There is no “i” in choreography.
Improvisation begins with “u”.
Three Principle Senses of Choreography
Within the scope of theater dance, one finds three principle senses of choreography: the set of embellishments left to the individual artist to select from during an improvisation; choreography as a process of setting movement to then invent original material from during an improvisation; and choreography for its own sake that is brought to a high level of performance.
-a slight rewording of Curtis Carter’s three principle senses of improvisation. From pg.182 of The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 2000.
An Nth defintion
Improvisation is a performance that tests a hypothesis.
[ _____ ] is always [ _____ ] of something
“performance is always performance of something”
“consciousness is always consciousness of something”
“plenty is always plenty of something”
“happiness is always happiness of something”
“poetry is always poetry of something”
“inference is always inference of something”
“singing is always singing of something”
“problematizing is always problematizing of something”
“crying is always crying of something”
“reading is always reading of something”
“need is always need of something”
“hope is always hope of something”
“dance is always dance of something”
“shouting is always shouting of something”
“writing is always writing of something”
“listening is always listening of something”
“wanting is always wanting of something”
“hate is always hate of something”
“sadness is always sadness of something”
“fear is always fear of something”
“lack is always lack of something”
“community is always community of something”
“painting is always painting of something”
“thinking is always thinking of something”
“eating is always eating of something”
“love is always love of something”
Is CI a Cunningham chance operation?
‘The dancers are called on not to express a particular emotion, or set of emotions, but instead to develop refined coping mechanisms for creating continuity between disarticulated movements while remaining sensitive to their location in space. They must keep time without musical cues; sense the presence of the other dancers on stage; know blindly proprioceptively, what these other dancers are doing; and adjust the the timing and scope of their movements accordingly, thereby expressing the “human condition” at hand. All this work is “expressive”-it belongs to the “category of expression”-insofar as it is demanded by a human situation on a stage and insofar as human situations on stages (or otherwise) constitute an embodied response to the present moment, an embodied response to the utterly unique conditions of existence at one given point in time.’ – Noland, C 2010, ‘The Human Situation on Stage: Merce Cunningham, Theodor Adorno, and the Category of Expression’, Dance Research Journal, 1, p. 55
In this quote, Noland is referring to Cunningham dancers dealing with the re-ordering of set phrase material.  When she writes (or otherwise), she could be referring to a contact improvisation jam.  I think it is a very apt description of an silent CI jam. In CI jams, dancers are constantly “using refined coping mechanisms for creating continuity between disarticulated movements while remaining sensitive to their location in space.”  [Though, how much contacters are actually aware of the whole space is open for debate! IMHO]
What people do at CI jams is, I would say, “an embodied response to the present moment, an embodied response to the utterly unique conditions of existence at one given point in time.” [Though, how much is actually an embodied response and not actually another iteration of habit is also open for debate. IMHO]
Are Cunningham choreographies that are governed by chance operations a contact improvisation jam?
Are contact improvisation jams a piece of choreography by Cunningham?
Paxton danced for Cunningham, after all.
Embodied Experience
“That embodied experience of staged performances has sharpened my observational and analytical ability to see past the spectacle of performance, the glamour of the costumes, and the dazzle of the footlights.  This enables me to provide a unique analytical picture of the performance of these ensembles – viewed through a trained angle of observation, informed by the practice of performing (my emphasis)…” – Anthony Shay from the preface of Choreographic Politics: State Folk Dance Companies, Representation and Power
Yes! An academic (who is also a practitioner) who gets it!!!
The Axis of Actvity
Two definitions of Contemporary
Contemporary – adopting an ever-shifting set of values so as to elude any sort of qualitative criteria. Contemporary – adopting a differing set of values so as to problematize the normative set of qualitative criteria
Jam ~ Performance
A Jam is a situation in which all participants have equal access to movement, location, and observation.
A Performance is a situation in which participants have unequal access to movement, location, and observation.
Contemporary Contact Improvisation…or achieving the full potential
If, as some have stated contemporary dance is about the search for and exploration of potential, then contact improvisation in its nigh-omnipresent hetero-normative iterations is not contemporary as the hetero-normativity represents merely a third of the potential permutations of the duet based on biological sex.
Extending this thought to the duet in relation to number, the normativity of the duet in relation to the physical practice of the form is also a limitation of potential.  A dancer of CI, in order to make use of the full potential of the form, should be able to dance with anyone in the place of practice and not be limited to one person.
In order to achieve the full potential of the form, and thus bring CI into back into contemporality, practitioners of the form must move beyond the hegemony of the hetero-normative duet.