William Forsythe: Improvisation Technologies

3rd edition

Choreographer William Forsythe, artistic director of the Frankfurt Ballet since 1984, has brought about a shift of paradigms in contemporary dance. The vocabulary of his chorographies redefines body, space, time and movement. »Improvisation Technologies«, originally intended for the professional use of the dancers of the Frankfurt Ballet, provides a unique opportunity to gain a different access to the work of this major contemporary choreographer. 

Divided into 60 video chapters, the CD-ROM is made up of lecture demonstrations in which William Forsythe shows the essential principles of his improvisation techniques. Dance sequences, specially performed by Christine Bürkle, Noah D. Gelber, Thomas McManus and Crystal Pite, can be called up as further illustrations. Also included is a document of improvisation in practice: Forsythe's performance of »Solo«, fllmed in 1995 by Thomas Lovell Balogh. 

The CD-ROM is English only, but contains PDF files in German and English. The richly illustrated accompanying booklet is both German and English. It contains, among other things, an interview with William Forsythe and a text by dance critic Roslyn Sulcas. For this second edition, it has been supplemented with the transcriptions of the Forsythe Lectures from the CD-ROM.

In 2012, »Improvisation Technologies« was published in its 4th edition.