Class examines potential of improvisation in dance and architecture

U of Ideas of General Interest -- May 1999
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Contact: Melissa Mitchell, Arts Editor (217) 333-5491; [email protected]

ARCHITECTURE
Class examines potential of improvisation in dance and architecture

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- What do you get when you combine the improvisational style of hip-hop music with a new theoretical approach to architecture that emphasizes spontaneity and flexibility?

Hip-hopitecture -- of course!

The topic is unlikely to be found in typical architecture-school curricula. But at the University of Illinois, students expected the unexpected when they enrolled this spring in a combined studio course for dance and architecture majors. The course was designed, in part, to encourage exploration of the possibilities and limitations of bodily movement in an architectural context. Students also were asked to consider the indeterminacy of practices generally taken for granted in their professions, and to invent design processes that anticipate the unexpected. It was in that context that hip-hopitecture entered into the academic dialogue during a few class discussions -- introduced by students who brought the concept back from a conference of the National Organization of Minority Architecture Students.

"As of now, it is more of a theoretical question of whether or not hip-hop culture can be incorporated into the scheme or process of architecture," said Maurice Perry, a senior from Waukegan, Ill., who noted that various aspects of culture -- particularly music -- have been reflected in architects' designs throughout history. From Egyptian slave chants to classical music to jazz, "these musical genres have assisted in the conceptualization and communication of a project as well as setting a standard in terms of the structural demeanor of a building," he said. Since hip-hop has become "a global phenomenon," he expects "it will definitely begin to affect all aspects of life, including architecture."

While practical examples of how hip-hop's improvisational style could be translated into building design are possible -- for example, incorporating graffiti into the design of a rapper's studio -- the concept of improvisation "as a way of thinking about the practice as a whole" is what most interests architecture professor Rebecca Williamson. In designing the collaborative teaching project, Williamson and dance professor Linda Lehovec approached the task from decidedly different backgrounds, but were drawn together by the course's potential for revealing improvisation as a powerful creative tool for architects and for dancers.

"We wanted to get the two disciplines together and see how they relate to each other," Lehovec said. "Personally, I was interested in taking movement and improvisation and experiencing it with non-dancers."

Williamson was intrigued by the project's potential "to get people to see buildings in a different way by exploring the physical interaction with architecture -- something people don't generally do. I wanted my students to see how decisions they make affect people's movement."

One of the ways they accomplished this was through installation/performances, in which the architecture students created built environments from such materials as string, wood, metal, stones and fabric. The dancers then created improvisational movements to respond to the built space.

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