Yes and… Lessons from Improv

Over on the Behance magazine network Jack Cheng is writing a series on Lessons from Improv, the first entitled Create Inertia , is about using the acting game of Yes, and… in our creative process.

As a jazz dancer using the Yes, and… game in classrooms and even as a personal exercise on the social dance floor or in a jam can be a great tool to break out of your typical routine of steps or variations.

The Yes and… game can go like this:

You invent a gesture to go along with your name.  With a bunch of people you stand around in a circle and when someone points at you, you say your name and perform your gesture and follow it up by pointing at someone else and performing theirs.  The goal is to go back and forth as fast as possible.

As a  jazz dancer we can extrapolate it to be more contextually relevant.

We pick a jazz step or motion within the jazz aesthetic.  With a group of people you stand around in a circle and when someone points at you, you perform your jazz step/motion and follow it up by pointing at someone else and performing theirs.  The goal is then to go around the circle performing various jazz steps for yourself and others.

This would be a great way to build jazz steps into your repertoire or the repertoire of your students without just drilling steps in a more stereotypical classroom fashion.  It will also most likely result in some good laughs when doing it with friends.

As a lindy hopper you could extrapolate it into a game within a single dance on the social floor.

As a lead – make the decision to dance simply – take out the complex moves so you can watch your follow.  As a follow – make the decision to dance simply – take out your standard variations and watch your lead.

As you dance pick out something that your partner does as a variation, footwork rhythm or motion regularly and when they perform that action – on your next opportunity – repeat it back to them.  Do this often enough and with the right partner and you can easily get into a two person game of Yes and… where you play off each others motion.

With the right kind of social relationship on the dance floor you can easily bring the idea of Yes and… into your partner dancing.

Termed differently, Yes and… is just a variation of our understanding of call and response which is such an integral part of our dance and the music we dance to.

Failing Well – Twyla Tharp

As a choreographer Twyla Tharp provides some exceptional insight into the methodology of creativity and how we approach success vs. failure.  I came upon this video over on 43Folders and it has some great advice for dancers who are in the middle of creative ventures.

Perhaps the most significant note in the video: wanting to be liked and admired can be an impediment to our creativity as dancers.  We often choose to replicate what works and what is showcased as successful in competitions by top dancers rather than pursuing our own creative impulses.

We have to be aware of our crowd and audience but at the same time have the confidence to forge our own dance since being admired and liked have little to do with dancing.  Something I think all aspiring dancers have to work on balancing.

Twyla Tharp is the author of The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life.

Jazz Dance On The Road

I’m not Kerouac nor do I plan to play him on TV but for the next few months I’ll be on the road (sans Benzedrine).

I had mentioned I was looking for changes and they came whether I really wanted them or not.  It turned out to be a tumultuous month or so and I’m only now getting back on track with my blogging.

I have left New York City for now.  I came home for Thanksgiving (home is Maine – where the parents are).  I had hoped to make a detour to Seattle for a week but that has fallen through.  In any case I’ll be heading to Atlanta very soon, a prior layover in Boston is contemplated, to attend Swing & Soul (one of my favorite events from last year).

In Atlanta I will be working with Jo on our dance partnership and our routine.  We will be teaching at Sparx in Cleveland, Ohio come April and will perform a routine at Lindy Focus which is just after Christmas.  Living in entirely different sections of the country makes working together a rare opportunity and spending a significant chunk of time on that will be refreshing.

I hope to meet up with Terrence and work on my tap, explore Atlanta and teach a class or two locally for Down South Swing.

I’ll be looking for further travel opportunities come ’09.

If you are interested in privates, classes, having me visit your city, or just hanging out – contact me.

Sacred Space – Dancing Alone

What about dancing on our own, in private, without an audience or even with a particular goal is so refreshing?  So invigorating?  When we’re not practicing and just letting it go.

Terrence featured an interesting thought about this and I’ll see if I can keep the discussion going (perhaps tangentially).

When we are practicing, training, performing or even just dancing with or in front of our peers we are less likely to envision our space – our art – as sacred.  When we dance on our own after our classes are finished, our training over, our performances finished and our peers retired from judging, what do we evoke?

ULHS Around the Bend

ULHS starts tomorrow night with the Riverboat and will most likely run until the wee hours of Monday morning before people ship off to the airport.

Last year I wrote a quite extensive review of ULHS 07 in a series of posts (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) which gathered quite a bit of traffic.  This year I hope to bring that traffic to Lindybloggers.com with a more pointed review, but also stay tuned for key footage from the event and perhaps an interview with one of the organizers.

I think this will be an interesting event for me since last year I approached it as just a dancer and competitor and this year I have the angle of a journalist/blogger in addition to those roles. To come back to an event the following year after having reviewed it once, I look forward to seeing what changes are in store (there are definitely some large ones relating to some of the competitions) and how they’ll affect the event.

If you’re going to ULHS this year and see me walking around with a camera, a notepad and a ridiculous hat (okay maybe not the hat) say “Hi”, introduce yourself, get a snapshot, give me a comment, and let me know what you think about Lindybloggers, this blog, and/or ULHS.

Stay tuned for the ULHS review and if you’ve got something to add, post it up in our comments on Lindybloggers.