WAR (Erin) on the Keyword Performance

I wanted to add something to our discussion about the meaning of the word performance:

My most immediate take on the term is related to how I perceive it to be replacing the word 'Theatre' in contemporary practice (at least in the UK and to some extent North America).

In April this year, I organised a panel called "On Theatrical Behaviour." The panel was in part about one venue's shift away from using the word 'theatre', opting to re-brand/re-imagine its annual 'Theatre Festival' calling it simply: Behaviour instead... In preparation for the panel, I asked Deborah Richardson-Webb, now head of performance pedagogy at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, if she could tell me a bit about why a course that she developed at the Academy, formerly called Contemporary Theatre Practice, had been renamed Contemporary Performance Practice. She shared with me a document she had written called: Troublesome Horses: Radical Performance Pedagogy in the Conservatoire. I thought I would share a paragraph from this document that addresses this semantic shift:

In the title of the Programme we chose to use the word ‘Performance’ not ‘Theatre’ in order to clarify its position in relation to the education of its students within the broadest field of performance practices. By ‘Performance’, it is understood that whilst drawing upon the tradition of British and European Theatre, the Programme seeks to address the wider phenomenon of performance in human cultures from ritual practices, through performance in everyday life to art-making processes. The Programme draws upon and synthesises a wide variety of disciplines and discourses including, improvisation, physical performance, writing for performance, voice, movement, visual art, feminist studies, gender studies, queer theory, semiotics, ethology, pedagogy, media and popular culture theory and cultural studies.

This seems relevant to the title of our course as well.

Performance for me, in part, means a shift in thinking about/experiencing/making contemporary 'theatre'--it is in some respect a way of distinguishing the old from the new.

keyword: 'esittää'

For me the Finnish word ’esittää’ is problematic because of the multiple shades this verb has. These different meanings and contexts of the word are interesting to examine for example in terms of the functions, purposes and what emerges when this word is used. Moreover, how to translate esittää to English? For performance scholars esittää often has the connotation ‘to perform, to act, to present’ whereas these are only one of the many meanings of the word.

The WSOY Finnish-English Dictionary defines ‘esittää’ as following:

1. (näyttää ) show, produce

2. (ilmaista) express

3. (mainita) give, state

4. (virallisesti) put forward, propose (formally)

5. (teatteri, museot- theatre, museums) present, (näytellä) perform, play

6. (kuvata) show, portray

7. (olla olevinaan) pose as, show off

The stem of the word is ‘esi’, it entails the meaning of ‘pre-‘and ‘fore-‘; something that is before or infront of one but also something that is anterior, earlier than something. It is a word that refers to an active process of production. In a theatre-performance context ‘esittää’ is playing, presenting and performing. However, it does not mean acting (‘näytellä’), in the sense of representing a character. Yet it does mean pretending and showing, as does the word ‘näytellä’. In everyday life one might say ‘sinä esität’ which has the connotation of ‘you are pretending’ (more often than not understood in a negative light) or as showing off, instead of performing in an arts context. Interesting case is also to think of the word in a formal legal context. If in English one says that the judge pronounces someone guilty or unguilty, in Finnish ‘esittää joku vangittavaksi’ is used to formally propose someone as guilty. The word ‘pronouncing’ has of course a performative function, as J.L.Austin’s examples articulate. What happens then when in this context ‘esittää’ is used? The word that affiliates itself with showing, proposing, suggesting, presenting and performing might sound less powerful than pronouncing, declaring someone convicted. This example shows how performance related words and actions exist in formal occasions of, for example, larger institutions and state. In this context the word also expresses a particular authority.

'Esittää' - the judge pronounce someone as guilty.

'Esittää' - a group of artists presenting their piece.

Key Word - David - DANÇA PESSOAL

[The body], he is not dancing, he is danced. Tadashi Endo, Butoh-MA choreographer.

