Contemporary dance artists have long wrestled with the
assumption that improvised dance is somehow less rigorous than choreographed
work. Even this distinction between improvised and choreographed is an
insufficient way of viewing dance. I tend to view dance on a spectrum
that exists between “set” and “open”. I might add that there is no such thing
as a completely “set” piece of work in dance, since our humanness/liveness
naturally offer variation from one performance to the next. Also, there
is no such thing as a completely “open” dance, since each dancer brings with
her the influences of her own physical and emotional history.
This expansive space between these two impossible extremes
is what I am deeply interested in. I feel grateful to be surrounded by other
artists who are grappling with these distinctions - diving deeply into embodied
research on presence, relationship with audience, relationship with space,
connection, disconnection, structures of time, structures of space, content of
movement, meaning, memory, imagination, listening, seeing, responding, choice,
design...this list could go on. What I find even more exciting is that
within each topic exist millions of potential experiments and viewpoints.
This is why I believe improvisation in dance deserves/needs
to be both performed and seen. It is not merely a “style” of dance but a way of
being in the world. A way of never allowing life to become “fixed” or “stale”.
A reminder to listen to what my intuition is asking of me at every given
moment. A reminder of my own responsibility, giving me ownership of the
choices I make. Improvisation requires that I recognize the evolution that inevitably
occurs with time passing. It allows a parent to respond to the changing needs
of a child, a doctor to see each patient as an individual, a builder to make
adjustments that could make a home safer in its specific environment/location.
Improvisation is about listening. Improvisation is NOT
about entering a space completely blank, but rather showing up prepared with
tools (used both consciously and unconsciously) such as movement techniques,
performance techniques, practice/experience, and maybe even a plan, score, or
structure of some kind. Much like the parent who reads books on
parenting, the doctor who goes through years of schooling, or the builder who
locks his tools safely in his pickup truck, not one of us comes to our jobs
empty handed. The good ones come prepared. The great ones come prepared
AND willing to listen.
***Please come see improvised performance - "this" (the improvised series).
