Maria Ines Villasmil teaching improvisation statement

When you do a performance it is a social event. You share the space and you share the time in the space and there are social encounters which evolve out of the situation of the theater and the event. I think that there is a link between the performance time and space as a social environment where there are rules which artists can either follow or break. The question I am aiming for is:

How is the theater a different place in life as a social environment?

I want to untangle these questions by incorporating improvisation as a method to heighten body awareness, presence, the body as instrument, creativity, loss of the self, collective, ensemble, an awareness of the body containing the social being and the phenomena of serendipity.

My work is influenced by Rollo May (the Courage to Create) who says that “creative people give birth to some new reality, express being it and enlarge human consciousness”. His process of creation has 4 stages which I have adopted into my work: Preparation / Exploration / Illumination / Formulation. I use the reaction - action of these four stages theoretically. I use improvisation as a physical method for flexibility, awareness and clarity about choices and encounters.

In set choreography the social encounters are expected. Within an improvisation these encounters are un expected inviting serendipity experiences to happens and demanding a high pitched awareness. One needs to be resourceful at reading the situation and making choices immediately excepting the fact of chance as the main direction. In this sense, improvisation is a space to support the process of creativity.

My work involves a constant exploration. Exploration involves letting go of a conscious control of ones self allowing many options to be tried. I place my explorations within physical activities in order to provide situations for theories to become clear by a way of sensory memory so that the thinking process is intensified and the potential of a new idea is apparent. The outward form of the body can give way to an inner image. This formulation of the body in action is necessary in order to articulate an inner image.

The preparatory stage in my work includes elements from several technique (release). I experienced that by having the same warming up for every session bring the students the space to focus their attention and make them to get in contact with their body ( and the self). I have invented exercises in both collective or ensemble situations which emphasis awareness of the body as an instrument, changing the perceptions in relations to time and space, presence as performance and the social context of the theater event.

There is a needs for being part of a group or collective, so that later self awareness can be placed within a large group dynamic. This way of working demands a learning together process so that individual processes can be generated for recreating and crystallizing ideas. The atmosphere for this work needs to include trust and focus. These are two crucial elements for creating a safe environment to discover, create, find movement vocabulary, and form a deep relationship with oneself (own body) and others.

I need a highly charged creative situation so that we can become aware of their individual presence in a  performance. I aim to heighten the potential to access choice, moments of serendipity and collective activity (ensemble).

I place attention on the social aspects that is inherent to the theater event in order to understand how the experience of body awareness in practice can become presence in a social theater space. I aim to be free of my own way of moving; to take the risk and challenge going beyond my own boundaries. I encourage a student to loose her/his self in order to find a deeper self that is unknown. This process demands courage to give up conscious decisions or control and trust intuitive choice making.

I want the student to find identity in movement, try out different roles and explore a range of responses in order to achieve a larger and more flexible self – image.  Using group process helps to balance this process; to yield the group while maintaining ones basic responsibility as individual. I wish to provide a platform for the student to become conscious and skilled with the expressive communicative nature of movement and to become aware of the real time composition process that their choices (conscious decisions) create.

Pedagogy:

The body, awareness, presence, body as instrument, creativity, self- loss of the self, collective, ensemble, ego, the social being, serendipity. Performance as a social event. You share the space and you share the time in the space and there are social encounters which evolve out of the situation of the theater and the event. I think that there is a link between the performance time and space as a social environment where there are rules which artists can break or do.

How is the theater a different place in life as a social environment? What makes theater and life within the context or languages we express as social? Elias Canetti

Description

I use improvisation as a method for students to be more flexible, aware and clear about their choices and encounters. In set choreography the social encounters are expected. Within an improvisation these encounters are unexpected inviting serendipity experiences and demand a high pitch of awareness. The student has to be resourceful reading the situation and making a choice immediately. – (chance)

The preparatory stage of my classes or workshops includes a warm-up which contains elements from several techniques (release) within a loose structure to prepare mentally and physically. I then apply exercises which emphasis: awareness of your body as an instrument for changing the perceptions of the time and space through presence. The social context of the theater event in both collective or ensemble situations as well as enforcing the individual choice of the performer.