Dança Pessoal is literally translated from Portuguese into English as ‘Personal Dance’. In English and in other translations of other languages it usually has an obvious meaning – your own dance, idiosyncratic moves, movement from within, improvisational choreography, your own style of dancing, etc – which, even in Portuguese language if you are not into the Physical Theatre scene in Brazil, also means everything listed before. LUME (theatre group formed by researchers from University of Campinas, Sao Paulo) developed a methodology for actors to help their creative process, utilizing exhaustive physical exercises based on Grotowski’s studies and Butoh dance. Dança Pessoal was first conceptualized in the eighties in Brazil, and since then, it has been a theme or source for innumerous thesis and researches on Physical Theatre, Contemporary Dance, Performance Studies and Anthropology. Basically Dança Pessoal is not a kind of dance itself, it is the initial process of an intense and exhaustive sequence of physical exercises that help to improve actors’ awareness in their bodies limitations and possibilities – it’s the idiosyncrasy of what the bodies can and can’t do – it’s a decodification of spasms, dances, movements from a tired body to the theatrical semiotics on stage.

Example of pushing and pulling exercises in Physical Theatre:

LUME theatre performance created through Dança Pessoal:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QEoAXWUTzE

Laboratory Theatre of Jerzy Grotowski:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p09ULGL0uU&NR=1

Butoh based theatre performance by LUME:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ChX3h3CJ6o

Petra's Keyword: Ervaringstheater

Ervaringstheater.

Experience or experiential theatre would be the literal translation of ervaringstheater, but it is an illusive term, since theatre without experience seems quite impossible (to me). The specific focus of ervaringstheater is the unique experience. Or as theatre company Ontroerend Goed puts it (concerning to there performance The Smile Off Your Face): "Actually, it's not about viewing. You are blindfolded; you are in a wheelchair, tied up. It's about experiencing. There is no stage. There is no public, no fixed spot in the lights where actors perform. In fact, you don't know where you are.” In the Netherlands this kind of theatre seems to pop up everywhere since the 2001 Holland Festival invited the Colombian Teatro de los Sentidos (theatre of the senses) according to theatre critic Annette Embrechts. Elaborating on this term Embrechts continues with the following: “welcome to the world of ervaringstheater. Theatre performances which first and foremost want to seduce the audience to look and experience the performance and save judgement and interpretation for later. It’s theatre that preferably manifests itself on unexpected locations such as shopping malls, train stations, prisons, city busses and dunes. The audience is slowly being detached from their daily routine through physical contact and is put in a state of confusion.” This year’s theatre season in Frascati opened with a festival named I, THE SPECTATOR aiming to: “discuss on the position of the audience in the theatre through the showing of new, surprising forms of theatre” in which the audience is in the spotlight in one way or another.

Some examples: Boukje Schweigman, Ontroerend Goed, WunderBaum and Dries Verhoeven. Dries verhoeven U bevindt zich hier (You are here):

[the link in case it doesn't work: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lu-DNUNCwms]

Keyword: el mágico si / sí - Diego Amsterdam

Mágico ‘si/sí’
K. Stanislavski used to talk about a ‘magical if’ necessary for the work of the actor. It was a kind of self-deception or use of the will to make on self ‘believe’ necessary to enter the role and be able to ‘play’. Mexican director Rubén Ortiz, plays with this idea. Ortiz is a director that has been linked to ‘physical theatre’ which makes his reference to a classical stanislavskian term quite unusual.

The ‘magical if’ is in Spanish ‘el mágico si’. The game rests on the fact that the word ‘si’ (‘if’, conditional) sounds exactly the same as ‘sí’ (with an accent [´], affirmative, means ‘yes’). [There are other possibilities for the word: ‘sí’ (with an accent), also stands for the ‘self’; ‘si’ (without an accent) can also mean a musical note.]

Si – conditional, ‘if’.
[Si- muscial note]
Sí- affirmative, ‘yes’.
[Sí- reflexive 3rd person, ‘one’.]

Ortiz’s game consists on replacing the conditional in ‘the magical if’ for an affirmative ‘magical yes’. So ‘el mágico sí’ –‘the magical yes’- would be then a key to enter into the game of theatre, but not by making an effort of belief in an imaginary world (like the ‘magical if’), but as an act of faith and affirmation of whatever comes: saying ‘yes’ to the circumstances, and working with what is given –even if it falls out of the ‘plan’.

