Improvisation is absolutely a necessary skill. One of my teachers likes to say that eventually you WILL forget a part of a choreo; if you don't know how to improvise, you're screwed. You can't just stand there and try to remember what happens next. Plus, being skilled at improv lets you change what you're doing to fit the audience's mood. Like, if they're a really awesome and interactive audience, you'll be able to "play" with them more, do some audience participation, etc.
However, I do like to choreograph some. Nothing fancy, just a rough outline/ skeleton. What I usually do is improvise to a song many, many times (and film it if I can) to see what works and what doesn't. Then I have a basic idea of what to do, and if I get stuck while improvising, I'll have something to go back to. I think improv generally looks more natural, more like you're actually having fun dancing and not just trying to remember what you are supposed to do next. And it keeps you more in the moment; I've been guilty of going on auto-pilot and zoning out when doing a choreography.
Oh! I just remembered this, and I think it's a good analogy. You know Coyote Ugly? The actual club, not the movie? A few years ago one opened in DC and a couple guys I knew went there. They said the dancing was super boring because they just kept doing the same choreographies over....and over....and over....and over.... So you don't want to rely on choreo so much that people get bored with your performances because you're doing the same dances over and over, especially if you have a lot of repeat customers wherever you're performing.
Did that help at all?

I think dancers need both skills - being able to adjust choreography to fit the circumstances, and to do improv when it's appropriate (or necessary). You can learn improv by taking choreography & 'messing around' with it too - or by pracising performing to music you're not familiar with, or by working on dancing your favorite moves & combinations but changing them a bit to fit different music.

I think some teachers might want newer dancers to stick with choreography until they get experienced, because improvising is a hard skill to do well if you're not experienced in performing. It could be that's what that teacher had in mind? I wrote on improvising last year for Zaghareet mag in the July - Sept. issues, which are online if you want to read them. www.kawakib.com/articles.html

i haven't performed much, but Shira.net's articles about common styles in the USA has a section of which styles tend to use improv. vrs choreography. She talks about why and how one or the other fits the circumstances that style usually appears in. ^_^

I am afraid to say that I totally disagree with your teacher!!! I think improvisation is an essential skill for dancers of ALL LEVELS and the sooner a student starts the better! I see choreography as a necessary evil...its inevitable that if performing as a group it will be needed but other than that don't do it!!! I always improvise to a greater or lesser degree when I am performing. You have to really know your music (if working from cd). As mentioned above I too have a 'map' in my head of the music. I know what looks good with what part of the music and I have an image of what I want the dance to look like planned out in my head but after that its all down to the night. I'll have put in plenty of practice runs beforehand mind you!! This gives you the ability to interact and engage with the audience rather than just go through your moves like a robot! And the audience will love you for it!

As you quite rightly point out..improvisation is essential if you are working with musicians...as they may play a version you are not familiar with or improvise themselves...in Egyptian (my style) its the tradition to have improvised interaction between the musicians and dancer... and there is no greater thril than having a band follow you!

My advice is to get practicing at home if you don't get to improvise in class! A great way is to get your friends over..put a cd on shuffle and then take turns..practice at improvising and performing..all in one evening :-)

When I'm watching an event like a recital or "stage" show, I honestly prefer to see choreography. I notice that audiences tend to be more attentive to that sort of thing, too. Improv just doesn't quite keep my attention the same way in that environment. Now I _enjoy_ the personal feel of dancing improv in festivals or spontaneous situations like a music circle & wish to grow in that area.

I will perform on friday and I'm sure that I will get totally mixed up. That means, as long as I don't find my way back into my original plans I will have to improvise. But nobody really can tell unless you stop dancing or start making worried faces. It is only my best pal from dancing who usually notices. I only find it is a pity, because some choreographical ideas that answer the music so well to me are the highlights of the dance and I feel sorry if I skipped them.

From a training perspective, I'd suggest learning both skills. They each have their own strengths and limitations, and are appropriate for different situations. When you're performing, you can choose the method that's most appropriate for the show and your mood.

As lots of people have pointed out, being able to improv will let you turn lemons into lemonade when things don't go according to plan, but it's not just important for disaster recovery. Sometimes those unexpected moments turn out to be the most fun and memorable parts of your show.


I improvise almost exclusively when performing, for a few reasons:

- I'm usually dancing to live music, and even when the band is playing something we've used a dozen times, it's never the same. So relying on choreography wouldn't work. Plus, when you have a good band, they'll watch you and adjust what they're playing accordingly: if you do a really cool accent, they'll bring that accent back in the music, or if you're clearly having a great time with a song, they may play another verse, etc.

- When I am using taped music, it's usually for a bellygram, where I rarely have much information about the space (or whether everybody is going to jump up to dance and fill up what space there is).

- I give a much more lively and "connected" performance when I improvise, since more of the dance is coming out of the spirit of the moment: how I feel, what the band is playing, and what the audience is responding to. When I use choreography, I'm breaking that audience-band-dancer connection, and my dance ends up more cerebral, less spontaneous, and less emotionally honest. That said, this is NOT true for everybody. I have seen some dancers who can bring lots of warmth and emotion through a choreography. But that is also a skill that takes a lot of practice.


That said, choreography is still useful to me:

- In my first few years, I'd use choreography as a gateway to improv. At each student recital, I'd choreograph a different section of a routine (intro, veil, drum solo, karsilama, etc.). Once I had performed one choreography for a particular section, I found it much easier to improv it because it would get the pacing of the piece and a lot of different combinations and accents into muscle memory. And having already performed it made it less intimidating. :)

- at any level, learning choreography ***and spending some time analyzing it*** (i.e., thinking about why the choreographer made the choices she did) is a good way to learn composition skills. And whether you choreograph in advance or on the fly, the same compositional principals still apply.

