Still from Contact Improvisation 1972 film with the words 'accumulated momentum into the floor'

Captioning Contact Improvisation 1972

This year 2022, is regarded as the 50th anniversary of contact improvisation. In 1972 there was a performance – recorded on film – at the John Walker gallery in New York City showing contact improvisation. To aid understanding by everyone, I created a set of captions for the film which you can see online and download. The captions are a transcription of the film’s narration by dancer Steve Paxton.

While there are other captions or subtitles available, they seem to be automatically generated and their presentation isn’t as good as those which are handcrafted like the ones presented here. The captions form a text file in ‘SubRip’ format (a file with a .srt extension) which I have included below as text and also as downloadable file.

These captions will be useful to those without hearing or wanting to watch without sound. It’s notable how prevalent this form of viewing has become especially on mobile devices. Hopefully, this will help spread the word!

Something puzzles me about this film. You’ll notice that at the beginning of the film, there is the word CHUTE transposed onto the image by the film producers – yellow characters in capitals. What is this? Is it the name of the film? Certainly, the dancers seem to shoot themselves – as if shooting a basket ball into a hoop – at each other. Perhaps it’s a whimsical reference? There is a circle marked on the mats which are used by the dancers. Was this intentional – and what does it mean? Presumably, it’s like a target – stand in the centre of the mat, aim for the centre of the mat, etc. It’s certainly a pictorial device but has it other values or uses?

Film Credits

Contact Improvisation at the John Weber Gallery, New York City, 1972

Made possible by Change Inc.

Performers

Steve Paxton
Danny Lepkoft
Barbara Dilley
David Woodberry
Laura Chapman
Nancy Sraek Smith
Mark Petersen
Emily Siege
Nita Little
Leon Felder
Tim Butler
Curt Siddall
Tom Hast
Mary Fulkerson

Camera

Steve Christiansen

Editing

Steve Christiansen
Lisa Nelson
Steve Paxton

Technical Editor

Jim Mayer

Words and narration

Steve Paxton

Editing Facilities

Western Front Vancouver

B.A.V.C. San Francisco

A Woodland Video Production

(c) 1979

Transcript and timings of the captions

1
00:00:00,000 –> 00:00:06,300
I’m examining the passage
from up to down.

2
00:00:17,300 –> 00:00:19,300
I look at the range
of the passage from

3
00:00:19,300 –> 00:00:21,500
the small dance of standing

4
00:00:21,500 –> 00:00:24,800
to the linked falls of walking,
to large swoops

5
00:00:24,800 –> 00:00:27,700
and dives from high points
on other bodies.

6
00:00:34,600 –> 00:00:36,900
The act of falling has
come to include an

7
00:00:37,000 –> 00:00:40,200
ability to adapt to the
variables of distance,

8
00:00:40,200 –> 00:00:42,100
position and direction,

9
00:00:42,100 –> 00:00:44,800
and to intuit which
part of my body

10
00:00:44,800 –> 00:00:47,000
will take the first moment of impact.

11
00:00:51,800 –> 00:00:54,100
The first part that touches the ground,

12
00:00:54,200 –> 00:00:56,100
I can use as a lever.

13
00:00:57,500 –> 00:01:00,500
By extending to that part, I can unify limbs

14
00:01:00,500 –> 00:01:03,400
and torso to prepare a sequence which will

15
00:01:03,400 –> 00:01:05,800
smoothly transmit my weight and

16
00:01:05,800 –> 00:01:08,400
accumulated momentum into the floor.

17
00:01:10,900 –> 00:01:13,500
Within the brief freedom of the fall, my body

18
00:01:13,600 –> 00:01:17,700
can convert a sudden accident into a controlled descent.

19
00:01:21,100 –> 00:01:23,800
The result of so many changes in spatial

20
00:01:23,900 –> 00:01:27,900
and kinesthetic orientation in a short time has

21
00:01:27,900 –> 00:01:31,100
caused me to understand space as spherical.

22
00:01:32,200 –> 00:01:34,800
The sphere is an accumulated image

23
00:01:34,800 –> 00:01:36,900
gathered from several senses.

24
00:01:37,600 –> 00:01:43,000
Vision being one, as if quickly looking at all directions

25
00:01:43,000 –> 00:01:45,200
gives me an image of what it might be like

26
00:01:45,200 –> 00:01:47,100
to have a visual surface

27
00:01:47,100 –> 00:01:49,700
all over my body instead of skin.

