Interdisciplinary Instant Composition

What IIIF ? London is beta 0.2 of the Interdisciplinary International Improvisation Festival.  This research festival (the first was in Amsterdam in 2017) brings together researchers from around Europe to ask the absurd question, ‘How/Can improvisation be documented ?’ The festival moves within the London Improvisation scene and includes workshops, performances and reflection sessions.  We … Continue reading →

SUPPORT AND CHALLENGE   In two sessions, we, James Hewitt -musician and Maria Michailidou- dance artist are going to examine questions on support and challenge. How do we identify and experience support and challenge in an Interdisciplinary Instant Composition context? What are their applications and implications? What are their specific features? What do they share? … Continue reading →

Hey all improvisers, instant composers, dancers, musicians, actors, philosophers, pudding makers far and wide ! From the 9th to the 13th of March 2017, we are proposing IIIF – a beta festival 0.1 that looks at the artistic practice of interdisciplinary improvisation. This festival will feel like performers mingling and playing together, it will feel … Continue reading →

Last Carpet Session we worked with three disciplines Maria (dance), Angela and Jesica (voice) and Esmeralda (acting). We choose a theme ‘Lines’ and worked from our own discipline to make a solo of 3/5 min. Later we explored how we could enter from your one discipline into a solo piece of an other discipline. Questions … Continue reading →

  Last thursday, sep 1, we (Esmeralda, Maria, Natanja) went quite loud. It was uncomfortable, liberating, tiring, funny, surprising… We started by trying to define loudness in a performative space, outside the sense of hearing to which it first of all ‘belongs’. What is loud with a silent body, what is a loud space? Loud: … Continue reading →

As I wrote in june, I am proposing two sessions on playing in the higher end of the loudness spectrum. More muscle-tone, more volume, louder voices. What does that give the composition, can it make it richer, funnier, more complicated? Will conflict automatically arise or are we, polite people in general, harmoniously loud? Is it … Continue reading →

For the end-of-season gathering of the Carpet Sessions coming Thursday, what are your wishes to spend the afternoon? My own proposal would be to toy around with ideas and work forms how improvisers (from different disciplines) could build a dictionary of their work, together. Backed by the foundation behind the Carpet Sessions, and in collaboration … Continue reading →

Hello Improvisers! On Thursday June 16th and 23rd, Suzan Lemont (along with as yet unknown research partner) will lead sessions around the theme of creating instant composition performances as a clown (using only the red nose, though we may explore what else might be useful/necessary in this endeavor or if the nose is even necessary). … Continue reading →

Hello everyone, My name is Julien, I’m a student at the Sandberg Instituut and a past participant of the Carpet Sessions. I am looking to invite you for an exploratory improv session during my grad exhibition on the afternoon of Saturday, June 18th. I am currently concluding my research into movement as political expression. For my graduation work I’m constructing a round … Continue reading →

– 28 April (13:00 – 17.00), Vredenburg studio Session III on language in improvised performance, guided by Ron Bunzl & Ralph de Rijke In this follow-up to the sessions on 10 and 31 March we will use tropes from other, more familiar disciplines to play with words, casting them like fish-hooks to catch meanings and … Continue reading →

RESPONSIBILITY – the ability to respond After “The speaking body and the speaking bubble”, the first Carpet session investigation into speaking, we continue to explore the challenges of improvisation with words on March 31, 2016 (doors open at 14h session begins 14:15 – 17h) Improvisation is the art of being in the now, following the … Continue reading →

Inspired by a recent Action Theatre workshop Maria Michailidou and me joined with Sten Rudstrom, we wanted to dedicate a number of sessions on looking at the act of speaking/producing words in Improvisation context. We will do this for the first time in a Carpet Session on the 10th of March 2016 13:00 (doors open/warming … Continue reading →

We want to invite everyone who is interested in groupwork-solowork in improvisations, to join us for an open session on thursday octobre 15th. The last two sessions we have been working on shifting focus in groupwork and solowork. And a lot of new ideas, concepts and questions arose. We have been focussing on: What does … Continue reading →

