Improvising

Last weekend was the opening night of a show I’ve been rehearsing for since September, Emily Faulkner’s Wind Up Dances. Our little cast of six has become quite close over the months, and the rehearsal process has been one of the most enjoyable I’ve experienced. Emily is a certified teacher of the Alexander Technique, and I think we all gained a fair amount of body organization and awareness from the teachings. One especially fun and tangible way we got to see our own progress was through daily improvisation sessions, where we’d do some Alexander exercises and then take turns exploring whatever movement interested us without any real guidelines. This is a fairly common tool used in the modern dance world to generate new material for dances, but I hadn’t experienced a process that devoted so much time to improvising and to watching each dancer in a cast improvise. I learned a TON about my own movement patterns, habits, and I really enjoyed the challenge of breaking out of my defaults to explore and play, making way for movement to come out of me I didn’t realize was even in there! As the rehearsal process draws to a close and I anticipate the post show blues, I'd like to share some clips of my favorite improv sessions.