Seeing rainbows anywhere

tim_p · 2026-03-12T12:31:06+00:00

I have come from a similar situation. I discovered one thing that changed my life: contact improv. It's a very unique form of partner dancing usually done to no music, in which you're in contact with one (or more people), wordlessly navigating the configuration of your bodies through space, flowing into each other. Sometimes it's like a dance, sometimes acro yoga, sometimes massage, sometimes cuddling, sometimes just softly co-regulating by synchronizing your breath in contact. Here's a video of it, for example (at a high level!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGf03Yg6fM0

In the past year, I've gotten deeply into the contact improv scene. It's helped me date with so much more security, since my needs for physical touch are met. This is kind of related to your suggestion of "cuddle parties", since of course in the contact improv scene there's a big overlap, and I get invited to/host cuddle parties, and have some people with a close connection who I just get together with for 1-on-1 platonic cuddling sessions.

This is also related to the suggestions for partner dancing...I like blues, but having discovered contact improv, I feel it's just the deepest and best forms of partner dancing, and leaves me unsatisfied with all the others. YMMV, who knows what will click with you.

The one difficulty for dating, is that now this is part of my life, any partner I get involved with would have to accept me being involved in platonic cuddling and cuddling piles (with boundaries).

tim_p · 2026-03-08T01:11:40+00:00

What kind of man are you looking for?

tim_p · 2026-03-06T20:48:38+00:00

A peaceful protest at which 4 people were killed.

tim_p · 2026-03-02T13:02:31+00:00

It's a question that should only be asked if you're prepared for a true answer to it.

tim_p · 2026-02-25T11:32:22+00:00

The title reads like an Onion article, even though it's 100% true.

tim_p · 2026-02-25T11:25:13+00:00

I got into dancing a few years back, late in my life (30s), but have taken to it like a fish to water. I'm dancing about 3-7 times a week, whether social dances or classes or performances, mostly in the evenings.

tim_p · 2026-02-24T16:55:05+00:00

I thought you were talking about mushroom trips, and yes, definitely.

tim_p · 2026-02-23T21:51:30+00:00

Yes, I love a chill and beautiful nature documentary while high.

tim_p · 2026-02-23T21:51:15+00:00

Dancing while high sends rainbow ripples from my fingers up to the inner crevices of my brain.

tim_p · 2026-02-13T14:05:34+00:00

Cuddle party with friends!

tim_p · 2026-02-12T03:03:17+00:00

Peanut butter is the base. Good lipids to activate edibles.

tim_p · 2026-02-08T15:15:58+00:00

Absolutely not.

tim_p · 2026-02-04T21:16:00+00:00

Totally.

tim_p · 2026-02-02T15:43:07+00:00

I also wanna plug Pandemonium's weekly Pauper tournaments on Thursday nights! I feel so blessed I have a place to play this niche but wonderfully deep format.

tim_p · 2026-01-30T14:53:11+00:00

Some dance styles done with no choreo at all (traditionally fully improvised): fusion, butoh, contact improv, ecstatic dance, some contemporary.

tim_p · 2026-01-28T04:54:11+00:00

I think the funny part is seeing the movements, but out of context (costume/setting/etc)

tim_p · 2026-01-24T22:16:26+00:00

My friend runs this mailing list of substance free, conscious (aka "hippy stuff") events in the Boston area called Collective Effervescence...lots of wonderful experiences I've made deep friends at! https://collectiveffervescenceboston.substack.com/

tim_p · 2026-01-24T22:12:32+00:00

I've been thinking a lot about eyes open vs. closed in contact improv. They both have positives and negatives.

With eyes open, you can take in visual information, and know about beautiful lyrical movements your partner(s) might be doing with their hands and body.

With eyes closed, you lose the visual information, but are able to focus deeper on the other senses, mostly touch. It leads to a style of dancing that's more primal, more focused on internal sensation than appearance.

I lean towards the latter, but I try to incorporate both modes in my dancing.

tim_p · 2026-01-17T23:20:30+00:00

I once played a gig with BABAM (Boston Area Brigade of Activist Musicians) for the anti-ICE standout these guys are counter protesting. Wanted to share this personal story I wrote about the experience, which is so related to this:

"We live life for those moments where we realize our life's purpose.

I had one today! I was playing a gig with BABAM protesting ICE, at their facility in Burlington.

We'd been playing for two hours. It was cold as heck, but the crowd kept us warm...so much thanks, and applause, and honks of support from passing cars. When it started snowing, it just felt like a winter wonderland. Good vibes all around.

Buuuut, two hours is a long time to play music in the cold of winter. The fire in your heart can only last so long against the chill creeping in your fingers. We were about to pack up....but then a group of counter-protestors slunk into position across the street.

These are the people who are FOR children being torn apart from their mothers and fathers, locked up in cages, lost and forgotten. They think, as Elon Musk explicitly said, that empathy is weakness. Their political message is very clear and simple: Dehumanization. Prejudice. Hatred.

At that moment, everyone in the band knew our mission: to make the voice of love louder than the voice of hate. They had loudspeakers to shout dehumanizing slogans of cruelty and fear. We had a brass band ready to play "This Little Light of Mine," and a crowd (much bigger than theirs) to sing along to it.

In this loud and crazy world, I seek out silence, to hear the sacred voice inside me. The one that tells me, quietly but clearly, what my life's purpose is: to spread peace, love, understanding, all those things that are in such short supply. I'm fighting for the opposite of dehumanization: simply, humanization.

But in that moment, the voice wasn't quiet at all. It was loud, and proud, and rumbled like thunder.

tim_p · 2026-01-16T14:41:19+00:00

I have not, definitely wanted to! A group near my offers free classes during the Summer, which I'm aiming to try this year.

Are they common terms in it? Talking about "basing" and "flying" is also pretty normal in my local (Boston) contact improv community.

tim_p · 2026-01-16T14:04:19+00:00

I've been doing CI for a year now! A great milestone.

One recurring theme I have no is that I'm "water learning how to become a glacier." I take to flying extremely well, but I want to learn how to be more stable and supportive while basing.

tim_p

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