28
00:01:51,700 –> 00:01:55,000
But skin is the best source for the image

29
00:01:55,300 –> 00:01:58,100
because it works in all directions at once.

30
00:01:59,700 –> 00:02:01,700
If we could turn the skin off,

31
00:02:02,400 –> 00:02:04,600
we would appreciate it much more.

32
00:02:07,300 –> 00:02:11,400
But the skin works most of the time
on automatic pilot,

33
00:02:11,400 –> 00:02:13,800
the conscious mind
is alerted if

34
00:02:13,800 –> 00:02:17,000
unusual stimulation appears on the surface of the body.

35
00:02:18,400 –> 00:02:21,500
But I don’t notice the touch of my clothes or

36
00:02:21,500 –> 00:02:23,700
my weight in a chair most of the time.

37
00:02:26,800 –> 00:02:30,900
In Contact Improvisation however,
I find I am hanging

38
00:02:30,900 –> 00:02:34,500
by my skin and relying on its information to

39
00:02:34,700 –> 00:02:38,100
protect me, to warn me, to feedback to me

40
00:02:38,100 –> 00:02:40,500
the data to which I am responding.

41
00:02:43,500 –> 00:02:47,400
We are looking at material from 1972

42
00:02:47,500 –> 00:02:50,200
training for the first performance of Contact Improvisation

43
00:02:50,500 –> 00:02:52,000
at the John Webber Gallery.

44
00:02:53,100 –> 00:02:54,700
It was a hot, muggy New York

45
00:02:54,700 –> 00:02:57,300
City day, but everybody seemed gay.

46
00:03:04,700 –> 00:03:07,500
What can be learned by catching a hurtling body?

47
00:03:10,800 –> 00:03:12,700
The importance of timing.

48
00:03:14,300 –> 00:03:17,400
That there is such a thing as correct preparation.

49
00:03:19,500 –> 00:03:22,200
That understanding the technique with the mind is

50
00:03:22,200 –> 00:03:24,600
different than understanding it with the body.

51
00:03:27,800 –> 00:03:30,700
That momentum can be extended and used

52
00:03:30,800 –> 00:03:33,700
once the initial impact is
absorbed or deflected.

53
00:03:36,200 –> 00:03:39,300
That the seemingly impossible juxtaposition

54
00:03:39,500 –> 00:03:43,100
of a small woman catching a large man

55
00:03:43,100 –> 00:03:45,600
has possibilities, most of them

56
00:03:45,600 –> 00:03:47,200
leading to the floor.

57
00:03:57,100 –> 00:03:58,800
But that is reasonable.

58
00:03:59,600 –> 00:04:03,000
Trying to stop or hold
too much weight is dangerous.

59
00:04:04,000 –> 00:04:09,300
The idea is to discover what is simplest to do.

60
00:04:22,300 –> 00:04:25,100
In a state of trust of the body and the Earth,

61
00:04:25,200 –> 00:04:28,100
we believed we could learn to handle the forces

62
00:04:28,300 –> 00:04:31,400
involved in the physical interactions
between two people who

63
00:04:31,400 –> 00:04:34,000
permit each other the freedom to improvise.

64
00:04:40,300 –> 00:04:43,000
The first instant of any fall is crucial.

65
00:04:44,900 –> 00:04:48,000
At that point, a roll may be prepared.

66
00:04:48,400 –> 00:04:50,300
But if the preparation isn’t made at

67
00:04:50,300 –> 00:04:52,800
the first moment, falling takes place

68
00:04:52,800 –> 00:04:56,200
without guidance from the faller.

69
00:04:56,200 –> 00:04:58,700
What can a body do to be safe?

70
00:05:03,000 –> 00:05:05,400
Commitment to something which isn’t happening is

71
00:05:05,400 –> 00:05:12,600
a barrier between me and my body’s circumstance.

72
00:05:12,600 –> 00:05:17,500
Memory of past judgments tells me

73
00:05:17,500 –> 00:05:24,700
that prejudging is not secure, and memory

74
00:05:24,700 –> 00:05:28,400
can’t function consciously because at these speeds

75
00:05:28,500 –> 00:05:30,800
I can’t think my way to safety.

