Experimentation is the sending before the presenting. Pre…before, or occurring before in time…experimenting is the sending before the before sending…do a little algebra and sending equals sending. There proven, put a fork in it. We’re done here. Where is that avocado with the beer in it?!?
Experimentation is also the setting up, the creation of known conditions, knowing what elements you have in play and setting them free. Improvisation is experimentation, the only real form of experimental work. If someone has set/created/ossified something, they are not experimenting in their work. Unless of course they are forcing the experiment into/upon the viewer. Create something known, a choreography, for lack of a better word send it before an audience or present it to an audience, a somewhat known entity (No, you say…really…don’t you keep seeing the same people at shows and everyone is pretty much dressed alike…). The experiment is then what happens between those two entities. The problem with many choreographers who call their work experimental is that they don’t realize that their work isn’t, it’s just trendy and using the adjective du jour. It would actually be experimental if they were thinking of their relationship to the audience.