We Will Be Calling It Improvisation

Written by Paul Z Jackson – This article is from AIM Issue 1 (released December 2022).

We had a productive session in Spain on ‘The future of Applied Improvisation’. Paul Z Jackson made these notes, which convey the main points and perhaps the flavour of the event.

The big question facing us: ‘What is the future of Applied Improvisation?’

A group of us at the AIN in SpAIN conference agreed upon a few propositions.

It is 'Improvisation'

We’ll call it Improvisation - without apology. Improvisation is a phenomenon in its own right, observable in many fields of practice, and part of everyone’s experience. So we can choose to approach it from how it shows up in everyday life, and explore it in its different manifestations. That’s in contrast to seeing it (as some have traditionally) as a specialist set of skills known only to an artistic elite who might graciously explain it and share it with the rest of us.

There is a diverse range of practitioners 

Everyone experiences improvisation in their lives, and it is highlighted as part of the practice of many disciplines and professions. For example, theatre improv performers have made it famous, especially with the international TV success of Whose Line Is It Anyway. Jazz musicians have been long studied and admired. As dancers or spectators we enjoy improvised traditions of tango and flamenco.

And beyond the art, we see improvisation deep in organisations, practiced by coaches, therapists, facilitators and sports players. Wherever there’s playfulness, in games or the everyday lives of children, there’s improvisation.

It's possible for the community of improvisers to agree a family of principles or descriptions of improvisation

All would agree that a set of tenets will be attractive, useful and perhaps even desperately needed for various reasons – including human growth and well-being. They represent better responses to personal, organisational and social circumstances.

Which tenets are included in our definitions or descriptions of ‘Improvisation’?

We offered a provisional list:

• Honouring the initial impulse – recognising the place of spontaneity
• Comfort with ambiguity
• Recognition of complexity and emergence
• Acceptance of (life's) offers
• Yes, And...

Improvisation is context sensitive

How improvisation is recognised, described or recommended will vary from context to context.

This Three Wave framework usefully accounts for three of the main perspectives which practitioners currently offer:

Wave 1 

Theatre class – in which people learn various skills to be better equipped to perform improvised shows on stage (or TV etc), in front of an audience. This wave extends to offering an improv show

Wave 2

Improvisation as a route to various professional and life skills, learned in workshops and courses, often without ‘improvisation’ in the title.

Operating in this wave, the practitioner is well aware that ‘all the world’s a stage’ is a metaphor and is able to teach improvisation without theatre. They don’t depend on the theatrical basics of separating performer from audience, or requiring participants to play any role (other than themselves). In this wave we see a wider variety of activities and debriefs and other methods to upskill participants’ confidence, teamwork, creativity, writing, leadership, medical practice, humanitarian rebuilding of damaged communities, communication of scientific knowledge, etc, etc… This wave depends notably on good facilitation, trainer and design skills.

Wave 3 

Improvisation ‘Without the games’. This is the realm of do-it-yourself improvisation, so it’s a bit tougher to describe and discover. Good examples include The Quest, Street Wisdom and everyday life improvisation.

In this guise, people are improvising (consciously), without the need for a workshop or training programme or expert improvisational facilitators. They learn through the experience of improvising, prompted by books, worksheets, games, apps and other inventive formats. If you ask them to describe their experience, instead of talking about performance formats or particular exercises, they’ll go to the heart of the matter - the nature of presence, flow, collaboration, creativity and spontaneity.