fran | Contact Improvisation as a Political Practice
fran on Horizontality, Power, and the Myth of the Neutral Body
What happens when a dance form founded on non-hierarchical improvisation and physical negotiation meets the vertical structures of the society that surrounds it? In this conversation, Contact Improvisation facilitator, researcher, and writer fran joins Fabio in the studio to dismantle the idea of the "neutral body," unpack the unspoken power dynamics that lurk in emergent spaces, and share insights from Every Bodies Are Political — a self-organized, free-to-join gathering in Bologna exploring movement through a radical decolonial, feminist, and horizontal lens.
[00:00] No Kingdoms, No Copyright: Questioning Property and Authority
The conversation opens playfully with princesses, property, and paternal figures. Fran rejects kingdoms and ownership outright: "Nothing belongs to anyone on this planet. Not even what you make, not even your language." Recalling the moment at age 13 when he recognized the limits of paternal authority, fran reflects on finding mentors who became peers and friends. A vivid childhood memory of a Sicilian substitute teacher who leapt onto a desk, rang the recess bell, and shouted in dialect reveals the early spark of realizing that authority structures are arbitrary — and that teaching can be self-appointed rather than institutional.
[05:00] "What Are We Doing to Each Other?": Attention as Accountability
Echoing Steve Paxton's famous observation that Contact Improvisation "gives you something to do while you're having your realization," fran grounds his pedagogy in awareness and relationality. In a dance where every mover brings their unique patterns to a non-verbal "potluck of movement," the essential question becomes: What are we factually doing to each other with our bodies? Simply taking up physical space in a room alters what is possible for everyone else. With awareness comes accountability: once we notice how our presence shapes the room, we can no longer plead innocence.
"What's most important for me is self-awareness of not who I am, but what am I doing by being who I am? The most important thing is: I am in relation, hence I am."
[10:00] The Illusion of Openness: Power in Emergent Spaces
Fabio and fran reflect on their time together at Towards, an intensive Contact Improvisation residency in Chiang Dao, Northern Thailand. While recognizing the rare value of immersing in practice for 10 hours a day, fran pinpoints a recurring danger in so-called "emergent spaces": when facilitators claim a space has no fixed hierarchy or rules, but still enforce unspoken boundaries when crossed. When power exists but is made invisible, it becomes unaccountable.
"If someone invites me to their house for a rather specific reason and then doesn't tell me the rules... but is ready to point a finger when I break them, power exists but is made invisible so as to pretend it doesn't."
[14:00] There Is No Such Thing as a Neutral Body
Fran addresses the widespread tendency in somatic and dance circles to treat movement retreats as apolitical bubbles where people simply "meet as bodies." He rejects this as a form of willful blindness. From birth, every body is marked by gender socialization, geography, passport privilege, socio-economic class, and historical trauma. Pretending bodies are neutral ignores who can afford the plane ticket, who is missing from the room, and how societal power dynamics inevitably enter the studio floor.
"There is no such thing as an apolitical body. There's no such thing as a neutral body. There is no way we can come and meet as bodies, period... Saying that we can just meet as bodies is trying to say: let's be color blind, let's be culture blind, let's just pretend all of this doesn't exist. I find it extremely hard and far-fetched."
[20:30] Designing Horizontality: Zero Euros, Unanimity, and the Five-Hour Meeting
To test whether a movement gathering could dismantle these hierarchies in practice, fran, Nika Portavia, and 40+ collaborators created Every Bodies Are Political in Bologna. The design was uncompromising:
Financial accessibility: Zero euros participation fee, with no gatekeeping or selection applications.
Leaning into conflict: Acknowledging from day one that conflict would arise and sharing the tools to navigate it collectively rather than avoiding it.
Radical horizontality: Organizers stepping back to act merely as communication coordinators.
Unanimous decision-making: Replacing majority voting with consensus. If 39 people vote yes and 1 person disagrees, that 1 person explains their perspective — often radically shifting the room's understanding. As fran notes, "The minority is not fixed, and the minority has the same voice as everyone else."
[26:00] "We Dance Horizontally, Why Do We Organize Vertically?"
Why is Contact Improvisation the ideal vehicle for this political inquiry? Unlike competitive sports or vertical dance forms, CI was born in 1970s counterculture with no steps, no choreographic hierarchies, and no prescribed gender roles. Paxton called it "true democracy" — living the politics of mutuality. If the dance itself is fundamentally non-impositive, cooperative, and horizontal, why do CI communities continue to organize festivals and workshops through vertical hierarchies of teachers, organizers, scholarship-holders, and paying participants?
"The practice itself is in the center; everything else revolves around it. We dance horizontally, why do we organize vertically to do something that is horizontal by nature?"
[31:00] Ego Volume, Community Volume, and the Dance That Looked Terrible
When asked if there are limits to practicing equality, fran expresses a radical optimism: true equality has no downside, but our social conditioning makes it excruciatingly difficult to practice. Society trains individuals to prioritize personal desires over collective well-being. Real horizontality requires actively turning down the "ego volume" so the "community volume" can emerge.
Fran closes with a distinction between aesthetic performance and authentic negotiation. A dance can look gorgeous from the outside while subtly coercing or manipulating a partner; conversely, a dance that looks clumsy can be profound because both movers are genuinely listening to one another.
"That dance looked terrible, but felt amazing, because, wow, there was so much space for the both of us to coexist and negotiate. And I was actually more interested in what you had to say than in what I had to say. And you were also."
Guest & Project Info
fran — Contact Improvisation facilitator, researcher, and writer exploring movement as social enquiry (attention, touch, consent, cooperation). Follow on Instagram: @a_yielding_fran
Every Bodies Are Political: A Togethering Happening — A horizontal research gathering on movement and politics held in Bologna at Camere d'Aria, co-coordinated by fran and Nika Portavia. Learn more via @everybodiesarepolitical
How We Move Together: Contact Improvisation as Social Enquiry — Wild Care workshop facilitated by fran, 9–11 October 2026 at Orpheumgasse 11, Graz. Contact: [email protected]
Towards — Centre for Embodied Arts and Transformative Learning in Chiang Dao, Northern Thailand (featured in Episode 04).