This Makes Artists; This Makes Citizens
Book Review: I Want to Be Ready: Improvised Dance as a Practice of Freedom
By Danielle Goldman. 186 pp. Illustrated.
Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2010. $24.95 paper. ISBN 978-0-472-05084-0.
Imbedded in the rhetoric of freedom are ideas of agency, choice, equality, boundary, possibility, awareness, responsibility, change, ideology, and individualism, all of which, to me, seem more illuminating concepts in a discussion of improvisation than simply the word “freedom.” Danielle Goldman agrees. In her introduction to I Want to Be Ready: Improvised Dance as a Practice of Freedom, Goldman points to the slippery—and almost default—use of the term “freedom” in discourse about improvisation, in the English language in general, and especially in American politics. Nevertheless, there is something useful about its imprecision to describe a practice that is not one, but many. We have one word, “improvisation,” that we use to describe a range of systems of practice and values therein. One of the many strengths of Goldman’s text is that she does not attempt to reduce improvisation to one set of ideas and ideals or to make a singular argument about it. She discusses a range of practices with respect, nuance, and care. The result is a thoughtful, layered, and readable text that (like the practice of improvisation itself) expands possibility for theoretical inquiry rather than falsely reducing it.
By Danielle Goldman. 186 pp. Illustrated.
Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2010. $24.95 paper. ISBN 978-0-472-05084-0.
Imbedded in the rhetoric of freedom are ideas of agency, choice, equality, boundary, possibility, awareness, responsibility, change, ideology, and individualism, all of which, to me, seem more illuminating concepts in a discussion of improvisation than simply the word “freedom.” Danielle Goldman agrees. In her introduction to I Want to Be Ready: Improvised Dance as a Practice of Freedom, Goldman points to the slippery—and almost default—use of the term “freedom” in discourse about improvisation, in the English language in general, and especially in American politics. Nevertheless, there is something useful about its imprecision to describe a practice that is not one, but many. We have one word, “improvisation,” that we use to describe a range of systems of practice and values therein. One of the many strengths of Goldman’s text is that she does not attempt to reduce improvisation to one set of ideas and ideals or to make a singular argument about it. She discusses a range of practices with respect, nuance, and care. The result is a thoughtful, layered, and readable text that (like the practice of improvisation itself) expands possibility for theoretical inquiry rather than falsely reducing it.