Improvisation Methods and Practices in Southeast Asia

""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