The Improvisation Process

The Improvisation Process (Overview)

There are a few things to consider before you venture into the improvisation process with your students. The, "What I Like About You" game in, 'Improvisation: Lesson 1', can help you overcome some of the obstacles listed in numbers 1-4 below. (Reminder - This course is designed for ages 9-11, but can be adapted to all ages.)

1) That the majority of the class has been with you, as their teacher, for one season, or more, and they feel comfortable expressing themselves in front of you; and that the majority of the class has been together for one season, or more, and feels comfortable expressing themselves in front of each other.

2) Your students will follow your lead. If you're uninhibited; they are less likely to be inhibited. It is essential that the students are ready to take on the task of improvisation. The students need to feel safe that their peers' reactions will be positive reactions. (Insecurity will lead to nervous giggling, which will let you know that the class is not yet ready to experiment with improvisation.)
Improvisation time is different from regular class time, in that the dancers are opening themselves up and making themselves vulnerable. They do not have the security of hiding behind dance steps or choreography that they were taught. They are truly revealing themselves and they need to feel safe in their environment.

3) It is important to get across to your students, that in improvisation, no ones interpretation of someone else's improvisation is incorrect. Everyone has his or her own unique perspective. Like in abstract art. One may understand a piece of art to be frightening, while yet another may find the same body of work to be uplifting. In improvisation, everything is relative.

4) The last step in helping your students to become more comfortable in the improvisation process is to change the ambiance of classroom. Take it from a 'regular class time' feeling to an 'improvisation class time' feeling. All you have to do is 'set the mood'. Improvisation time feels safe and comfortable in soft light. The dancers are more likely to open up and 'let go' in this setting. These variables are very important to reach an immediate success when trying improvisation for the first time. You don't want to scare your dancers off during their first lesson. It will be more difficult to convince them that improvisation is not only fun, but the key to the freedom of self-expression, and the first step in experimenting with choreography.