Contact Improvisation Practice - Anya Cloud and Matan Levkowich

For more info about my work:
http://matanlevkowich.com/

Here is a short video of an open contact improvisation practice with my friend Anya Cloud.

Contact improvisation was the first movement practice I became obsess with. It is still one of my favourite partner practices. It is a very complex dance form that can serve as a base for great technical development:

increasing areal awareness while maintaining soft muscle tone
Moving in and out of any possible plane (can really challenge your orientation)
Improving your proprioception through the sense of touch
Overcoming the fear of falling
Widening the spectrum of your muscle tone
Learning how to carry weight efficiently
Understanding spirals and sequential movement patterns with a partner
And many more reasons…

And although it is such a rich practice, many people get stuck in a very low technical understanding of it, or have a bad impression about it. Here are few reasons that prevent people from developing themselves technically in the form:

1. Perceiving contact improvisation as a spiritual/internal activity
2. Getting stuck with the social aspects of the practice
3. Having the impression that it is not professional enough (especially contemporary dancers)
4. Perceiving it as a sensual/sexual dance and not a movement practice

When these are your motivations to enter such physical practice, you will never get the true gems that it has to offer you.

I encourage you to jump into the rollercoaster of contact improvisation, take some classes (with the right teacher!!), go to a jam session and get dizzy until you get addicted!