• the217
• Stage
• Dancing behind the glass

In a storefront window, a world made for mannequins and commercial advertising, the arts do not have much of a place. Or do they?

Four dancers will perform structured improvisations in the storefront window of Skins N’ Tins Drum Shop today at 4, 5 and 6 p.m. as part of the Boneyard Arts Festival. Dancers Sarah Haas, Jacqueline Kinsman and Anna Marks work within the larger form of contact improvisation.

In 1972, Steve Paxton, led a group of college dance students in a series of movement explorations. In the following years, Paxton worked with dancers and athletes to develop movement pathways and an improvisational style of dance based on the physics of bodies in contact, in motion. This form was named contact improvisation and has since become one of the best-known and most characteristic forms of postmodern dance.

Some choreographers use improvisation as a process for finding new choreographic ideas and subsequently use the form in performance. Others view contact improvisation as a practice or discipline and as a commitment to a communal lifestyle.

Movement educator Ernie Adams compares contact improvisation to a moving massage.

“It is a dance that fine tunes your senses and wakes up your ability to listen and respond to what is happening in the moment,” Adams said on contactimprov.com. “If you could do Aikido, surf, wrestle and dance at the same time, you would have an idea of what Contact Improvisation feels like.”

Contact improvisation is often performed in duets but can also be performed as a solo or in larger groups, as it will be at today’s performance. As contact with another object is necessary to the form, solos can be performed using physical objects or by regarding the floor as a partner.

Contact improvisation differs from other dance forms in that partners are often moving in and out of physical contact while rolling, spiraling, springing and falling. There is a high level of unpredictability, which makes it necessary for the dancers to maintain a high level of awareness and responsiveness throughout the practice. U of I Dance MFA Candidate Sarah Haas said that improvisation is an ephemeral state.

“You create and let go in the moment, which makes it necessary to be fully present,” Haas said. “You are keenly aware of both the subtle and more palpable connections between your internal and external environments as well as the way each place stimulates, provokes and interacts with the other.”

Can you be sold on contact improvisation? Check out the Skins N’ Tins performance and see for yourself.

Skins N’ Tins Drum Shop is located at 29 West Main St. C.