Contact. Push, pull. Lean, support. Fall, catch. Roll. Lift. Follow. Relax. Surrender. Trust. Play. Gravity. This is the essence of a modern dance form called contact improvisation being introduced to Hong Kong by dancer and choreographer Mui Cheuk-yin.
Mui started her career as a professional dancer with Hong Kong Dance Company from 1981 to 1991, has choreographed concert series by Canto-pop star Sally Yip and studied contact improvisation in New York in 1992 and 1997. Since 1996 she has been choreographer-in-residence for City Contemporary Dance Company (CCDC).
'Contact improvisation is a dance form based on a duet, and it's all about communication,' she explained. 'The whole idea is to sharpen people's awareness and to release tension.' The technique was developed in the United States in the 1960s and is heavily influenced by Eastern techniques such as aikido, tai-chi and yoga, as well as by healing bodywork modalities such as Feldenkrais and the Alexander Technique. In all of them, mental and physical softness and relaxation are emphasised.
The aim is to explore how bodies in motion and in contact with each other move through space, surrendering to gravity. Participants simply go with the flow of the spontaneous movement rather than try to control it.
Since participants focus on themselves, each other and the physical sensations of the movement rather than on entertaining an audience, contact improvisation is more interesting to do than to watch.
There are six basic elements: rolling, giving and taking weight, being aware of your centre of gravity and deliberately moving off-centre, lifting and being lifted, sliding, and falling. Live music is sometimes used but is not necessary - indeed it can inhibit spontaneity because dancers tend to respond to it in habitual, predictable ways.