For the last three weeks I have been working with my students on Mirroring. The goal is to introduce them to the practice of improvisation in the hopes of developing their ability to express themselves beyond mere technique of Classical vocabulary.
The first week we did our mirroring, I had my students find a movement phrase by exploring a door frame with their extremities. They then rehearsed these phrases and used these as the basis of their phrase when leading the mirroring exercise. On the second week, I had them start our in a similar fashion looking for a movement phrase from a door frame. When we did our mirroring exercise, I introduced the concept of variation. I had the leader repeat a phrase 3 times and instructed the follower to vary segments of the phrase according to height, direction,etc.
This week, I had the dancers create their phrases as they were doing the mirror. The movement they had was completely unrehearsed. As they got the hang of it, the concept of succession was introduced. The leader was instructed to do a segment of a phrase in sharp sudden movement followed by a pause. The follower then followed the phrase segment to the best of his/her ability.
After a few tries, I introduced my dancers to structured innovation. I instructed them to start mirroring from one side of the room moving across to the opposite side. At a certain point, the dancers were to do mirroring with variations and at another point the mirroring with successions. Below is a video of their first stab at structured improvisation.
The first week we did our mirroring, I had my students find a movement phrase by exploring a door frame with their extremities. They then rehearsed these phrases and used these as the basis of their phrase when leading the mirroring exercise. On the second week, I had them start our in a similar fashion looking for a movement phrase from a door frame. When we did our mirroring exercise, I introduced the concept of variation. I had the leader repeat a phrase 3 times and instructed the follower to vary segments of the phrase according to height, direction,etc.
This week, I had the dancers create their phrases as they were doing the mirror. The movement they had was completely unrehearsed. As they got the hang of it, the concept of succession was introduced. The leader was instructed to do a segment of a phrase in sharp sudden movement followed by a pause. The follower then followed the phrase segment to the best of his/her ability.
After a few tries, I introduced my dancers to structured innovation. I instructed them to start mirroring from one side of the room moving across to the opposite side. At a certain point, the dancers were to do mirroring with variations and at another point the mirroring with successions. Below is a video of their first stab at structured improvisation.
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