29 October, 12 & 19 November – 13:00-17:00 3 sessions facilitated by Bettina Neuhaus and Thomas Johannsen  groove c.1400, from O.N. grod “pit,” or M.Du. groeve “furrow, ditch,” Sense of “long, narrow channel or furrow” Meaning “spiral cut in a phonograph record” Fig. sense of “routine” , often depreciatory at first, “a rut.” Adj. groovy … Continue reading →

Dear improvisers, Zwaan and me, summarized the second session on identity from Thursday 24th. For those who would be interested to read what we did, please find our text below. See you soon! Greetings, Nadine & Zwaan Recap Second Identity Session 24/09/2015 led by Zwaan de Vries & Nadine Grinberg Introduction We started the second session with a … Continue reading →

The very fruitful research of working with musicians, dancers & actors on equal footing in Instant Composition Performance has culminated in a detailed review article that can be found here: (Dis)connecting the dots – Merging dance, theatre and music in improvisation   Parts of the article were used to extend our Knowlegde Base with another … Continue reading →

Dear improvisers, Zwaan and me, summarized the first session on identity from last Thursday. For those who would be interested to come to our second session and for all those who could not come, we think this could be useful and interesting to read. Please find our text below. Hope to see you on our second session … Continue reading →

17+24 September 2015: Two Carpet Sessions on Identity led by Zwaan de Vries and Nadine Grinberg We both come from multicultural backgrounds and Identity has always been a challenge to define ourselves. As we grow into a multicultural and global society, how does this phenomena affect the concept of identity in improvisation? What do we … Continue reading →

Some thoughts for the session next week, on 10 September 2015 (13:00-17:00) Let us know if you would like to join us! Our aims of writing on improvisation can be manifold. From quite close to us: for our own reflection, or to develop the understanding of what we are doing together with the people we … Continue reading →

Hello all! While the first Carpet session of the season is on it’s way – have fun over there! –  I prepared this season’s start update for you.   Below, an overview of all the currently planned sessions.   There is a report on our recent Carpet picknick. You can read there what we discussed … Continue reading →

  Hi all, for september 3rd I propose a session on not very much at all and a lot at the same time. Lately I have been inspired by and through ‘simply’ going into a space and ‘doing it’, practising improvisation over many hours on end. I notice that when I do this, the fact … Continue reading →

I (Esther Eij) want to invite artists from all kinds of artdisciplines (performing and non-performing!) to join me in a 6 session research on the balance between groupwork and individuality. WHEN: 1, 8, 15 oct. + 3, 10, 17 dec. 2015 between 13.00-15.30 Each cycle of three will end with an open session in wich … Continue reading →

Hi everyone, in anticipation of the coming season of Carpet Sessions, I have some great news:  We have founded a ‘stichting’ (foundation) for improvisation work, which all active members in the Carpet Pool of improvisers could use in the future for their improvisation/research projects, for subsidy applications and for us to generally get organised! The … Continue reading →

In closing of the Carpet Season of this year, I propose an unusual gathering: Let’s have a look together at the subject of leaving traces of writing about our improvisation work. How can that be done, in a subject as wide as interdisciplinarity and as fluid as improvisation? Which type of writing is useful/effective for … Continue reading →

      UPDATE: the here described sessions resulted in this extensive article that talks about the work and the main issues we encountered.       —       In May last year we had the first edition of “(Dis)connecting the dots”: Looking at the trinity theatre/dance/music in improvisation performance with the question how each discipline differs in their … Continue reading →

CARPET SESSION – 26 March 2015 Cacophony of dis/balances– exchange session with Hong Kong Introduction In this carpet session entitled ‘cacophony of disbalance’ we will research a small element of a bigger cross cultural interdisciplinary art research/collaboration entitled ‘home’ in which the Netherlands, Hong Kong and Japan are participating (2014-2017). ‘Home’ explores the process of … Continue reading →

Originally posted on Interdisciplinary Instant Composition:
In these two sessions we are going to investigate the following questions: How the two mediums can be in dialogue: interact,exchange,reflect. What is the meeting point and what possibilities arise What kind of feedback does the camera get from the body and vice versa. We hope to see you…

Happy New Year!  😀 In the first research session of 2015, Kenzo Kusuda and Thomas Johannsen will take a closer look at the central matter of live performance: that you are involved in a moment with somebody else who is looking/listening. In fact, there is no reason to perform if it is not for someone … Continue reading →

