In this course we will engage with various approaches and techniques that support students in the development of their improvisation and performance practices, expanding and deepening their experience of both. This will encourage a letting go of the attachment we have to engrained movement patterns and preconceived ideas of what our dance vocabulary can/should include. In turn, this will open up the possibility of finding new efficiency, direction, and perspective. The practice of improvisation will expand the students physical, performative and choreographic intelligence.
Certain histories and lineages of dance improvisation practice will be referenced and discussed within class, as well as readings of significant improvisation dance artists in the field, including Lisa Nelson, Deborah Hay, Eva Karczag, Dana Reitz, Steve Paxton and William Forsythe. We will practice solo, duet and group improvisation, navigating our relationship to time, space and our audience.
Learning Outcomes:
How to prepare ourselves in a ‘ready state’ to improvise
How to tune the mind and body for this work
How to find ways that activate our awareness of how we compose ourselves in relationship to space, time and others
How to increase our understanding and potential, whether we engage with improvisation as a practice, a choreographic tool, a training vehicle in perception, and/or a performance mode in itself
To understand how frameworks or scores can free us up in order to delve deeper and experience more of the unknown in our improvisations
Delivery Method: Fully in-person
Prerequisites:
Please contact Dana Reitz (dreitz@bennington.edu) via email describing your interest in the course and your previous experience.
Corequisites: Dance or Drama Lab Assignment if students are registered for 4 or more credits in designated dance courses.
Course Level: 4000-level
Credits: 2
T/F 2:10PM - 4:00PM (Full-term)
Maximum Enrollment: 20
Course Frequency: One time only
Categories: 4000 , All courses , Dance , Fully In-Person , Two Credit
Tags: anatomy , body , composition , dance , health , Mind and Body , movement , performance , somatics