The Improvisation Studies Reader: Spontaneous Acts

479 Pages·2014·14.263 MB·English

by  Rebecca Caines (editor), Ajay Heble (editor)

The Improvisation Studies Reader
Improvisation is a performance practice that animates and activates diverse energies of
inspiration, critique, and invention. In recent years it has coalesced into an exciting and
innovative new field of interdisciplinary scholarly inquiry, becoming a cornerstone of
both practical and theoretical approaches to performance.
TheImprovisation StudiesReaderdrawstogethertheworksofkeyartistsandthinkers
from a range of disciplines, including theatre, music, literature, film, and dance. Divided
by keywords into eight sections, this book bridges the gaps between these fields. The
book includes case studies, exercises, graphic scores, and poems in order to produce a
teachingandresearchresourcethatidentifiescentralthemesinimprovisationstudies.The
sections include:
(cid:2) Listening
(cid:2) Trust/Risk
(cid:2) Flow
(cid:2) Dissonance
(cid:2) Responsibility
(cid:2) Liveness
(cid:2) Surprise
(cid:2) Hope.
EachsectionoftheReaderisintroducedbyanewlycommissionedthinkpiecebyakeyfigure
inthefield,whichopensupresearchquestionsreflectingonthekeywordinquestion.
By placing key theoretical and classic texts in conversation with cutting-edge research
and artists’ statements, this book answers the urgent questions facing improvising artists
and theorists in the mediatised twenty-first century.
RebeccaCainesisanaward-winninginterdisciplinaryartistandscholar.Sheiscurrentlyan
assistantprofessorinCreativeTechnologiesintheFacultyofFineArtsattheUniversityof
Regina.
Ajay Heble is Director of the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation
and ProfessorofEnglishintheSchool ofEnglishand Theatre Studies attheUniversityof
Guelph.
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The Improvisation Studies Reader
Spontaneous Acts
Edited by
Rebecca Caines and Ajay Heble
RO Routledge
U
TLED Taylor & Francis Group
G
E
LONDON AND NEW YORK
Firstpublished2015
byRoutledge
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ISBN:978-0-415-63871-5(hbk)
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For Sheila and John
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Contents
List of figures xii
Acknowledgements xiii
Permissions xv
Prologue: Spontaneous Acts 1
REBECCACAINESANDAJAYHEBLE
PART 1
Listening 7
1 Improvised Listening: Opening Statements
Listening to the Lambs 9
GEORGELIPSITZ
2 On Listening 17
JEAN-LUCNANCY
3 Improvisation 27
JACQUESLECOQ
4 Going Fragile 32
MATTIN
5 Music, Language, and Cultural Styles: Improvisation as Conversation 35
INGRIDMONSON
6 Deep Listening Meditations: Egypt (1999) 52
PAULINEOLIVEROS
7 “Really Listening”: Original art, 30 x 44”, made live @ World Percussion
Summit September 3, 2013 54
JEFFSCHLANGER,MUSICWITNESS®
PART 2
Trust/Risk 57
8 Improvised Trust: Opening Statements 59
ELLENWATERMAN
viii Contents
9 Improvisation 63
CONSTANTINSTANISLAVSKI
10 Afterthoughts 65
KEITHJOHNSTONE
11 Thoughts on Improvisation: A Comparative Approach 69
BRUNONETTL
12 Theatre of the Oppressed 79
AUGUSTOBOAL
13 Group Creativity: Musical Performance and Collaboration 87
KEITHSAWYER
14 Community Performance: Improvising Being-Together 101
PETRAKUPPERS
15 “Paradise Now”: Notes 116
JUDITHMALINAANDJULIANBECK
16 Chicanas’ Experience in Collective Theatre: Ideology and Form 124
YVONNEYARBRO-BEJARANO
17 Spontaneous Combustion: Notes on Dance Improvisation from
the Sixties to the Nineties 134
SALLYBANES
18 Luminous Axis – Blade-form Panel (Graphic Score) 142
WADADALEOSMITH
PART 3
Flow 145
19 Improvised Flow: Opening Statements 147
SUSANLEIGHFOSTER
20 A Theoretical Model for Enjoyment 150
MIHALYCSIKSZENTMIHALYI
21 Keynote Presentation (Guelph) 2007 (Graphic Score) 163
ANTHONYBRAXTON
22 The Impermanent Art 165
MERCECUNNINGHAM
23 Improvisation and Ensemble 169
MICHAELCHEKHOV
Contents ix
24 Theory of the Dérive 176
GUYDEBORD
25 “All Aboard the Night Train”: Flow, Layering, and Rupture in
Postindustrial New York 181
TRICIAROSE
26 Writing Improvisation into Modernism 187
ROBWALLACE
27 Stone Sketch (Graphic Score) 201
GERMAINELIU(WITHNICHOLASLOESS)
28 Essentials of Spontaneous Prose 207
JACKKEROUAC
PART 4
Dissonance 211
29 Improvised Dissonance: Opening Statements 213
JESSESTEWART
30 Phantoms of the Other: Fragments of the Communal Unconscious 219
RUSTOMBHARUCHA
31 Bebop as Cultural Alternative 223
DANIELBELGRAD
32 Happenings in the New York Scene 236
ALLANKAPROW
33 Other: From Noun to Verb 243
NATHANIELMACKEY
34 Playing Like a Girl: The Queer Laughter of the Feminist Improvising Group 261
JULIEDAWNSMITH
35 Frozen Grand Central 278
CHARLIETODD
PART 5
Responsibility 287
36 Improvised Responsibility: Opening Statements
(Call and) Responsibility: Improvisation, Ethics, Co-creation 289
DANIELFISCHLIN