Free · eight short chapters · no partner needed
A beginner's guide to contact improvisation.
Eight short chapters you can read in an evening and practise on the floor, from the first fall to your first jam. Free to read here and free to download.
This guide takes a newcomer through contact improvisation in eight chapters: what the form is, learning to fall, sharing weight, sensation and space, saying no, your first jam, quieting the inner critic, and what progress looks like. Each chapter takes about ten minutes to read and has one or two exercises you can try alone first. The whole guide is free as web pages and as one PDF.
The chapters
What contact improvisation is
A dance with no steps, built on curiosity. Start here if you have never seen one.
Chapter 2The floor is your first partner
Solo floor work, breath, release and the smallest falls. A win in ten minutes with nobody else in the room.
Chapter 3Sharing weight
Collapse, lean, find a mutual centre, and let a shared balance fall. Why bones beat muscle.
Chapter 4Sensation and space
Feel before you move fast. Widen your gaze. Learn to move backwards without bumping into anyone.
Chapter 5Saying no well
How to decline a dance, end one early, mention an injury, and hear a no without taking it personally.
Chapter 6Your first jam
What a jam is, how to arrive, how to ask for a dance and how to leave one.
Chapter 7The inner critic
Un-weighting, simplicity and staying inside your own limits when the voice in your head gets loud.
Chapter 8What progress looks like
Qualities of a seasoned dancer, not tricks. A rubric you can use after any jam.
Take it with you
The free PDF holds all eight chapters on one document that prints cleanly on Letter or A4. You do not need to give an email address to download it.
Further reading
Much of this guide builds on ideas and exercise structures taught by Martin Keogh, a contact improvisation teacher and author. His book Dancing Deeper Still: The Practice of Contact Improvisation (Intimately Rooted Books, 2018) is the place to go for the long version. Find the book on martinkeogh.com.
All the prose here is written for this site, with short credited quotations and links to his pages. Keogh has not reviewed or endorsed this guide.
Before you practise with a partner, read safety and consent. Ready to try a session? See your first jam and the Friday jam.
Miami Contact Improv (2026). Contact Improvisation: A Beginner's Guide. miamicontactimprov.com. https://miamicontactimprov.com/guide/