Written by an anonymous person in the Contact Improvisation dance community.
The link to this article can be shared but please keep it anonymous 🙏
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You may have heard of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Maslow stated if you don’t have your basic needs satisfied (for example, food and shelter), your ability to satisfy the higher order needs (like belonging and self-actualisation) becomes harder, if not impossible.
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Below is an adapted version of the hierarchy of needs, reframed as the Hierarchy of Physical Needs.
These are my personal musings of “Why is Contact Improvisation so satisfying?”
Starting at the bottom of the Hierarchy of Physical Needs:
Most of our society is “skin hungry”. For many, it can be possible to go for days and weeks without physical touch from another human being. Maybe a handshake, maybe a hug. Even in romantic partnerships, it’s possible to be deprived of touch, especially non-sexual touch.
Even the ‘touchy feely’ among us who seek out hugs and high-fives may still find ourselves deprived of touch. How many of us get the minimum of 8 hugs a day that is recommended for health?
With contact improvisation: The very nature of contact improvisation is … contact. The exploration of touch.
For many people who see or experience contact improvisation for the first time, it can be quite confronting – we’ve been conditioned to associate nearly all touch as sexual. Because we’re so deprived of platonic touch, any form of physical contact can sometimes seem erotic.
Contact improvisation allows us to explore safely the platonic nature of touch. It wakes up parts of our bodies that are dormant –shins and elbows, shoulder blades and the expanse of the back. It enlivens our touch receptors and allows us to experience the edges of our physical selves.