Katrina McPherson on Improvisation in Dance
In a couple of previous posts, I've cited views of an academic and a musician concerning the value of improvisation for promoting reflectiveness and generating fresh ideas.I'll continue this theme today by noting the work of Katrina McPherson, an accomplished video dance maker from Scotland. In a video clip available on YouTube, McPherson describes how she came to realize that she could go too far in trying to pin down every element of a taped performance in her pre-production storyboard. She had had past experience with improvisation, and this helped her recognize that leaving scope for spontaneity in the dancers' movements and/or the camera movement would raise the quality of the performance as presented in her final video.
As a side note, I'd mention that McPherson talks a bit about how fundamental framing is in creating the video version of dance movement.
In fact, as you watch the video clip, you'll see that a basic long shot is frequently juxtaposed against a closer shot so that you can see for yourself the effect of framing. In this regard, the video serves as a reminder of how the notion of "framing," discussed in yesterday's post, arose as a metaphor drawn from film-making.
Labels: Arts, Innovation
posted by Karen Nelson @ 11:44 PM
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