Creative Process of Improvised Street Dance

Creative Process of Improvised Street Dance Daichi Shimizu (tothefuture0415@yahoo.co.jp) Graduate School of Education, University of Tokyo Tokyo 113-0033, Japan Takeshi Okada (okadatak@p.u-tokyo.ac.jp) Graduate School of Education, & Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies, University of Tokyo Tokyo 113-0033, Japan Abstract suggested that they often utilized specific formulas (50-90% of each performance) in their performances. Tayanagi (2010) investigated the literature and the biographies of professional jazz musicians theoretically, and claimed that accepting inevitable errors in performance and utilizing these errors is very important for innovation and the production of new patterns in jazz music. This suggestion is consistent with the claim of Pressing (1984). Bailey (1980) investigated the cognitive process of improvisation by interviewing professional musicians in many genres of music. Based on anecdotal evidence, he suggested that there are differences in music between improvisations by one person and improvisations by multiple persons. From these suggestions, we could summarize the features of improvisations as follows. 1) Performers use fixed- patterns. 2) Performers utilize the errors which are inevitably generated to make new patterns. 3) The number of person participating in the improvisation makes some difference. This paper presents findings from our empirical study of the creative process of improvisation, which has rarely been the subject of research in cognitive science. In this study, battle scenes in street dance were selected as an example of improvised performances. We conducted an experiment to investigate real-time cognitive processes. The results indicated three features: 1) Dancers mainly used well- practiced patterns, and discovered new patterns of dance; 2) In the process of discovering new patterns, dancers often utilized errors in their performance; 3) The processes of discovery were different in the performance of one dancer (solo scene) and the performance of two dancers (battle scene). In solo performance, dancers discovered new patterns by concentrating on their patterned dance. In battle performance, dancers discovered new patterns by utilizing stimuli from the situation (e.g. the music, their opponent) and using errors as an opportunity to loosen the constraints of their well-practiced patterns. Keywords: Improvisation; Street dance; Personal discovery; Utilizing errors; Battle scenes Personal discoveries of new ideas in improvisations Introduction Improvisations such as jazz or improvisational dance or drama are complicated human activities which seldom become research subjects in cognitive science. However, improvisations are thought to be the origin of many activities in the arts (see Bailey, 1980). The moment when a person gains new ideas is considered to be related to improvisational patterns (Pressing, 1984). Based on these suggestions, improvisations are thought to be a core element in human creativity. Features of improvisational activities Most previous studies dealing with improvisation have investigated jazz music (e.g., Mendonca & Wallace, 2004; Tayanagi, 2010; Weisberg et al., 2004). Mendonca & Wallace (2004) investigated the duo performance of jazz musicians, and suggested that musicians use some fixed patterns in improvisation. They also suggested that a musician utilizes the music of the other musician as a guideline for his own musical performance. Weisberg et al. (2004) examined records of the improvisations of professional jazz musicians, and In this study, we investigated the process of improvisational activities, paying special attention to “personal discoveries”. “Personal discovery” is defined as the discovery of new ideas, expressions or techniques occurring in creative activities, which the performers (creators) did not envisage prior to these activities. This concept mostly focused on the cognitive process of creators, and from this point of view, personal discovery is strongly related to Psychological Creativity (creativity which results in processes or products that are new and useful to the creators themselves), as Boden (1991) suggested. The personal discovery in dance is a movement which may not be new in a general sense, but is new to the dancer performing it. Many researchers have suggested that unpredicted findings like personal discoveries play important roles in creating new products or making scientific discoveries (e.g., Dunbar, 1993; Suwa & Tversky, 1997). In the case of improvisations, personal discoveries also play important roles when creating new products, expressions or techniques which performers did not envisage in advance (Bailey, 1980). In this sense, improvisation involves personal discovery as its core. Breakdance as an improvisational activity