Contact Improvisation at cat's paw
About the work
“Contact Improvisation is a dance process in which two people move in continuous physical contact--like wrestlers, gymnasts, lovers or gibbons...parts of the body give and receive weight as the dancers interact” (from the University Art Museum, Berkeley, CA News Release January 8, 1976.
The home of the Bay Area Contact Coalition was Cat’s Paw Palace for the Performing Arts, Berkeley, CA, Cat’s Paw sponsored weekly contact jams and regular performances and the popular month-long FOCUS workshops in the summers of 1976 and 1977. The Bay Area had six Contact Improvisation Performance Groups:
- Bay Area Dance Coalition: Byron Brown, Ehmroiel, Karen Geiger, Margaret Fisher, Koriel, John Le Fan, Nita Little, Curt Siddall, Nancy Stark Smith, Laurel Sprigg, Jim Tyler, Jerry Zientara; formed, Spring, 1976
- Mangrove: Byron Brown, John LeFan, Curt Siddall, Jim Tyler; formed, November, 1975
- Metropolitan Quartet: Margaret Fisher, Karen Geiger, Jerry Zientara; formed, Spring, 1976
- Reunion: Steve Paxton, Nita Little, Curt Siddall, Nancy Stark Smith; formed, June, 1972
- 32 ft/sec squared: Nita Little, director; formed, February, 1976
- West Wing: a repertory film company and performing ensemble; formed, July 1975
