Time and space were the key concepts of today’s lesson in which we looked at how we can make use of them during improvisation.

Looking at the idea of beginning, middle and end, we were required to improvise in the space thinking about each part as we were improvising. When I started my beginning, I gave myself the intention that I wanted to end how I started – this meant that I was tracking my movement. I feel that I am starting to build up the different elements in improvisation and they are coming to me more naturally then before. My use of tracking in this task is just one example of how I am starting develop and use the elements that I am learning over the weeks.

For the partner task this week, I was the observer. When observing my partner, I noticed many aspects of her improvisation but particularly that she seemed to stay in a specific area and travel at the same speed. When she next performed, I gave her targets to change (specifically about her use of space and speed) and she improved instantly making the work much more interesting to watch. I now know that I need to think about these elements too when I am improvising in order to get the best results.

One of the task’s that I found very interesting today was when we were required to look and listen to the space. In order to listen to the space, I found myself listening to footsteps, for example: if I was facing the wall in the corner of the room and I couldn’t see what was happening around me, in order to find the next available space, I would listen for footsteps from a specific area of the room and move straight to the area where I had heard these footsteps come from – I knew the area had space because the footsteps were from people moving to a new space. Similarly, when we were required to look at the space, I found myself looking for the empty spaces that people left once they went to find a new space. Looking and listening for empty space is a pattern that I tended to follow. Frequently I would directly walk with intent to where I wanted to be in the space, but someone else would have the same intention. Sometimes I would decide to abandon this intention and move to a new space. Other times instead of moving, I would continue on my intended path causing the dancer and I to both be in the same space in close proximity. This created an interesting change in the way my personal space felt, as well as causing me to have to read the space differently.

I definitely feel I am starting to improve and develop my improvisation skills; I particularly noticed this week something that is becoming more natural to me when I am improvising is finding the movement. The state of panic I have felt in previous weeks where I would be worried about what movement to do next is slowly leaving my mind-set. Midgelow states in her article ‘Dear Practice …: The experience of improvising’ “Go ahead, dearest Dancer, with the belief that ‘something’ (even if that something is a ‘nothing’) will emerge.”(Midgelow, 2012, 11) and I feel that I’m becoming more confident each week with this belief. I don’t need to question what to do next anymore because it just happens, as suggested in the quote. Letting go of this panic is allowing my mind be more open to developing and building upon all of the aspects of improvisation that I am learning each week – helping me to achieve my full potential in improvisation.