13A. Pillows

• Now, we'll do an ensemble event with Sounders and Movers. I've arranged some pillows in a corner, on the edge of the floor. That's the area for the Sounders. The empty floor is the area for the movers. If you're sitting on the pillows you're a Sounder and are collaborating on the sound score with everyone else on the pillows. If you're on the floor, you're a Mover.

• Switch back and forth between these positions at least three times during this twenty minute period. When you switch from Mover to Sounder and Sounder to Mover, do it with intention. Stay relevant to the scene.

• Sounders, you're working together as one voice, listening and following the sound as you hear it. You may all be playing with the same vocal pattern, or you may be in counterpoint, different patterns interacting with one another. You don't have to sound the movement that you see on the floor. Your job is to create a rich and varied sound space. And your job is to listen to the whole.

• Movers, begin moving solo for fhe first five minutes or so. Use this time to come into yourself, to connect with your body, sensations and feeling. Follow awareness. After about five minutes, begin to relate to the other people on the floor. Either join what they are doing or contrast it. Gradually open up to everybody on the floor. You are working as a collective, creating scenes together.

• Play with building tension between the Movers and the Sounders, so that if the sound is quiet and contained, your movement might be explosive, or if the sound dips and becomes dark, your movement might rise into lightness. Allow the sound to infect and inspire you, but not control you.

The Sounders and Movers are signing. Their physical and vocal actions represent moments of their experience and are experiences in themselves. The Sounders relate to one another on both of these levels, as do the Movers. As they notice each others activities, they perceive both the nature of the actions and their symbology. They have a vast range of information from which to respond.

First Action

The first action, whether it be sound or movement, initiates the improvisation, and from then on, everything is part of the improvisation. There's no stepping out until the end. The improvisation contains all of the experience. If someone gets lost, or heady, thoughtful, etc., the improvisation contains all that, too. It contains everything that happens inside and outside of the mind. It's an extremely simple point, but a crucial one.

Always in the Scene

Students often forget that they're always part of the scene.

Joyelle is improvising. Sometimes she's engaged and committed to her actions, and, other times she's on the sidelines, watching what others are doing, trying to figure it out, or contemplating her next move. In these moments, she feels lost, stuck or confused.

Literally, she's lost her senses. She's not aware of herself, or of herself within the context of the improvisation. She's forgotten that she is. She's forgotten that she's always operating within a context, that the improvisation (life) is going on around her and she's in it whether she remembers it or not. Everything around her is still happening. Her partners on the stage see her in it. The audience sees her in it. Only Joyelle doesn't see herself in it.

If Joyelle remembered herself, remained in her body, her senses, she could then use her watching, planning, judging, and even her lost-ness, as material to embody, image, or role play. She could remain in the scene. It's a matter of her awareness.

In Pillows, even the role change from Sounder to Mover, or Mover to Sounder is within the improvisation. The role change move is relevant to the improvisation at that moment, since, even then, there is no way out.