As Contact Festival Dartington just migrated to Malta for the first time, organisers Malaika and Richard Sarco-Thomas tell Miriam Calleja all about their plans to bring contact improvisation to Malta.

“Contact Improvisation is an open-ended exploration of the kinaesthetic possibilities of bodies moving through contact. Sometimes wild and athletic, sometimes quiet and meditative, it is a form open to all bodies and enquiring minds.”

This definition of contact improvisation, taken from the Ray Chung workshop in London in 2009, succinctly explains the idea behind this form of art.

The influence of contact improvisation can be seen throughout contemporary and postmodern dance choreography, performance and dance training worldwide, especially in relationship to partnering and use of weight.

It is a social dance form and a movement-research practice; two, or more, moving bodies explore and experiment with movement in and out of contact. They investigate the kinaesthetic possibilities of touch, and use touch as a way of communicating, experimenting with and exploring movement. Of course, it can also just look like a lot of grown up kids playing in a kind of ‘jungle gym’.

Now, Malta also gets to experience contact improvisation – also referred to as contact improve – thanks to Malaika Sarco-Thomas, head of the Department of Dance Studies at the University of Malta and Richard Sarco-Thomas, Aikido Sensei, responsible for getting the Contact Festival Dartington to Malta.

This was the first time that a contact improvisation festival was held on Malta, though workshops in related practices have been curated through Francesca Tranter’s work with Contact Dance Company and the annual event Dance Hybrid Malta.

The festival became a vital meeting point for artists who were interested in exploring improvisation and experimentation as fuel for artistic practice

Contact Festival Dartington is Malaika’s and Richard’s brainchild. They organised it annually at Dartington College of Arts and at Falmouth University, both in the UK.

Originally, the ideas was for Malaika and Richard to create a contact improve festival “in the spirit of the summer dance festivals organised by Steve Paxton and Mary Fulkerson at Dartington College of Arts in the 1980s”.

It was during those summer dance festivals that many new ideas were born in relation to dance and theatre in the UK. The festival became a vital meeting point for artists who were interested in exploring improvisation and experimentation as fuel for artistic practice. Today, the main aim of the festival is to preserve the integrity of the form and the relationship of contact improv to art-making and creativity.

The art from has had very positive feedback in the past, both from beginners and from seasoned dance practitioners. The festival will transition to its new name, Contact Festival Malta, next year.

Who is interested in this dance form, I wonder. A diverse medley of people, I am informed – from healthcare professionals, students, theatre practitioners, teachers and dancers, to anyone wanting to explore the movement of the body.

The beauty of it is that everyone can come together at the same level to practice contact improv. People travelling to Malta also regularly join the weekly classes, and many travelled to attend the festival, too.

But do participants need any particular skills? Malaika and Richard stress the point that everybody can move. They have both danced with people who are visually and physically impaired. Following the same principle of a martial arts class, contact improv can be practised and its benefits appreciated, at any level. And to make everyone feel at ease, this year’s edition of the festival included afternoon sessions whereby participants could have their questions addressed.

Because the festival had no parallel sessions, the group could enjoy a shared experience, with the teachers feeding and bouncing off each other’s classes.

A performance evening was also included in order that the public could watch a series of presentations by the festival participants, some scored and others improvised.

The festival was supported by the School of Performing Arts, University of Malta.

www.cfdmalta.com