Improvisation in the Context of Contemporary Irish Dance Choreography: Making work and the Practice-based PhD: Improvisation in Dance Research and Practice

Traditional Irish step dancers, particularly those working within competitive frameworks, typically perform choreography that is predetermined—its structure, motifs, and vocabulary fixed well in advance of presentation. Improvisation, as understood in other dance traditions such as tap, is rare; Irish step dancers seldom “jam” or create spontaneously for pleasure or exploration. Despite this, new and innovative dances continue to emerge within competition culture, commercial contexts, and contemporary performance spaces.
This paper examines the role of improvisation in Irish step dance as a method for generating novel movement vocabulary and challenging conventional boundaries of the form. Focusing on the researcher’s practice-based inquiry—specifically, the work-in-progress The Rite of Spring—the paper explores techniques that facilitate spontaneous composition and considers the challenges of identifying and refining movement material for choreographic development. Drawing on Bourdieu’s concept of habitus (1977), it reflects on how improvisation rooted in embodied cultural knowledge can lead to new insights into the creative self and provoke critical questions: At what point does movement innovation disrupt genre boundaries to such an extent that the dance no longer belongs to its originating tradition?