Everjam manifesto
Everjam is an initiative to open up and spread our Contact improvisation practise.
Why? We believe that Contact improvisation can contribute to a more compassionate and less violent world. The practise is already an amazing teacher allowing us to practise (among other things):
disconnecting our minds and being in the moment/our bodies
listening with all senses
practising non-verbal communication, inclusivity, boundary setting and dealing with rejection
de-tabuing touch by practising platonic touch
creative expression.
And of course, it’s a lot of fun, can be a great workout, a deep tissue massage and is usually both beautiful and joyful to watch. And in the bonus round: witnessing is already a part of the practise!
How? Since our practise is already perfect as it is, what we propose is to bring it to public spaces to spread its’ magic and adoption. We already know how to organise ourselves and in most places taking the jam outside is an easy task (such as finding a plot of grass or sand, gathering some carton and taping them together, or for true luxury some tatami puzzle mats).
In a (possibly busy) space it can naturally be a harder to stay in focus, so it can definitely be a challenging experience for some. To help, we have tried to keep our dance-space “sacred” and have no conversations, snack-breaks etc there (same as we would in a studio). This assumes that the dance space has boundaries (we usually use tatamis on streets/squares). When we’ve tried dancing in places without it, such as bigger grass lawns, indeed it has been harder to keep focus.
How to deal with people approaching is also important. We try to be warm and inclusive (even if people sometimes barge in) and in most cases people are curious and in some cases they have accepted to join in. One time Police told us to stop and move, so yeah, you never know what to expect - make sure to read up on the rules in your place and deal with the consequences if you choose to rebel :-) Naturally the more organised it seems, the more likely someone is to ask if you have permission etc. So more people, music, collecting money from participants, putting signs might add to this. But then, if we want to drive change maybe we need to dare to be rebels?
To spread our magic to a wider audience (and create beautiful art in the process) we can film the whole or parts of the jams and spread content on social media (we have started with the hashtag #everjam on Instagram). Naturally this can be a controversial topic since social media is evil and some people might not like being filmed or exposed. Our experience so far, however, is that most people do enjoy having footage of them dancing - especially since most “normal” jams are film-free). That said, of course it is something that has to be respected if someone does not like it. And you should probably check in with participants when they join if they are okay with it. And perhaps communicated before-hand if the idea of a specific jam is to film it.
As an extension, we can even take this a step further and live-stream some jams for an even bigger sensation of the in-the-moment of the practise (I don’t know about you, but I would be very curious to occasionally peak into jams happening around the globe from time to time). Live-streamed jams can be hosted on a website. If there always is a jam going on then we are indeed creating an Everjam!
In the decentralised nature of CI, I invite you to co-create this! See the above as a smorgasbord of invitations - feel free to take bits and pieces or all (or none) of it. And feel free to contact me or add comments here.