I recently taught at a residential improvisation festival with my friends and colleagues from the Maydays One of the benefits of teaching a residential retreat is working with participants who are already in the zone when they walk in the room. There is a sparkle and an openness which means there is no need for…
Posts Tagged:improvisation
Our mainstream education system is based on an industrial model of mass produced learning. We compel lively and inquisitive young people to sit in rows and be “educated” according to an outdated and rigid curriculum. In essence children have their minds filled with information and are regularly tested on their ability to retrieve this information…
In our current era of information overload and instant everything it seems that our attention spans are getting shorter. Much of our mental processing gets taken up by screening out input in order to find the information that we need. Personally I find it extremely difficult to use a browser that does not have Adblock…
In our binary world we love to separate our experiences of life into two categories and in many ways this ability serves us. As children it is vital to make sense of our world and we are taught to differentiate right from wrong, good from bad and safety from danger. This is a useful framework…
Collaboration is part of the essence of improvisation, each participant contributes and builds on the contributions of their fellows. The outcome is a mystery and the journey is delightful and surprising. The whole is greater than the sum of it’s parts. Anthropologists contend that it is the ability to pass on learning to other humans…
One highly valuable element of improvisation practice is the idea that it is impossible to do it wrong. This principle creates an environment that promotes creativity and invites risk taking. The essence of improvisation is that it embraces whatever takes place in the moment. An alert improviser will gleefully seize upon any anomaly, stumble or…
Change is unavoidable, much as we would like things to be otherwise. Most of the circumstances of our lives are beyond our control and our comprehension. We seek to make positive changes with specific gaols in mind and then somehow reality intervenes in the shape of the unexpected. Chaos is an inevitable ingredient when we…
Challenging the existing culture in a large organisation is risky and invigorating. I recently worked with a forward thinking VP within a global blue chip company who is commited to driving change. He brought together a large team, laid out the vision and invited their input. With significant buy-in and enthusiasm clearly evident it was…
As an experienced performer and trainer I condense the underlying value of practicing improvisation to one word – presence. In order to improvise well one acquires and develops a specific set of skills. This skill set greatly enhances personal effectiveness through an ever deepening level of presence in the here and now. When people first…
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