76
00:05:35,600 –> 00:05:37,500
If thinking is too slow,

77
00:05:37,500 –> 00:05:39,700
is an open state of mind useful?

78
00:05:40,800 –> 00:05:42,100
Seems to be.

79
00:05:48,700 –> 00:05:52,400
I remember deciding to learn falling skills.

80
00:05:52,600 –> 00:05:55,100
These have become muscle memories.

81
00:05:56,900 –> 00:06:00,600
I figured my chances of survival were greater with these

82
00:06:00,600 –> 00:06:04,800
skills than without an assessment of things to come.

83
00:06:05,700 –> 00:06:08,600
In this way, prejudgment and memory do play

84
00:06:08,700 –> 00:06:10,700
a part in what is happening now.

85
00:06:13,900 –> 00:06:16,300
Adults and children fall at the same

86
00:06:16,300 –> 00:06:19,400
velocity although adults are more liable to

87
00:06:19,400 –> 00:06:22,100
injure themselves because their mass is greater

88
00:06:22,100 –> 00:06:24,400
in proportion to structural strength.

89
00:06:25,900 –> 00:06:28,500
It’s possible to develop responses

90
00:06:28,600 –> 00:06:30,300
to deal with this safely.

91
00:06:30,600 –> 00:06:35,000
Slides, rolls or full surface landings which spread the

92
00:06:35,100 –> 00:06:37,500
impact of landing over as much of the muscle

93
00:06:37,600 –> 00:06:42,000
area as possible, are useful in contact improvisation as

94
00:06:42,100 –> 00:06:44,200
they are in the martial arts of Japan.

95
00:06:45,900 –> 00:06:48,700
I am concerned with the possibilities of guiding the

96
00:06:48,700 –> 00:06:55,600
momentum of the fall away from collision with the floor or partner.

97
00:06:56,600 –> 00:06:58,900
A body could endure for decades.

98
00:06:59,500 –> 00:07:03,000
I don’t want to injure joints,

99
00:07:03,000 –> 00:07:08,000
on the other hand, shouldn’t focus on doom.

100
00:07:08,000 –> 00:07:10,700
Can’t exclude fear.

101
00:07:14,100 –> 00:07:18,200
Efficient falls tend to turn into slides or rolls

102
00:07:18,200 –> 00:07:22,600
transforming vertical momentum into horizontal travel.

103
00:07:29,700 –> 00:07:32,700
I may find a last minute leverage from my

103
00:07:32,800 –> 00:07:35,900
partner to enable me to land upon my feet.

104
00:07:37,400 –> 00:07:39,100
My fall might be guided so it

105
00:07:39,100 –> 00:07:41,600
spirals around the body of my partner.

106
00:07:45,100 –> 00:07:47,700
Thus, a fall starting on the downward path can

107
00:07:47,700 –> 00:07:50,400
be guided into a circle orbiting my partner.

108
00:07:50,500 –> 00:07:53,400
And finally, its momentum used to aid in

109
00:07:53,400 –> 00:07:59,300
regaining a high perch.

110
00:08:04,300 –> 00:08:07,000
Contractive energy or tensions,

111
00:08:07,400 –> 00:08:10,000
overpower the sensing of subtle movement.

112
00:08:10,400 –> 00:08:13,100
And so gravity is masked.

113
00:08:15,900 –> 00:08:18,100
Relaxed is almost right

114
00:08:18,100 –> 00:08:20,100
but flaccid is wrong.

115
00:08:24,100 –> 00:08:26,600
In exploring the small dance of skeletal

116
00:08:26,700 –> 00:08:30,600
alignment while standing, I am sensing subtle

117
00:08:30,600 –> 00:08:33,300
falls of parts of the skeleton.

118
00:08:37,700 –> 00:08:41,600
One thing is clear – I have little memory

119
00:08:41,700 –> 00:08:45,000
muscular or mental, of what I’ve danced.

120
00:08:45,900 –> 00:08:48,600
The specific movements my body executes

121
00:08:48,700 –> 00:08:51,000
when I improvise, do not register

122
00:08:51,000 –> 00:08:54,200
consciously and I can’t reconstitute them.

123
00:08:56,300 –> 00:08:59,900
I feel transparent in the action, causing it

124
00:08:59,900 –> 00:09:04,000
only a little, and holding no residuals.

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