Guidelines for Introducing Improvisation
by Clare Croft
University of Arizona dance majors study improv as part of the dance curriculum.
- Encourage first-year students to study improv so that their composition skills and technique can develop simultaneously.
- Focus on specific skills to make improv less overwhelming for newcomers.
- Make sure students are aware of other dancers throughout the exercises to avoid collisions.
- Help students expand their movement vocabulary by pointing out movement habits.
- Emphasize that each dancer should be responsible for his or her own body weight.
- Keep the atmosphere open, so that students can speak up if they’re uncomfortable.
- Help students to switch their foci between movement details and larger choreographic patterns.
- Maintain spontaneity through disorientation exercises. Ask students to perform segments of choreography backwards or experiment with inversion (recreating steps as if they’re happening upside down).
- Allow time for written or verbal reflection at the end of each session.
- Encourage an egalitarian environment in which students can learn from one another.
