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Taken by Surprise
A Dance Improvisation Reader
Edited Ann Cooper Albright , David Gere
Series: Wesleyan Dance
Sales Date: 2003-10-24
304 Pages, 7.00 x 10.00 in
First comprehensive overview of improvisation in dance.
This collection of classic and new writings on dance improvisation brings together 21 essays by prominent dancers, scholars and historians. Until now, discussion of improvisation in dance has focused mainly on the postmodern form known as contact improv. Taken by Surprise reflects the development of improvisation as a compositional and performance mode in a wide variety of dance contexts, including dance traditions from around the globe, such as Yoruban masked dance, Indian Bharatanatyam and flamenco.
The book also includes a thoughtful look at computer-aided choreography, a discussion of recent innovations in tap dancing and a section on improvisation in everyday life. Combining primary sources with critical analysis, Taken by Surprise will serve as an indispensible companion to studio work in improvisation, and a much-needed supplement to twentieth century dance histories.
CONTRIBUTORS: Ann Cooper Albright, Sally Banes, Bruce Curtis, Kent Despain, Margaret Thompson Drewal, Simone Forti, Susan Leigh Foster, David Gere, Raymond W. Gibbs, JR, Michelle Heffner Hayes, Carmela Hermann, Constance Valis Hill, Rachel Kaplan, Maura Keefe, Victoria Marks, Avanthi Meduri, Steve Paxton, Janice Ross, Karen Schaffman, Nancy Stark Smith, Ellen Webb, Ruth Zaporah.
IMPROVISING BODY, IMPROVISING MIND
Taken by Surprise: Improvisation in Dance and Mind – Susan Leigh Foster
Exposed to Gravity – Bruce Curtis o Dance: A Body with a Mind of Its Own – Ruth Zaporah
The Cutting Edge of Awareness: Reports from the Inside of Improvisation – Kent De Spain
A DUET WITH POSTMODERN DANCE
Anna Halprin and Improvisation as Child's Play: A Search for Innocence – Janice Ross
Animate Dancing: A Practice in Dance Improvisation – Simone Forti
Learning to Speak: An Apprenticeship with Simone Forti in Logomotion – Carmela Hermann
Spontaneous Combustion: Notes on Dance Improvisation from the Sixties to the Nineties – Sally Banes
EXPANDING THE CANON
Stepping, Stealing, Sharing, and Daring: Improvisation and the Tap Dance Challenge – Constance Valis Hill
The Writing on the Wall: Reading Improvisation in Flamenco and Postmodern Dance – Michelle Heffner Hayes
Improvisation as Participatory Performance: Egungun Masked Dancers in the Yoruba Tradition – Margaret Thompson Drewal
Against Improvisation: A Postmodernist Makes the Case for Choreography – Victoria Marks
Multiple Pleasures: Improvisation in Bharatanatyam – Avanthi Meduri
RECONSIDERING CONTACT IMPROVISATION
A Subjective History of Contact Improvisation – Nancy Stark Smith
Drafting Interior Techniques – Steve Paxton
ANN COOPER ALBRIGHT is Associate Professor of Dance at Oberlin College and author of Choreographing Difference (Wesleyan, 1997). DAVID GERE is Assistant Professor at University of California at Los Angeles's Department of World Arts and Cultures and co-editor of Looking Out: Perspectives on Dance and Criticism in a Multicultural World (1995).
"The concept of improvisation is historically associated with jazz, comedy, or theater, not dance... Among the authors represented are Susan Leigh Foster, Sally Banes, and Janice Ross, as well as dance notable such as Simone Forti, Steve Paxton, and Victoria Marks... best suited to large dance and performing arts collections."
~Library Journal
""This collection charts the geography of dance improvisation in an entirely contemporary way. Whether personal, artistic, ethnographic, critical, historical, or theoretical, each voice speaks clearly and accessibly. This collection is refreshing, insightful and sophisticated.""
~Penny Campbell, Director of Dance, Middlebury College
"For those who strive to legitimize the long-dismissed art and craft of improvisational dance; for those who look for an invitation, or a doorway in; for those for whom the phrase just improvising slips (too) easily off the tongue; and for dancers and dance lovers of all persuasions, I recommend this reader. The frank voices in this collection pay tribute to the ranginess of improvisational dance practices and sources while illuminating the deep bodymind investigations that inform its application to contemporary performance."
~Lisa Nelson, choreographer, improvisational performer, coeditor Contact Quarterly dance journal
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