(2005) October 18  The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts – Kennedy Center
Two improvisation performances related to the 11th DC International Improvisation Plus+ Festival (2005) curated by Maida Withers

TILT by mostly men:  (6:00 to 7:00 pm)
Kennedy Center Millennium Stage:

…a spirited contest between persons…the end game”

As in the pin ball game, when “tilt” occurs the game is over and you being again!
…..Surprise is at the Forefront…
……..Simplicity leads to complexity…
……….Spontaneity is a relentless master…

TILT on the River Terrace (7:00 to 8:00 pm)
Kennedy Center Terrace (immediately out the door by the Millennium Stage)
…site specific performance on the Kennedy Center Terrace with approval required to dance near the trees, on the cement guard rail on river overlook, others.

What the press is saying

"At the Oct.18 event, curated by Withers and involving male musicians, four male performers and two women dressed in male attire, the start was so smooth and varied that "Tilt" seemed a set work but then the action meandered. I didn't see the outdoor postscript to this indoor "Tilt" that took place immediately afterwards on Kennedy Center's River Terrace. None of what I did see was a revelation, but unplanned, improvised surprises do happen. I've experienced them three times, and in all instances while watching unnoticed. One was a dance warm up in a church gym in downtown DC. The dancer (I think he was the artist known as Ajax) apparently loved playing ball and was doing his stretches, plies and leaps while dribbling a basketball and shooting baskets. He fused the game with the dance seamlessly, elegantly, but stopped when he became aware that someone was watching. Another dancer warming up alone in an astonishing way was the Kirov Ballet's Farukh Rhuzimatov, folding himself like strudel dough, holding that position, straightening and refolding. He did it repeatedly, with varied intricacy and intensity, in an upstairs studio of the Kennedy Center prior to being joined by fellow dancers for a formal class. The improvised rehearsal I'll always remember was for a ballet gala at the Vienna Opera that Elena Tchernichova supervised. Maya Plisetskaya was to dance, of course, "The Dying Swan". It was wintry weather and Plisetskaya knew the steps by heart but hadn't had a run-through with the Viennese cellist. She stepped on stage dressed in a tall fur cap, sweater, close fitting woolen trousers and high boots. Partly marking, partly dancing, she adapted Fokine's choreography to what her clothing allowed her to do. The result was musical and more entrancing than the tutu and toe shoe version that evening." George Jackson