The second stage is a exploration which involves letting go of a conscious control of ones allowing many options to be tried, experimented and explored with. The third stage: the illumination stage is the moment when all come together. The theory become clear the image, the idea is the moment. Is the moment where sensory memory and thinking process are intensified. The potential of the new idea is apparent. Is a vivid moment. The last stage is the giving outward and forms the inner image. The forming or formulation, which is developed in this stage, is necessary for the articulation of the image or solution.
In this sense the improvisation class is a space to support this process (of creativity). The beginning of the course will be oriented to get a good feeling of being part of a group to later become more aware of the self, inside of a large group dynamic. A learning-together process that will generate individual ways of processing, recreating and crystallizing ideas.

The atmosphere I want to create during the class include trust and focus. It is very important we create a safe environment for working where dancers trust themselves and are willing to open up, to put themselves on the line. So let’s discover, create, find your own way and movement vocabulary, and find a deeper relation ship with yourself (own body) and the others. There is not right or wrong here, you will find out when something feels good, and your body also will be able to make choices that will be then the right one.

Aims:

To place dance students in a highly charged creative situation so that they can become aware of how presence is placed in performance and or choreography.

To heighten the potential for a dance student to access choice, moments of serendipity and collective activity (ensemble) in either the capacities of performance or choreography.

To introduce  the practice which highlights the processes which take place in the creation of movement, the performance of movement and the potential structures set in choreography.

To place attention on the social aspects that is inherent to the theater event.

To enable the student to understand how through the experience of body awareness in practice it becomes presence in a theater space.

Objectives:
To highlight the relevance of  having concentration in the room while working

To provide a format where they get used to how process takes time

To show different ways of using and looking at the body

To guide the student toward exploration as an aspect of their dance work

To guide the student toward exploration toward their individual movement vocabulary

To guide the student toward exploration toward their choreography

To guide the student toward exploration as a means to heighten their body awareness

To guide them toward being able to experiment with movement
To get out of self and into self - in - movement, the deeper self that is often suppressed or unknown

Content: (Knowledge) – (History of ideas)

Rollo May in the Courage to Create says that creative people give birth to some new reality, express being it and enlarge human consciousness. The process of creation has 4 major stages 1. Preparation 2. Exploration, 3. Illumination and 4. Formulation. Reaction/action for this specific moment. / Dynamic/Format / For example: We will be doing exercises, observing doing groups exercises (large or small groups) also individual work, working in several formats and dynamic. We will have the space to talk and share ideas, questions, sensations, and doubts and find a collective way of generating productive discussions. This class can be also a preparation for your integration of the skills you are learning inside of the program. Social studies work…you have references - Log Book: Please take a moment to make notes, drawings, ideas, doubts, and sensation. We will be busy also writing, observing and some how documenting the process of discovering new tastes in your body language.

Assessment
Assessment is taking place throughout the teaching period. Each student is an individual who progresses in one way while another student progresses in another.

Assessment we will do regarding the set of goals placed for each lesson and the progression of the students in understanding and placing them into their own practice. By the end of the course, a final assessment will be done and a final talk will take place with each student. Each of the students will have 15 minutes to talk and ex change point of view about the process having a evaluation format as a reference.

General assessment criteria: Students is able to

Able to make her/his body available and open to research

Able to show that have some knowledge over her/his instruments
Able to understand the assignment and make something personal out of that.
Able to freeing her/him self of their own way of moving and understanding the relation body-space
Able to take the risk for finding the challenge and the will for going beyond their own boundaries.

Models:
Social Theory: Robert K. Merton, Talcot Parsson, E. Durkheim, C. Berhnard
Music: Jhon Cage, Daniel Schorno
Philosophy: Gilles Deleuze, M. Focault
Dance: David Zambrano, Simon Forti, S.Paxton, Katie Duck, Kirstie Simson, Susan Klein,Erik Franklin
Pedagogy: May Rollo