As a teacher, I am happiest describing improvisational movement in terms of what it does for the mover rather than what it is. Improvisation transforms my students in ways I could never have guessed. As they change so must I to keep up with their amazing progress as artists and movers. This process of change and development within my own teaching as well as the tendency of improvisation to facilitate unique, personal transformations in my students has forced me to leave the door wide open in terms of how I might define improvisation. Instead, like my students, I am pulled along a path of discovery in terms of teaching, of students, of art, of dance, of movement … and so on and so on.

What Improvisation Isn’t
I am certain that improvisation is not choreography in any form. The improviser should not think out, plan out or write down anything. Improvisation belongs to the mover, not the teacher or the choreographer. Nor does improvisation require technique or skill or a ballet dancer’s body, As long as the student can move some part of his or her body then he or she can improvise and reap the benefits of that improvisation.

The beginning of the understanding of improvisation begins with the fact that as long as you can move you can improvise. Although at later points in the development of an improvisational dancer or performer a teacher might bring in particular exercises to further develop movement, technique is never required to do or even perform improvisation.

Role Of The Body
Thus, the role of the body is simple. Move. Years of training are not necessary. The teacher then might seem to be unnecessary - someone who complicates rather than assists the process. Yet, the teacher becomes vitally important to the process of improvising.

Banishing The Logical, Analytical, Critical Side Of Ourselves
I have found that so called improvisation that is thought out or planned out or in other words originates in the thinking, logical part of the mind has little power to move the viewer. Further more, the improviser does not seem to experience the same enjoyment in this kind of movement, as does someone who performs spontaneously. The problem as any visual or performing artist will tell you is, how does one work without thinking about working, or in other words how to work spontaneously, but still maintain awareness. Fortunately, it seems that the thinking, logical brain can in a sense be transcended so that a more global or universal brain functioning can dominate. This more global brain seems to have a better awareness of space and shape than does the logical brain and allows the performer to focus on individualized points such as another actor or dancer but to have the awareness of large spaces at the same time - a useful skill for any performer on stage. The global or universal brain as well has no sense of time and is non-critical. I begin my very first improvisation classes with an exercise called the “Falling Down Exercise”. The importance of the exercise is in part in the speed with which the students perform it. If performed too slowly the exercise loses its impact. Basically, when performed correctly the thinking, logical, analytical brain just can’t keep up with the speed with which the mover moves. Here something important happens. The mover without the time to think stops thinking and just moves. A brain shift seems to occur here from the logical brain to the more universal brain. As one checks out because things are moving along a little too quickly the other takes over. Now the thinking analytical processes in the brain also tend to be critical. The mover moves quickly without time to think or analyze and also we see to criticize. He or she begins to experience joy in the movement itself. After all, who is there to criticize if the mover doesn’t? A good teacher makes very sure that neither teacher nor other students ever take on the role of critic. So the mover moves. The mind and the body are in a sense pleased with one another because what the mind asks for the body does instantly. The mind aware and not critical of the bodies’ movement and response, responds again. So the cycle continues from mover to movement and back again. The gap that might have been created between the time the mover hears the instruction given, and the time the logical brain would take to work the whole sequence out becomes minimal because the task has been handed over to brain functioning which can respond quickly without analytical, sequential, logical thinking processes. Mind and body function almost as one unit and move spontaneously without inhibitions - a potentially unending cycle of creation from mover to movement, and from movement back to mover.

Over time the mover’s mind and body become accustomed to this way of working and with a little warm up to discourage analysis and logical thinking sequences, spontaneous movement can occur quite easily.

Role Of The Teacher
The teacher becomes enormously important to this process. As one who facilitates the process of creating spontaneous, uninhibited movement, the teacher must create an environment in which every student feels safe on every level, and who makes it clear from the onset that criticism at any point from any student is not acceptable. The critical mode of behaving and thinking have been banished from the studio and spontaneity and acceptance take over. The studio becomes safe. Everyone accepts everyone else and most importantly accepts himself or herself.

In some ways, the students have to feel that the teacher becomes one of them, unified with them in their exploration of movement and creativity. The students explore the creative cycle through movement and as they do also discover what inhibits this cycle. They carry on a non-analytical, non-critical exploration of themselves. They are facilitated by a teacher who faced with students of diverse natures, must constantly explore the relationships she or he has with each student in an effort to understand every way possible to create the environment that will give each student the greatest success. Teachers and students are involved in a simultaneous creative exploration. In summary, the critical mode of behaving and thinking have been banished from the studio and creativity, spontaneity and acceptance take over. The classroom becomes a secure, safe place to create. Now improvisation can truly begin.

A Word Or Two About Inhibition
I can’t ever remember having a student who at some point didn’t hit the wall that an inhibition raises. Work with a student long enough and something is bound to pop up. Basically inhibition comes out of the fear- important word here – fear that he or she will, or is doing, or has done something inappropriate. Fears that raise their ugly heads in the studio may have no bearing on what is going on in that class. Still fear has no place in improvisation and must be dealt with. Since the teacher has by this time established the tone in the studio, the student can be told in no uncertain words that there are no mistakes in improvisation. Of course our lives are filled with situations that have and will produce fears and inhibitions and the meeting up with some of these can happen at any time. I have had new, inexperienced students improvise brilliantly and seasoned improvisational performers freeze on stage. The key to understanding is that there are no mistakes in improvisation. Anything can happen anytime. All of it is OK.

