turbulent transitional era to life. 1974. The Presses of the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design and New York University.
Available through Wesleyan Univ. Press - HFS
-
The Knowing Body
The Artist as Storyteller in Contemporary Performance
This hands-on guidebook offers a behind-the-scenes look at the creative process involved in transforming personal stories to theater. Including journal ...read more
Available through Penguin...
-
Landscape of the Now
A Topography of Movement Improvisation
Based on a series of interviews with master teachers who have developed unique approaches that are taught around the world—Steve Paxton, Simone Forti, Lisa Nelson, Deborah Hay, Nancy Stark Smith, Barbara Dilley, Anna Halprin, and Ruth Zaporah—De Spain takes readers on a deep journey into the underlying processes and structures of postmodern movement improvisation. 2014. Oxford University Press.
widely available
-
Material for the Spine - Steve Paxton (WEB_APP)
A Movement Study
This interactive WEB-APP immerses us in Paxton's world, to experience the logic and invention at the core of Material for the Spine, a technique evolved from his observation of the spine in the practice of Contact Improvisation. Includes original audiovisual essays, motion capture sequences, extracts from lectures, classes, and performances, and each of the forms of the technique is detailed. 2008. Contredanse, Brussels.
Available through Contredanse
-
A Moving Presence (DVD)
Ruth Zaporah and Action Theater
Following sixteen people through a two-week workshop in New Mexico, we enter the challenging improvisational world of Action Theater™ and ...read more
Available through ZAP
-
My Body, The Buddhist
Through a series of imaginative approaches to movement and performance, choreographer Deborah Hay presents a profound reflection on the ephemeral ...read more
Available through HFSbooks
-
On the Edge
Dialogues on Dance Improvisation in Performance
Bilingual: English/French
Fourteen interviews with dancers/improvisers whose creative process derives directly from instant composition: Steve Paxton, Yvonne Rainer, Katie Duck, Lisa Nelson, Julyen Hamilton, Pauline De Groot, K.J. Holmes, Suzanne Cotto, Simone Forti, David Zambrano, Mark Tompkins, Alessandro Certini, Frans Poelstra, and others. 1997. Contredanse/Nouvelles de Danse #32/33Available through Contredanse
-
ONE SHOT
dialogues on real time composition
Bilingual English/French
Two seasoned dancer-improvisers have created a book of conversations, interviews, performance transcripts, and images about real time composition. An investigation of sensations and perceptions, a study of presence and play in improvised performance, a handbook for survival. Images by Gilles Toutevoix. 2022. Éditions L'ŒIL D'OR.Available through L'ŒIL D'OR
-
The Place of Dance
A Somatic Guide to Dancing and Dance Making
The Place of Dance is written for the general reader as well as for dancers. It reminds us that dancing ...read more
Available through HFSbooks
-
Sharing the Dance
Contact Improvisation and American Culture
In Sharing the Dance , Cynthia Novack considers the development of contact improvisation within its web of historical, social, and ...read more
Available through UWpress
-
Standing In Space
The Six Viewpoints Theory & Practice
“Observe the ingredients, the materials of performance, contemplate the particles. Once you find them, train yourself to listen, allow them ...read more
Available through sixviewpoints
-
Taken by Surprise
A Dance Improvisation Reader
Twenty-one essays by prominent practitioners and scholars reflecting the development of improvisation as a compositional and performance mode. Including considerations of contact improvisation, recent innovations in tap dancing, and improvisation in everyday life. Including essays by Susan Leigh Foster, Steve Paxton, Sally Banes, Nancy Stark Smith, Simone Forti, Janice Ross, Ruth Zaporah and many others. 2003. Wesleyan University Press.
Available through HFSbooks
-
Terpsichore's Deck
Terpsichore’s Deck (named after the muse of dance) is an instructional and inspirational creative text for novice and advanced dance ...read more
Available through author
-
This Very Moment
teaching thinking dancing
This Very Moment braids threads of Barbara Dilley’s memoir in and out of a handbook for classroom practices of dance, ...read more
-
Through the Back
Situating Vision between Moving Bodies
In today’s visual regime, contemporary dance operates as a critical force. It questions univocal representations and dominant cultural ideals of ...read more
Available through Books on the Move
-
Caught Falling
The Confluence of Contact Improvisation, Nancy Stark Smith, and Other Moving Ideas
The inside-out of dancer/CQ editor Nancy Stark Smith's life as seen through the kaleidoscope of the dance form Contact Improvisation. Includes Q&As between David and Nancy; photos of dancing & living; Talk Bubbles from friends, colleagues, and family; the Underscore; Nancy's life stories; and more. 2008. Contact Editions.
