A facilitator's manual
The Rolling Point
of Contact
A field guide for leading contact improvisation sessions with 2 to 10 people — from the first awkward lean to fluent, weight-sharing flight.
What this book is
This is a facilitator's manual, not a technique textbook. It assumes you want to run a session — a class, a jam, a warm-up before a rehearsal, a living-room afternoon with friends — and you need three things at your fingertips: a frame for holding the room, an arc for sequencing it, and a deck of games you can open to and run cold.
Every game is a self-contained card: purpose, player count, time, difficulty, setup, step-by-step play, variations, and debrief prompts — all on one page.
Three families of practice
A well-built session draws from all three: prepare the body, open the relationships, then dance.
Contact
The CI games proper — prepares the dance: weight, momentum, contact.
34 cards · Chapter 8 RRelational
Authentic Relating games — prepares the relationships: trust, presence, non-verbal listening.
12 cards · Chapter 5 SSomatic
Breath, yoga, qigong — prepares the body: centering, embodiment, safe warm-up.
12 cards · Chapter 7The difficulty ladder
Tiers describe the dancer's fluency, not their fitness — a strong athlete can be a rank beginner at listening through skin. A single session usually spans two or three adjacent tiers.
- ①Arriving
The dancer is new, self-conscious, unsure where to put their hands. The work is permission.
- ②Warming
The dancer can share simple weight and stay in contact. The work is sensation.
- ③Rolling
The dancer can follow a moving point of contact and give/take weight. The work is flow.
- ④Flowing
The dancer improvises continuously, uses momentum, goes off-balance willingly. The work is range.
- ⑤Fluent
The dancer plays with lifts, disorientation, and risk in real time. The work is artistry.