Defining "the dance" and "the dancer"

Once you read through the basics of Contact Improv (the dance itself) and the Positive Psychology mindset - whose principles define the focus and the intention of the sessions - you'll get into the heart of the activity that is here described.
The biography and perspective of Edite Amorim, the facilitator, is also presented so you can understand the background of this way of working. 

** Contact Improvisation

Contact Improvisation (CI), also referred to as "Contact" or "Contact Improv, was initiated in 1972 by American choreographer Steve Paxton.
"This improvised dance form is based on the communication between two moving bodies that are in physical contact and their combined relationship to the physical laws that govern their motion—gravity, momentum, inertia. The body, in order to open to these sensations, learns to release excess muscular tension and abandon a certain quality of willfulness to experience the natural flow of movement. Practice includes rolling, falling, following a physical point of contact, supporting and giving weight to a partner.
Contact improvisations are spontaneous physical dialogues that range from stillness to highly energetic exchanges. Alertness is developed, trusting in one's basic survival instincts. It is a free play with balance, self-correcting the wrong moves and reinforcing the right ones, bringing forth a physical/emotional truth about a shared moment of movement that leaves the participants informed, centered, and enlivened."
(Early definition by its founder, Steve Paxton and others, 1970s, from Contact Quarterly - dance & Improvisational journal Vol. 5:1, Fall 1979)

** Positive Psychology

Positive Psychology (PP) is "the branch of psychology that uses scientific understanding and effective intervention to aid in the personal growth rather than on pathology. It is based on the study of the strengths and virtues that enable individuals, communities and organisations to thrive." (Gable & Haidt, 2005, Sheldon & King, 2001).
Its name was suggested in 1998 by Martin Seligman, as a way to complement the traditional emphasis on healing damage, by studying the states that make life worth living.
Among the main aims of PP, there are 4 to be highlighted: make most of setbacks and adversity; engage and relate to other people; find fulfillment in creativity and productivity; look beyond oneself and help others to find lasting meaning, satisfaction, and wisdom (Keyes & Haidt, 2004). 

** Contact Improvisation with a Positive Psychology mindset 

I would define these sessions as privileged spaces for exploration of the self in relation to the Other, being Dance the chosen language.
Every session starts with a circle in which we present our names, nationalities and one word defining how we are. At the end we sit again and share the word for "how do I leave the session? What's the feeling/sensation?"
A session starts with an individual warm-up in which the body and the group gets connected and in shape. After some time for one self, it is time to get connected with the others, usually by playful dynamics. From there, we smoothly evolve for a more technical aspect: practicing giving and receiving weight; exploring different rhythms and levels of movement; experiencing different ways of touch in the dance process; introduction to liftings and rollings and many other exercises of trust, improvisation and creativity.
In the whole session I try to be totally focused on the group to define the way the exercises evolve. I listen to the clues coming from their facial expressions and allow the flow of the session to come from the group itself.
As I wrote in an article about it: I can not avoid seeing the flourishing processes happening during the sessions; the way we evolve and bloom and what happens when we follow the clues given by the body, by the others. The Other definitely as a space for a privileged encounter with one self.

** Edite Amorim - Psychology and Expression

 Edite Amorim studied Psychology, first in Porto then in Barcelona, where she got her master's degree in Groups' management and she completed her course on Integrative Body Work (TCI). 
Along with her further academic studies as a Positive Psychology coach, (a field within Psychology that focuses on what makes people and societies flourish), she has also received training in Body Expression in several areas. From Physical Theatre in Austria, with Sergei Ostrenko, to Dance and composition with Dominik Borucky and Contact Improvisation (CI) with Ramón Roig, in Barcelona. 
She has also been a participant in several dance projects, such as Xarxa 25 with La Fura dels Baus (2005), the dance company Búbulos, from Carles Sales (2010), the project 5 días para bailar, with Amaya Lubeigt and Wilfried van Poppel (2014), always with a focus in the creative paths and the systematization of the processes. 
She started learning Contact Improvisation in 2006 and from then on she has been dancing in jam sessions wherever she travels. Since January'16 she started an open group of CI in Porto, where she has been linking CI and the concepts of Positive Psychology in group sessions.
Edite is the founder and coordinator of THINKING-BIG, that designs and teaches trainings and conferences for companies on themes related to Applied Positive Psychology and Creativity.

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Edite's picture by Nathalie Guilleminot-Pernet.