ABSTRACT
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.
The Improvisation Studies Reader draws together the works of key artists and thinkers 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 teaching and research resource that identifies central themes in improvisation studies. The sections include:
- Listening
- Trust/Risk
- Flow
- Dissonance
- Responsibility
- Liveness
- Surprise
- Hope
Each section of the Reader is introduced by a newly commissioned think piece by a key figure in the field, which opens up research questions reflecting on the keyword in question.
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 mediatized Twenty-First Century.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part 1|49 pages
Listening
chapter 7|2 pages
“Really Listening”
part 2|87 pages
Trust/Risk
chapter 17|8 pages
Spontaneous Combustion
part 3|65 pages
Flow
chapter 25|6 pages
“All Aboard the Night Train”
part 4|75 pages
Dissonance
part 5|64 pages
Responsibility
chapter 36|7 pages
Improvised Responsibility: Opening Statements
chapter 37|25 pages
Gittin' To Know Y'all
chapter 38|15 pages
Kinship, Intelligence, and Memory as Improvisation
part 6|29 pages
Liveness
chapter 41|4 pages
Improvised Liveness: Opening Statements
chapter 45|5 pages
Time in the Place of Space: Dialoguing Improvisation with Pierre Hébert
part 7|65 pages
Surprise
part 8|6 pages
Hope