Improvisation

For the Yale Dance Lab’s Fall 2024 project, we worked with esteemed masters of the form on improvisation in dance and music.

Improvisation is about responding to surrounding conditions thoughtfully, ethically, and creatively. Not merely physical inventiveness, dance improvisation hones skills that apply in other areas of life: the ability to listen, to connect, to respond. Through physical means, we will work on cultivating an ability to move through the world with resilience and compassion. 

The project ran for the full semester, led by a collection of award-winning guest artists from diverse backgrounds: Jodi Melnick, Ishmael Houston-Jones, Eiko Otake, Lacina Coulibaly, Renee Robinson, and Emily Coates. Each artist designed different structures and scores with the dancers. At the end of the semester we pieced together this material into a public performance, accompanied by live musicians led by South African composer Thuthuka Sibisi. 

Paradoxically, improvisation requires practice. A ritual return to the experiment of connection. This project is for all those who wish to deepen communal ties and foster collective creation with other artists.