Games · Contact · Chapter 8

#16

Over and Under

③ Rolling Contact
Players
2
Time
10–12 min
Contact
continuous

Purpose

Builds three-dimensional flow: dancers pass over and under each other continuously, training level changes, spirals, and the vertical dimension of the dance.

Setup

Pairs, warm, clear floor.

Play

  1. "Keeping one point of contact, one of you goes over your partner, the other goes under — like weaving."
  2. "Now keep weaving — over, under, over, under — continuously, always in contact, always changing levels."
  3. "Let it become a spiral: the weaving naturally turns you around each other."
  4. Drop the assigned roles: "Let over/under happen organically wherever the dance offers it."

Cues

"Spiral, don't stiffen." · "Use the floor as a partner too." · "Let a duck-under become a roll."

Variations

  • Easier: slow, one clear over and one clear under, reset between.
  • Harder: add weight-sharing through the passes; continuous with no resets.

Debrief

"How did the vertical dimension change the dance? Where did spirals appear on their own?"

Watch For

Heads under bodies is a pinch-point — keep passes roomy and slow. No one goes fully under a partner's weight yet.