Thread: What are your questions about improvisation? (i.e., input for my DVD)

I'm getting ready to produce an instructional video on improvisation skills (as a spin-off of my video podcast, Taktaba), and I'd like to know what questions everyone has about improvisation.

This video will include a series of exercises that will help dancers of all levels build the skills they need to improvise with confidence. Teachers can also use these tools to help students break their dependence on choreography and jump-start the process of building their own personal styles.

I have a lot of ideas about how to improvise, but I want to hear about what other people need: what do you want to know about improvisation? What would be most useful to you? How would you like the DVD to be structured? Teachers: what do your students ask you about improv? What problems do you run into when you try to teach them to improvise?

You can send me your questions, requests, input, etc. via my online survey at:
Online Surveys | Zoomerang
or post them here or PM me.


PRIZE DRAWING!!!

To thank you for your input, I'll be raffling off a copy of the "Belly Dancing for Fortune and Fame CD", which has all the music used on the Taktaba podcasts to date To be entered in the drawing, you must submit the survey (answering all questions and including your name and contact info) by noon eastern time on Tuesday, July 1st, 2008. (Note: this is NOT limited to US residents!)

Thanks for your help!

Nadira Jamal

hello

thank you for making a dvd on improvisation. please let us know when it will be released because i'm very interested in it.

i learn choreography in class. my teacher likes complicated choreography and i like learning it because it's interesting and it helps me to understand the music.

but when i practise on my own and i try to just dance, i can't. i don't know when i should follow the melody and when the rhythm. i don't know how many times i repeat the same movement it will become boring to audience. and i get bored very easily myself so i try to do many things and then i think it look messy.

i want to know when you improvise, do you just dance and do whatever comes up? or do you have a plan before you start? what about it's a piece of music you've never heard of? while you're dancing, do you have to think about what's you're going to do next? do you have a theme?

i've too many questions. please teach us EVERYTHING in your video!

thank you

saw the survey link after posting the above. have just finished it!

when do you think is the release date of this dvd?

thanks

Originally Posted by wingaki

saw the survey link after posting the above. have just finished it!

when do you think is the release date of this dvd?

thanks

Thanks, wingaki! I'm hoping to release it by Labor Day, but that date assumes that I don't have to do a second shoot to correct any mistakes. :) If you want to be notified when it's available, I can put you on the mailing list. (You can also join directly at Taktaba - the form is in the upper-right-hand side of the page).

Regarding your issue with getting bored, my best advice is to remember that you will always get bored with a repeated move before the audience does. This is because it takes them a moment to recognize and absorb what you're doing. Since you know what you're doing from the beginning, they're always a repetition or two (or more!) behind you.

Episode 2 of my podcast deals with how to use repetition effectively. It's available for free online at taktaba.com (you can also subscribe in iTunes). You can find a direct link to that episode at:
Taktaba: Episode 2: Long-Term Repetition (Finally!)

(Note: the podcast is filmed at home on a camcorder, and has "no frills" picture and sound quality. The improv video will be filmed on a proper sound stage, and will have MUCH better production values.)

Ohhh... a DVD after my own issues! My biggest concerns are when to follow the melody and when to follow the rhythm. Also, what moves match what rhythms and what moves follow different instruments best like, light sounds/upper body and the like. ALSO....when does a piece of music speak to traveling or staying put. This is soooo awesome that you are doing this. Choreo is very natural to me and I pick it up very quickly but improv is my Nemesis!

I am a hater of combinations, but I know a LOT of people like combos and that they can be really useful for extended improv. If it's how you work, a set of manipulatable combinations for popular rhythms could be really useful (when I say manipulatable, I mean things one could easily add layers onto, like undulations or shimmies, according to what's going on melodically).

Good subject! I just discussed this today in class and am having issues with my students. I told them that I cheated them because I focused so much on technique, combos and then choreography that I find they don't feel comfortable doing improv. I think a lot of it is nervousness, and they just need to practice "just dancing" more. So I started to add some freestyle dance time after we do all the other necessary things listed above. One time I gave them a little bit of champagne and this helped them be more free, but I am not one for advocating drinking to dance, it was just an experiment. But they do need to work on all the moves they know and how to spontaneously put them to music as they feel it, not as it was taught to them in a choreography. Good-luck with your project and thank you doing it.

Bellydancewear - besides champagne, you could also try dimming the lights as well as telling them you're not going to watch (and then sit down and read a magazine.)

Thank you Nepenthe, I will definitely use your advice!!

I must give credit to my teacher, Amira Jamal, as that is what she does in class when she wants us to improvise. She starts making her students improvise from the very beginner level, and by the time you are in her Advanced/Performance classes, you are improvising for an hour of the class minimum.