The Community of Practitioners

This chapter investigates the importance of trusting others – be it the choices made in improvisation that define the interactive process, the direction of the improvisation and the friendship and community developed before, during and after the actual improvisation. The chapter proposes an understanding of how these relationships inform the experiential process of trust in improvisation and the reliance on one another. The chapter foregrounds the function of trust in the relationships amongst the musicians who are part of the collective ensemble: a shared experience that is braided with respect, mutual understanding, and sometimes mistrust. The chapter considers whether friendship beyond the improvisational experience and the improvisational environment has a discernible effect on collegiality.