What I like about Steve

Steve Paxton came up with the idea of contact improvisation and ran with it. It is interesting to me because he was so bold with this new way of moving; it was inventive and something no one has done before. I have always been afraid to work using contact improvisation but studying Paxton and his work has helped me to understand that there is no need to feel ashamed or embarrassed. It is improvisation. If something doesn't work then move on and try something new. Watching contact improvisation, however, is a different story. It is so interesting to see the shapes that two or more bodies can form and the movement that comes from it; it is like watching a story of movement unfold right in front of you.
Today, there are so many improv jams that take place all over the world, each one holding a different experience waiting to be shared. I know that I have come to appreciate the world of contact improvisation and the brilliance of Steve Paxton.

WHY

Steve Paxton found his way into the contact improvisation world by starting a two week study that involved 17 students and colleagues when he became interested in what other movements are considered dancer and how dances are made. He wanted to explore the communication between two or more bodies that are in physical contact and their relationship to the physical laws such as gravity, momentum, and inertia. He helped form Grand Union, and improvisational group which included both Trisha Brown and Yvonne Rainer, and it was with this group he came up with the idea of contact improvisation. He brought to the stage a whole new way to explore two or more bodies dancing together as a unit with one single mind. His goals were to have these dancers move as one whole and just explore each others physical beings, which is exactly what contact improvisation is about. With this new concept in dance, it was this that made Steve Paxton who he is today and the creator of something that is on a level of its own, in dance.