Con­tact impro­vi­sa­tion is a dance form in which the points where bod­ies touch pro­vide a start for phys­i­cal impro­vi­sa­tion. Some­times it’s the basis for set chore­og­ra­phy, and some­times, as in this case, the impro­vi­sa­tion is the per­for­mance. This per­for­mance also includ­ed artists, musi­cians, singers, a pho­tog­ra­ph­er, and spo­ken word.

We get to the per­for­mance space by walk­ing up nar­row stairs through a hang­ing instal­la­tion. Strings hold items with dif­fer­ent tex­tures — smooth, soft, scratchy. The room upstairs is bright and open. Chairs cov­ered in dif­fer­ent tex­tured mate­ri­als are in a cir­cle. A tiny white box is in front of each chair. There is screen on the wall. There is newsprint on the oth­er walls. The per­form­ers are neat­ly dressed in pale colours. The dancers are so focused that I found myself watch­ing their move­ments intent­ly. That quick smile — is she pleased with where he end­ed? That flick of the eyes — is that an instruc­tion? The dancers explore dif­fer­ent ways that peo­ple touch — lov­ing­ly, play­ful­ly, angri­ly etc. Live musi­cians pro­vide the sound­scape while artists paint on the newsprint.  A pho­tog­ra­ph­er takes pho­tos which are pro­ject­ed onto the screen. About halfway through the per­for­mance we are invit­ed to open the tiny box­es. It gives us the oppor­tu­ni­ty to chat to our neigh­bours and have a clos­er look at the art.

There are some pho­tos of the rehearsal on Kwai Lam Pho­tog­ra­phy which are a good rep­re­sen­ta­tion of what I saw the night I went. It isn’t for every­one but I found it strange­ly affect­ing. It still res­onates days lat­er.

  • Touched, on at Cross­ways Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­tre, Feb­ru­ary 28 and March 7 2013