September Asides
What is a principle?
I have been working with Contact Teachers on teaching Contact Improvisation lately, and I discover that teachers don’t know how to identify a physical principle. Why is this important? Because without principles, we can teach skills, but the meat of the matter, what is going on that allows a skill to be a gateway to many new possibilities, is missing.
A principle is a fundamental truth that is the foundation to a way of experiencing the world, a chain of reasoning on physical mental levels. It underlies a skill, however, it in and of itself is not a skill per se. So, “weight falls to the underside” is a physical principle, it is not a skill. The skill is being able to experience the weight on the underside, understanding what it accomplishes and how it supports your ability to move well in the world with a partner. It allows you to experience momentum, to toss yourself, and to develop a host of other skills. Principles free movement when used knowledgeably.
I am often asked, “What are the underlying principles in Contact Improvisation?, as if there were a list I kept somewhere. I don’t keep a list. I identify them when I find them, but I do not hand them out as the source knowledge for CI. If I did, they would become “rules” by which CI would be captured and tamed. My purpose is to help other’s notice a principle and build on it, not constrain themselves to the principle – because without discovery, people don’t know how to extrapolate a principle into many, many skills. They need to discover the principle so that their seeking within motion and experience is on the level of principles, not skills.
The greatest skill of all is, like a geologist, to be able to identify a principle. So, if you find yourself in a physical moment that opens up other possibilities, ask yourself, “what is going on here? How do I know to do this action? What is here that is so close to me, so much a part of my way of experiencing movement in the world that I take it for granted?” Be careful, because a principle is not a belief. There are lots of beliefs that we hold that are only ideas. You can identify a principle when it is easily reproducible or discovered in other contexts. So, when I collapse with another person within the same immediate moment, our weight joins as one weight, not two weights. Why is this important to know and be able to experience? Because if two weights fall separately, someone can be injured by one weight falling on another weight. What does this mean when seeking a principle? This means water joins water, weight joins weight, so that in a field of gravity, we can act as one form. Falling together in the same instant is a skill. The principle, "water joins water", shows up in lots of other moments and is essential to physical communication and moving well together.
