JOIN OUR WISE IMPROV LAB - the DREAMING FLOOR GAME
Join an hour of Serious Play laced with Psycho-Magic more exhilarating than a video game. Could these practices become a cultural current that counters modern-day alienation?
Project Director:
Tijmen Brozius
tijmen(at)tijmenbrozius.com
I work in puppetry, physical performance, embodiment and visual art
My visual art: https://linktr.ee/brozius
Meet us here:
Globally: Video Calls (we’ve found ways to make it work really well.)
Locally: Germany, NRW: A 10-minute walk from Train Station Witten Main Station / Hauptbahnhof.
Message me here on Substack or at tijmen(at)tijmenbrozius.com
WHAT WE DO IN THE DREAMING FLOOR SESSIONS
Sessions are structured to facilitate experimental improvisation with clear boundaries to optimise for imperfect wow-ness and self-expression, rooted in joy, rigor, and presence.
Our session structure has roughly developed to this:
Bonding & Trust: a meditative communication exercise (the Noticing Game).
Warm up: dancing, stretches, fun games.
Sourcing material: A Tarot Card. Spontaneous Writing.
De-Stressing the Nervous System: Hatha Yoga, The Animal Gravity Ritual, Dancing, Voice Play, Self-Touch
Deep relaxation, blindfolded. Letting imagery arise.
The Core Practice: EMBODYING A FIGURE. From inner impulses and images, letting a Voice, Posture, Character emerge.
Comedic Improv Scenes: roughly test postures, qualities, identities. Playing with the Self-Shape in interaction with others. Acting truthfully in imaginary circumstances, by god-like creating of said circumstances, liberating our perspective-taking through progressive meta-cognition of its elements.
Stepping out of Roles. Reflection.
The above is what we normally cover in a 1-hour zoom session. The following can be woven into longer sessions:
Deep break: Dance, Massage, Bodywork, Yoga, etc.
Explore and refine the deeper embodiment of your role. Trading roles. Splitting them up. Placing more aspects on the Dreaming Floor.
Re-calibrate the Score, the Parameters for the next Dream
More Deep Improv: Dream Scenes
Harvesting insights & ideas: writing, sketching. In your medium, develop something from one of the Dreams into an artefact, possibly for use in the next session.
AIM & METHODS
Admittedly, this section is still a jumble. #imperfectionism
We are building a living ecosystem of improvisational practices rooted in improvised roleplay, ritual, and an attitude of "playing with reality itself". Our goal is to explore how embodied performance can cultivate wisdom, beauty, and connection, and resonate in our real lives after the sessions.
We experiment and play through score-based improvisation, where participants embody characters springing from embodiment exercises, from absurd wildcards to perennial Archetypes and Deities. We enter "Dreams," playing as these Beings expressing our inner life.
Isn’t this just psychodrama? If you know what you’re talking about, write to me for a Zoom session. This is not therapy, though. It’s the Butoh principle of embracing tensions, shadow, and being with what is. Not resolution, not healing. instead, perceiving in acceptance and gratitude with an aesthetic and connection-centered bias.
How can we get as high on creativity as I can, when on cannabis, but without the chaos, without the muddledness, without the hangover?
We practice tuning in to "the Group Mind" and let ourselves be surprised by what emerges. These sessions are enriched with tools from dance, puppetry, mask work, martial arts, systemic constellation, psychology, Social Presencing Theater, spontaneous writing, dreams, AI, contact improvisation, uzazu, yoga, breathwork, and more. We source material for next scenes based on our personal inner life.
We look for one common thing: how can these practices serve improvisation for developing wisdom, beauty, truth-as-an-act, and connection?
What becomes possible when people regularly step into a space of roleplay, presence, co-creation, and collective meaning-making?
The Dreaming Floor Game Manual is at version 0.8.
Join the Shomans. The guild of open-minded artists, theorists, dancers, psychologists, builders, musicians, writers, cooks, healers, shamans, psychonauts—anyone curious about consciousness, transformation, and meaningful art. Heterodox worldviews in open-ended play.
Influences and Inspirations
I’m playtesting a growing toolbox by drawing from various psychotechnological fields: Authentic Games / Circling, Systemic (aka Family-) Constellation, Dance Improvisation, Hatha Yoga, Uzazu (Dylan Newcomb et al), Psychodrama, Voice Dialogue / Internal Family Systems, Big Mind (Genpo Roshi), Live Action Role Playing, Table-Top Roleplaying Games (Dungeons&Dragons), Tabletop Games systems, Instant Composition, Contact Improvisation, Mask Work, Physical Theater, Commedia dell’Arte, Mime Corporel, Spontaneous Writing, Participatory / Immersive Theater, the Tarot, the i-Ching, and more.
I want to work with people in the above and related fields. Are you experienced? Message me, I’d love to give you a taste - and hear from you how I’m messing things up…
Two of my big inspirations are:
The TIAMAT work by Hsieh-Kobayashy & John Vervaeke involving the intersection between performative arts and consciousness studies. Caveat: I have not joined their program yet but have talked to their team members. We’ll meet again.
Social Presencing Theater, a branch of the Presencing Institute (known for the Theory U model).
The DREAMING FLOOR project is driven by MY BIG HUNCH:
Alienation is our greatest illness.
Play is our medicine for alienation.
Play can infuse any activity necessary for survival with co-resonance.
To play, we must meet in real time.
Meeting in real time takes coordination.
Draw your calendar, cowboy.
We might solve our coordination problems with AI and the Internet.
You reading this and messaging me is the first step.
let’s meet.
Send me a message here on Substack or at tijmen(at)tijmenbrozius.com
I’ll guide you in an experimental session.
No charge - in this experimental phase all willing participants provide huge value by just being present.
The VALUES I aspire to infuse the Dreaming Floor with
This reads a bit “dry”, but here we go:
Truthful communication, embodied listening, and authentic expression.
We honor the sacred and the absurd, the tragic and the comic.
We are a-political: shared human-ness comes before ideology. No one has the right answer, all views are partial, and anyone can choose to engage or disengage.
Could these practices become a cultural current that counters modern day alienation, the greatest illness of our species?
We value craft, skill and aim for mastery. Everyone is encouraged to engage their talents but we give honest feedback. We stimulate your practice of your skills and help each other focus on what to practice.
More values I still have to define, to ensure emotional safety for the participants. Primarily, access to the deeper practices is limited to those vetted, and a progression of access to the practices is architected and guarded.
We embrace paradox and reject moralism in art. We don't pretend to be saints, we have all aspects of humanity within us, and some painful problems of existence cannot be solved.
We develop a circle of trust. This includes bodywork, communication practices like circling and authentic games, and shared healthy meals. We value honesty over perfection and view every participant as a potential co-creator.
Individualism has failed us. We are communal beings, and we are dividuals. Let’s explore the manifold parts of our dividuality.
Stop taking yourself so damn seriously.
We also explore:
Outdoor sessions: We clean a corner of the local park. We improvise there. Then we make it more beautiful based on the meaning of the improvisation, thereby sanctifying it.
Ritual improvisation: building altars, enacting wisdom voices, creating ceremonies.
Object creation workflows: Making masks, props, costumes, instruments, and ritual tools. Explore healthy hierarchy in roles of art director, artists, and assistants.
AI exploration: Developing a Scoracle for improvisational parameters.
Does this spark enthusiasm in you too?
Will you join our next local or online session?
Send me a personal message here at Substack, or at tijmen(at)tijmenbrozius.com
At the time of updating this post (June 2026) I am meeting with my main collaborator bi-weekly at 8:30 CEST on Zoom.
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