Why I’m Teaching Dance at a Restorative Justice Conference
Dear community,
While preparing for my workshop at the National Association of
Community and Restorative Justice Conference, Contact Improvisation: Embodied Tools for Listening, Trust, and Cooperation, I searched academic databases and found zero entries for “restorative justice” and “contact improvisation,” zero for “restorative justice” and “physical contact,” zero for “contact improvisation” and “conflict resolution.” These phrases do not go together — at least that’s what the literature says. But the more I sat with both practices, the more I found myself convinced that contact improvisation, a partnering dance form developed in the early 1970s, has something restorative justice needs: a model for listening that doesn’t depend on words.
What is Contact Improvisation?
Contact Improvisation, instigated by Steve Paxton in 1972, arises from the communication between bodies in contact. The technique centers on giving and supporting weight, and coordinating with gravity and momentum, to create spontaneous relational dances. It decentralizes the use of hands, tuning awareness to all sides and surfaces of the body. Dancers practice present-moment awareness and making choices in relation to their partner(s) without attachment to a particular outcome. While at times highly physical, contact improvisation can be practiced by and between people of all ages, body types, and abilities.
The Parallels Between Restorative Justice and Contact Improvisation
Also in 1972, the Minnesota Restitution Center opened a pioneering restorative justice program that brought victims and offenders into dialogue to arrive at reparation plans, as an alternative to incarceration. These two systems emerged at the same moment in time, riding on the heels of the radical thinking characteristic of the 1960s. Both contact improvisation and restorative justice are anti-authoritarian, process-oriented, and deeply experimental. They share a commitment to the reality of being human, over idealized and fixed states of right and wrong. Paxton insisted that the intention of contact improvisation is to “not strive to achieve results, but rather, to meet the constantly changing physical reality with appropriate placement and energy.” This non-striving resonates with my understanding of restorative justice. Yes, we want change and a better future for all, but we don’t arrive there through force or coercion. We arrive through listening.
Listening: A Shared Value
Listening is at the center of both contact improvisation and restorative practices. The difference is that in contact improvisation, listening happens through the skin. Through touch, dancers respond to tension and shifts in tone, which ultimately allows them to take greater individual risk and discover unexpected moments of connection and joy. For example, as two dancers listen, lean, and gradually shift their center of gravity towards a shared center, they remain in balance while simultaneously off-balance. Through listening and the vulnerability of giving one’s own weight, trust develops. This mode of listening in contact improvisation is non-verbal and a beautiful complement to the quality of aural listening that defines restorative practices.
In fact, I would argue that the quality of listening I have experienced in restorative practices is somatic — subjective and felt. When I listen to someone’s story and it resonates, I feel it, or shall I say, am touched by it. When we really listen, we soften ourselves so that a little bit of another person’s perspective can enter our reality. This openness to feeling someone else’s experience brings us closer and elicits empathy. Listening in this way allows us to find common ground, solve problems, and have access to experiences that would not be possible to achieve on our own — both on and off the dance floor.
Listening is not only about giving attention to another person, it’s also about listening to what’s alive within yourself. This begins with listening to the body. When we open a restorative justice circle with mindful breathing, we are listening to the body. When we take a moment to close our eyes, our attention can more easily focus inward. Listening to our body includes everything from noticing feelings of fatigue or hunger, to a racing heartbeat, cold hands, or cultivating awareness of anger, sadness, happiness, or any other emotion. Our body has important messages to share with us, and when we honor those messages, our communication with others can flourish.
Join Me at the Conference
This somatic listening is the kind of listening I want to uplift within the restorative justice community. It is offered as an addition to the already rich traditions of listening, sharing and being-with that exists within restorative justice. If you’re hungry to learn more ways to listen, join me in New Orleans for Contact Improvisation: Embodied Tools for Listening, Trust, and Cooperation, at the National Association of Community and Restorative Justice Conference on Wednesday, July 8, from 4–5pm. It’s a small window into a deep practice, but you’ll get a taste for the power of embodied listening, and how physicalizing trust and cooperation can build empathy and strengthen bonds.
Photo by Dave Ratzlow.
Gabrielle Revlock, MFA is a NYC–based dancer, educator, and award-winning choreographer. Her work depicts complex relationships, which interrogate social norms, creating moments of joy, humor, and compassion. A practitioner of contact improvisation for nearly 25 years, she teaches in academic and community settings worldwide. Since 2019 she has been developing a mindful touch and movement practice called Restorative Contact — previously a top rated mindfulness activity on Airbnb Experiences. Her research on the therapeutic applications of contact improvisation and Restorative Contact appears in Resistance and Support: Contact Improvisation @ 50 (Oxford University Press, 2024). Anonymous Apologies, her socially-engaged work has been installed at Forbes and Neilson Libraries and continues to exist as an online portal at GabrielleRevlock.com/apologize. Gabrielle is invested in how embodied practices and restorative justice can be combined to support repair, empathy, healing, and overall community health. She holds a certificate in Restorative Justice Facilitation from University of San Diego. Learn more: GabrielleRevlock.com