Live Arts for the Everyday – 90 Applicable Thoughts

LIVE ARTS FOR THE EVERYDAY – APPLICABLE THOUGHT #26 – Duet

| María Ferrara

In a duet, the two performers have equal importance. This balance does not imply that they both do the same thing, or that they do different things for an equal amount of time each. Duality pervades the way we perceive reality and often we see one of the poles as positive and the other as negative. However, in a duet no such vision is possible, because both performers are working at the service of the composition. Sometimes it can be difficult to accept that someone has a different way of going about things. It might be useful to approach whatever we are doing together as a duet, letting differences exist and finding the synergy between them.

 


María Ferrara

 

LIVE ARTS FOR THE EVERYDAY – APPLICABLE THOUGHT #25 – Solo

| María Ferrara

Andrew Morrish is a renowned improviser devoted to solo work. He uses movement, voice and speech to compose performances in real time. He prefers performing solo because “with solo we don’t have the complication of whose art it is”. When one performs a solo, there is nobody else on stage and one bears greater responsibility for whatever happens or doesn’t happen. By dedicating enough time to doing things alone in our life we can get a clearer view of what things that appear on our stage are our own making. When we are in contact with the rest of the world a lot more elements come into play and it can be more difficult to discern.

 


María Ferrara

 

LIVE ARTS FOR THE EVERYDAY – APPLICABLE THOUGHT #24 – Listening

| María Ferrara

Listening means paying attention to what is heard. In making music it’s obviously essential to listen to the sounds produced, by oneself or others. The use of this term has extended amongst performers of other disciplines to refer not only to sound, but also timing, space, dynamics, mood… Gestalt therapy broadens this meaning even further, applying it not only to what’s happening in the environment but also to what’s happening within. Communication can not take place without listening: listening to what the other is manifesting, listening to myself as I receive this, listening inside me to what is wanting to manifest and how, listening to how what I manifest is received. Listening in the broad sense of the word, with all senses.

 


María Ferrara

 

LIVE ARTS FOR THE EVERYDAY – APPLICABLE THOUGHT #23 – Rhythm

| María Ferrara

Rhythm can be described as a regularly repeated sound, movement or action. In most music the rhythm stays the same throughout the piece, but there are also music styles and compositions in which there are several simultaneous rhythms, or the rhythm changes throughout the piece or there is no rhythm at all. For us to be able to perceive rhythm we need to be able to perceive the continuity in the sequence, that is, we need to perceive the pauses as a transition towards the next sound, movement or action. How long can a pause be before we lose the thread? Sometimes in life it seems like things have come to a standstill and what was progressing has stopped. How long can the pause between events be before we perceive it as a stop and an end?

 


María Ferrara

 

LIVE ARTS FOR THE EVERYDAY – APPLICABLE THOUGHT #22 – Suspension of Disbelief

| María Ferrara

This term is used to refer to the audience putting aside logic in order to engage with the fiction being presented on stage. An example of this is accepting the way in which time goes by or the fact that the action is seen through the opening left by a supposedly removed fourth wall from a room. Actors and actresses do something similar when they use their imagination to create circumstances different to the ones they are really in. In life this capacity can be useful or dangerous. Putting aside the doubt that something can happen may help us make it real. However, ignoring what we know and retreating into a fantasy of how we would like things to be only delays the confrontation. Reality always wins!

 


María Ferrara

 

LIVE ARTS FOR THE EVERYDAY – APPLICABLE THOUGHT #21 – Balance

| María Ferrara

Dancers are much more aware of their balance than other people; they train it, challenge it and play with bringing themselves out of it as part of the dance. Whenever our centre of gravity is over our base we are balanced, that is, forces are in equilibrium and we come to stillness. That does not mean that balance involves no movement. Quite the contrary, balance is an ongoing dynamic readjustment. This is easily felt in what Steve Paxton called the “small dance“: stand with your eyes closed and relax your muscles as much as possible without collapsing so that you can feel all the small movements that the body makes to prevent falling over. Balance understood as a process, rather than a fixed spot, helps us understand self-regulation as an alternative to a set of rules about what is right/wrong in terms of taking care of ourselves.

 


María Ferrara

 

LIVE ARTS FOR THE EVERYDAY – APPLICABLE THOUGHT #20 – Cue

| María Ferrara

A cue is a sign to tells us that it’s the moment to carry out a specific action during the performance. The performer or technician what they have to do and they wait for the sign, for the right moment, so that it fits appropriately with the whole. At different moments in life, circumstances combine in different ways. It might be that at a certain moment in time, the circumstances are not favourable for something that we want to launch. Instead of pushing through, we could also hold on and wait for life to give us the cue.

 


María Ferrara

 

LIVE ARTS FOR THE EVERYDAY – APPLICABLE THOUGHT #19 – Credits

| María Ferrara

Credits tell us who contributed what to the performance. Even people who contributed but not as professionals may be thanked for it. The performers getting the ovation at the end are the tip of the iceberg, but there’s a lot of other work involved in a performance that would go unrecognized without credits. It is impossible to do something completely on one’s own. We use many things that were invented by others, do things that we learnt from others… Even our life was given to us by others! This doesn’t subtract any value from what we accomplish. On the other hand, it adds a very pleasant feeling of being supported by all those who contributed something and without whom our achievement wouldn’t have been possible.

 


María Ferrara

 

LIVE ARTS FOR THE EVERYDAY – APPLICABLE THOUGHT #18 – Presence

| María Ferrara

An abstract concept that is difficult to define. Outwardly it might come across as a certain self-assurance, poise or magnetism, all valued qualities for a performer. However, these qualities, are only the consequence of, “being present”. This means being here and now with one’s attention and aware of how events unfold moment to moment, both inside and outside us. Thus, presence is the quality implicit in being completely there at the time-place coordinates where things are happening. And that’s precisely the position from which the experience of life can be lived to the full.

 

 

María Ferrara