W o o o h a a a  !!!   Y e s   Y e s   Y e s ! ~ yes? ~ C a n   y o u   f e e l   i t … ~ wait a minute ~ C a n   y o u   f … Continue reading →

Dear friends and colleagues, The last period of time I´ve been searching for opportunities  to share and show my work to different groups of people on the places where they actually live or spend their time. Like as: zorgcentra/care centers, elderly houses, and community centers/buurthuizen. During this on going practice ,I would like to explore … Continue reading →

This post is a reaction from Weijke Koopmans to the announcement of the upcoming session “Postponing the end”.  We have worked together previously around this theme.  The letter below is her personal attempt (and she is managing well) to describe even more precisely what the core interest is in working with “endings” in Instant Composition. All … Continue reading →

POSTPONING THE END Dear dancers/musicians There are two Carpet sessions coming up for those who are interested in practicing Instantly Composed Performances. In the first sesson (Oct 2) we are focussing the research around movement/dance. In the second session (Oct 9) we want to continue the research and include live musicians to play/perform with us. … Continue reading →

What happens when we postpone “the ending” within an improvised composition? What happens in that awkward spacious moment when we know the ending is near but we don’t allow it to be… nevertheless we allow something new to develop out of it…. How does the scene continue? Does the scene transform or break into a … Continue reading →

An improvisation meeting of theatre, dance, music and more At the end of the Carpet Sessions season, you are invited to join the exploration of an issue that is probably the biggest source of discussion in interdisciplinary art making: How concrete and readable should our work be? What should be left unexplained – how opaque, … Continue reading →

Two Concert/Performances coming up – and another open session for you to join – as a conclusion to our short research into voice and movement improvisation  A musical phrase, just as a movement phrase are the DNA of any music/dance improvisation performance. They are building blocks, that combined create more complex structures of dance, composition, story…And … Continue reading →

Hallo everybody, thanks so much for all the good work during the Open Session at Dansmakers on 30th of February. We were with 40 dancers/singers (+ 1 dog), which is an amazing number for a research session, and it worked magically, beautifully well!  The performance in the evening was surely something to remember… I just … Continue reading →

Dear improvisers, Thank you for all your reactions to the “Secret Life of Phrases” research! We had great response from a number of colleagues and heard clearly the shared intention to support and take part in these self-organized research projects under the Carpet Sessions wing. The idea is to grow in the interdisciplinary practice and … Continue reading →

The secret Life of Phrases An investigation into Voice and Movement A musical phrase, just as a movement phrase are the DNA of any music/dance improvisation performance. They are building blocks, that combined create more complex structures of dance, composition, story… And what are phrases themselves made of? Sounds, tones, rhythmical relationships in music, and … Continue reading →

Dear carpeteers,   After a long time of studying butoh dance, vocal improvisation and meditation in India I am back in Holland and ready to share and investigate further over here…   In december I would like to explore Interdisciplinary Instant Composition through the theme of listening. Of course, we always do when performing on … Continue reading →

Hi there, I gave the Knowledge Base a new structure, now forming two big chapters: Improvisation Basics Performance Issues And I wrote a new general entry about the theme of Time and Duration following up on the sessions I led with Kim-José Bode in spring this year. There is of course much more to be … Continue reading →

The first session we were only dancers and musicians and no other animals. We have been diving in to different kind of focusses how you can relate and interact with another improviser. We defined areas like space, time, speed, power/energy. Talking about those definitions made us even more aware about the difference of capability of using … Continue reading →

Dancer Maaike v.d. Westeringh is preparing an exchange project between European and Ugandan dancers and musicians. She is working in a collective that was formed out of the first project in Uganda called ‘Nasibu’. Click here if you wanna know more about Nasibu. In preparation of this dance-music-project which will happen in 2014 she would like to … Continue reading →

There’s a new improvisation initiative in town: The Pool It’s switching location monthly from Muiderpoort Theatre to Overtoom 301 This week Sunday we are tackling the theme of RISK/MISTAKES: 21st April 13.30-17.30 h Overtoom 301   THE POOL – jump into the jam Leaders: Thomas Johannsen (dance), Gabor Csongradi (Music), Makiko Ito (Light), Margherita Landi (observation group). … Continue reading →