To say that my thoughts and feelings have changed towards improvisation since the first week is an understatement.

 Feeling nervous and out of my depths, I entered my first lesson. Not knowing what to expect, or how I was ever going to be able to think of new movements on the spot without thinking about what I was doing.

 Now, leaving my last improvisation lesson nine weeks on, I feel confident and brave, to try new ideas, to not think about them. Who cares if I look stupid? If I feel confident in the movement and my ability, then who’s to say it is wrong?

I feel like this module has helped me grow as a person, as well as a dancer.   It has made me become a stronger person, who is not afraid to contribute my ideas into a score, even if it changes the meaning and intention. I have even taken risks, which I never would have done when we first started.

Pop up scores…

 The score was essentially down to chance this week.

You would pick a card to do with:

Number of dancers

Length of time

Performance space

Music

Audience.

 These essentially created a structure for the score.

In the pop up score where I was a dancer, the audience were allowed to walk through the score. This brought back Anna Halprins idea of having a connection with the audience. I felt like for the first time I could really connect with the audience. Halprin says that “If I were to be concerned about whether they liked it or not… that would be a terrible distraction.” (De Spain, 2014, 62). I think this quote says it all. I felt this sense of relief when I gave up worrying about what I was doing. Having the audience walking through the score enabled me to really connect with the audience, and in some way I think that because I believed in my movements, they believed in it too.

I now want to talk about my experience of improvisation in relation to the learning outcomes.  

It is hard to comprehend just how much I have learnt over the module…

 How to track others and my own movements, so that I can bring them back and re-visit them when I feel like it is the right time.

How to have an intention, and how to attend to this through movement, dynamics and even sound.

How to use form and structure to create an interesting improvisation

Time. How I can play with time, or play it safe.

I feel like these structures and modes of improvisation, have opened my eyes to how improvisation isn’t just about creating movements on the spot without any prior judgement.  Its about how you can explore these things, without worrying or thinking about them.  I’ve really enjoyed using these structures, and I feel that I have improved drastically when it comes to how we undertake and comprehend the tasks given.

 

Being given starting points in improvisation often increased my ability to improvise successfully. For example….

“There must always be one trio and two solos in the space.”

Being given this starting point, gave me a reason to improvise. It gave a drive to my movement and so what I was doing became more exciting and innovative to the audience.

At first, I was using starting points as this, the drive for my movement. But as the weeks passed, I was using them as a point of reference. As I became more comfortable in what I was doing, I was more confident that I could use the starting points in a different way… maybe not using them straight away, but I always knew I could refer back to them, even in the weeks after when I was stuck for ideas.

 

In this weeks jam, I reflected on how much my self and group awareness has evolved and increased…

In the first weeks, I only thought about what I was doing… going back to the notion of “Do I look stupid? Is what I’m doing wrong?”

Whereas now, I am constantly looking for new and exciting ways to involve my own improvisation with that of others, to create relationships within the scores. In the final jam, I was always looking for new duos, trios and groups to join, so that we could create something new and exciting. I think this will be extremely helpful when moving onto Contact Improvisation next semester.

 

This also links with how I applied compositional elements to my solo and group improvisations…

 For example… If the score were happening in one area of the space, then I would create something new in an area, which had not yet been explored. Towards the end of the module, I explored space a lot more within the last weeks, and my one regret is that I had not done this previously. Out of everything we have learned in this module, my awareness of the space around me has improved the most. Previously I had been afraid to use areas of the space where no one else was, due to the fear of people judging my movements. But now, this is what I enjoy the most. Having a vast area of space to explore, either as a solo or a group ensemble. This to me, as both a performer and audience member, could make or break an improvisation piece.

I believe that this blog, has aided me greatly within my experience of improvisation…

It has made me think about what I was doing, and how I could improve… whether this be to do with movement, compositional elements, or how I could get over my fear of entering the space and doing it “wrong”.

It has helped me develop my skill of reflection, by not ignoring the things in which I could improve on. Having this here through my journey, heightened my awareness of my body, which will aid me greatly in modules to come as well as my career.

Nine weeks was definitely not enough.  I feel that if i had more time with this practice, then I could have vastly improved from where I am now.

I am intrigued to learn more….