- learning choreography during practice time is a good way to get new ideas and stylings. You can mooch anything from a full combination to a cute accent or a useful transition. Plus, cross-training in someone else's style is good for getting your own creative juices flowing and for stretching beyond your usual material.

$0.02,
Nadira


p.s. If I may do a little shameless self-promotion: I have a free video podcast on dance composition at:
www.taktaba.com
The podcast takes a very analytical, focused look at individual choreographic elements that you can play with (timing, repetition, etc.), but I'm also working on a more ground-up series on how to improvise and how to choreograph.

Wow, what a great response! Thank you, ladies! I definitely agree that being able to improvise a little is important. I do it at home, and actually, that's how I am coming up with some choreographies. It is difficult to improvise on your own at first when all you have ever really done is choreography. With my teachers, we always just worked on the choreography that we were performing. At least I am working more on improvising now.

I"m very, very lucky in that Tribal Spirits of the Sun, my troupe, has many live drummers. We play with all the basic Middle Eastern rhythms as well as African ones, and most of the dancers are fair to good drummers as well. The beautiful relationship between dancers and drummers that know each other over a long period of time is something I would NOT trade - and it's great for learning improv. But even with that blessing, which most dancers don't get, I would have to say that improv comes usually to me with a 'canned''piece that I really like and have heard before.

And, as before stated, choreographies come like wildfire when you're improving and enjoying yourself while listening to music - just be sure that you have pen and paper handy, or your MS Word or Google Documents ready to go! I have spent many happy hours choreographing fun pieces by improving over and over to a song.

Gypsy Wishes,

Raven
www.thegypsykiss.com

I think it's really important to know how to improv... I don't mean ATS style, I mean flat out dancing to music without a pre-planned sequence of moves. I've been working on my improv skills because there's always times when I would love to get up and dance to live music or during open floor. I've also been sneaking in improv on myself more and more lately - I'll choreograph parts of a song and intentionally leave others open for improvisation, both to build my skill and to change things up when I perform the same number again later on. It has made me a lot more comfortable with improvisation overall.

I also think that improv is a good skill to have because it makes you listen to the music you're dancing to. I've seen many choreographies that simply happened at the same time as the music, instead of being a response and addition to the music. Improv is a direct reaction to whatever is happening musically... so it can make you realize things about a piece of music you hadn't necessarily noticed.

A poster above said they find improv less interesting... I actually wonder how many of us see improvisational dancing and don't even realize it's improv. Elizabeth Strong, for example, frequently dances improv, but you'd never know it by watching her. She knows her music inside and out, and it looks like she always knows what's next.

I start out choreographing things to fit the song that I want to dance to. I guess what evolves is more like the anchor idea. The chorepgraphy gives me a way to focus my energy. By the time it gets to stage its prolly been choreographed at least 75%. By the time its performed, what comes out is about 15% choreographed anchors and the rest is improv cause my stage-frightend mind has totally gone on vacation. That is the biggest gift my teacher has given me, being able to improvise and not depend on chorpgrapy that I'll just forget. the mind might forget but the body, if you have practiced over and over to a song, just free dancing, will just pick right up.

I'm one of those people for whom improv does not come naturally. I can remember choreography really easily...but when my instructor would put music on at the end of class and tell us to "feel the music," I would stand and stare at her like she'd lost her mind.

So, I worked on ways and methods to improv. And now I teach them to my students. I teach my intermediates what I can...and I make them dance to music they've never heard before. I want them to develop the skills to anticipate the music...and make improv look just as smooth at choreography.

I've found that a lot of the things that can be done to improve improvisational skills will also help with creating choreography. And because these are my biggest trouble spots (and usually fairly intimidating for most of my students), I put a lot of emphasis on it. By contrast, I put little emphasis on zils...not because I think they need to be ignored...but because they come so easily for me (I have a lot of musical background...much of it in percussive instruments) that it's hard for me to teach.

My instructor, on the other hand, has trouble with zils, so she really works people on them.

One thing I've noticed about improv, though, that I think that people need to really be aware of: you're more likely to showcase your bad habits in improv than in choreography.

So, I've started taping my personal practices. I try to video my students once per month so that they can see both what they're doing well (harder for them to see than for me to see) and what they need to work on.

Incidently, my biggest bad habit is what my instructor calls "stupid hand." It's always my left hand that will flip around as I dance...not in a pretty way...but in a dead fish flopping around kind of way. It's obvious when I watch my videos that I flip it whenever I'm thinking about what move to do next...that's why it doesn't happen when I perform choreography.

I'm planning a video on improvisation skills, and I'm looking for input on what questions people have about improvising. I've got a lot of useful input already from this thready, but if anyone has any suggestions, questions, or ideas, you can send them to me in my online survey:
www.zoomerang.com/Survey/

Alternatively, you can PM me, or post in this other thread:
tribes.tribe.net/bellydanc...148636a45b

I'd appreciate any questions, input, or ideas you have!
Nadira

Choreographies are essential when you're dancing with a group, but from the viewpoint of solo work, I personally function best when I incorporate the two. In general my pieces are about 1/2 & 1/2. If they're all choreography I get bored and it shows! If they're all improv, I kick myself afterwards for all the cool things I missed.

I'd much rather watch someone dance from the heart, than demonstrate a carefully fine-tuned choreography. I wish we'd have worked much more on improv when I was taking group classes. (I only do privates and select workshops now).

Irregardless, the answer lies in what you - yourself are most comfortable. For your teacher to say it's "bullsh#t" is unprofessional and untrue.