Available through Wesleyan Univ. Press - HFS
-
Chute (1979)
© Videoda
9:36 min.
Narration in EnglishDocumentary of the first Contact Improvisation demonstrations in N.Y.C. at the John Weber Gallery in 1972. With narration by originator, ...read more
$8Rent (48 hours)add to cartrent
$25Lease (3 years)add to cartlease
$50Download (Individuals)add to cartdownload indiv.
$100Institutions : DownloadRequest contract/pricing
-
Contact at 10th & 2nd (1983)
© Videoda 49:05 min.
Document of the 11th anniversary of Contact Improvisation performance festival at St. Mark’s Church in New York City with seasoned ...read more
$8Rent (48 hours)add to cartrent
$25Lease (3 years)add to cartlease
$50Download (Individuals)add to cartdownload indiv.
$100Institutions : DownloadRequest contract/pricing
-
Contact Improvisation
An Introduction to a Vitalizing Dance Form
A devoted practitioner writes about contact improvisation from an experiential viewpoint, discussing its history, fundamentals, and political, social, and cultural ramifications, with questions, exercises, and a teacher's sampler. 2006. McFarland & Co.
widely available
-
Contact Improvisation & Body-Mind Centering
A Manual for Teaching & Learning Movement
Designed to be a manual and study guide, this book supports body-mind integration and the development of an improvisational mind through movement with a blend of play, fundamental BMC exercises, and CI skills. 2000. Body-Mind.net.
Available through author
-
Contact Improvisation at 36 (DVD)
Perspectives on the Dance Form in its 36th Year
This documentary about Contact Improvisation was shot at CI36, a celebration of Contact’s 36th birthday in 2008 which brought together ...read more
video streaming buy or rent coming soon
-
CQ/Contact Improvisation 25th Anniversary Sourcebook
Collected Writings and Graphics from Contact Quarterly dance journal 1975-1992
This is the first volume of writings reprinted from Contact Quarterly dance journal concerning the practice of contact improvisation, a ...read more
$21PDF (15 MB) -
CQ/Contact Improvisation 25th Anniversary Sourcebook
Collected Writings and Graphics from Contact Quarterly dance journal 1975-1992
The first volume of writings reprinted from Contact Quarterly dance journal concerning the practice of contact improvisation. Xeroxed articles, essays, drawings, photos, and quotes from CQ's birth as a newsletter in 1975 through 1992. An indispensable resource for dance students, teachers, and practitioners of CI to experience the roots and track the development of the practice and philosophy of this influential contemporary dance form. 1997. Contact Editions.
Order Print edition through Contredanse
-
CQ/Contact Improvisation Sourcebook, Vol. II
Collected Writings and Graphics from Contact Quarterly dance journal 1992-2007
In celebration of Contact Improvisation’s 36th anniversary, we released this second volume of the multivioiced history of the dance form’s ...read more
$25PDF (43 MB) -
CQ/Contact Improvisation Sourcebook, Vol. II
Collected Writings and Graphics from Contact Quarterly dance journal 1992-2007
In celebration of Contact Improvisation’s 36th anniversary, we released this second volume of the multivioiced history of the dance form’s ...read more
Order Print edition through Contredanse
-
CQ/Contact Improvisation Sourcebook, Vol. III
Collected Writings and Graphics from Contact Quarterly dance journal 2008–2018
This third volume of Contact Improvisation's multivoiced evolution is collected from CQ Vol. 33 through 43, including writings from CI ...read more
$27PDF (10.9 MB) -
CQ/Contact Improvisation Sourcebook, Vol. III
Collected Writings and Graphics from Contact Quarterly dance journal 2008–2018
This third volume of Contact Improvisation's multivoiced evolution is collected from CQ Vol. 33 through 43, including writings from CI ...read more
Order Print edition through Contredanse
-
Dancing Deeper Still
The Practice of Contact Improvisation
Through numerous detailed essays on the practice and teaching of Contact Improvisation, longtime Contact teacher Martin Keogh presents Dancing Deeper ...read more
Available through author
-
Encounters with Contact
Dancing Contact Improvisation in College
Through a series of student writings and essays by established artists teaching in universities throughout the U.S., Encounters considers the ...read more
Available by email
-
Fall After Newton (1987)
© Videoda
22:45 min.
Narration in EnglishA sweeping look at 11 years of practice of Contact Improvisation by Nancy Stark Smith and initiator, Steve Paxton. The ...read more
$8Rent (48 hours)add to cartrent
$25Lease (3 years)add to cartlease
$50Download (Individuals)add to cartdownload indiv.
