Dance improvisation - Definition

Dance Improvisation is the creation of improvised movement and is usually accosiated with 20th century concert dance but is not exclusive to that genre.

Development of improvised movement material is facilitated through a variety of creative explorations including:

• body mapping
  • body mind centering
• levels, shape and dynamics (see Laban Movement Analysis)
• sensory experiences
  • touch / contact improvisation
• perceptual schema

Contrary to popular belief dance improvisation is not about creating new movement but freeing the body form habitual movement patterns (see Postmodern dance and Judson Dance Theater)

Quotes

some movement improvisation artists and theorists, (eg: Steve Paxton, Bonnie Bainbridge-Cohen, Simone Forti) as specialists of the phenomenology and aesthetics of human movement have reached theoretical and practical insights about human interaction and embodiment that are closely related to the ones that are found recently in the fields of artificial intelligence (embodied robotics), cognitive science (embodied cognition) and new biology (self-organization and emergence). - Barrios Solano, M. (2004)

Related articles

• contact improvisation
• choreography
• composition
• choreographic technique
• Postmodern dance
• Judson Dance Theater
• List of dance style categories
• Laban Movement Analysis

Further reading

• Minton, S, C. (1997) Choreography: A Basic Approach Using Improvisation. Human Kinetics . ISBN 0880115297
• Tufnell, M. and Vaughan, D. (1999) Body Space Image : Notes Toward Improvision and Performance. Princeton Book Co. ISBN 1852730412
• Barrios Solano, M. (2004) Posthuman Performance: Dancing within Cognitive Systems. http://dancelab1.dance.ohio-state.edu/~barrios/cord.html