Improvisation Methods and Practices in Southeast Asia

Darren Moore (DMA) is a senior lecturer at LASALLE College of the Arts, University of the Arts Singapore. He is an internationally recognised drummer whose practice aims to generate new ideas concerning improvisation, multidisciplinary collaboration, and experimental music practice.Stephanie Burridge (PhD) is a research consultant at LASALLE College of the Arts, University of the Arts Singapore and is a choreographer, performer, and dance writer. She is Series Editor for Routledge anthologies Celebrating Dance in Asia and the Pacific and Perspectives on Dance, Young People and Change, the latter co-edited with Charlotte Svendler Nielsen.

"Improvisation Methods and Practices in Southeast Asia: Music, Dance and Theatre is an essential resource for scholars and practitioners. Delving into the performing arts landscape of Southeast Asia, it highlights the transformative nature of improvisational practices in the region. The strength of the book lies in recognising improvisation as a dynamic area of research in Southeast Asian Performing Arts and captures current practices in the region, lays the groundwork for future exploration, research and discourse through providing multiple case examples, and theoretical perspectives. Readers are encouraged to explore the integral role of improvisation in the creative process across music, dance, theatre and interdisciplinary collaboration in the region that transcends borders and fosters global dialogue."Professor Anna CY Chan, Director, The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts"Improvisation Methods and Practices in Southeast Asia: Music, Dance and Theatre addresses a conspicuous lacuna in the literature on the making, teaching, learning, and enjoyment of art. Indeed, this volume represents an exemplary collective effort on the part of artists, educators and researchers to document and discuss improvisation as intrinsic to the performing arts. In these chapters, including the Southeast Asian case studies, the authors offer precious insights on productive tensions embedded in artmaking: between tradition and innovation, apprenticeship and experimentation, reenactment and reinterpretation, emulation and originality, and disciplinary mastery and interdisciplinary collaboration. Their scholarly contributions also illuminate improvisation as central to human creativity. We are reminded of Johan Huizinga’s line on the first characteristic of play in Homo Ludens: “that it is free, is in fact freedom”. This marvellous book demonstrates that improvisation is fundamental to artmaking – and celebrates the quality of freedom as fundamental to improvisation."Professor Kwok Kian Woon, Vice-Chancellor, University of the Arts Singapore

• Introduction1. Towards a Definition of Improvisation: An Ontological Quest … (or Fool’s Errand)2. The Production of “The Secret Dreams of Teu and Kangaroo”: From Traditional Water Puppet Theatre to the Improvisation of Contemporary Performance3. Black Zenith: Creating Systems for Electro-Acoustic Improvisation4. Reflection and Resonance: Creating Dance Theatre Through Improvisation5. Improvisation in Balinese Performing Arts6. Sayaw ng Pakiramdaman: Practices of Improvisation in Dance in the Philippines7. The Role of Improvisation in the Negotiation of a Local Music Identity8. Telelogue: On Improvisation, Presence, and Cultural Becoming9. Unlocking Aural Skills Through Improvisation10. Self-Reflection and Expression Through Improvisation11. Are We Just Making Things Up? Where’s the Notation?12. A Discussion on Improvisation in Western Classical Music Pedagogy in Singapore13. Transforming Dance Improvisation Through the Inspirations of Bloom's Taxonomy14. Inspirations, Improvisations in the Theatre15. Exploring Dance Improvisation and Composition from a Rhythmic Perspective16. Soft Fireworks: A Decolonised Embodied Technique for Devising and Improvising Cross-Cultural Performances17. Main Zapin: Improvising Dance Movements Within Play-Performance18. Improvising as SA(仨) – Breaking Conventions, Building Connections19. Improvising Patient Advocacy in Community-Based Healthcare with Forum Theatre and Narrative Medicine20. Making it Up while Playing Along Together: Some Methods and Practices of Collective Improvisation in Thai Performance Cultures