Improvisation Methods and Practices in Southeast Asia
Music, Dance and Theatre
Published on 4. September 2025
262 pages
978-1-040-42390-5 (ISBN)
Description
Moore, Burridge, and the contributors explore the multifaceted role of improvisation, from rehearsal to performance and teaching to learning within the Southeast Asian performing arts scene. They feature a vital overview of how contemporary Southeast Asian artists use improvisation in their practice through diverse theoretical perspectives, innovative methods, and idiosyncratic strategies.
The book highlights the strength of improvisation as a connective tissue facilitating collaboration and interdisciplinarity across the performing arts. It shows how artists and practitioners navigate the dynamic landscape of Southeast Asian arts, blurring taxonomical boundaries to embrace change and innovation. From interrogative full-length chapters to insightful personal case narratives, each contribution showcases the practical application of improvisation in real-world projects. The chapters affirm improvisation as both a creative process and a performance strategy, unlocking new possibilities in performing arts and providing an inspired snapshot of contemporary Southeast Asian creative practice.
With discourse extending beyond conventional disciplinary confines, this book is a valuable read for graduate and postgraduate students, educators, and researchers in diverse fields encompassing dance, music, theatre studies, performance studies, aesthetics, and interdisciplinary arts. It is also a viable resource for professionals in the performing arts industry as it provides invaluable insights into the transformative power of improvisation.
The book highlights the strength of improvisation as a connective tissue facilitating collaboration and interdisciplinarity across the performing arts. It shows how artists and practitioners navigate the dynamic landscape of Southeast Asian arts, blurring taxonomical boundaries to embrace change and innovation. From interrogative full-length chapters to insightful personal case narratives, each contribution showcases the practical application of improvisation in real-world projects. The chapters affirm improvisation as both a creative process and a performance strategy, unlocking new possibilities in performing arts and providing an inspired snapshot of contemporary Southeast Asian creative practice.
With discourse extending beyond conventional disciplinary confines, this book is a valuable read for graduate and postgraduate students, educators, and researchers in diverse fields encompassing dance, music, theatre studies, performance studies, aesthetics, and interdisciplinary arts. It is also a viable resource for professionals in the performing arts industry as it provides invaluable insights into the transformative power of improvisation.
Reviews / Votes
"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
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
7 Tables, black and white; 3 Line drawings, black and white; 41 Halftones, black and white; 44 Illustrations, black and white
File size
63,27 MB
ISBN-13
978-1-040-42390-5 (9781040423905)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Darren Moore | Stephanie Burridge
Improvisation Methods and Practices in Southeast Asia
Music, Dance and Theatre
Book
09/2025
1st Edition
Routledge
€63.80
Shipment within 10-20 days
Darren Moore | Stephanie Burridge
Improvisation Methods and Practices in Southeast Asia
Music, Dance and Theatre
Book
09/2025
1st Edition
Routledge
€207.80
Shipment within 10-20 days
Persons
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.
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.
Content
Introduction
1. 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 Performance
3. Black Zenith: Creating Systems for Electro-Acoustic Improvisation
4. Reflection and Resonance: Creating Dance Theatre Through Improvisation
5. Improvisation in Balinese Performing Arts
6. Sayaw ng Pakiramdaman: Practices of Improvisation in Dance in the Philippines
7. The Role of Improvisation in the Negotiation of a Local Music Identity
8. Telelogue: On Improvisation, Presence, and Cultural Becoming
9. Unlocking Aural Skills Through Improvisation
10. Self-Reflection and Expression Through Improvisation
11. Are We Just Making Things Up? Where's the Notation?
12. A Discussion on Improvisation in Western Classical Music Pedagogy in Singapore
13. Transforming Dance Improvisation Through the Inspirations of Bloom's Taxonomy
14. Inspirations, Improvisations in the Theatre
15. Exploring Dance Improvisation and Composition from a Rhythmic Perspective
16. Soft Fireworks: A Decolonised Embodied Technique for Devising and Improvising Cross-Cultural Performances
17. Main Zapin: Improvising Dance Movements Within Play-Performance
18. Improvising as SA(?) - Breaking Conventions, Building Connections
19. Improvising Patient Advocacy in Community-Based Healthcare with Forum Theatre and Narrative Medicine
20. Making it Up while Playing Along Together: Some Methods and Practices of Collective Improvisation in Thai Performance Cultures
1. 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 Performance
3. Black Zenith: Creating Systems for Electro-Acoustic Improvisation
4. Reflection and Resonance: Creating Dance Theatre Through Improvisation
5. Improvisation in Balinese Performing Arts
6. Sayaw ng Pakiramdaman: Practices of Improvisation in Dance in the Philippines
7. The Role of Improvisation in the Negotiation of a Local Music Identity
8. Telelogue: On Improvisation, Presence, and Cultural Becoming
9. Unlocking Aural Skills Through Improvisation
10. Self-Reflection and Expression Through Improvisation
11. Are We Just Making Things Up? Where's the Notation?
12. A Discussion on Improvisation in Western Classical Music Pedagogy in Singapore
13. Transforming Dance Improvisation Through the Inspirations of Bloom's Taxonomy
14. Inspirations, Improvisations in the Theatre
15. Exploring Dance Improvisation and Composition from a Rhythmic Perspective
16. Soft Fireworks: A Decolonised Embodied Technique for Devising and Improvising Cross-Cultural Performances
17. Main Zapin: Improvising Dance Movements Within Play-Performance
18. Improvising as SA(?) - Breaking Conventions, Building Connections
19. Improvising Patient Advocacy in Community-Based Healthcare with Forum Theatre and Narrative Medicine
20. Making it Up while Playing Along Together: Some Methods and Practices of Collective Improvisation in Thai Performance Cultures
