3/30/2026 - Week 12 / Meeting 20: Blanche Evan's Improvisational Methods / Externalizing

 

 

Unit: Blanche Evan's Improvisational Methods

Theme: Externalizing

 

I

Introduction

Externalizing means to express a thought or feeling in words or actions. It is equivalent to "an urgent need to externalize the experience. It psychology, it means to

project (a mental image or process) onto a figure outside oneself.

According to Blanch Evan's methodology, externalizing, one her improvisational techniques, means to dance out a dream, a fantasy, or a physical memory.

II 

Learning Objectives

 

• Understand the ideas behind externalizing
  
• Explain the sensations generated as a result of externalizing
• Gain awareness of the use of externalizing in improv
  
• Experience solo and group dance using dreams, fantasies and memory
  
• Reflect on the creative process at the end of the lesson
  

 

 III

 

 WARM UP

Stretching 

 

IV

 

Main Lesson

 

 

1

Dance psychotherapist Ekin Bernay. (16:57 min)

 

Warm Up for Your Creative Self

 Because of the way we are all working; I think this exercise can help us to be centered and focused. It can also help us get into the new unit of study, Blanch Evan's ideas about dance improvisation.

Steps

Look in the mirror and observe your face
Say what you see as you record your voice.
Write on a peace of paper what you said
Circle the negatives words you said
Underline the positive words you said

Shift the meaning of words through: breathing, movement and body awareness.

Follow Bernay's lead until you can do the exercise by yourself.

Question 1

Write a reflection on the effect the exercise had on you.

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2

 

Blanch Evan (5 min)

Blanche Evan was a dancer and choreographer who was a pioneer in the development of dance therapy. For 41 years she had a studio in New York City in which she worked for 20 years teaching creative dance to children and subsequently conducting dance therapy sessions for adults. She was a founding member of the American Dance Therapy Association. Her objective, she once said, was ''the integration of dance with therapy, so that it becomes one.'' Although Miss Evan received training at the Alfred Adler Institute of Individual Psychology and was a member of its faculty, she regarded herself as a dancer and choreographer first.

Blanche Evan's Improvisation Method

Improvisation refers to the Evan method of insight-oriented dance, characterized by free association in movement and guided by psychological, physical, or psycho-physical themes. "Improvisation is dependent on an over-all state of receptivity which is replaced with identification with your theme. At the point of action, it is the summation of your past and present. It is also the arbiter between reality and fantasy" (Evan, 1950, p. 80). Improvisation gives physical form to psychological experiences and Evan states: "Honest improvisation is a direct route to the unconscious" (Benov, 1991, p. 192). 

This work, will allow you to explore content-evoking themes suggested by your own awareness in response to your own verbal and/or movement communications, reason why Berney's exercise, above, is useful. 

Four examples of improvisation techniques, as defined by Evan, are "externalizing," "enacting," "physicalizing," and "rehearsing."

Externalizing

Dance out a dream, fantasy, or physical memory.

Enacting

Recreating a significant life experience that one may be able to embellish through the enactment of previously unexpressed feelings by creating movement and dance.

Physicalizing

Putting into movement an idea, a memory, or a feeling that has been previously stored in a cognitive realm.

Rehearsing

An improvisation in which alternative responses are created and practiced in order to prepare for dance and movement changes outside the studio.

Question 2

After reading the introduction to Evan's ideas about dance improvisation, briefly describe a dream, fantasy or physical memory that you may identify with as your theme for today's work.  

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3

 

  Improvisation Exercise (10 min)

Today we will address  externalizing, which is when you improvise a dance based on
a dream, fantasy, or physical memory. 

Warm up helps us to loosen up our bodies. Ekin Berney's warm up helps us to loosen up our imagination. 

So, now let us delve fully into body movement and creative dance improvisation using the theme you described in question 4.

Follow the following order:

Explore: Movement exploration to begin to feel feelings (2 min)

Identify: Identify those feelings when they are felt (2 min)

Express: Express these feelings in movement metaphors (2 min)

Connect: Find the connection between your movement metaphors
               and the theme you chose (2 min)

Choose 8 moves and create your phrase. 

 

Improvise and use the music below as complement to your movement.

 Question 3

Write a brief reflection of your creative process.

 

 

4

 

 

Read Page xii

 

Dance Improvisations 

Recent History 

Joy Morgenroth

https://www.google.com/books/edition/Dance_Improvisations/Z27GUPk1C-IC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Dance+Improvisation&printsec=frontcover 

Morgenroth, Joy (1987). Dance Improvisations. University of Pittsburgh Press

 

Question 4

 

After reading page xii summarize the origins of improvisation.

 

 

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V 

A Note to Remember

 Improvisation gives physical form to psychological experiences and Evan states: "Honest improvisation is a direct route to the unconscious" (Benov, 1991, p. 192).

 

 VI

Case Studies

 

1

RAW Movement Project | MeKinzey

As artists, we all have something that drives our artistic flavor, but rarely do we get the opportunity to embrace and celebrate that individuality. RAW movement is a project that aims to shed light on the difficulties and challenges we face as well as the moments that bring joy and how dance is an outlet to heal, lift, and encourage us as we walk through this thing we call life. We invite dancers of all backgrounds to open up and be vulnerable, to be RAW with us as we try to create a place where we can celebrate dance! We want to see YOU, in all your RAW beauty!

Question 4

Write a brief response to this video. 

How does it relate to your own experience as a dancer.

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2

 

Inspirational Solo

Example of what externalizing could look like.

Question 5

How does watching this video affect your vision of what dance improvisation can become for you in the near future?

 

 

VII

Journaling

 

 

VIII

Glossary

 

 

 IX

Sources

 

 

X

Students' Work 

Academic