New Ways of Talking

I am very very fond of this set. Especially the first two pieces. The last one... not so sure. Very silly and not meant to be taken as Serious Dance, obviously, and that's fine by me. We all need some of that sometimes. And it's Unmata, so they can get away with an awful lot. I'm not going to go into whether this is bellydance or not, because A. I don't care and B. that's not the discussion right now.

A little picking apart...
I love Unmata's improv. As a student of ATS, I really enjoy seeing what people do with it. It's sort of like a cover song-- the interesting parts are both what you change what you keep.
In Unmata's case, I am agog at how well everything fits together. This goes far beyond adding in a "new" move or three. This is Amy Sigil's own style. While some core ATS can still be seen, nothing looks like "ATS with a different hat on."
This is really hard to do.
For one, it takes balls. There are about a bazillion ATS dancers, it seems, with a range of devotion from "Oh, yeah, it's fun, but whatever" to "OMG ATS IS LAW." When you learn someone else's dance style, you need to have respect-- but how you show your respect is your choice. Maybe it inspires you to emulate that style as perfectly as you can. Or maybe it inspires you to save the things you like and rebuild it from the ground up. Either one takes big brass balls.

For two, it's difficult. You can't just add in a few hip-hop moves and call it a cohesive vocabulary. That's why ATS can be a very difficult starting point. ATS proper-- Fat Chance, we're talking-- has such a specific aesthetic. You can't toss a Bollywood move in there and call it good. It'll stand out in a bad way. All your moves have to keep the same flavor, and that takes a lot of time and effort.
Other tricksy things are the technical aspects of the steps. Let's just say we're keeping the aesthetic of basic ATS but adding in steps that don't exist yet. How do you cue them? You need to make sure the cues are strong, can be viewed from the back, will not be confused with any other cue. Not only must you have a handle on your moves, but you have to know, understand and properly cue every other step, or at least every one in that half of the vocab (slow/fast). You have to know where the holes are. You have to be able to say, "Well, we don't turn our heads in the Egyptian, so that's a possible cue." You also need to avoid overlap. There's no point in having two moves that are essentially the same from the audience's standpoint. Again, you need to be able to see holes: "Hey, we don't do any fast hip circles. Let's build something off that."

For three, you need to practice the shit out of things. Watch the improv at the beginning of the clip and see: even when the cues happen, and there's sometimes that slight delay between the leader and the follower, the followers always catch up quickly. You don't much notice it unless you're looking for it. Another point-- when they're moving, arms undulating low, they're all in pace with one another. There's no competition. Everyone is on the same page. Everyone knows the music. Everyone knows to follow the leader. The inventor of the steps is on stage, and she's following the leader. She'd follow them even when they fucked up. They'd make it work. And how does it work? A metric ton of solid practicing.
You have to believe in it, too. You can't have your "own style" and not really follow through. Watch groups who dance straight ATS but have a move or two of their own-- when those moves come up in a piece, you can see the pride shining through. The pride needs to be there the entire time. 

This new improv is so interesting to me because I'm working toward the same. Unmata's steps are lovely, and while I occasionally borrow from them, their aesthetic is not mine. The same goes for all the improv troupes I watch: Fat Chance, Black Sheep, Wildcard. But since I started with ATS, my performance troupe is mostly ATS, and my students know mostly ATS, I can't just shift gears straight into something new. It will take time and experience to create this new thing. I have to slowly reshape and rebuild the vocabulary to suit my vision. Yes, I just said vision. I effing hate that phrase, but it's the best I've got. And I'm tired of typing "aesthetic."