This week I unfortunately fell ill and so I missed the Improvisation and Reflective Practice class, however, whilst wallowing in my bed I had lots of time to delve into the readings for this week. It was a good thing I had loads of time to dedicate to the readings as they were particularly hard to understand.
Melinda Buckwalter talks about how “form is the shape of something” (Buckwalter, 2010, 34). Form is something I have always struggled to follow, as its difficult to find a clear definition, mostly because form is not always something we can name. It wasn’t until Deborah Hay’s description where I began to understand. For instance Hay demonstrates how the form is developed through practice, she is sure to use the phrase “practice the performance” rather “rehearse”, as through practice we begin to see the dance take form by “unlearning the habit of learning a piece in one particular way” (Buckwalter, 2010, 39). Eiko and Komo allowed me to then understand how form influenced improvisation; when making their dances, they begin with a concept and develop an end structure through improvisation. It is “a narrative built from multiple, concrete images, but not a typical ‘and then we did this’ narrative” (Buckwalter, 2010, 39). This demonstrates how form and improvisation work in conjunction with another as through improvisation the form is able to develop, yet the form or narrative is still open to interpretations, following the description that “sometimes the form is left open, to be discovered or revealed along the way” (Buckwalter, 2010, 34). Through the use of several practitioners views, Buckwalter embellishes the fact that form allows the dance or improvisation to take shape and actually become something other than just movement.
Intentionality as described by Kent de Spain reminded me of my previous experiences with decision-making with regard to improvisation, yet it seems different due to many practitioners disagreeing with its use. For instance Steve Paxton believes it disrupts the creative process, which is actually a belief I am inclined to agree with, as I believe if you intend to do something, it forces the movement rather than letting the improvisation flow. I felt I closely identified with Lisa Nelson’s idea of the “illusion of intentionality” (De Spain, 2014, 71), she feels she is aware of the intention because she is aware of the different sensations, hence why it is considered an illusion. She describes how the movement is so complex, and there are many elements affecting the improvisation, and so there may be several intentions, and by tracking all the different sensations, Nelson is then able to become aware of the different intentions.
Due to being ill, I also had to sit out of this week’s jam session, however watching the improvisation proved to be a very interesting and exciting experience. Despite the dancers being limited by space and movement, I found there was still plenty to observe. For instance, when the girls joined together with one another creating duets/trios/quartets, the space was then further divided between one group performing stationary movement and another group performing pedestrian movement in the space left over. However, when it moved on to the fourth section where the dancers were not limited in space, the whole of the space was still not used. It was also easy to see some dancer’s intentions when they entered the space, you could see when people felt ‘safe’ when following the movements of another, as they were following another’s intentions. It wasn’t until that person suddenly changed their intention and the person who was following now has to make a decision on whether to carry on following the person or to follow their own intention. There was sometimes a brief moment of panic flick across the dancer’s face once this happened. What was most exciting were the moments when dancers came together in movement without realising as, like mentioned earlier, the movements were not forced as the intentions between the two dancers were potentially entirely different and the improvisation was true. When the dancers were allowed to further develop the movements, dancers still came together by performing similar movements instead of the exact same, for example one person could be kneeling, yet another person could have their knees slightly bent. Again, this may or may not have been their intention yet these moments prove pleasing to the audience.
Despite the unfortunate halt in my learning this week and not being able to physically explore with improvisation, it actually proved useful to take a step back and analyse another’s improvisation and watch the dancers as a group whilst picking out individual moments.
Buckwalter, M. (2010) Composing while dancing: An improvisor’s companion. Madison, Wis:: The University of Wisconsin Press.
De Spain, K. (2014) Landscape of the Now: A Topography of Movement Improvisation. New York: Oxford University Press.