Contact Improv Community Guidelines

Welcome! We are so happy you are compelled by Contact Improvisation and all that it can offer. This is a living document and may be adapted over time as needed.

 

Contact Improv is a uniquely valuable environment for practicing and learning about our yes’s and our no’s; and we can all work to minimize harm and maximize support in this learning process. We recognize that there is no such thing as a perfectly safe and inclusive space, yet we hope that by following these community guidelines we can all contribute to making this jam where all kinds of people can feel welcome and supported.

 

Respecting Others:

Look, listen and feel for non-verbal as well as verbal cues from your dance partners. Your non-verbal listening and communication skills will improve as you practice, but there’s no “end game” with this skill, we must keep learning to better listen. Please remember that personal and interpersonal dynamics can greatly impact one's ability to set boundaries, to use one's voice, and to self-care. You cannot assume someone is always able to clearly know or name and assert their boundaries and needs. 

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• Look and listen for non-verbal NO as well as YES, both when starting a dance as well as throughout the dance. If you’re uncertain about whether someone has communicated a non-verbal NO, feel free to ask your partner verbally. “Is this OK?”

• If you are just beginning to develop non-verbal listening skills or if you are unsure of how a dance is going, it can be helpful to verbally check-in before, during and/or after a dance.

• If someone leaves a dance with you, practice not taking it personally. Conversely, when you want to leave a dance, you can do so without explanation. Practice trusting that everyone is doing their best to take care of their own needs.

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Respecting Yourself:

CI is an incredible container for developing our individual skills of boundary setting and tracking our needs/motivations and physical and emotional safety. For many reasons people may not read our non-verbal cues easily, so intentionally practicing saying no, leaving dances, naming our needs upfront is helpful in building these skills. This can look like during a dance saying, “ I don’t want to take weight in this dance.” You’re always welcome to ask for support from a facilitator and we also recommend connecting with a friend or therapist, if anything ever feels disconcerting, confusing, or harmful.

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• Remember you can leave or end a dance AT ANY TIME FOR ANY REASON.

• You don’t need to know why something is a “no” for you nor do you need to share a “why” with anyone else.

• Check in with yourself, notice what you are bringing with you in terms of agenda, expectations, attachments and how it affects the choices you make.

• There is an underlying principle of self-reliance/determination in contact.  This includes dancing and behaving in such a way that allows others to experience this same self-determination—please avoid grabbing and restraining techniques.

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Maintain Spatial Awareness:

Be mindful of the space and others around you. Sometimes we have small children at the jam and we ask, then, that you stay especially present to the world below you. Please move non-dance experiences such as massage or resting with eyes closed toward the sides of the room.

 

Hygiene and Clothing:

Please refrain from wearing scented products in consideration of those who have chemical sensitivities. Brush pet dander from your clothes. 

 

• Clothing should be comfortable and not slippery. Cotton is a great fabric for CI. 

• Avoid jewelry, watches, and clothing with buttons and zippers. 

• Stay home if you have any symptoms of COVID, cold, or flu.

 

Consent & Boundaries / Meeting and Responding to Sexuality & Sensuality in CI:

In this form that relies primarily on touch for communication, questions can come up for dancers around physical, emotional, and/or sexual boundaries. Two important sets of skills that dancers can always further develop are the ability to self-modulate in response to sensations, emotions or situations, as well as the ability and capacity to communicate one's own boundaries verbally and non-verbally. 

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It’s normal to have sensual or sexual sensations in the course of practicing contact improvisation, and it is not wrong to have these sensations. However, actively pursuing these sensations on the dance floor can feel threatening, uncomfortable, or distracting to your dance partners or others in the space, and may cause you to be less sensitive to your partners’ needs and feelings. We encourage you not to think of the CI dance floor as a place to pursue these sensations. Learn to let go of each dance as it ends so that you do not take meaning from dance into life off the dance floor. ​

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Live Consent Support & In-Room Resources

We are committed to cultivating a culture of consent, care, and shared responsibility. During each dance, we aim to have HeartTenders (Consent Ambassadors) present in the room. They can be identified by pink bracelets. HeartTenders are trained to support consent-related concerns and to respond to incidents involving safety or harm in the space.

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While HeartTenders are available as a resource, we also encourage participants to use each other in the room whenever possible: to speak up, check in, and support one another directly as feels safe and accessible. Consent is a collective practice, and we each play a role in upholding it.

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You’ll also find a Consent Table in the space with educational materials and a “Report an Incident” form, which can be scanned and submitted at any time during or after the event.

If you prefer, you may also report an incident or learn more about our consent practices by visiting our Seattle Ecstatica consent page here. We take all concerns seriously and will respond with care, discretion, and accountability.

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These community guidelines were created by JoJo Phoenix Frank of the Missoula Contact Community and were adapted from and influenced by those from Toronto Jam and The Inclusive Jam in Philadelphia. They were then edited by Noé Khalfa of Seattle Ecstatica to meet the Seattle Contact.

 

We’re excited to have you part of this growing community!​