Improvisation 101 for Drama Students employing the body/word method
 | What is improvisation for you? How can the body inform your tools for perception, expression? How can you forge a unique, updated improvisation methodology? Last, but not least, how can your training make the most of multimodality? |
Being invited to teach one of the core courses in a drama school is a demanding challenge. More so when the specific drama school, Veaki, has been famous in the industry for years, it is were you started your own professional training and you are expected to teach the 1st Year students, employing your own method and experience. Thank you Payia and Students.
Improvisation is, I have always believed, the core and essence of life and art. Often limited to devising, detached from fields of life other than the field a practitioner or a student is specialising in. Inspiring 1st years to explore their own take on improvisation, perception and expression tools as well as creative identities whithin the frame of body/word, is really challenging but so rewarding.
Senses, Feedback/Feed Forward, Composition, Creative Reflection, were some of the topics we worked on, using a combination of the body/word method resources, cited exercises from other improvisation teachers and classical actors’ teaching material. Praxis, the combination of research and practice, a core element in my method, body/word was encouraged throughout the year, both as an investigative approach and as a creative tool.
At the end of the 1st year the students presented a portfolio of solo and group work, reflective diaries and responded to tasks given on the spot. It was a mutually rewarding process and I am genuinely happy, proud and grateful to have contributed to their beginning of an exciting professional journey.
Genuine thanks to Payia Veaki, Director of Veaki Drama School and all my then students for trusting me.
Premier: November 2014, Veaki Drama School, Pangrati, Athens, Greece