2019 March 29, Huanchaco Peru Improvisation, surfing and football The title of this article is inspired from a book I took with me on a surftrip to Peru: “Impro: Dynamics of the unexpected – notes on impro and football”. I love this book and warmly recommend it to all improvisers. I think it’s a very smart and beautiful work. It
Categorie: english
Viewpoints: live and let live
This is a blog about an improvisation method I love very much. About 15 years ago I discovered “Viewpoints for dance and theatre” during a weekend workshop (Wisper, Gil Renders). “The seed of the entire work of The Six Viewpoints is found in the simple act of standing in space. From this perspective the artist is invited to read and be
Creatief denken? Drop the box!
Reviewing a translation to english of an article I wrote in dutch, I encountered the saying “Think out of the box”. Which was un understandable though not the literal translation of my words. That would have been impossible since I am allergic to tell people they have to think out of the box. When I see people try to think out of
When not to improvise
To improvise or not to improvise. What is the question? I’m often surprised how people reject improvisational thinking and acting as if the only way to do it is always do it. “You can’t always improvise!” “Some things just need planning and strategy.” Duh. Ofcourse. One of the things I hate most is improvising when you shouldn’t. Like… –
How (not) to share leadership
I got misquoted in a magazine. Let’s see it as a chance to make a better point. “So everyone takes a little part of the responsibility.” This is in an article about new ways of collaboration in organisations and how improvisation principles can bring insights and experience to it . I went “AAAAHHRGGG” and “F*^%!” when I read it. Actually
Keep the Art in business-gigs
That was our final advice in a workshop we hosted with Inspinazie during the Applied Improvisation Netwerk conference in Berlin in 2014, about the use of applied improvisation, both in show-formats and training-formats. And here’s something I heard recently: What if in a few years, people don’t make at all a connotation with improvisation theatre anymore, when they hear “applied improvisation”?
The 4 distractions from being here, now.
Being part of the “U-lab”, a MOOC (massive open online course) by MIT (Massachusets Institute of Technlogy), I am strongly focussed nowadays on the question on how and why improvisation and the application of its principles and techniques, has such a strong value in our daily life and work (often filled with high-demanding conditions). This is also a core question in a
Violent play
Yesterday we played in the shopping street in Brussels. In the act, we started a fight between a married couple, ending in fysical violence with the man hitting the woman. Alternating with a scene between the man and his daughter. It was part of an action for the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against women. More specific a
Theory U en improvisatieprincipes
Since I read Theory U, by C. Otto Scharmer, I more and more use the model in applied impro work. (“Theory U proposes that the quality of the results that we create in any kind of social system is a function of the quality of awareness, attention, or consciousness that the participants in the system operate from.”) If you are an
From which zone do you improvise?
I loved how during the ITI-festival (ITI: International Theatresports Institute) in Würzburg in October, a cluster of workshops including mine all seemed to focus on “the playful place in our body and mind” we’re looking for. Dealing with Pressure, Don’t forget to Have Fun , From Reaction to Response, The Impro-Dojo, Vulnerability on Stage,… and probably some others I wasn’t
From no to yes-and: 6 steps to open up
A few years ago we developed improvisation formats about interculturality on the workfloor, with Livingstone (center of competence for intercultural enterpreneurship). Lutgart Dusar told us about the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity of Dr. Bennett Milton. You can find a short decription and nice visualisation here. Since then, I often use this model in parallel with the movement we make from no tot
How improvisation makes you fast without training it
In addition to the slides in the previous post, a brief description of one of the exercises during the workshop “Silence/time in improvisation”. Groups of 4 or 5 persons are simply making association circles (each person says a word that is a spontaneous association on the previous word). In the first version they do not get any other instructions. In