Most people are not strangers to the terrible limbo of indecision. The choices that face us in our daily lives affect how we move forward. Sometimes making a decision frightens us into hesitation or complete paralysis, unable to confront either option. Through music, dance and light, 10 students in the Performance Improvisation dance concert demonstrated their mastery of on-the-spot decision-making. What resulted was ephemeral but complete artistic freedom in the creation of beautiful work.
- James Moore ’12, Jeremy Cline ’11.5 and Christian Morel ’11 create a spontaneous piece in the Performance Improvisation dance concert. Jiayi Zhu.
This spring semester, students and guest artists have been training in the art of improvisation with Lecturer in Dance Penny Campbell. The dancers, performers and musicians all have a great deal of prior experience in their areas, but for some, Campbell’s approach to improvisation exposed them to new ways of creating. Improvisation is an artist’s response to an ever-shifting environment of light and music, movements of fellow dancers and individual whims. Musicians play and dancers dance whatever and whenever they wish; what keeps the spontaneity from dissolving into shambles of discordant notes and bodies is each participant’s awareness of what is happening around him or her.
The performance was split into pieces of varying lengths with different participants. The musicians played piano, electric violin, electric guitar, saxophone and every kind of curious percussion instrument. Each dancer’s particular style shone through, but some of the most enjoyable moments were when they were in contact with each other and conversing with their movements. They stirred the audience into laughter, reservation and contemplation. The composition’s unplanned spirit was an exhibition of talent; the show was so convincing that the audience could very well have believed it was a rehearsed performance.
The participants all commented on the learning experience they gained by taking this course and putting on the final performances. Hannah Pierce ’13 said, “I love [improvisation] because we are given a blank page, but also the tools necessary to transform it into something interesting and beautiful. The attention … to every detail has really changed my dancing and the way I interpret and understand a performing art.”
In this performance, the lighting played a crucial role and was beautifully executed. Jennifer Ponder, the lighting designer and technical director for the College’s dance program, seemed to know just when to bring the lights down to end a piece. The lighting design seemed to flow along with the music and the dancing, uniting the pieces brilliantly.
Improvisation is an achievement of the human brain, a flash of fearless choice, from which art arises and gives the audience an extraordinary treasure. Each of these pieces will never be repeated, and as a member of the audience, that remarkable aspect makes it seem like it was made just for us, uniquely and beautifully ours.
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