Mapping Creativity
This circular path created by the mover as he moves, responds to the movement almost instantaneously, and responds again with movement might seem to be pretty simple as well it should. Its no secret that this spontaneous way of moving is pretty natural to human beings. Our ancient and tribal dances in their beginnings were improvisational in nature. One can’t imagine some ancient tribe worrying about whether a movement ”looked right ”or their toes were pointed or anything else once the fever of the dance takes over. These are certainly worries students in my classes have had in their initial forays into the world of improvisation. This cycle of moving produces fascinating and truthful movement if there is no break in the cycle. This is the creative cycle at its simplest.

Expanding Creativity
In my experience I find that this intimate personal cycle of creativity becomes easier and easier with time. Once experienced, the student seems to gain knowledge of the creative path or route, and use of the route over time creates a kind of map for this route. As with any map the student can move from improvisation to other possibly more complex creative enterprises because the body and awareness know the path, have a map as it were for the journey. The creative cycle seems to be the same in all creative enterprises. The creator creates the creation through a process we call creating. Improvisation, a form of creating easily accessible to any human being who can move, becomes one of the simplest ways to establish the creative map. Establish the creative map in this most accessible form and the door begins to swing open for other creative situations. I can remember a student in a beginning improvisation class who suddenly sprang up in the air darted off the floor to where his journal lay and began frantically jotting down notes. When I asked him what he was doing he said that his mind was full of ideas that seemed to appear when he began improvising. This taught me a valuable lesson about the ability of improvisation to open the door to all kinds of creative perceptions. We might think of the path to creativity and creative ideas as a kind of overgrown weed-covered path which improvisational movement, the machete of the creative world, hacks through to make way for all creative vehicles to follow.

Gaining Self Confidence
What happens to a student who becomes comfortable with improvisation, who has a strong awareness of his or her own ability to map creativity in not just movement but possibly in other fields as well, To me it makes sense that this experience would build a kind of deep awareness of self in the student. Students in learning about themselves, tend to begin to accept themselves, their bodies, their personalities their emotional and spiritual selves. Acceptance of who you are tends to breed confidence in who you are and who you could be. This building of confidence in the student goes a long way towards building personal strength in children and adults and is as well an invaluable asset to the performers of every kind on stage.

A Basic Structure For A Beginning Improvisation Class
Teaching improvisation will become increasingly complex as the student becomes more and more adept with the exercises. What follows is a sample structure for beginning classes to give the beginning teacher an idea how a class could be structured. I have included a couple of basic exercises to get you started. These occur after the teacher has established a safe environment for the student. When dealing with children I am likely to remove the physical relaxation exercises at first, since most children have difficulty sitting still for this kind of exercise, and have difficulty shifting from very slow to fast paced exercises.

1. Establish the environment
2. Exercise to increase range of movement and activation of joints prior to stretching exercises…sets a tone of fun, freedom.
3. Relaxation games and exercises, releases pockets of muscular tensions in the body
4. Stretching
5. Falling Down Exercise
6. All other improvisational games, exercises, dances
7. Stretch
8. Relax the body

Some Sample Exercises

1. Establish The Environment
a. Establish status of the teacher
-Sit in a circle. Never sit in a desk or in a situation where the teacher is isolated from the students as in facing the student group. Make sure the teacher does not sit higher than the students
-Teacher should answer same questions posed to the students
-Teacher must be easy, relaxed, always supportive, and never critical
b. Get to know your students on the very first day
Sample get to know exercise:
Can be used for any age student
-Sit in a circle
-Have each student introduce him or herself. Have each student answer a set of questions about themselves. Some should be nonsensical
-Teacher should answer same questions

2. Exercise To Increase Range Of Movement And Activation of Joints For Stretch
Exercise
-Students in a circle walking or running
-Student number one runs into centre performing some movement
-All students do the movement – student number two runs into the centre
-All students do the movement
-And so on
Some Variations
-Students can use some apparatus here such as a ball, a hoop, and pieces of newspaper in the movement. This can break down inhibitions in boys for example
-Teacher asks that each student become a color, an animal, a kind of weather
-Teacher asks students to move in slow motion
Purpose:
-Increases range of movement since students are copying other students movements
-Moving in a game-related atmosphere so learning new movement is non-threatening
Criteria:
Must be done very quickly so that movement becomes unthinking and spontaneous

3. The “Falling Down Exercise” Exercise
-All students face teacher
-Teacher will give the students a movement direction such as:
“ Go to the floor and touch any five pats of your body to the floor, one part must be a nose”
-At a clap of teacher’s hands each student goes quickly to any position he or she spontaneously feels carries out the direction
-At a second clap students return to an upright standing position
-Teacher can add as few or as many directions as he or she wants dependant on how ready the students are to handle more and more complex directions
Some Variations
-Students connect with one other student to carry out the command, with two or more students, and finally with the whole class
Purpose:
-Allows the body to instantly assume positions and experience movements that are probably beyond their normal rage of movement
- Facilitates a shift from logical, analytical brain functions to more global functions after which the teacher can more easily proceed to longer improvisational exercises and possibly dances
Criteria:
-Students must move very quickly without looking around at other students or speaking
-Students must never speak or discuss these directions or exercises during these improvisational exercises since this will undermine the exercise. Laughter is allowed and usually occurs.

My thoughts on improvisation as well as being based on my own teaching experience were illuminated by the following:
Edwards, Betty, Drawing On the Right Side of the Brain. Los Angeles: Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc., 1989.
Yogi, Maharishi Mahesh, Vedic Knowledge for Everyone. Holland: Maharishi Vedic University Press, 1994.