“To me Production was a true example of populace. The work took on a community that centered around knowledge which was shared through conversation, emails and blogs (that shared theoretical text as well as responses to the work and labor). We constantly discussed the conceptual idea of discussion and in the inertia of it all we came out without any idea that makes a product but many exchanges of knowledge, cultures, and fits of expression. I don't find it necessary to describe particular experiences because these then hold in our minds as moving sculpture, tangle products, but I think the overall tone is the path that choreography can take in the future.”
The above text is a response not to my own work but a work I am have been participating in for the past 4 months and it a/effects my own practice and how I see the spectators role in a performance. I have been participating in Xavier Le Roy and Marten Spangbergs “Production” which was commission by the Hayward Gallery for the Move: Choreographing You exhibition. The work (if you have not experienced) draws the spectator in so they become an active participant in the performance which then alleviates the spectator all together. By doing this the goal has eliminated product as spectatorship sets a formula that 1+1=2 (Performer + Audience= Performance which = Product which= commerce)
What does this do for my work? I have not stop making work that eliminates the spectator but in a way I have actively consider where the spectator is placed in the performance. And that spectator is an active participant not “ignorant people” sitting in a seat for entertainment. I took on the approach to present research as a product so I can ask my audience to think and by thinking and diving into their memories and senses they are actively being entertain. (this being enjoyment or recalling an uncomfortable experience; all valid entertainment) I have a passion against 3D for this exact reason; feed me feed me feed me and I have consumed without thinking, leaving me supposedly full but still hungry) I won’t digress anymore, but will explain what I mean.
“The theater is a place where ignorant people are invited to see suffering people.” (Plato)
He goes on to speak that these suffering performers are diseased and theater is the transmission of that disease. I consider this a fine line to travel on in my work as I try not to use the theater as a therapeutic session but a place that connects humans with each other as equal bodies that have similar emotion. I don’t ask for ignorance but for a quest by the spectator to tap into their own experiences to devise the answer to what is being laid out in front of them. I found that the experience in Production of eliminating the spectator is similar to the experience I am doing by eliminating the passive spectator therefore eliminating ignorance.
So returning to my above statement, I think the path of choreography is to deepen the exchange of knowledge and push the realms of presentation. Maybe an off topic statement but thinking that price doesn’t quantify quality but maybe the opposite I think. As musical theater (my original passion and love) becomes more ready made food (jukebox musicals, remake of popular movies, etc) the price will go up and as the economical crisis tries to push arts out the intellectual based performance will become cheaper. (AMAZING! True class separation) I am seeing more and more free performances that were well researched and thoughtfully presented. In a way, I am ok with this as long as the funding is there to support the performers and collaborators.
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