What Is The Point of This Exercise?

After an exercise wherein one player had to connect their movement and language while moving through the space and their partner had to respond employing only voice and movement, a student asked, “What is the point of this exercise?”

After 30+ years of teaching improvisation, I believe this is a common response to any activity that challenges the mind’s belief that it must be correct. When I challenge the intent of an exercise I am blaming the exercise for my experience. I am not taking responsibility for what my mind has created. If I do not find a “point” in an exercise, then I am not listening, not participating in the exercise; I am judging the exercise.

There’s always good reasons to practice an exercise, even if I have done the exercise many times. There’s always something fresh to find, to discover. Each time I enter an exercise I am a different person, something inside of me has changed. Heraclitus argued you can’t step into the same river twice, that we are always in a state of “becoming.”

So, I thought about all the possible “points” that I could find in this improvisation exercise:

The point of an exercise is to confront your self.

The point of an exercise is to become more aware.

The point of an exercise is to learn the difference between awareness and what gets your attention.

The point is to notice your mind’s judgments and not believe them.

The point is to connect your language and movement.

The point is to practice holding stillness while your partner is active.

The point is to not unconsciously look at the floor but remember there is an audience watching your eyes and your eyes broadcast what you are thinking. The point is to give up believing you have nothing to learn and instead to discover something new about your body/mind while practicing.

The point is to connect musically with your partner.

The point is to take risks, be vulnerable.

The point is to gain confidence in stillness and silence.

The point is to sense your body’s response to your partner’s material instead of using your rational, calculating mind.

The point is to find out how far you can stretch the exercise and still be inside of its boundaries.

The point is to listen/sense what is occurring and stay in the present moment. The point is to stay curious.

The point is to love your material.

The point is to accept your partner’s material as perfect.

The point is to notice-experience-respond and broadcast that process.

The point is to “not-know” what is going on and encounter each moment as a new surprise.

The point is to realize that the brain’s labeling of the experience is only one part of the experience, a small component that should not be trusted as the leader. The point is to dis-cover, to un-cover the body experience and remove the blinding blankets of the mind.

© Sten Rudstrom, 2025