| Description |
In this thesis, I researched improvisation in two capacities: its potential as a tool for self-discovery, and its potential as a tool for generating movement for a choreographic work. Over the course of three months, I worked with seven dancers, one of them being myself. This gave me the opportunity to gather information from witnessing movement and from the embodied experience of movement. The dance that resulted from this creative research is entitled I'm so sorry I forgot to tell you I'm Unraveling. It was performed in the Hayes-Christianson Theater at the Marriott Center for Dance on March 28th, 29th and 30th, 2024. You can watch the work by clicking the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNjWRP019ts It is also linked in the body of this paper for those who would prefer to watch it after reading about my research background and creative process. My challenge was to synthesize the embodied experiences of myself and others into a work of art that was representative of my collaborators, fulfilled my own creative desires, and was aesthetically and emotionally interesting to audiences. A collective curiosity about our queer identities in dance emerged throughout the process. Improvisation became a means of personal identity exploration, and performance served as a space to represent and affirm our identities. In this creative process, I found that my approach to dance-making and performance involves more than just the mechanics of the individual body; it encompasses the entirety of each collaborator's human self and the connections that arise between us in improvisational practices and the creative process. |
