Our definition was:

Contact improvisation is the art of communication through bodies to create spontaneous and organic movements. It requires you to connect with yourself as well as others to build trusting relationships in order for your experimentation to be successful.

Building  a trusting relationship to me seems to be a fundamental element to contact. It may be the case, during a jam, that you dance with someone you do not know, or who you aren’t familiar with. When you dance with someone for a long period of time you begin to recognise their movements and rhythms, the trust element is built up and it becomes much more comfortable. I think this is why I’ve noticed that people tend to gravitate towards working with the same people, myself included. Contact requires trust when giving your body weight to another person. However it is not the person taking the weight who has to do all of the work, it is still a team effort. For example when jumping into a lift, we found through an exercise, the person being lifted should imagine themselves as being a fountain as opposed to a sack of potatoes or a statue. This ‘fountain’ image means that the lifter doesn’t have to do all of the work, lifting a dead weight, which leads to a better overall outcome.

Although during contact improvisation you are in contact with a person, it is important that you also remain in contact with the space around you. During a jam you move between partners or groups, this possibility is restricted somewhat if you are only open to what is happening within a close proximity instead of everything else around you. It is also an element of safety. If you are swinging someone from your pelvis, sending them out into space, you need to be aware of other people around you, being careful not to cause injury through collision.

I think the definition of contact improvisation is somewhat subject to each individual person. There is obviously a general consensus about some things, but every person can draw something different or experience different things depending on their mindset, openness, feelings at that time or how and where they are dancing.