Students this week concentrated on different kinds of improvisation – which involves listening, watching, quick creating and lots of fun. Students from grade 2 and up had a go at Futzing.
Futzing was invented by a world renowned dancer/choreographer called Twyla Tharp. Here she explains what it is like:
“When I’m in the studio, when I’m warm, when I’m what people call improvising, but what I call futzing, [but] improvisation seems like such a somehow institutionalized word. What I do is completely the opposite of institutionalized; it’s the messiest thing you can imagine!” – Twyla Tharp
Students were given, according to their age and stage of development, instructions to create a short phrase which they then performed lying on their backs. Hilarity ensued – as well as exclamations of “How are we going to do THAT move?”
It was seriously fun – and at times very creative. The enclosed clips give a little taste of this activity.
http://youtu.be/_saJGlIXbCI