Dancing with uncertainty: Shared reflections on practising improvisation in acute clinical settings

This article is an edited version of a reflective conversation between independent artists Lisa Dowler, Louise Klarnett and Cai Tomos. The exchange focuses on their lived experience of practising in the clinical setting, sharing the complexities of their work, in a way that is rarely captured in formal research. This process highlights their embodied, tacit knowledge, bringing forth artists’ voices, often absent in clinical literature. We suggest these insights are valuable to artists initiating a practice in the clinical setting, arts organizations and hospitals developing arts and health projects, and health professionals collaborating with artists. The trialogue reveals how moment-to-moment decision-making enables creative engagement with diverse individuals in complex situations, through both verbal and non-verbal negotiation. The discussion traversed a range of issues, including the significance of improvisation and somatic approaches in this setting, ethics and consent, the scope of practice, working with touch and differentiating the artist and art therapist and self-care.