Touch + talk : ecologies of questioning in contact and improvisation

Abstract

This article explores the potential of the touch + talk score to act as a framework in which to articulate and open up dance practitioners’ questions underlying the prac- tice and performance of contact and improvisation. Guattari’s model of three ecolo- gies is used as a reference point from which to identify how a practice of questioning is significant to improvisational modalities in dance as well as wider practices of relating to social, mental and physical spheres of thought. I suggest that negotiat- ing contact with another through physical and verbal questioning can be a route towards articulating our emerging understanding of current improvisation practices and makes visible the ethical practice of encountering another.