Safety and consent are the technique.

Your rights in the room

• To decline any invitation to dance, with no reason given.
• To end a dance at any moment, including mid-movement.
• To ask for less weight, less speed, or a different point of contact.
• To sit at the edge for as long as you like, or all evening.
• To not be touched in ways you have not agreed to.
• To not be photographed or filmed without being asked first.
• To not be taught, corrected or coached unless you asked for it.
• To speak to the organiser and be taken seriously.

Physical safety, briefly

Most injuries in CI come from three things: bracing against a fall instead of rolling, taking weight you are not structurally placed to take, and dancing tired. The form's own habits address all three. Keep your own feet available to land on. Roll out rather than stop. If you cannot see how a lift resolves, do not begin it. Stop before you are exhausted.

Warm up before the open dancing, particularly wrists, shoulders and spine. If a session offers a warm-up, use it. If you have an injury or a condition that affects how you can be moved, tell your partner before the dance starts, not during it.

What this practice is not

It is worth being plain, because Contact Improvisation is adjacent to a lot of things and gets confused for them.

• It is not a sexual practice. Touch is the medium, not a route to anything else.
• It is not a therapy session. It can be restorative; it is not clinical treatment.
• It is not a dating venue or a pickup scene.
• It is not a performance, unless a specific event says so.
• It is not a space where an experienced dancer may direct a less experienced one.

A person who treats a jam as any of the above is not doing Contact Improvisation badly. They are doing something else, in a room where people did not agree to it.

If something happens

Tell the organiser. Most jams have one named person holding the room, and intervening on boundary violations is that person's job rather than a favour. If they will not act, that tells you what you need to know about returning. This site lists sessions but does not run them and cannot mediate, though we will remove a listing that has an unresolved, reported pattern of harm.

Questions about safety

Is contact improvisation safe?

Contact Improvisation carries the normal risks of a partnered physical practice: falls, collisions, strained joints and the occasional bruise. The form manages these deliberately, through rolling exits rather than bracing, keeping your own feet available, keeping a single contact point, warming up, and having spotters near lifts. Serious injury is uncommon but not impossible, particularly in fast experienced jams.

Do I have to accept every dance I am offered?

No, and nobody should make you feel otherwise. Declining is part of the form. You can also end a dance mid-movement, slow it down, ask for less weight, or leave the floor entirely.

What is spotting?

Spotting means standing close to a dancing pair with your hands free, ready to slow a fall if one happens. One or two spotters near a crowded or lifting area is standard practice in many jams.

What is not contact improvisation?

Contact Improvisation is not a sexual practice, a dating venue, a massage service, an acrobatics display, or a space for uninvited instruction. Touching, holding or moving a partner in ways they have not agreed to is not part of this form, and jams address it directly.

What do I do if something goes wrong in a jam?

Speak to the organiser during or after the session. Most jams name a person who holds the room and is responsible for intervening. If an organiser will not act on a boundary violation, that is information about whether to return.

Is there a code of conduct for contact improv?

There is no global one, because there is no global body. Individual scenes and jams write their own. The shared expectations are: continuous consent, the right to decline anything, respect for the edge, no teaching uninvited, and no recording without asking.