improvisation is ensemble practice

Hello, wonderful improviser!

It’s Tuesday, which means Living Stories day for me and for the group that is currently taking the course. We’re a lively ensemble travelling together.

Spontaneous storytelling is essentially an ensemble practice.

The Living Stories sessions—just like all of our impro studio events—are participatory in plenary and breakout rooms. While I curate themes and facilitate activities, I am always in awe of how our group transcends individual visions of paths and outcomes.

Somebody shares something, someone else builds on what they heard, we all notice something different… We create coherence together. And we hold each other. We are storytellers, audience members, and keepers of the fire all at once.

Campfire by Inge Castellini

Every group is a living entity with a unique process that emerges as we go along. As we engage in this active process of co-creation, we are affected by one another - throughone other. The group is what makes this practice possible.

In the words of my teachers at the East Side Institute:

“We only exist and can be understood in relation to other human beings and to the stuff of the world. We come to “know” and become […] through others, and specifically by creatively imitating others. It is by virtue of our relationality—our connectedness and the collaborative nature of human activity—that people grow, learn and things get done.”

As an ensemble, we are simultaneously self-changing, group-changing, and world-changing.

Being alive together.

Nora Bateson calls this process of mutual learning through interaction Symmathesy:

“Together the organs of your body allow you to make sense of the world around you. A jungle can be understood best as a conversation between the flora, the fauna, the insects and the contact with humanity. The interaction is what creates and vitalizes the integrity of the living world. Over time the ongoing survival of the organisms in their environments requires that there be learning, and learning to learn, together.”

Bateson asks: “What is the difference between learning and life?”

“None.”

So here we are.

Living life, telling stories, living stories.

If you’re considering joining our upcoming Living Stories course, now is a great time to register! We’ve got some lovely people signed up and I hope that both groups will grow bigger.

If you’re wondering whether this is ‘for you,’ message us and we can have an introductory conversation.

We hope you will come story with us!