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