My personal politics rest around women and the ill equality they are dealt; a depleted economic self - poverty. Though empowerment oft is gathered through struggle, I try to disassociate myself from the negativity that this label bears, joyfully running, arms outstretched, towards my life. Yet, it is this struggle that defines my road from others and can’t simply be disregarded. Improvisation, dictates my every movement; my conscience. And is a practice as holy as prayer, embodying softness (love of self), mindfulness (listening; paying attention), kindness (compassion), intuition (sensing & openness to self, others and beyond), flexibility (willingness to change; grow), creativity (enacting newness, connecting the unfamiliar) and skill (known knowledge).
A hope of mine, for our neighborhood schools, is that the alternative model of pedagogy found within improvisation, would someday be accepted as the powerful tool it is. Improv-centered learning programs would support many of the changes our students and communities need, providing a field of listening that can grow into connections, leading to understanding or at least compassion; a first step towards social change. I believe the lack of transcribed or documented materials is an issue for most academics. Though, in actuality, it’s this medium’s strength; allowing for personal and cultural interpretation.
“In pedagogies, criticism, arts funding policies, and support structures, improvisative music is often looked at askance. Since improvisational musical practices are central to many marginalized communities (Heble: 2000), the resultant failure of scholars to investigate improvisation has led to a failure to recognize the extent to which it provides a model for flexible, dynamic, and dialogical social structures that are both ethical and respectful of identity and difference.”[1]
Given the serious lack, within the general population’s understanding of the positive effects of improvisational music, we must take a stand in representing and disseminating knowledge as to how improvisation can articulate conceptions and expressions of race, culture, class and gender within a neutral and supportive environment. Just a few nutritive qualities of a well constructed improvisational setting might include: new self awareness; histories revealed, dialog opens and connections made, time offered for working through spacious structures (visual, aural, physical, etc.); establishing value in innovation, risk-taking encouraged while failure’s denied, originality treated as gold, and a safe space for artistic/professional development.
“Improvisation must be considered not simply as a musical form, but as a complex social phenomenon that mediates transcultural inter-artistic exchanges that produce new conceptions of identity, community, history, and the body.”[2]
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