DANCE MAKING

Jennifer Kayle's creative research includes both traditional notions of set choreography, and also practices in spontaneous composition, including performance improvisation. Areas of emphasis and specialization include collaborative process, and incorporating media such as text, set installation, and video. ​​

Choreography

Vehicle for Creative Research

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Performance Improvisation

Compositional Improvisation

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​Communicating IDEas

​As a creative researcher in CHOREOGRAPHY I am asking and answering QUESTIONS
by exploring the infinite forms and feelings of human movement and how these forms communicate. 
 
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When it works: 
​CHOREOGRAPHY creates a way to notice
that we are ALL actually living through our moving bodies,
and there are powerful meanings and experiences that we can only know 
by paying attention to that. 
 
One of my research areas is in IMPROVISATION as a form of:
spontaneous choreography; 
A form where whole groups of people train to be able to
simultaneously 
invent and structure and perform together.
 

What I keep finding out...
is that the knowledge and skills required for working spontaneously as an ensemble are not only relevant to arts, but are relevant to really important activities in the world – endeavors that require collaboration, organization, negotiation and decision-making. 

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My newest research examines how group improvisation actually teaches people the skills of “COLLECTIVE ACTION.”
 
My research works to translate this knowledge beyond the studio for diverse groups of people, giving them a way to know, but also ​to practice the nuts and bolts of collective action. 
 

In dance we’re always making art out of doing things together! I want to bridge this specialized knowledge for people in other fields, ​and for those looking to achieve more together – bringing cherished goals closer to reality.

University of iowa Research Minute

Studying the linkages between choreography + communication, particularly in group improvisation.