Improvisation’s Successes and Challenges: Company SoGoNo in Williamsburg
By Carrie Stern
Improvisation. Most performing artists — actors, dancers, musicians — improvise. After years of being told what to do and how to do it, college is often the first time improvisation is encouraged. For some, improvisation is uncomfortable, a struggle, its lack of specifics terrifying leaving participants floundering, feeling adrift and even angry. For others, improvisation is a revelation, a door that opens onto possibility.
As a tool, improvisation is a way of exploring. Actors use it to find nuances of character or situation. Composers and choreographers commonly ask dancers and musicians to improvise around an idea or a phrase of movement or notes, generating a vocabulary that is culled for composition.