$100Institutions : DownloadRequest contract/pricing
-
Gravity
In this elegant pocket-sized book, dancer Steve Paxton traces a lifetime in the company of gravity. In pithy prose essays, ...read more
Available through Contredanse
-
Magnesium (1972)
© Videoda
9:33 min.Document of a dance made by Steve Paxton during a Grand Union residency at Oberlin College, Ohio in January, 1972. ...read more
$8Rent (48 hours)add to cartrent
$25Lease (3 years)add to cartlease
$50Download (Individuals)add to cartdownload indiv.
$100Institutions : DownloadRequest contract/pricing
-
Peripheral Vision (1975)
© Videoda
21:05 min.
Narration in EnglishSelections from a Contact Improvisation concert at Firehouse Theater in San Francisco, CA in 1973: “You Come, We’ll Show You ...read more
$8Rent (48 hours)add to cartrent
$25Lease (3 years)add to cartlease
$50Download (Individuals)add to cartdownload indiv.
$100Institutions : DownloadRequest contract/pricing
-
Questioning Contact Improvisation
Hennessy’s zine, coming from decades of practice and questioning of CI, interrogates whiteness, racism, heterosexism, and white supremacy in the ...read more
Available through circozero
-
Sharing the Dance
Contact Improvisation and American Culture
In Sharing the Dance , Cynthia Novack considers the development of contact improvisation within its web of historical, social, and ...read more
Available through UWpress
-
Soft Pallet (1973)
© Videoda
17:53 min.Selections from a vintage Contact Improvisation concert in Rome at L’Attico Gallery in 1973. With performers: Annette LaRoque, David Woodberry, ...read more
$8Rent (48 hours)add to cartrent
$25Lease (3 years)add to cartlease
$50Download (Individuals)add to cartdownload indiv.
$100Institutions : DownloadRequest contract/pricing
-
Taken by Surprise
A Dance Improvisation Reader
Twenty-one essays by prominent practitioners and scholars reflecting the development of improvisation as a compositional and performance mode. Including considerations of contact improvisation, recent innovations in tap dancing, and improvisation in everyday life. Including essays by Susan Leigh Foster, Steve Paxton, Sally Banes, Nancy Stark Smith, Simone Forti, Janice Ross, Ruth Zaporah and many others. 2003. Wesleyan University Press.
Available through HFSbooks
-
Videoda Contact Improvisation Archive
Collected Edition 1972 – 1983
Six edited programs in Videoda's Archival Collection of Contact Improvisation track a key period of exploration and discovery through narrated ...read more
Available to stream or download here
-
Anna Halprin, Dancing Life/Danser
la vie (DVD-Rom)This interactive DVD-ROM presents the unique approach of this groundbreaking dance artist through more than six hours of video covering the entirety of a 2012 workshop in Paris, previously unpublished interviews, and extracts of precious archive material. 2014. Contredanse.
Available through Contredanse
-
Basic Neurocellular Patterns
Exploring Developmental Movement
The Basic Neurocellular Patterns (BNP) form the underlying words and phrases in the language of human movement. They have a global influence on our physical, perceptual, emotional, and cognitive functioning and have extensive application in the areas of movement and psychophysical expression. With this book as a guide, Ms. Cohen invites you to directly experience, embody, and integrate your own developmental movement patterns. 2018. Burchfield Rose Publishers.
Available through author
-
Body and Earth
An Experiential Guide
Integrating environmental science, biology, meditations, and creative expression, Olsen addresses the interconnectedness of body and place through a mixture of reflections, information, exercises, and visual art. 2002. Wesleyan University Press.
Available through HFSbooks
-
BodyStories
A Guide to Experiential Anatomy
Thirty-one days of learning sessions bring heightened awareness about each bone and body system as well as providing self-guided studies to activate the learning processes. The book draws on Olsen’s twenty years as a dancer and teacher of anatomy to show how our attitudes and approaches to our bodies affect us day to day. 1998. Station Hill Press.
Available through HFSbooks
-
Gravity
In this elegant pocket-sized book, dancer Steve Paxton traces a lifetime in the company of gravity. In pithy prose essays, ...read more
Available through Contredanse
-
A Guide to a Somatic Movement Practice
The Anatomy of Center
Making available the full text of somatic dance education pioneer Nancy Topf's manuscript, The Anatomy of Center, for the first time in print, this introduction to Topf Technique/Dynamic Anatomy® helps professionals, teachers, and students of all levels integrate embodied, somatic practices within contexts of dance, physical education and therapy, health, and mental well-being. 2022. University Press of Florida.
