I N T R O D U C T I O N

               Last Spring I designed and performed a solo in Berlin, Germany in which I established a theory of improvisation based on the interplay of metaphysics and metaphor as revealed through a fluid alternation of text and movement. Text depicts metaphysical descriptions of present situations as experienced by the dancers, whereas abstract movement creates a metaphorical visual portrayal of relationship and symbolism. As an emerging contemporary dance artist at The Ohio State University I have become increasingly intrigued by the boundaries of theater and the roles of performer and audience in experiencing live art that intermixes choreography and structured improvisation, movement and text, by accessing the uninhibited mind of each individual dancer’s subconscious state of existence.

If basic communication is an exchange of language, particularly verbal and physical, how can speech enhance movement to illuminate the essence of “being” in an abstract form? How, as a director, does one establish a common understanding and methodology in pairing choreographic research pertaining to the present moment and situation with the unique combination of personalities in the process in which the performance derives meaning? In my theory of improvisation, I emphasize a heightened awareness of the emotional self and the atmosphere of the surrounding environment. I then base teaching, directing, and choreographing on these ideas to draw attention to the state of existence and occurrence in the space through metaphysical and metaphorical explanation. The nature of the work is heavily inspired by Surrealist approaches to art as a vector of inhibiting the mind and the subconscious. A development from this process is the question: How far can a performer push a viewer’s comfort and understanding of reality whilst playing on familiar relationships or situations?

I have been directing a company of seven undergraduate dancers since August 2013, devising exercises involving philosophical and interpersonal content in order to create an eight-minute dance choreographed and improvised from my theory. Multiple bodies, minds, and voices introduce a new layer of individual approach and the necessary steps to working together in the process with a goal of integrating the space of performer and audience.

O B J E C T I V E S o  Organize and train a company of dancers

o  Develop a theory of improvisation and exercises to train artists in the technique

o  Use choreography as a constant environment in which improvisation can live and keep live performance work relevant to the present experience in the given moment pertaining to the people in the room.

o  Find a relationship between movement and spoken word in order to reveal the experience of the dancer during the performance in real time to the audience.

o  Challenge an audience’s expectations of theater, social protocol, and preconceived ideas of form in dance.

M E T H O D S Travel to Berlin, Germany for 8 months:

o  Study dance improvisation as composition

o  Perform an improvised solo with text designed with Marcela Giesche at Tanzfabrik

o  Trip abroad inspired by studying Advanced Improvisation at Bates Dance Festival in Maine with Angie Hauser and Chris Aiken.

Stream of consciousness writings, conversation, and choreographic topics:

o  Internal/external view of self

o  Perception of self/of others

o  Solitude/independence

o  Acceptance of community/breaking from community

o  Boundaries of the mind and body of oneself/others/a constructed space and the ability to break from preconceived conventions of existence.

Choreographing and Structuring the Performance Piece:

o  Rehearsals twice a week, 7 dancers, 6 months

o  Use improvisational technique by composing as an ensemble

o  Set choreography from improvisation

o  Use photography, photo-collages and videotaped rehearsals for outside eye and to recreate spatial relationships

o  Close note-taking referring to content covered and explored in rehearsal, dancers’ individual approaches, and effectiveness of improvisational exercises for tapping into the subconscious

o  Regular informal showings held for feedback from dancers, artists, and acquaintances from other fields of study.

Experimen*ng:  

Doing  

Doing  Away  With  

Redoing    

Combine  sec*ons  of  

Choreography  with  

Improvisa*on  

Improvisa*on  

Reading  

 Wri*ng  

Dialogue  

Choreography  

R E S U L T S Of Process in Performance

A 10 minute dance work performed at BalletMet’s Performance Space in Downtown Columbus that:

o  Breaks from the conventional qualities of live performance

o  Redefines how dance exists in the theater

o  Investigates inter- and intrapersonal shared life experience between people

o  Begins to illuminate the range of Realism and Surrealism that can be attained by the mind

o  Merges American and European approaches to dance improvisation and theater

R E S U L T S Of Choreographic Process A company of 7 dancers who have developed skills in improvisation including:

o  Ensemble composition

o  Reading the energy of a room of people

o  Speaking off the cuff based on movement emerging from improvisation

o  Feeding off of each other in live performance to design a trajectory of message and environment.

P E R F O R M A N C E R E V I E W “Thank you for making such courageous work, work that boldly broke with so many of the conventions with which we organize our theatres—and also our lives—with breaks that ranged from sardonic-almost-irreverent to the tender places where it seemed as if something quite fragile had snapped quietly/momentously. For me the vignettes of your piece gradually uncovered intimacies that swung from pushy, frustrated, and fraught to soft, breathy, and revelatory, lingered around questions about how our needs get met and what we don’t acknowledge, pushed what sexuality might be, and incessantly asked—through spatial proximities, groupings and formations, sophisticated movement vocabularies, entrances, exits, furtive glances, and sudden exclamations: How might belonging be more terrifying than not?”

•  Michael Morris, Dance PHD Candidate The Ohio State University

U P N E X T

I plan to continue exploring my improvisational technique combining dance and text by teaching classes, continuing the work in future projects with new dancers, and performing this approach to improvisation in the theater and in site specific places to further investigate how environment feeds content. I will present a solo from this work in The Ohio State Department of Dance Spring showcase in April in order to revisit the technique from personal experience of performance. I will continue my research by submitting a proposal to the Society of Dance History Scholars + Congression of Research in Dance Conference for fall of 2014. Upon graduating I am in process of creating an electronic portfolio that will also act as a blog for upcoming research in this area.

A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T S

A gracious thanks to my adviser Beryl Miller, Professor of Dance at The Ohio State University, Angie Hauser and Chris Aiken for their Advanced Improvisation course at the Bates Dance Festival, Marcela Giesche for her directing and improvisational teachings at Tanzfabrik in Berlin, Germany, Dave Covey and Carrie Cox for guidance and feedback during preparations for the performance in BalletMet’s theater in downtown Columbus.

This project would not be possible without the granting of funds from The Ohio State University’s Arts & Sciences International Research Scholarship and the Arts Undergraduate Research Scholarship.

R E F E R E N C E S o  May Sarton’s Journal of a Solitude

o  John Steinbeck’s East of Eden

o  Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet

o  E.E. Cummings’ 1x1

o  John Burrow’s The Choreographer’s Handbook

o  Jack Kerouac’s The Subterraneans