Touchdown Dance

Where the
blind and sighted
move together

Touchdown movement training is based in a pleasurable, free-flowing dance form known as contact improvisation. it is sometimes called an art sport because it combines gymnastic and poetic qualities, a healing art - because it promotes physical and mental well-being.

Contact improvisation extends your body's natural movement patterns. It is a movement form uniquely suited to blind and deaf/blind people because it is based in the sense of touch. The dance emerges from paying attention to sensations on the surface of the skin and inside the body as you move in physical contact with a partner. Improvisations develop from a combination of inner awareness and awareness of democratic partnership in the dance.

Suddenly I was dancing, not just having fun moving around, I was dancing, I was in an art form. It was beautiful, brilliant. (Jerry visually impaired)

The work is deeply relaxing and at the same time re-invigorating. Early training uses massage to release tense and bound muscles. Partnering exercises establish an enjoyable atmosphere of co-operation and physical communication. It is playful, fun and exhilirating and is equally accessible to all people regardless of age, size or visual acuity. You do not need to have trained in dance before to pick it up easily. It leads to significantly extended physical mobility, improved body image and greater self confidence in everyday life. it opens all of us up to the creative artist inside us and gives us an enjoyable means of expression.

Contact improvisation maes me feel alive and powerful again. When I lost my sight I also lost all my confidence - now my confidence has come back to me. (Tony, who lost his sight completely in middle age through glaucoma)

Touchdown Dance USA brings together the visually imparied, the professionals that work with them and dancers and theatre artists who are trained specifically to respond to the movement needs and artistic potential of the blind. Its work in based in contact improvisation, a free flowing dance form which arises in the sense of touch. Touchdown Dance USA draws on the movement training research and artistic achievements of Touchdown Dance UK founded in 1986 by Anne Kilcoyne and Steve Paxton, the founder of contact improvisation and supported by the Arts Council of Great Britian and the Royal National Institute for the Blind.

Founding group of Touchdown Dance USA

• Anne Kilcoyne (director)
• Steve Paxton (consultant)
• Martin Keogh (consultant)
• Cinzia Sperou Gloekler (administrator)

Contact

Leigh Hollowell
510-428-1319

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This information comes from a flyer given to me by Anne, who asked whether something about Touchdown could go on to the Web. The words are taken literally from her flyer, I wish you could see the photos of the dancers. I did not type in the biographies of the group because I am a slow typist. I am responsible for any typographc errors in this material. Jim Davis [updated 27 July 1998]