Contact improvisation is a postmodern dance form that developed in the USA at the beginning of the 1970s. The Judson Dance Theater in New York revolutionised modern dance by incorporating everyday movements such as walking, sitting, standing and lying down into dance, thus radically questioning basic aesthetic assumptions.

In this artistic context, Steve Paxton, a former Cunnigham dancer, experimented with the dynamics between two dancers as they catch, roll over or lift each other. Since the movement emerges anew from the moment of touch in every moment, and the two elements of touch and improvisation are fundamental, he called the experiment Contact Improvisation in 1972.

Today, elements of this avant-garde dance form can be seen in many modern dance pieces. At the same time, Contact Improvisation is practised at so-called jams (improvisation meetings) locally and nationally. Because the dance always emerges anew from concrete encounters according to certain principles of gravity and does not follow a predefined choreography, it creates bridges between the most diverse people, with the most diverse bodies and abilities.

The founders of Contact Improvisation decided to keep this dance form open to a broad community of dancers. Therefore, Contact Improvisation has never been institutionalised. The name is not protected by copyright. Therefore, opportunities to discuss and develop the content and methods of this dance form became all the more important.

The American journal Contact Quarterly, edited by Nancy Stark Smith and Lisa Nelson (www.contactquarterly.com), and ECITE, European Contact Improvisations Teachers Exchange (www.ecite.org), are two of these international forums that have been working for quality and continuity of CI for years.

In Switzerland, Contact Improvisation has been known since 1980. Mangrove, a 5-member male collective, came to Switzerland for the first time in 1980, to Zurich, where they taught a week-long workshop and gave 2 demonstrations.
Steve Paxton taught Contact Improvisation in Geneva in 1979 and 1980.

Jams and classes are held regularly in Geneva, Lausanne, Basel, Bern and Zurich. The Swiss Contact Improvisation teachers have been meeting annually since 2005 for a multi-day exchange of experience and further training.