The fool’s journey and poisonous mushrooms

This article has arisen out of a pleasure in the abundance and unexpectedness of the lived experience and its connectivity with the performative experience. It is written in a spirit that acknowledges the need to reflect while accepting the inherent impossibility of language to adequately capture the immediacy of the improviser’s world, a world in which acausal connections subvert the seriousness of the research imperative. The writing intentionally blurs the line between the physical practice and the teaching of improvisation, the lived and the written experience, through a consideration of pattern and coincidence. I aim to reflect on the relationship of improvisation as it is taught and performed and it’s perceived connection to everyday life. The word aim here is important, in that improvisation refuses to be neatly categorized or pinned down, and while I attempt to draw some conclusions about how the recognition of pattern may be a pointer towards certain human qualities, the enquiry remains open ended, spiracular.