Learn Improv to Bolster Your Creativity and Confidence
- Aug 1
- 3 min read
You may have noticed a new class offering at The Art Center that's a little different from our typical lineup. Level 1 Improvisation Workshops might be a surprising addition to a class roster full of painting and ceramics offerings, but aside from being a wildly fun art form with a storied history of its own, improv is an excellent tool for boosting creativity and confidence in ways that can improve your artistic, professional, and personal life.
What is Improvisation?
Improv is a form of spontaneous and collaborative theatre- in other words, you work with other people to make up scenes on the spot! Whose Line is it Anyway? is a lot of people's first introduction to the idea of improv performance, and the show provides a nice glimpse at a small part of the larger art of improv: the use of structured games to challenge performers to create funny situations off the top of their head. These short form games are a great way to get started and often make for fun party games to play with friends, too!
Improvisation has its roots in the 16th century Italian theatrical form commedia dell'arte, which featured stock characters and situations that professional players would use to create unscripted performances. While commedia dell'arte fell out of favor over time, it set the stage for Punch and Judy shows, Shakespearean plays, Charlie Chaplin films, and modern improv.
What is It Like to Do Improv?
Improv can seem intimidating if you've never tried it before. There are often misconceptions that you have to be super funny and quick witted and a huge personality to successfully do improv, but none of these things are requirements or even all that applicable to the art form.
Improv is above all things a collaborative experience. So rather than having the pressure of having to come up with a scene by yourself, you really just have to stay in the moment, listen, and react to your scene partners. It's like a regular conversation, but with more silly rules and pretending involved.
Improv is play. It opens up the door to have spontaneous fun with other people again, like we did when we were kids, which can have a hugely positive impact on mental health. You have permission to be silly, to try new things, to make mistakes, and to explore different ways of moving and speaking.
Improv is connection. Because it is collaborative play, you often end up developing good connections with your fellow players. You learn to read body language and subtle facial cues to help inform the scene. You learn to accept unexpected ideas and adapt to another person's mode of thinking. It's a very bonding experience, to work with another person to create a story that didn't exist before.
How Can Improv Help Me?
First off, improv is simply fun to do. You get to leave your stresses at the door and pretend to be other people for the duration of a scene, you get to discover new things about yourself, and you get to laugh at all the crazy things you and your fellow performers come up with.
But improv has applications beyond the classroom or the stage. The primary rule of improv (summarized as "Yes, and...") is to accept the reality of the moment and add to it in a meaningful way. As you might imagine, practicing this mindset can help in everyday situations. It makes it easier to deal with challenges as they come up and find positive solutions or pivot in unexpected directions. It can help in interpersonal interactions, too, making you more open to other people's ideas.
According to Psychology Today, improv also helps develop things like divergent thinking, brainwave coherence, and the reduction of "uncertainty intolerance," which simply means you become more comfortable when facing the unknown. Divergent thinking can boost creativity by increasing your ability to find a wider range of unexpected solutions to problems or uses for tools and materials. Brainwave coherence can help with mental clarity and memory. Reduced uncertainty intolerance helps reduce anxieties in social situations or any situation where you face the unknown... like looking at a blank canvas or a lump of clay. All these things together can help creatives of any discipline build their confidence and reach new levels of imaginative thinking.
