Thread: Improv Help

Wow, lots of great info here already. This is one of my favorite topics, so I just wanted to add a couple of things that haven't been mentioned. I love choreo and I love improv...when I teach and perform in groups, we do choreo; when I'm performing solo, it's almost always improv. I believe they are like twin sisters.

In a performance setting, improv is just choreo done in your head--really fast. So fast that you don't have time to think it, you just do it. But good improv looks like it was planned. Why? Because the dancer understands the basics of good stage and audience dynamics (whether they call it that or not). They know a good performance, whether improv or choreo, needs certain things--varied levels, varied tempos, angles, diagonals, good line, etc. The audience needs time to breathe, so you put in poses. The audience needs to feel smart, so you put in repetition.

It's all the same creative force--it's just a matter of whether you choose to capture that force, write it down and rehearse it or just create it and let it go.

Now, "freeform" dancing for yourself is a whole 'nother thing. In class improv settings, you're really dancing for yourself. You're doing what feels good and what you hope looks good, too. You don't need to worry so much about what anyone else thinks--just express yourself, do whatever you need to do. Want to get good at freeform? Just put on some music in your living room and DANCE. Don't be judgmental, just do it. If it makes you happy, you're doing it right.

But for performances--learning to improv is the same as learning to choreograph. The post about graphing or mapping out your music--that's the first thing I teach in a "how to choreograph" class. You need to know how to read the music, how to tell where the repeats are and where the changes are. When you do it over and over, and know your music--the moves will come.

That said--everyone, absolutely everyone, I've ever seen dance has a "default move." It's that one move you always go back to when you get stuck and can't think of anything. It may not be your favorite, but it's the one your body just does without thinking. Mine is a 3/4 shimmy, I have known people who spin when they get stuck, or even skip (I swear, she was such a beautiful skipper! ..l;, )

I always tell my students--know your default move; love your default move; trust your default move...then watch yourself on video, and if you're doing it too much--develop another one. Then you have two default moves.

oooh, this got long. Sorry about that. Okay...have fun and trust yourself. Improv is all about just loving the dance and expressing the music.

Mira

Mira-

My default move, I've discovered, is a maia. I recall a performance where I thought to myself "stop doing that!" ..l;,

Originally Posted by Linnyg

It is the last 5 minutes of class where we improv that got me thinking about this. I guess the hardest part is not knowing what the song is in advance and it changes everyweek so I have no way of "preparing" for it. I am also a natural born thinker and I find myself I guess being to inner as mentioned above. I am constantly trying to think of what move I can do next but finding myself at a loss because I don't know what rythm is coming next. I like the idea of mapping the songs because it follows the way my brain works. What exactly do the / and @ represent?

I find that the more improv you do, the more familiar you become with ME music in general and can often anticipate what rhythms and accents will come next. ME music follows a lot of predictable patterns and changes that get easier to interpret the more you just practice to unfamiliar music. I would suggest practicing at home alone when you don't have the added stressor of your teacher/classmates looking on. Put on a CD you don't know well and just let it play through while you dance to it. Don't be too hard on yourself or think too much, just dance.

I am an improv only dancer--I did some choreography earlier in my baby dancing stage with my classmates, but I frankly find it annoying and it just feels wrong to me. I do like to learn short combos that I can plug into different parts of songs. They just become muscle memory and make it easier to relax when performing.

As others have said, mapping your music is important. You can determine where patterns repeat or when the melody changes instrumentation slightly and you can build on this when you dance. When I map my music I also make little notes to myself to describe the mood or the movements I think suit that section. I also imagine a story to go with the song. It helps set the scene and build a sense of theater.

As far as movements, imagine energy radiating from your face, your heart and through the tips of your fingers and you want to lift this energy and send it right to the audience. This will give your movements intention keep you lifted.

I love love love improv. Good improv is the essence of belly dance to me. I know others disagree, but I think it's what really makes belly dance different and special! While it can seem scary, there is so much freedom in it. You can dance exactly how you feel in the moment.

There's nothing like playing music and dancing in the living room when no one is around to build up your skills at improv. There is no pressure to think, or to even look good. Over the years, I've even been able to build up my own unique set of movements - right there in the living room.

Also, when you are suck just hum "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, Knees and Toes" to yourself. There are thousands of movements incorporating each body part and you can go right down list.

Have a fun time with it!

Sabra*

Brea--I used to feel badly about having a default move until someone pointed out that I'm the only one who sees it over and over. The audience doesn't see you that often, and if they do, usually they *want* to see it over and over (then it turns into a "signature move")

Sabra--"head, shoulders, knees & toes" ..l;, I tell my students "if you get stuck, pick a body part and write your name with it."

Mira- Aren't we all just our own worst critics?! I still feel like there's so much knowledge out there, so much left to learn, and I think after nine years I'm still a baby in this dance!

