Miami · Miami Beach · South Florida
Two people, one shared point of contact, and whatever happens next.
Contact Improvisation is a dance form you can start tonight and never finish learning. This site is the working map of where it happens in Miami: the jams, the classes, the teachers, the vocabulary, and the history behind it.
No membership. No central authority. This is a community resource, not a studio.
Contact Improvisation (CI) is a partnered dance form built from a single moving point of contact, usually the back or shoulders, through which two dancers share weight and follow gravity, momentum and impulse instead of choreography. It began in the United States in 1972 with the dancer and choreographer Steve Paxton, and it has no licensing body, no required uniform and no fixed syllabus. In Miami it is practised in jams, classes and workshops across Miami-Dade and Broward County.
| What it is | An improvised partnered dance around shared weight and a rolling point of contact |
|---|---|
| When it started | 1972, United States, developed by Steve Paxton |
| Who can do it | Anyone. No dance training, partner or flexibility required to begin |
| What a jam is | An open, unguided dance session. Come and go, dance or watch |
| What it costs in Miami | Set by each organiser. Community jams are typically low-cost or donation-based |
| What you need | Loose clothes, water, bare or soft feet, and a willingness to say no |
| Where it happens here | Studios, cultural centres, parks and beaches across Miami-Dade and Broward |
The form is deliberately open. There is no federation that certifies who may teach it, and no governing body that decides what counts. That is why a city scene is built out of individual organisers and borrowed rooms rather than a single institution, and why a map like this one is useful.
Miami Contact Improv (2026). Contact Improvisation in Miami. miamicontactimprov.com. Retrieved from https://miamicontactimprov.com/
Start from where you are
Watch first, then dance
What a jam actually looks like from the inside, and why watching is a legitimate way to participate.
Looking for a sessionJams and open practice
What an open jam is, how the room usually runs, and what to say when you arrive.
Want teachingClasses and workshops
Beginner series, workshops and intensives, plus what to look for in a teacher.
Learning the wordsGlossary
Jam, score, small dance, underscore, spotting, weight sharing, and the rest of the working vocabulary.
Curious about the formHistory and principles
Where CI came from, who built it, and the ideas it borrowed from aikido, postmodern dance and somatics.
Need the ground rulesSafety and consent
Boundaries, spotting, what is expected of you and what you may always refuse.
Why a jam is not a class
A class gives you a skill. A jam gives you the situation in which the skill becomes useful. Most jams have no teacher and little or no music; people arrive, find a partner or dance alone, and leave when they are done. There is usually an edge of the room for sitting, watching and resting, and using it is normal rather than rude.
If you have only ever danced in set choreography, the first twenty minutes of a jam can feel formless. It helps to know that this is the form, not a failure of it. You are not waiting for instruction. You are listening to a body that already knows how to fall safely and stand up again.
The one rule that carries everything else
Contact Improvisation works because either dancer can stop at any point, for any reason, without explanation. A lifted partner can put a foot down. A held partner can step away. The dance continues. Practitioners call this the negotiation, and it happens through weight, breath and small physical signals long before anyone speaks.
Written down it sounds abstract. In the room it is the most practical thing you will learn, and it is why people who have never considered themselves dancers keep coming back.
New to Miami, or new to this?
Tell us you exist and we will add you to the map. Jams, classes, teachers, studios, festivals and recurring practice groups all belong here.