Available through University Press of Florida
-
Inside Motion
An Ideokinetic Basis for Movement Education
Inside Motion is a comprehensive study of anatomical imagery based on the Todd-Clark body alignment work as developed by dancer ...read more
Perfect boundAvailable through Wesleyan Univ. Press - HFS
-
A Kinesthetic Legacy
The Life and Works of Barbara Clark
revised editionA Kinesthetic Legacy presents the biography and writings of Barbara Clark, who devoted her life to the preservation and creative ...read more
Available through Thinking Body Institute
-
Material for the Spine - Steve Paxton (WEB_APP)
A Movement Study
This interactive WEB-APP immerses us in Paxton's world, to experience the logic and invention at the core of Material for the Spine, a technique evolved from his observation of the spine in the practice of Contact Improvisation. Includes original audiovisual essays, motion capture sequences, extracts from lectures, classes, and performances, and each of the forms of the technique is detailed. 2008. Contredanse, Brussels.
Available through Contredanse
-
The Place of Dance
A Somatic Guide to Dancing and Dance Making
The Place of Dance is written for the general reader as well as for dancers. It reminds us that dancing ...read more
Available through HFSbooks
-
Sensing, Feeling, and Action, 3rd ed.
The Experiential Anatomy of Body-Mind Centering®
Pioneering movement educator Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen’s innovative approach to embodiment, movement analysis and reeducation, Body-Mind Centering®, is the subject of this book of collected essays, interviews, and exercises written for Contact Quarterly dance journal between 1980 and 2009. The 3rd edition includes sixteen additional pages with new articles on inspiration, expiration, and dancing through the transitional fluid, including a subject Index and List of Explorations. 1993. 2008. 2012. Contact Editions.
Available through Wesleyan Univ. Press - HFS
-
Wisdom of the Body Moving
An Introduction to Body-Mind Centering®
A comprehensive guide to the basic philosophy and key elements of Body-Mind Centering®, the innovative approach to embodiment pioneered by movement educator Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen; with concrete and poetic explorations, clear exercises, and extensive anatomical drawings and photos. 1989. 1995. North Atlantic Books.
Available through Pengiun...
-
Contact Improvisation at 36 (DVD)
Perspectives on the Dance Form in its 36th Year
This documentary about Contact Improvisation was shot at CI36, a celebration of Contact’s 36th birthday in 2008 which brought together ...read more
video streaming buy or rent coming soon
-
CQ/Contact Improvisation 25th Anniversary Sourcebook
Collected Writings and Graphics from Contact Quarterly dance journal 1975-1992
This is the first volume of writings reprinted from Contact Quarterly dance journal concerning the practice of contact improvisation, a ...read more
$21PDF (15 MB) -
CQ/Contact Improvisation 25th Anniversary Sourcebook
Collected Writings and Graphics from Contact Quarterly dance journal 1975-1992
The first volume of writings reprinted from Contact Quarterly dance journal concerning the practice of contact improvisation. Xeroxed articles, essays, drawings, photos, and quotes from CQ's birth as a newsletter in 1975 through 1992. An indispensable resource for dance students, teachers, and practitioners of CI to experience the roots and track the development of the practice and philosophy of this influential contemporary dance form. 1997. Contact Editions.
Order Print edition through Contredanse
-
CQ/Contact Improvisation Sourcebook, Vol. II
Collected Writings and Graphics from Contact Quarterly dance journal 1992-2007
In celebration of Contact Improvisation’s 36th anniversary, we released this second volume of the multivioiced history of the dance form’s ...read more
$25PDF (43 MB) -
CQ/Contact Improvisation Sourcebook, Vol. II
Collected Writings and Graphics from Contact Quarterly dance journal 1992-2007
In celebration of Contact Improvisation’s 36th anniversary, we released this second volume of the multivioiced history of the dance form’s ...read more
Order Print edition through Contredanse
-
CQ/Contact Improvisation Sourcebook, Vol. III
Collected Writings and Graphics from Contact Quarterly dance journal 2008–2018
This third volume of Contact Improvisation's multivoiced evolution is collected from CQ Vol. 33 through 43, including writings from CI ...read more
$27PDF (10.9 MB) -
CQ/Contact Improvisation Sourcebook, Vol. III
Collected Writings and Graphics from Contact Quarterly dance journal 2008–2018
This third volume of Contact Improvisation's multivoiced evolution is collected from CQ Vol. 33 through 43, including writings from CI ...read more
Order Print edition through Contredanse
-
This Very Moment
teaching thinking dancing
This Very Moment braids threads of Barbara Dilley’s memoir in and out of a handbook for classroom practices of dance, ...read more
-
Videoda Contact Improvisation Archive
Collected Edition 1972 – 1983
Six edited programs in Videoda's Archival Collection of Contact Improvisation track a key period of exploration and discovery through narrated ...read more
Available to stream or download here