Improv Walk

In this article, we conceptualize nature as a participant in improvisation theatre education during the Covid-19 pandemic. As part of an arts colloquium that we held in the spring of 2022, the co-authors were asked to engage in an improvisation walk that was mediated via Zoom due to Covid-19. As we were unable to gather in a shared campus quad space, the co-authors were invited to go outside of their individual homes, take photos, record sounds, engage in filmmaking, and/or write as they ruminated on a writing prompt, “Nature is a part of me ... ” As co-authors, we share our responses to spending time in these intimate places through poetry, prose, photography, and film. The animals, trees, and flowers initiated the improvisation, provoking the co-authors to respond. The resulting dialogue highlights personal connections, reflections, and ruminations on the effects of dwelling in nature during the years of the pandemic. Narratives reveal themes of care, symmetry and nature, identity, and transformative learning. Social identities such as neurodiversity, queerness, rurality, and Blackness surface in relation to the natural world. The conversance with nature is a pedagogical and caring experience

Aesthetics · Art · Art history · Performance art · Sociology · Visual arts · Indigenous Health, Education, and Rights

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