Glossary of contact improvisation terms
The words used in classes, jams and writing about the form, each defined in a sentence and traced to the library entry behind it.
In short: this glossary defines the terms that recur in contact improvisation (CI) writing, from the small dance to the Underscore. Every definition carries a numbered note that links to the work it comes from.
A
| Term | Meaning | See |
|---|---|---|
| Aikido roll | A rolling fall from the martial art Aikido. Paxton practised it through the 1960s and drew on it when he answered how to keep dancers safe.1 A 2022 article traces the form's rolling point of contact back to Aikido and Taijiquan push-hands.2 | Falling and gravity |
| Attention-to-attention | Nita Little's name for the training in the form: attention directed at attention.3 | Shelf 3: Attention |
C
| Term | Meaning | See |
|---|---|---|
| Centre of mass Also: centre of gravity | The point dancers orient from instead of the arms, so that a partner's weight is met by the whole structure of the body.2 | Three ideas behind the form |
| Consent | In CI communities, the dancer's own act in the moment. Philadelphia's written guidelines say it can change mid-dance and stays with the one partner it was given to.4 | Consent |
| Contact Quarterly | A dance journal. Library entries from it range from Lisa Nelson's 1977 score Riding a Peacock Feather5 to an interview printed in 2020.6 | Shelf 8: Books |
E
| Term | Meaning | See |
|---|---|---|
| Earthdance | The house in Plainfield, Massachusetts whose jam guidelines say a dancer can leave or end a dance at any time for any reason.7 | Jams |
F
| Term | Meaning | See |
|---|---|---|
| Falling | A skill the form teaches. Repeated falling builds a sensitivity to weight until falling stops being frightening.8 Paxton's answer to keeping dancers safe was to teach people to fall and roll, so that a topple agrees with the floor.1 | Falling and gravity |
| Field and figure | Paxton's way of describing the dance: gravity is the perceptual field, and the moving point of contact is the figure against it.9 | Falling and gravity |
| First rule | The form's founding advice to take care of yourself. Michelle Beaulieux argues it can offload responsibility onto the least powerful person in the room.10 | Consent |
G
| Term | Meaning | See |
|---|---|---|
| Global Underscore | The Underscore practised worldwide every June.11 | The Underscore |
H
| Term | Meaning | See |
|---|---|---|
| Hieroglyphs Also: writing from the body | A pen-and-paper exercise Nancy Stark Smith taught at the Bates Dance Festival in 2013, which she calls writing from the body.12 | The Underscore |
I
| Term | Meaning | See |
|---|---|---|
| Interior technique | Paxton's use of verbal images to turn a dancer's attention inward to sensation. He noted that merely imagining a step already shifts the weight.13 | The small dance |
J
| Term | Meaning | See |
|---|---|---|
| Jam | A session where dancers practise the form together. What it is for depends on the organiser, and one study maps five types of answer.14 | Jams |
| Jam guidelines | Written agreements many jams publish. Earthdance's six short sections cover listening, sensation, social talk off the dance space and looking after newer dancers.7 | Jams |
| Judson Dance Theater | The New York dance group of 1962 to 1964 that is the subject of Sally Banes's book Democracy's Body, 15 It sits in the post-modern dance background of the form, with Grand Union and the Cunningham physics.16 | Shelf 9: The OGs' Circle |
L
| Term | Meaning | See |
|---|---|---|
| Living weight | Emma Bigé's term (French: le poids vivant), the title of her 2018 essay. She describes each partner as a floor for the other and every step as a modulated arc of falling.17 | Shelf 2: The gravity school |
P
| Term | Meaning | See |
|---|---|---|
| Peacock feather | Lisa Nelson's 1977 score: balance a feather on your palm and move only to keep it up. It holds playfulness and serious attention at once.5 | Exercises |
| Point of contact Also: rolling point of contact | The place where two bodies touch, which rarely stays still: as the dance travels it rolls across backs, hips and shoulders. A 2022 study lists it among the pieces the form carried over from Aikido and Taijiquan push-hands.2 | Three ideas behind the form |
R
| Term | Meaning | See |
|---|---|---|
| Relative up and down | The effect of dancing on a partner's body: up and down become relative to it, so a back can serve as a floor, a wall or a ramp.18 | Falling and gravity |
S
| Term | Meaning | See |
|---|---|---|
| Score | A set of instructions that shapes an improvisation without scripting it. The library holds an example in Lisa Nelson's feather score5 and a whole-jam example in Nancy Stark Smith's Underscore.11 | The Underscore |
| CQ/CI Sourcebook | Three volumes edited by Nancy Stark Smith and Lisa Nelson, covering 1975 to 2018.1920 | Shelf 8: Books |
| Sphere of space around the body | The space dancers keep alive around the body, so that a partner's weight is met by the whole structure.2 Paxton's answer on safety included keeping this sphere lively.1 | Falling and gravity |
| Small dance Also: the stand | Paxton's standing practice: you stand and attend to the skeleton, to weight and to your relation to gravity. He introduced it in 1972 so that gravity could be observed working on the upright body.219 | The small dance |
T
| Term | Meaning | See |
|---|---|---|
| Third partner | Paxton's name for the momentum two people build together. He says the leader is the movement.1 | Three ideas behind the form |
| Tonic space | Emma Bigé's musical image: where music gives a dance tonal space, contact improvisation gives tonic space, with coordinates defined by weight and dancers bathed in the gravitational field.22 | Shelf 2: The gravity school |
U
| Term | Meaning | See |
|---|---|---|
| Underscore | Nancy Stark Smith's long-form jam score, which treats a whole jam as one composed arc. She developed it from 1990 on.11 She defines it as a framework for research in improvisation.23 | The Underscore |
V
| Term | Meaning | See |
|---|---|---|
| Videoda | The archive of the six founding films of the form, 1972 to 1983.24 | Shelf 7: Video library |
W
| Term | Meaning | See |
|---|---|---|
| Weight sharing | Passing weight from one body to the other by leaning, falling, being caught or lifting. A 2022 study names it, with centre of gravity, point of contact, sphericity and rolling, among the pieces the form carried over from Aikido and Taijiquan.2 | Three ideas behind the form |
Frequently asked questions
What is the small dance in contact improvisation?
