We Ride Together

The Heart of Improv, Part III

This article is part of a series about improv. Start at the beginning here

The Loving Nature of Improv

More than any other art form I've encountered, improv requires unconditional love, safety, inclusion and wholesomeness to work.

This is because it is entirely team based, inherently vulnerable, and there is no room for division. There is no leader/everyone is a leader. (Group Mind is the leader). It is extremely communal.

So improv strives for unity in diversity. We are unique and united. Each player is needed and supported to thrive or the whole group doesn't do well.

So we treat each other, onstage and off, with the highest regard, to maintain connection always.

Having Each Other’s Backs

Improv requires the mindset of We Ride Together. Whatever we do, it’s all of us, together.

There are practices that help, ways we practically support this intention.

We support each other’s ideas. We make whatever someone else chooses, brilliant, through adding on, doubling down, clarifying an idea. We all throw our weight behind any particular member’s creative urges. We hop onstage quickly to join a scene even when we ourselves aren’t sure we’ll look good. We proactively play with people we might not want to play with, at first.

Honoring Group Mind

We celebrate every idea, whether fully successful or not. We see the spark of genius in every thought and move. We are available, at the ready, at each other’s service, and at the service of Group Mind.

We do everything in preparation of this. We exercise and stretch and do improv sets over and over and over again to be apt vessels to receive the impulses and pass them on. To be quick on our feet, to be tuned in emotionally, tapped in and wakeful.

Read the next post in this Improv series here. Start from the beginning here.

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Thumbnail image respectfully borrowed from The Wonderful Things You Will Be, by Emily Winfield Martin.