When I get set certain tasks I can feel my body and mind relax into the movement. My body then goes through a number of movement patterns and new material arises. But I feel that I wouldn't use this kind of movement in my choreography; this strategy therefore doesn't work for me.
Here are a few quotes that have helped to improve my thinking towards improvisation.
"Lie resting,
Let the floor be like warm sand, soft opening to your body,
See the imprint of your body in the sand, slowly rolling over different surfaces, leaving a map of different landscapes of your body, the most familiar, the unreachable.
Let the floor listen to the messages the body leaves to itself,
The air listens to the body, inside and outside."
M.Tufnell & C. Crickway. 'Space, Body, Image'. Pg. 51. (2006) Dance Books Ltd, Hampshire.
Conversations In The Body:
"Begin listening eyes closed,
listen to the movement of the body/air
a still dance
Let one part of the body come to your attention
a hand
a foot
Let its 'voice' emerge in movement
allow the rest of the body to float/follow
Listen to the voices of the fingers/toes
where they want to go
Offer support from the rest of the body
hand wrist elbow shoulder whole body
Allow these other parts some voice too
accepting 'diagreements' if necessary
Enjoy a dialogue between parts of the body and its surroundings."
M.Tufnell & C. Crickway. 'Space, Body, Image'. Pg. 63. (2006) Dance Books Ltd, Hampshire.
There is a quote in this book that might explain what happens to me when I improvise and get stuck on what I am doing this for. Why am I doing this? What relevance does this have to me? This quote is taken from another book called Taking no for an answer by Nancy Stark Smith. Here it states; "Where are you when you don't know where you are is one of the most precious spots offered by improvisation. It is a place from which more directions are possible than anywhere else. I call this place the Gap. The more I improvise, the more I'm convinced that it is through the medium of these gaps - this momentary suspension of reference point - that comes the unexpected and much sought after 'origional' material. It's 'origional' because its origion is the current moment and because it comes from outside our usual frame of reference."
This tells me that the more creative moments come out of improvising as you 'go with the flow' and not bother about what shapes are made. I am going to use this tactic when recording for my choreography, so that when I play it back I can see what parts look good and what don't. Sometimes you can feel like your movement material feels horrible and not worth doing, but for the outside view it may look aesthetically pleasing; or vice versa. I usually choreograph looking in the mirror to see if it is worth keeping or not, but this is a poor attitude to have due to movement being different from other people's movement.
On the other hand, I do believe that you should enjoy the movement through improvising and learning to choreograph along the way. This a process of learning the movement patterns but also experiencing the learning curve of choreographing through your improvisational movements. This often includes integrating with someone else during your movement; whether it's someone in the room, someone/place that you have in mind or someone you will eventually teach this material to.
Improvisation, I feel, is something for yourself; self involvement. This is something that comes from a feeling deep within yourself, something your trying to express, or an energy. Perhaps the environment can effect the state of mind or body when exploring movement; whether this is good or bad. The outcome my change to the next time you explore material, allowing the movement to then take control and have a "life of it's own". I feel sometimes I am in a creative state and therefore I may be more spontaneous with my bodily patterns.
Improvising: following breath.
Begin standing or lying down, deepening into your breath. Here you can feel the beginning, middle and end of your breath and the effects that it has on your body (expanding the ribcage). Here you can feel the beginning process of the body's natural movement. This could be the starting point of excellent creative material with the use of just our normal, every day patterns from the body.
Now feeling the body's movements, pick a body part (one of the 6 limbs) and breathe into that area, then change to another body part. When breathing heavily and deeply, how does the body feel? What are the outcomes? How does these body parts react?
If standing, bring the breathing into the feet and start to let them take you on a journey around the space. If lying down, breathe into the core centre and let it initiate the journey through the space also.
Now begin to inhale deeply, taking in your maximum intake of air and then blow it all out (still with maximum exhale) with an 'AHHH!'. This will help to relax the body into the movement and you can feel the body's changes through the space; this may exaggerate some movements, but others may not be as pronounced.
I feel that the use of breath really helps to get creative within your own body and helps to control your mental state whilst improvising, letting out emotions and feelings.
I have been reading in the book of 'The Intimate Act of Choreography' by Lynne Anne Blom & L. Tarin Chaplin and there are some interesting points on improvisation. On pages 27 & 28 it explains the high point. This includes the well known models diagrammed by Doris Humphrey.
Here the phrase begins and increases to the high point, but decreases again (the high point is middle).
This movement is created by the initial high point, but doesn't die out completely as it regains momentum due to certain strengths (the high points are both starting and finishing the movement); this phrase is a combination of the first two.
This theory only applies to short phrases. These can be based on either a breath or an impulse motivation.
On the other hand, I do believe that you should enjoy the movement through improvising and learning to choreograph along the way. This a process of learning the movement patterns but also experiencing the learning curve of choreographing through your improvisational movements. This often includes integrating with someone else during your movement; whether it's someone in the room, someone/place that you have in mind or someone you will eventually teach this material to.
Improvisation, I feel, is something for yourself; self involvement. This is something that comes from a feeling deep within yourself, something your trying to express, or an energy. Perhaps the environment can effect the state of mind or body when exploring movement; whether this is good or bad. The outcome my change to the next time you explore material, allowing the movement to then take control and have a "life of it's own". I feel sometimes I am in a creative state and therefore I may be more spontaneous with my bodily patterns.
Improvising: following breath.
Begin standing or lying down, deepening into your breath. Here you can feel the beginning, middle and end of your breath and the effects that it has on your body (expanding the ribcage). Here you can feel the beginning process of the body's natural movement. This could be the starting point of excellent creative material with the use of just our normal, every day patterns from the body.
Now feeling the body's movements, pick a body part (one of the 6 limbs) and breathe into that area, then change to another body part. When breathing heavily and deeply, how does the body feel? What are the outcomes? How does these body parts react?
If standing, bring the breathing into the feet and start to let them take you on a journey around the space. If lying down, breathe into the core centre and let it initiate the journey through the space also.
Now begin to inhale deeply, taking in your maximum intake of air and then blow it all out (still with maximum exhale) with an 'AHHH!'. This will help to relax the body into the movement and you can feel the body's changes through the space; this may exaggerate some movements, but others may not be as pronounced.
I feel that the use of breath really helps to get creative within your own body and helps to control your mental state whilst improvising, letting out emotions and feelings.
I have been reading in the book of 'The Intimate Act of Choreography' by Lynne Anne Blom & L. Tarin Chaplin and there are some interesting points on improvisation. On pages 27 & 28 it explains the high point. This includes the well known models diagrammed by Doris Humphrey.
As you can see this begins very fast and gradually dies out, to as slow as possible (The high point starts high).
This label starts off slow and gradually increases (the high point finishes high).Here the phrase begins and increases to the high point, but decreases again (the high point is middle).
This movement is created by the initial high point, but doesn't die out completely as it regains momentum due to certain strengths (the high points are both starting and finishing the movement); this phrase is a combination of the first two.
This theory only applies to short phrases. These can be based on either a breath or an impulse motivation.
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