Catherine Hayward Improvisation Active Child

This is a 'structured' improvisation that I filmed in the studio this week.  I say structured as I knew and had chosen the music beforehand which inevitably meant that I had imagined how I might dance to it when listening to it beforehand.   After I finished improvising I wrote notes on all the factors that came into play while I was improvising.   I compared it to the categories that Nakano and Okada named as the areas of attention dancers noted on their reflection in improvisation.   I found that 'interaction with oneself' played a massive part.  I noted that portraying a mood or feeling was most important to me.  Factors such as the light, space and music affected this. 

I thought about how developing areas noted in their categories could improve my improvisation.  'Switching'... could I change the texture of the movement more and the rhythm to make it more dynamic rather than getting stuck at a certain pace.    'Continuation', Lisa Nelson speaks about how various choreographers approach time in their improvisation with dancers.   Could I push the boundaries of when is a natural start or finish... what happens if I improvise for longer than I would normally feel comfortable with?