Approaches to Improvisation
Sissy Vogue Vop/Rhythm/Release/Ensemble Improvisations

Kirstie Simson and Darell Jones

Kirstie Simson and Darrell Jones have been collaborating in workshops and performances over the past two years. They are interested in exploring different approaches to Improvisation as a performance practice.

This work borrows from the aesthetics of voguing to investigate extreme physicality, “fierceness of attack,” and attitude as an approach to movement. Exercises derived from the voguing culture such as dips, twirls,and spins are used to connect poses and postures in large athletic phrases that express the physical poetics of battling gracefully. Through guided improvisation, we will also explore the culture behind the movements in an attempt to channel the somatic pluralism that drives voguing’s Improvisation.

Rhythm/Release Class starts by invigorating the body's natural rhythms through breath and fluid body movements that increase in range and tempo. The warm-up continues by finding strength and suppleness in exercises that move to and from the floor and above and across space. Extended combinations emphasize rhythmic acuity by concentrating on accentuation and technical nuance. The experience culminates with large athletic phrases that play percussive against fluid and that find compositions of flight and floor through rhythms.

Their combined knowledge and passion for the exploration of improvised dance engenders an exciting and energized collaboration that inspires fresh insight into the form. The workshop will challenge our physicality, and exercise our powers of awareness, listening and sensitivity in service of individual and collective consciousness.