Nancy Stark Smith and Karen Nelson (1990)

A Cappella Motion was a dance workshop held every year in Northampton, Massachusetts, from 1982 to 1996. It focused on Contact Improvisation, but also featured classes on other forms of improvisation and dance forms, as well as singing. The chief organizer (and performer) was the late Nancy Stark Smith, who is featured here in a contact dance with another workshop instructor, Karen Nelson. (Nancy is the one with the long braid.) I am posting this excerpt from the 1990 workshop, as a tribute. Nancy also taught classes around the world, and was editor of an international dance magazine, called “Contact Quarterly.“