The intro to Alf Leyla looks like this to me...

/ / / @
/ / / @
/ / / @ @@
/ / / @
/ / / @

*tries to remember which one's Alf Leyla*
*sings*

Oh RIGHT!

//@ @
@@@@
@@@@
@@@@

mish mish - I love the image of energy radiating from your face, heart and fingertips. awesome!

some tricks for helping yourself come up with stuff to do while improvising:

imagine patterns on the floor like a big circle, a V, a spiral, a big square, and then dance along them. as soon as you take a step forward to make the first half of that V, something will happen, be it an egyptian basic, a syncopated walk with a shoulder shimmy, whatever. as you travel backward to finish the first half of the V, another move will just happen. and so forth. if you move your feet, your butt will follow.

since you don't always want to be running around the dance floor, in your moments when you're in one place, think 'head to toe and back up again.' what can you do with your head or face? your shoulders? arms? chest? torso? hips? when you get to your feet you can pivot, do a little kick or other footwork, or travel. then go back up again.

listen to the music and instrumentation. if you step on the 'doums' you'll always be moving on the beat and at an appropriate pace. certain instruments seem to naturally correspond with certain body parts - drums = hips, kanoun = shimmies, ney = arms, accordion = torso movements. when the music focuses on the accordion, camel, undulate and maya away.

I took a fun workshop from amira here in seattle yesterday where we worked on this: listen to your music and think about what emotion it makes you feel. is it happy music? introspective? flirty? sultry? think of what moves you can do that look happy (travelling egyptian basics?), flirty (little bouncy shoulder shimmies?), sultry (not hard to think of stuff there!), and use those when you get to the appropriate section of music.

Knowledge is confidence and confidence is the key to relaxation and the ablity to allow the music to direct you. Improv for me is the soul and the art of bellydance.

I'd just like to add that for me confidence really is the key to improv. I was taught to improv from the beginning and was pretty keen on it until I went through some personal stuff about a year back that really knocked the stuffing out of me. After that I found it almost physically painful to try and improvise.

Now I'm feeling stronger I'm getting back into it again but I think all that emotional 'tuning in' that improv requires can be quite a strain if you are caught at a 'bad moment'.

Great thread - this is really educational. Thanks everyone!

When my partner and I do choreograph, we often use sound effects. Sometimes the music moves to fast to call out moves so I remember them by sounds such as ch-ch-ch or dah-dah-dah. I found that when improving if I know the music really well, I'm singing along in my head with noises even if there are no words. So as I "sing" certain moves just come naturally.

I'm also strictly an improv dancers although I do choreo for students and groups.

1. Mapping is a good idea initially. It will help you recognize that yes indeed, there is a pattern to the madness. But if you are improving a 30 minute show you can't realistically map every song out there, especially if you don't know what the band is going to play.

2. Listen, listen, listen...to as much Arabic music as possible, especially the more better known dance songs. It's much easier to improv to a song that you've at least heard before. But after a while, once you listen to tons of music you will instinctively start do identify common rhythms and patterns and transistions that cue you that the music is about to change and that you need to change with it.

3. Identify your instruments and know what moves go with each instrument. When you hear Kanoon, oud -shimmy. Nay, clarinet -slow undulations, arms. Accordian?-could be taxim that leads into a beledi progression. Listen, Listen Listen. The music will tell you what to do.

4. Learn to identify basic common rhythms and come up with 3-5 steps for each rhthym. Someone mentioned default steps. I have a default walk, a default beledi, a default side to side, a default "killing time" step, etc. This are steps that I automatically can go into when I hear a certain rhythm until I have time to figure out what I want to do next.

4. Practice, practice, practice to music you don't know.

Great thread. Some things I do:

1) I map out music. I use symbols that make sense to me visually, draw a picture if needed.
2) Listen until you can sing the song to yourself. Know your music.
3) Don't be afraid to repeat movements.
4) Learn when the music calls for traveling, when it calls for a tempo change, when it calls for you to stand in place, when it calls for a shimmy.
5) Learn the cultural references/folkloric steps the rhythms call for. (e.g., saidi, khaleegi).
6) Practice improving to repetitive music...until you're bored...when you're bored you start coming up with movements you don't use as frequently.
7) Relax. Pause. Slow down. Breathe.
8) Practice. A lot.
9) Learn common songs that musicians often play (helps with live bands).
10) Have fun. Laugh at yourself. I'm amazed at how much better I get when I allow myself to joke around and make mistakes.

