Whereas some people may imagine, dance improvisation is not dancing however you feel like dancing in the moment.

Though it is not the contrary either.😁

Or at least not for me.

👉Improvisation as I practice it requires a lot of research, free exploration, structures and restrictions.

💁‍♀️But those structures and restrictions are not set in advanced but tailored around the texture and the quality of embodiment I want to explore and deepen.

👉So what I usually do is that I am dancing freely for a while. In a draft way.

👉And each time something interesting is emerging, I underline it.

👌Then I write them down with some metaphoric names or images that can help me remember it like the drank fugitive, the adventurous baby, the watery ether…

For me what is the most important is not so much to remember the movements or set up a specific vocabulary of moves to play with but to focus on the quality I want to embody and let myself be surprised by the movements it Inspires me.

Some practices that helped me and on what:

– Butoh (Japanese contemporary dance) for its focus on our dark sides and very slow move in the moment.

– Circling and Surrendered Leadership (a relational meditative practice) for one of its principle « staying at the level of sensations »

– Gaga dance (Movement language developped by Ohad Naharin) for its focus on our natural groove

– Contact improvisation for its listening quality

– Freestyle for focusing on being better at what we are not good at to reveal more of what we are good at 🙃

– improvisation (theatre) for its principle of staying open to the others proposition

Hope this article gives you some good tips to play with.

I would be curious to hear yours in comment if you have some! 🙂