Honestly, I get kind of claustrophobic in most cuddle puddles, squirmy and uncomfortable being in one position for long.  While there is surely plenty I can learn and practice here about yielding into the intimacy given by these situations, it kind of cracks me up to see how often Contact Improvisation Puddles manifest at events I hold.  These are a bit like snake pits, with bodies twisting, turning, and tumbling in multiple dimensions all at the same time.  For devoted cuddlers I imagine it might seem silly to expend so much effort.  As a dancer, however, I find these so much more interesting, with the ability to play with where I wish to be in each moment—where I’m going.  I like the feeling of activating my body and receiving the experience at the same time. Sometimes it is my turn to be still and receive the group, or to assist someone else’s motion through my relative stability.  And then I’m often back in motion.

The video above is from the last class of a Contact Improvisation skills series I taught in Boise.  I pushed the group to be up and moving in larger ways much of the time, building skills with each other in time, space, awareness, and the sharing of weight.  For this last dance I let it puddle—as so often seems to happen when a group of humans drawn to such things are given the permission.

I’ll be offering a short BraveSpace Workshop—the Art of Wholeness, and a Pleasure Spine Contact Improvisation Jam in Portland, OR on April 1^st.  If that’s your part of the world please find the details and signup here.  The next BraveSpace Immersion in Boise is scheduled for April 21-23, and a new 3 class contact improv class and jam series runs April 20^th, May 4^th, and May 18^th.