Blog Written: Saturday 8th April 2017
I have learnt so much from this module, when starting improvisation, I was unaware of how big a topic improvisation is. My understanding of improvisation was to create new choreography, however now I know there is so much more to it with the use of different scores, I now understand each score.
I feel that in the last few weeks I forced myself to contribute more than I had in previous weeks before, I felt anxious about entering the space when first starting this module, although I tried my best and struggled through. In the last few weeks I felt I had to force myself to feel discomfort to allow myself to explore and experiment more adventurously with my material and body. When attending the first Jam with Kirsty I was terrified knowing that we were stood in a circle and had to enter the space, I thought this was very daunting so I asked my peer to enter the space with me and when I had entered the space I felt more at ease. I felt nervous for many weeks, but tried my best to contribute and create interesting improvisations. In week 8, two third years joined us, I was so scared of being judged however they helped me explore material with new bodies. In week 9 and 10 I improvised with the third years more and I enjoyed receiving their experiences through high engagement and focus. I feel that improvising with my peers is more comfortable and open now than it was before.
In recent weeks, I explored relationships with new bodies, this helped me experiment more freely with internal feelings, and not based on the look of choreography, but what the improvisation means to me. I have learnt to track movements and be aware of own material showing the clarity of a thinking dancer. I also explored the length of how long I stay with an idea for and when to move on. After my feedback from week 7 I acknowledged my creativeness with an open mind. I let myself move freely and not allow myself not to feel judged. In weeks 7,8,9&10 I tried my hardest to explore and play with movements, space, bodies, and relationships, I feel that I was engaged thoroughly and contributed towards all scores during sessions effectively in the last 4 weeks trying my hardest for these classes. I feel that music had an influence on my explorations in recent weeks, we experimented how effective music can and cannot be when improvising, how it challenges us to go with or against the rhythms, I found this task difficult at first as I was going with the music, to readjust was a challenge but I did this by feeling the music and having an open mind and body.
I gave a heightened awareness to my body, other bodies, space, relationships, and other improvisation ideas, thinking about how I can join these ideas without interrupting. There were times where I had an idea but the body I wanted to relate with left the space, so I rebounded off from this and used the body leaving as an influence for my movement. Throughout the jams, I gathered thoughts of stillness and pedestrian movements which I didn’t at first think were a form of improvisation, I thought you had to constantly move, however it is about being engaged and in the moment.
I will further my development and knowledge of improvisation with continuous practise. Knowing improvisation is essential for my future career in dance; for audition and company tasks, makes me feel comfortable with how far I have improved in just 10weeks and how much more I can develop is appealing. I feel that improvisation helps make a dancer into a thinking dancer, this meaning to question why I move in a certain way than dancing for dance sake. Also, I think that having the experience of improvisation makes a more versatile performer.