Paxton's standing practice: you stand and attend to the skeleton, to weight and to your relation to gravity.21
What is the Underscore?
Nancy Stark Smith's long-form jam score, which treats a whole jam as one composed arc.11
What is a point of contact?
The place where two bodies touch. In contact improvisation it rolls as the dance travels.2
What does third partner mean?
Paxton's name for the momentum two people build together, which he says is the leader.1
| Guides in this wiki |
|---|
| What is Contact Improvisation? · The small dance · The Underscore · Jams · Steve Paxton · Nancy Stark Smith · Falling and gravity · Consent · Exercises · Glossary · How it is written · Contribute |
Sources in the library
1The Origins and Value of Contact Improvisation Steve Paxton in conversation with Maura Keefe, 1998; PillowVoices episode 16, hosted by Jennifer Edwards, Jacob's Pillow, released August 2020 (27 min. In the library: Paxton in his own words.
2Influence of Aikido and Taijiquan-Tuishou on Contact Improvisation Gómez-Lozano, Vargas-Macías, Kelly-Lahon, León & García-Sottile, Frontiers in Communication, 2022. In the library: History & scenes.
3Restructuring the Self-Sensing Nita Little, Journal of Dance & Somatic Practices 2014. In the library: Attention & perception.
4Safety & Boundaries Philadelphia Contact Improvisation community, version of 11 September 2019, 6 pages. In the library: Consent, gender, hierarchy.
5Riding a Peacock Feather Lisa Nelson, Contact Quarterly 2.3, Spring 1977. In the library: Jams, scores, pedagogy.
6Moving and Thinking with Fascia Kevin O'Connor interviewing Ray Chung, Contact Quarterly Winter/Spring 2020. In the library: Attention & perception.
7Earthdance CI Jam Guidelines Earthdance, Plainfield, Massachusetts, updated November 2022. In the library: Jams, scores, pedagogy.
8Automatism and Creativity in Contact Improvisation Serena Massimo, University of Ferrara, Philosophies 10(2), article 39, March 30, 2025; open access (CC BY 4.0). In the library: The gravity school.
9Thoughts on Contact Improvisation Paxton interviewed 1981, annotated by his 2013 self (ed. Mazzaglia, Danza e Ricerca 2013). In the library: Paxton in his own words.
10How the First Rule Brought #MeToo to Contact Improvisation Michelle Beaulieux, Contact Quarterly 44.1. In the library: Consent, gender, hierarchy.
11The Underscore Nancy Stark Smith's long-form jam score. In the library: Jams, scores, pedagogy.
12Hieroglyphs Nancy Stark Smith, Embodied Activity #1 for Meta-academy at the Bates Dance Festival, 2013 (18 min video). In the library: Jams, scores, pedagogy.
13Drafting Interior Techniques Paxton, Contact Quarterly 18.1, 1993. In the library: Paxton in his own words.
14The Aesthetic and Pedagogical Nature of Jams Brozas-Polo, "Naturaleza estética y pedagógica de las jams," 2014. In the library: Jams, scores, pedagogy.
15Democracy's Body: Judson Dance Theater, 1962–1964 Sally Banes, 1983, Duke ed. 1993. In the library: The OGs' Circle.
16Steve Paxton (1939–2024): Contact Improvisation for Generations Hilde Rustad, Critical Stages / Scènes critiques 29, June 2024. In the library: History & scenes.
17Living Weight Emma Bigé, "Le poids vivant," 2018. In the library: The gravity school.
18Touch and the Fall Emma Bigé, "L'haptique et la chute," 2015. In the library: The gravity school.
19CQ/CI Sourcebook, Vol. I (1975–1992) eds. Stark Smith & Nelson, Contact Editions. In the library: Books: the complete shelf.
20CQ/CI Sourcebook, Vol. III (2008–2018) eds. Stark Smith & Nelson, Contact Editions. In the library: Books: the complete shelf.
21The Small Dance, 1977 Steve Paxton, class notes from the ReUnion West Coast tour, February 1977; annotated by Paxton April 2008; hosted by Ken Manheimer at myriadicity.net. In the library: Paxton in his own words.
22Tonic Space Emma Bigé, CQ Unbound 2017. In the library: The gravity school.
23An Emergent Underscore Nancy Stark Smith, interviewed by Marlon Barrios Solano, London, July 10, 2012; embodied techne series on dance-tech.tv (46 min video). In the library: Video library & directory.
24The Videoda Archive $8/film the six founding films, 1972–1983. In the library: Video library & directory.
Cite this page
Alessi, Eric (curator). “Glossary of contact improvisation terms.” The Wiki of Contact Improvisation. Published 31 October 2026, updated 31 October 2026. https://ci-wiki.com/contact-improvisation-glossary/. Accessed .