1) I map out music. I use symbols that make sense to me visually, draw a picture if needed.
2) Listen until you can sing the song to yourself. Know your music.
3) Don't be afraid to repeat movements.
4) Learn when the music calls for traveling, when it calls for a tempo change, when it calls for you to stand in place, when it calls for a shimmy.
5) Learn the cultural references/folkloric steps the rhythms call for. (e.g., saidi, khaleegi).
6) Practice improving to repetitive music...until you're bored...when you're bored you start coming up with movements you don't use as frequently.
7) Relax. Pause. Slow down. Breathe.
8) Practice. A lot.
9) Learn common songs that musicians often play (helps with live bands).
10) Have fun. Laugh at yourself. I'm amazed at how much better I get when I allow myself to joke around and make mistakes.

Thanks for posting this Ariel. You've totally summed up the key improv. tips for me.

I'd also like to add a big vote for 7). This is invaluble in helping to avoid the 'Saturday Night Fever' style of frantic class improv.

Originally Posted by anala

wow...drum solo improv...you know you are asking a lot of yourself there, dont you? Perhaps finding a song with more "emotional content" to work with might be helpful.

Originally Posted by Nepenthe

I started out with my first performance being a drum solo. To me, it was easier to improv to because you just had to listen to the drum, no other musical instruments to confuse me. So I can see where she's going here! I think there are definitely two types of dancers (at least) - those who think drum solos are easier and those that think melody-driven songs are easier.

Anyway, on drum solos, my teacher always used to remind our class - if you don't know what to do, remember you can go back to your basics, hip bumps, hip drops, the move she calls "Egyptian Nailed". Something about knowing that you have something to fall back on is mentally reassuring, I think.

I do find drum solos much easier to improv to just because I think that my isolations are better than my more movey steps. I also find that just listening to the one instrument is easier, I know which one I want to be moving to. My default move is a 3/4 shimmy with a front/back step (have no idea what this is actually called. I also just like the hip drops.

On the side: I went to a big show this weekend and took a few workshops one on drum solo combos. I think that this will help with my improv all around. She taught phrasing and developing sets of moves when you hear the phrases so that you can just dance them instead of thinking about what to do next. I can't believe all the help I have gotten here! I just danced around my house last night (aided by some pretties I got at the show) and I didn't feel nearly as awkward as I do in class. Maybe this is just a "people are watching me" thing.

I work on improv by making pancakes--seriously! I bring the boombox into the kitchen, plug in the mp3 player, put it on random, start cooking and dancing! Honestly I think some of my best dancing has been in the kitchen, because I'm at my freest then. Somehow the split attention of cooking (it doesn't *have* to be pancakes, it can be anything time consuming) and dancing takes the pressure off to be perfect and to think every move out in advance, so I'm much more relaxed than I would be if I went into my dance space saying "And Now I Will Improvise!" The next time I dance for real to the music that came on while I was cooking, I'll be more capable of relaxing into it and having fun with it.

The other thing I do is listen to music over and over and visualize what some of my favorite dancers might look like dancing to it, kind of focused daydreaming.

I'm coming late to this thread and there's already so much great advice here, but I have a downloadable article on 'The Art of Improvising' here: Jewel Bellydance - Belly dance classes melbourne Australia ::: Articles. It's a long-winded version of many great points above, plus hopefully some more.

I've just updated this article because I'm teaching an improv workshop this weekend...and I'll be improvising myself, because the class size is about double what it was last time I delivered it. Whew! Let's hope they don't all improvise spinning off in different directions at once.

Originally Posted by jewelbellydance

I'm coming late to this thread and there's already so much great advice here, but I have a downloadable article on 'The Art of Improvising' here: Jewel Bellydance - Belly dance classes melbourne Australia ::: Articles. It's a long-winded version of many great points above, plus hopefully some more.

I've just updated this article because I'm teaching an improv workshop this weekend...and I'll be improvising myself, because the class size is about double what it was last time I delivered it. Whew! Let's hope they don't all improvise spinning off in different directions at once.

This article is great! Thank you, it will give me something visual to refer back to.

Originally Posted by badriya_al_ahmar

I work on improv by making pancakes--seriously! I bring the boombox into the kitchen, plug in the mp3 player, put it on random, start cooking and dancing! Honestly I think some of my best dancing has been in the kitchen, because I'm at my freest then. Somehow the split attention of cooking (it doesn't *have* to be pancakes, it can be anything time consuming) and dancing takes the pressure off to be perfect and to think every move out in advance, so I'm much more relaxed than I would be if I went into my dance space saying "And Now I Will Improvise!" The next time I dance for real to the music that came on while I was cooking, I'll be more capable of relaxing into it and having fun with it.

lol I always dance while I'm cooking! It's so much fun and I've come up with some cute moves. But then I get inspired and forget about my cooking...uhoh

A lot of excellent advice here and some great ideas about how to teach improv which I am totally stealing.

I think a key step to really being able to improv for yourself is shutting off that infernal internal critic. Even if you're just in your living room, I know mine rarely shuts up, though I've found a couple glasses of wine to be a great silencer! Stop and breath. And turn down the lights. It creates a more mellow environment and somehow lowers the stakes. G'luck!