Blog Entry- Week 9.

The act of improvising: creating something spontaneously or without preparation.

The improvisation module was one that I was looking forward to before it began, although apprehensive to begin with, I have enjoyed this module thoroughly for the duration. In the first few weeks, I felt that I fell behind with the practice and I was noticing habitual movement in my own body for longer than I felt I should, so I think it took me a long time to work with the idea of improvisation and all the different methods as I missed quite a lot. Observing the classes was obviously not as beneficial as practical but I felt like I was learning a lot from watching how the other dancers moved and being able to identify habitual movement in them and watch them develop and embody the methods.

Working with the idea of internalisation was an idea that took a long time to work in my body and to fully understand. I always envisioned movement as something that you could physically see and was aesthetically pleasing to watch and the improvisation module has changed that in my body as I always try to feel the origin of the movement first and comprehend where it is moving through in my body.

Reflecting on the different classes in the module, one of my favourite aspects were the Improvisation Jams. I enjoyed the idea of exploring the different methods we’d learnt in the class and applying what we’ve learnt in other classes. Without sounding obvious, there were different outcomes in each jam and I came to appreciate the different movement qualities in each of the dancers in the space and start learning from them, even taking ideas and applying different methods to their movement. There were dancers in the space who I really came to work well with and I felt like I created a relationship with them where I was able to physically communicate my ideas and vice versa.

Working with isolation of the body parts is something I have found very useful in solo improvisation, it has given me a starting point and I constantly find new ways of moving and different pathways. I also find it useful when I am echoing another dancer’s movement and I am able to develop it and change it by embodying the movement in different parts of my body.

Thick Skinning is a method that I really enjoy as I like working with other bodies and getting inspiration from their movement and learning how the other bodies like to move. I think it is a good method to start to understand spatial awareness while moving in the space with other dancers.

Scores were introduced to us at the very beginning of the module and were a concept that I never really took to throughout. I found most of the scores very restricting, even when we were creating them ourselves. I appreciate that these scores enabled us to create some very interesting movement throughout the time and I found other people’s ideas very interesting and I enjoyed seeing the movement that we could create with the score but the scores are something that I find very difficult to get to grips with and I feel like I get stuck in my own body and struggle to work with the restrictions to my advantage. I feel like working more with scores and being more open minded about the outcomes when I am dancing I feel that I would enjoy them a lot more and I would create a lot more interesting movement.

I feel like I have learnt a lot about my body from this module and I have been able to explore different things that I would never have tried to do with my body before and tried to stay with the movement that I have worked with for years. After this module, I feel like I will be more confident in creating material for future choreography that will be new and explorative.