The primary aim of P.A.I.R.S is to establish a place and platform for group action, experimentation and improvisation with a view to reflecting upon, with practicing artists and students, the nature of improvisatory and collaborative practice, the variety of its forms and, most importantly, the impact such practices might have on artistic and pedagogical research.

The overarching principle of P.A.I.R.S is the proposition that improvisation is not simply another subject (or component of a subject) to be taught within the curriculum. Rather, P.A.I.R.S represents something of a challenge to the problematic economy of many existing pedagogical models, and to the dominant (self)-conception of group improvisation as a practice in itself. The intention is to develop artistic strategies that positively inform, radicalise and synthesise with arts pedagogical practice.

P.A.I.R.S seeks to identify the improvisatory dimension in making and learning across all of the arts and to work towards developing practice-based pedagogical discourses that allow for better articulation and development of improvisation as a complex aspect of the artistic and educational process.

Currently P.A.I.R.S facilitate bi-monthly group action meetings in York [blog link] occurring in both indoor and outdoor spaces that function as a social space for experimentation. P.A.I.R.S seeks to operate within an 'open structure', its methodologies being fluid and contingent upon its participants. P.A.I.R.S consider how such 'open structures' and public, group improvisatory activity might inform practice on a social, artistic and pedagogical level.

P.A.I.R.S was initiated by O U I Performance (York) and was supported by York St John University, Faculty of Arts through an EBL funded research project (2009-10). The EBL Project, 'Improvisation as pedagogical strategy' led by Professor Gary Peters and Dr Robert Wilsmore involved Nathan Walker, Victoria Gray, Samantha Murphy, Christopher Mollon & Claire Greenwood.

In April 2010 P.A.I.R.S participated in the Spring Meeting at PAF (Performing Arts Forum) in St Ermes, North France.
more information here

In May 2010 P.A.I.R.S delivered a seminar on improvised pedagogy, a workshop on scored improvisation and a performance improvisation. For more information please visit: www.pairsgroup.blogspot.com

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