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profile by George Affleck Jennifer Mascall and the Nijinsky Gibber Jazz Club obody unending the Nijinsky Gibber Jazz Club in downtown Vancouver is certain the show has started. The lights are not dimmed, the entrance door is not closed, and even though the performance does not begin until 8 p.m.. dancers have stepped on and off the circular stage several times in the last half hour. But then perhaps this is the nature of improvisational dance: nothing, not even the name of the event, makes you feel like you know what's going on. The Nijinsky Gibber Jazz Club is a dance event organized by Mascall Dance. Jennifer Mascall. founder of the company, explains the title like this: "Nijinsky" because he was such a superb dancer: "jazz" because if you think of the ultimate in improvisation you think jazz music; "gibber" because like gibberish it does not have a clear meaning: and "club" because it's supposed to feel like a place people would want to visit. As for those who may feel out of place sitting in a large circle watching dancers improvise. Jennifer Mascall says. "One of the reasons we charge by donation is because it's informal and in the studio. We don't want the audience coming with the expectations of a performance they might see at the Vancouver Playhouse." Tonight the dancers are accompanied by a musician. He too is improvising. In future performances, the dancers will be accompanied by painters, actors, and inexperienced dancers." This is a learning tool for me as a performing artist." dancer Tonja Livingstone says. ' T o study this immediacy of composition, of expression, of interaction, of environment with other movers or musicians, you are forced to figure it out -- now." Jennifer Mascall arrived at the idea of combining artists of different disciplines a few years ago. The event N is now ongoing and a great success within the arts community. It's a treat to improvise with dancers because it just expands the possibilities of rapport and is quite inspiring." guest musician Simon Kendell says. "It is wonderful to throw musical conventions away and just work from impulse." Before the performance and in front of an audience, Mascall asks the dancers to think about what their physical take on eloquence and violence would be. She then gets them to practise the ideas and build up a repertoire that can be developed during the performance. "It's incredibly risky, emotionally and physically, because of the unknown element," Livingstone says. "But I also think this is exactly the kind of place you want to take those kinds of risks. You are going to grow; you're going to change; it's about learning." Mascall understands growth for young dancers. Trained in New York City at the studios of Martha Graham, she toured Europe as a solo artist before settling in West Vancouver. Her dance company was formed in 1989 as a vehicle for her ongoing movement research and dance creation. The Nijinsky Gibber Jazz Club is a continuation of that work. "We are researching the bounds of time." she says. "There is another kind of choreography, instantaneous choreography, that comes from improvisation. It's a kind of fixing of time where because of necessity you go to a place where the thing that makes up the dance arrives all at the same time and kind of fixes itself." Knowledge like that helps when you .ire asked to add 30 minutes to your .1()-minute rouline just before you