As this week was the final week of our improvisation classes, the lesson revisited many of the concepts that we have discovered during the course. I realised from the lesson that Nancy Stark-Smiths ‘underscore’ is a favourite of mine because I feel I discover new things about my body and its way of moving each time I work with the method.

During the process, I feel I have definitely discovered movement from a number of starting points, mainly due to the various tasks set by Kayla. When it comes to scores that are free from Kayla’s direction, I know starting from a different point is something I need to work on more as I generally start standing on two feet, which is boring and habitual! I tend to forget about how I am starting the improvisation as I am too busy trying to think of all the other structures I want to incorporate. I do feel playing with the different concepts has been one of my strongest points during improvisation as I am often concentrating on using them when I am performing. I’ve found for me, imagery is the most effective way to break away from habitual patterns and discover movement.

From participating in class from an audience point of view, I’ve learnt that movement does not always have to be neat and pretty to look interesting. I find this movement can be effective but it depends on the intention the dancer has and how they work with the movement, but it is also ok for movement to look awkward and strange. There is no set way for movement to look. I’ve realised there are many different ways to capture the audience’s attention and improvisation involves the discovering of this. I find as an observer, my eye is often drawn to interesting group formations. This could be why when improvising myself I tend to join and create groups, rather than solo work.

After working with music for the final week of improvisation, I realised how much I prefer working with silence. I feel music dominates the movement creation in the work leading to habitual patterns. The only use I found for the music was how it felt and looked to rebel against it with movement; it was interesting to work with this and something that I would like to discover more about if I were to play with music and improvisation again. Apart from that, I just feel music limits an improvisation and that there are much more possibilities that can be discovered in silence. From an audience perspective, I found it is a lot more engaging when there is no music because you can completely focus on the material.

I feel improvisation has developed my confidence tremendously. In the earlier weeks I would feel nervous to perform to people in the class due to feeling judged and questioning if the movement I was doing was correct. I now realise that improvising is ultimately down to intention. For me it’s a practice for expression and discovery of the body and its possibilities. Although I now feel confident to perform a solo during improvisation, it is something I steer away from as previously mentioned I prefer group improvisations. I know that I should not neglect the role of a solo because of my personal preferences. I think solos are something that I need to work on in the future so that I can discover how to use improvisation concepts when I am alone. As I discovered in the pop up scores, I felt confident as a dancer in the space, however, I was not completely confident with how I was using the space.

The pop up scores also made me realise the importance of the audience/improviser relationship. As an audience member it was so interesting to see the ways the scores differed in the different seating arrangements. I particularly enjoyed being an audience member when we were permitted to walk through the space as it felt like we were also a part of the score, making the whole experience more engaging than in traditional seating. As a performer, it was also interesting to see how the audience effected my performance when they were in the round. I felt that I was improvising for them, rather than what I usually do which is primarily for my self-discovery. Due to them being in a much closer environment, I could feel their presence much more intensely and this effected my movement choices. I do feel I need to work on striking the balance between how much I am improvising for myself and for the audience as I think I often get lost in the discovery of my movements and forget to project and focus on the audience. The audience can create just as interesting possibilities with just their effect on your body as you can when trying to discover movement for yourself. I think in future improvisation practices, I will consciously add them into my intentions.

In reference to the body, Deborah Hay states “as an imagined condition it is infinite in its feedback (Hay, cited in De Spain, 2014, 93). This quote particularly stands out to me as there really are so many possibilities for the body in improvisation and each week I have been amazed at what I have discovered. The body is your primary tool in improvisation and I know what I have learned over the weeks with my body has made a permanent influence on my practice.