Moving Sound
The essay revisits the relationship between music and dance, sound and movement, in contemporary dance and music in improvisation. The main philosophical thrust for the discussion draws from the work of Peters, specifically his 2009 book The Philosophy of Improvisation. Peters argues that true improvisation requires a ‘powerful memory, memory of the parameters of an instrument, of the body, of available technology, the parameters of a work’s structure, and one’s place within it at any time, the parameters of an idiom, a genre and its history, its possibilities’. This idea, of the need to set parameters, understand rules, structures, as well as one’s positions within an improvisational process, is central to the discussion. The project Moving Sound, a collaboration between music director Dimitris Karalis and composer-saxophonist Yannis Kassetas, is discussed as a case study.