40,000+ BCE – Present – Australia – Aboriginal Songlines – Improvised songs used as oral maps and ancestral storytelling.
Ancient – Present – Americas – Storytelling Circles – Stories shaped by teller’s voice, relationship to land, and the moment’s needs.
Ancient – Present – Mali – Dogon Dama rituals – Masked dances performed during funerals, adapting to context and occasion and evolving over time.
2nd c. BCE – Present – India – Raga – Performance develops as a structured but deeply improvised form in classical Indian music.
1st c. CE – Present – Kerala (India) – Kutiyattam – Theatre allowing actors to adapt performance through responsive gestural and vocal elaboration.
9th c. CE – Present – Middle East – Taqsim – Arabic instrumental improvisation within the maqām system.
10th c. CE – Present – Indonesia – Wayang Kulit (shadow puppetry) – Narrative adapted by the dalang to audience, event, and spiritual setting.
13th c. CE – Present – West Africa – Griots or jalis – perform songs, praise, and genealogy with adaptive variation in response to their audience.
13th c. CE – Present – Turkey – Mevlevi Sema Ceremony – Highly structured ritual combining whirling and music, expressing surrender and divine connection.
14th c. CE – Present – Japan – Noh Theatre – Highly codified, with interpretive variation in chanting, timing, and musical phrasing.
16th c. CE – Present – Brazil – Capoeira – Improvised martial art combining music, movement, and play, born of resistance to slavery disguised as ritual.
1880s–90s. – Paris (France) – Andre Antoine's naturalistic theatre: the rise of the fourth wall.
1898 – Moscow (Russia) – Art Theatre founded by Constantin Stanislavski on the principle of realistic theatre.
1910s – Moscow (Russia) – Film Director Lev Kuleshov demonstrates the Kuleshov effect.
1920s – Paris (France) – Jacques Copeau introduces mask improvisation at the Ecole du Vieux-Colombier.
1921 – Vienna (Austria) – J.L. Moreno directs the "Theatre of Spontaneity" and develops Psychodrama.
1935 – New York (US) – Sanford Meisner joins the Neighborhood Playhouse.
1920s–30s. – Germany – Bertolt Brecht introduces the Distancing Effect.
1939 – Chicago (US) – Viola Spolin begins developing Theatre Games.
1944 – Northampton (US) – Psychologists Fritz Heider and Marianne Simmel demonstrate narrative attribution. Watch the original animation
1945 – England – Joan Littlewood founds the Theatre Workshop.
1955 – Chicago (US) – Compass Players founded by David Shepherd and Paul Sills.
1956 – Paris (France) – Jacques Lecoq opens his theatre school.
1958 – London (England) – Keith Johnstone starts using improvisation at the Royal Court Theatre.
1959 – Opole (Poland) – Jerzy Grotowski founds the Laboratory Theatre.
1960s – Present – Japan – Butoh – Movement practice emphasising inner impulse and embodied imagery rather than fixed choreography.
1963 – (US) – Viola Spolin's book Improvisation for the Theater is published.
Late 1960s – San Francisco (US) – Del Close develops the Harold long form.
1968 – Denmark – Towards a Poor Theatre by Grotowski is published.
1970s – (US) – Action Theater is created by Ruth Zaporah, Contact Improvisation by Steve Paxton, and Viewpoints by Mary Overlie.
1973 – Latin America – Augusto Boal develops Invisible Theatre and later Forum Theatre.
1975 – New York State (US) – Playback Theatre is developed by Jonathan Fox.
1977 – Quebec (Canada) – Ligue Nationale d'Improvisation by Robert Gravel stages the first public performance mixing improvisation with sport.
1977 – London (England) – Mike Leigh directs Abigail's Party.
1978 – Calgary (Canada) – TheatreSports by Keith Johnstone holds its first public match.
1979 – (Canada) – Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre by Keith Johnstone is published.
Source (with many additions outside the world of improv comedy): The Novelty of Improvisation: Towards a Genre of Embodied Spontaneity (open access) by David Alfred Charles - PhD Dissertation - Department of Theatre - Louisiana State University, August 2003. All rights reserved.