I hosted Improv Roulette again this past Sunday. Unfortunately, the event was poorly attended. This makes me sad, because not only do I think it’s more fun with more people (especially coming from different performance backgrounds), but I really think it’s a good experience for any performer who wants to improve his or her ability to improvise… or even to come up with new ideas that might show up in a future choreography.
Did you know that even serious scholarly books about ballet recommend improvisation as a way to discover motifs to use in a choreography? I just learned that recently while reading “Dance Composition” by Jacqueline M. Smith-Autard (which will be the next subject of “Sophia’s Shelf” as soon as I finish it!). So whether you prefer to always improvise on stage, or perform more choreographed creations, it’s always good to expand your ability to dance spontaneously.
And because Improv Roulette is not belly-dance-centric, and because I have an eclectic mix of music, and weird word prompts, and a collection of props that ranges from standard to silly, there’s a lot of room to learn new things about how your body can move to the music.
A few moments that stood out for me in this weekend’s event:
-Mahin pulled the word prompt “Tender” and danced a sweet duet with her crocheted travel buddy “Mr. Monkey.”* At different times throughout the song, Mr. Monkey served as Mahin’s dance partner, a prop, and an audience member. This showed that a prop doesn’t have to serve only one purpose in a single performance!
-I pulled the word prompt “Elbow” and I decided to see how many different ways I could use my elbows in my dance! I spent almost the entire song emphasizing my elbows, leading movements from them, touching them together, caressing them with my hands and more. Most of what I did would not make it into a normal performance, but it did get me thinking about how different a turn can look depending on what angle I bend my elbows at, and how originating a body slide or traveling move from the elbow gives it an interesting, angular appearance.
-Speaking of focus on body parts, Mahin and I pulled “Fingertips” during the duet round. Although we didn’t focus on that for the entire song, we had fun using our fingers to hit accents in the music, but also finding ways to dance with our fingers touching. Mahin got us started on a really cool partner version of an arm wave!
If this sounds like something you’d like to be part of, I’ll be hosting another event on May 24th at Belly Dance Tucson, and Mahin and I will be putting one together up in Phoenix in April (exact details forthcoming, but it should be mid-April in Central Phoenix). Or if you’re not from AZ, visit Improv Roulette on Facebook and see if there’s a chapter near you!