This unique collection of expressive dance photographs is an invitation to an intimate meeting with contact improvisation, which celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2022. Contact improvisation is a contemporary dance form in which dancers improvise around a shared point of contact. Because the next move is never known in advance, the dancers can only mindfully experience the dance as it emerges, listening inwardly and acting outwardly simultaneously. By becoming a participant himself, Lasse Lychnell photographs the dance from the inside as it unfolds in the relationship between the dancers, the photographer, and the magnificent environment on Arambol Beach in Goa.

The book is also a visual exploration of connection. The ability to connect—with ourselves, others, and the planet—is regarded as essential for creating a sustainable world, leading organizations, and improving our well-being. Yet we seldom reflect on the nature of connection itself. What if we are already connected and simply lack the ability to notice it? Inspired by Martin Buber’s notion of “I and Thou,” this photographic research explores the nature of connection as one’s ability to embrace another “I” while being in genuine contact with one’s own “I.”
 
Lasse Lychnell is a photographer, contact improvisation dancer, and management researcher at the Stockholm School of Economics.

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