In Danielle Goldman’s I Want To Be Ready scholar examines improvisation in dance. Accordingly to the author improvisation is “a spontaneous mode of creation that takes place without the aid of manuscript or score”. That is, explored in the context of dance practices, improvisation is the simultaneous action of performance and composition.
As I understood it from the thick introduction description, the central question the book is attempting the answer to is about the role of improvisation in performance. As the introduction part and the third chapters, both suggest the relations between social conventions and political norms have a complex dynamic system. In other words, in Goldman’s vision choreography cannot exist in the vacuum, meaning it always reflects the environment outside of the rehearsal room. From that perspective improvisation in dance becomes a tool of political activism. Thus, this technique (improvisation) can be used as the provocative mode of dance making.
This approach to one of the roles that dance practices hold is particularly interesting in terms of our class. As Goldman’s argument suggests the choice of choreography is based on the political and social standing in the same measure as on an artist cultural belonging factor. That makes improvisation in dance a technique that allows performers to express their individualities and their thoughts on social and politically relevant issues — for example, to participate in the protests. The notion that improvisation can be used as the tool of drawing attention to certain problematic aspects correlates with the activist meaning that Aakash Odedra puts in his dance practices.
Hi Anastasiia,
The point you make about improvisation being both performance and composition happening live is critical. Improvisation allows you to show and think at the same time, a technique that is critical when you are in situations that are constrained or impoverished or stressful. Now that you’re back from Greece, you know that there was only so much abstract preparation one could do before we taught dance in Skaramangas — without really knowing the place, the people or their skill set, we had to prepare ourselves to “be ready” and both perform and compose a class while it was happening. There is joy for the audience in watching the dance think about what the next move will be without the need for perfection – there is some freedom from the constraints as hand when one watches the imagination create with only the body as the interactive instrument. But mostly, improvisation depends on that readiness — knowledge of strategies that we learn in the rehearsal room as “tools” in our pocket so that anxiety about improvisation doesn’t overwhelm us. It’s never coming into a situation unprepared. In fact the opposite. Every dance class, every rehearsal can prepare a body for improvisation — it gives us more options in becoming “ready” to transgress the restraints of any situation.