Group Motion in Practice. Collective Creation Through Dance Movement Improvisation

Group Motion reflects 50 years of co-creation between dancers, choreographers, teachers Brigitta Herrmann and Manfred Fischbeck, along with the participation of thousands of dancers, musicians, videographers and people around the world. Part memoire, part guidebook, part philosophy of art treatise, the book can be read for its stories, for its games, for inspiration. It may even be read for its photos. It does not offer a general history of dance movement improvisation; instead, it presents a very personal and original one.

Informed by Mary Wigman's expressionist dance and other contemporary dance and theater traditions, Group Motion evolved and now represents a particular form of improvisational performance practice. Here you will find step-by-step guidance for dozens of improvisational structures or games. Group Motion's vision has brought dance game structures not only onto stages, but into prisons, airports, and public parks. The book offers guidance for dance professionals, theater artists, improvisational musicians and multi-disciplinary performers, and also those who use movement as an expressive tool for all.

Brigitta Herrmann, dancer, performer, and movement educator, co-founded Motion Berlin in Germany, and is co-founder of the Group Motion Multi Media Dance Theater, and the Ausdruckstanz Dance Theater, both in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She lives in Philadelphia.

Manfred Fischbeck is co-founder and director of the Group Motion Multimedia Dance Theater and has been contributing to contemporary dance as performer, choreographer, teacher, musician and collaborator. He serves as dance faculty of the University of the Arts, Philadelphia, and in the department of Theater Arts at the University of Pennsylvania. He lives in Philadelphia.

Elia Sinaiko is an independent researcher in Provincetown, Massachusetts.

Anna Beresin is professor of Liberal Arts at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.