The Joy of Live Improvisation – #PianoImprov

Live dance and music: I had the joy of performing for a dance conference. We improvised many of the performance pieces.

Live Music

If you’ve been following along, you know how much I admire and enjoy improvisation. So, I was in heaven.

The conference was Somatic Dance Conference and Performance Festival. Two of the days concluded with live performances.

No matter how wonderful recorded music is, live performance will always carry even more of everything. I can tell you that “everything” in this case included inspiration, enlivenment, and joy.

Improvised Dance

For the first time in many years, I remembered how inspiring it is for me to accompany dancers. Their ability to control and extend their bodies seems magical to me. I was buoyed up by their performances.

Now, the fact that much of what the dancers did was improvised made it even more incredible to me. So, I had no shortage of inspiration to compel my piano improvisations. Sometimes I would mimic a movement with my playing and some of the dancers reciprocated by responding to the rhythms or sounds I created on the piano.

Nothing Like Live

I also got to play piano for one of the workshops at the conference. Kate Arms and Christine Gautreaux – two InterPlay certified leaders who I admire – taught the class. Each of them brought years of experience as teachers and improvisers to the session. It was pure joy to work with them.

On the subsequent evening, the participants in that workshop formed the core of a live performance piece facilitated by Kate and Christine. Again, I was the accompanist. And my face was beaming the whole time.

The entire experience was incredibly enlivening and inspiring. It reminded me that humanity has so much goodness. May this be what we are remembered for.

Heading home today from an amazing experience of improvised dance and music. There is deep goodness in many of us. May it win the day.

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— Stan Stewart (muz4now) (@muz4now.com) June 21, 2026 at 11:14 AM

The main blog post photo is by Clarence Alford.

The two candid photos of Kate Arms, Christine Gautreaux, and Stan Stewart are by Christine. The 4th player in the middle photo is Matthew McClure (another Interplay leader).