I was once adjudicating an audition where the dancers were required to improv as part of their score. They lined up on the stage and were called out one by one to dance for 30 seconds to a song picked by the sound manager. The teens came out, lined up, and the music started. The song was slow, dramatic, and eerie. The music played for about 10 seconds before they called for the first dancer (plenty of time to get the feel for the music). The dancer flashed a huge cheesy "competition smile" and did a chasé ball change grand jeté, followed by a few wobbly pirouettes and battements. Her fast and furious desire to fit in every technical dance step she knew DID not match the music AT ALL. I shook my head and gave her my score then they moved on to the next dancer who also turned and leaped her way through her 30 seconds of movement that didn't correspond to the music and so on.
I teach improv to a lot of studios when I travel so, I was not surprised of their choices of movement simply because most of the time students have not been taught how to improv. They are taught to "free dance", put on music and go. For a confident, advanced dancer with improv experience, that is an easier task. For a young dancer who is still learning how to move their body, it is not so easy.
As dancers, we are given every step, every position, every 8 count. We are constantly working on details of placement in very technical shapes. We are constantly working to create more perfect lines and stronger technique so it is no wonder that, when we suddenly ask the dancer to "just dance", the decisions made are the things that they have been working years to improve rather than being able to let go of every technical critique in order to JUST DANCE. They don't know what that means because they are so used to being told what to do..
Improv is a way for the dancer to find NEW ways to move, discover new movement, explore their own style, and create. The idea is to not do anything that is "technical" in order to get outside of the comfort zone...but most young dancer's LOVE the Comfort Zone.
So, how do you get better at Improv?
Creating "rules" for improv is the best way to get dancers to get outside the zone. The more limitations you set for your improv exercise, the more the dancers are forced to get creative and discover new ways to move rather than picking moves that they have done time and time again. This is a simple way to start.
Set limitations based off of either movement quality OR movement transitions.
Here are some examples of Rules for Movement Quality- 1. pick a few adjectives and shout them out as you are dancing, you must change the feel of your movement to match the word, 2. Think of an emotion and the others have to guess what emotion you are expressing through your improv.
Here are some examples of Rules for Movement Transitions- 1. you must stay on the floor the whole time, 2, you must keep one hand on the floor, 3. you must travel across the floor but can only move if connecting to another dancer using anything BUT your hands.
Forcing dancers to move away from what is familiar will help them learn how to really DANCE.
Those are just a few simple ideas to start you off. I have a million other ideas that I would love to share...(lizborom@gmail.com :))
Hopefully that will get you started on finding your new movement!
Take Care of YOU, dancers,
Liz