The first contact improvisation performances in New York City were held at the John Weber Gallery at 420 W. Broadway in SoHo (Manhattan), from June 1 to June 5, 1972. The John Weber Gallery was on the fourth floor of the building.
This is mere blocks from three venues in Manhattan that still host CI events:
- Eden’s Expressway at 537 Broadway, fourth floor (in the same building as Simone Forti’s old loft)
- Bill Young’s Studio at 100 Grand St., second floor
- Randy Warshaw Studio at 115 Wooster St., 2F
The performances lasted 5 hours each day (1pm to 6pm). There appears to have been an intermission in the middle when some film shorts were screened.
They were advertised as
STEVE PAXTON CONCERT
& Oberlin & Rochester & Bennington
Contact Improvisations
Postcard advertising the first CI event, 1972.
The John Weber Gallery is long gone, but the building is still there. There’s currently an Anthropologie on the ground floor.
I turned up a brief New York Times review of the performance in their archives that I had never seen before. A choice excerpt:
Two men did a combative wrestling variation whose heavy grace was quite beautiful and two girls did a falling, tumbling routine that was exciting to watch. However, many of the couples were unable to improvise successfully and droned kinetically on for interminable stretches.
Don McDonagh, New York Times (June 5, 1972), p.41.
I have a vague fantasy that on the anniversary of the performances each year, CI dancers could gather on the sidewalk in front of the Anthropologie and dance for five hours. Anyone want to start that tradition?