On how not to not improvise.

The thing about Misha Gloubermans improv workshops is that they seem to get around so many problems with improvisation.

In the Viewpoints workshop Michael and I ran last year, we had a lot of discussions about some of the common traps of group improv – the slow build to big final climax, the dominance of rhythm, the difficulty of following or coming to agreement about complex things, trying (unsuccessfully or too hard) to avoid personal habits. I think a lot about Aimée Dawn Robinson asking for "more middle" in improv.

In Misha's workshops (I took one last year at Array Music) we make noise. Mostly with our mouths. The noises are not expert noises (these are not "voice" or "how to make better noises" workshops) they are noises anyone can make. Misha says this is so that there is no need for expertise in an instrument or form.

He also (rightly I think) says that many times, when we are learning "improvisation" we are actually learning the form (eg Viewpoints teaches ways of making performance) and with the noises we are working on improvisation - on how we make choices, when we step forward, when we follow, how a group comes (or doesn't) to togetherness and how it moves apart.

And in the apparent absurdity of making all these noises and going through the forms Misha lays out, I learned some very real and useful things about improvisation and performance. And not only in the "understanding in my head" way of learning, but also the "we actually did that" way.

After the workshop, which was attended by mostly people who don't perform, I began wondering about one of these workshops at Dancemakers. About what the performers and our guests could learn, and what would it be like if it was a week of afternoons.

Luckily Misha and Michael joined in that wondering, and so now we're a week and a bit from it happening.

And I'm really looking forward to it. Hope to see some of you there.

Click here for details and registration.

And in these places for videos of previous Terrible Noises for Beautiful People editions:

Cobra Edition
Nuit Blanche Edition
Birthday Party Edition

Which might be nothing like the Dancemakers one - but are good watching.