It seems to me, that the ‘magical yes’/’magical if’ distinction points towards two different ways of theatre making. The ‘magical if’ is closer to a realist, director as artist, text-based theatre -product-oriented. The ‘magical yes’, on the other hand, attempts to build a less conventional theatre that assumes transformation as it’s shore, devised theatre, actor as artist, body-based theatre -process-oriented. The weight of the work is displaced to the actor, embodiment and collaborative creation.
Two theatres:

Ortiz's proposal seems to suggest the need to take a stance (and thus falls into the realm of ethics). I don't know if one is better than the other (though I'm more interested in one than in the other). The difference is there to think about it. Could it be phrased as 'acting' vs. 'performing'? Does all of this make any sense?
The following quote of Nietzsche, helps me think about Ortiz's 'magical yes':

“I walk amongst men as the fragments of the future: that future which
I contemplate.
And it is all my poetisation and aspiration to compose and collect
into unity what is fragment and riddle and fearful chance.
And how could I endure to be a man, if man were not also the
composer, and riddle-reader, and redeemer of chance!
To redeem what is past, and to transform every "It was" into "Thus
would I have it!"- that only do I call redemption!
Will- so is the emancipator and joy-bringer called: thus have I
taught you, my friends! But now learn this likewise: the Will itself
is still a prisoner.
(...)
Unless the Will should at last deliver itself, and Willing become
non-Willing-:" but ye know, my brethren, this fabulous song of
madness!
Away from those fabulous songs did I lead you when I taught you:
"The Will is a creator."
All "It was" is a fragment, a riddle, a fearful chance- until the
creating Will saith thereto: "But thus would I have it."-
Until the creating Will saith thereto: "But thus do I will it!
Thus shall I will it!"

[Niezsche, F. “42. Redemption”. Thus Spake Zarathustra. Translated by Thomas Common]

keyword - 'quyi' - ian - amsterdam

Quyi (Simplified Chinese: 曲艺; Traditional Chinese: 曲藝; pronunciation as: chiǔ yì)

It refers to an ancient performing art spread all over China that covers a large number (it recorded 500+) of different types of performances consisted of singing and narrative storytelling using staged monologues and dialogues. It could refers to such traditional art forms as ballad singing (唱曲), story telling (说书), comic dialogues (小品), clapper talks (快板) and cross talks (相声), with all of which sharing some special features as:

1) generally not a full-fledged theatrical play. The performers therefore have to try their best to stimulate the audiences through their words and songs so as to inspire them to conjure up images.

2) usually performed by a small number of people. The most standard number is 1 or 2, sometimes extending to 4 or more. Each person may play multiple roles for multiple characters in the story.

3) The language used is usually associated with the spoken dialect of the local area. 

4) a lot of body movements may be used in the portrayal of the characters in the story, no matter what the performers sitting or standing.

5) often accompanied by clappers, drums, or Chinese traditional stringed instruments (like pipa/danxian), with simple props and no stage scenery.

6) the performer wear various costumes depending on the era of the story plot (unlike the chinese operas). Costumes range from dynastic period 'hanfu' to the more modern female 'qipao'/male 'yet-san suit' or even western suits.

...

This term came into my mind because it's kinda 'everywhere' in China, both among han people and other minority ethnic groups (in fact, has been a major means for the transmission of the history and culture of many ethnic groups), but in my opinion without enough academic focus as, as least, as the traditional operas, which has a shorter history. Its aesthetics are simple and unsophisticated, however, many excellent quyi items reflect the ordinary Chinese people's thought, ideals and moral aspirations. Here are two different types of quyi, the 1st one is Suzhou Pintan from the south China and the 2nd one Shandong Kuaiban from the north. for your reference:

Key Word- POSEUR- Erika Amsterdam

Erika's Keyword: Poseur

View more presentations from Diego Alejandro de la Vega Wood.

Keyword: Busk (Jess Maxwell/Amsterdam)

Busk

A universally applicable English term most often cited in reference to public performances in urban spaces undertaken with the intention of soliciting tips. A wide range of activities is encompassed within the conception of Busking, the common feature of all being that they are exhibited within a public space, for public consumption and with economic gain serving as a primary motivator for undertaking the task.

Common examples of busking include skilled spectacle driven acts, unskilled novelty stunts and crafted musical and theatrical performances thereby making this form of performance accessible to a wide community of individuals due to the autonomy in choosing content and performance sites.

Particular buskers may rise as figures of great prominence and recognition within their local communities for a myriad of reasons, particularly the unusual content or the durability over time of their performances.

For many performers busking is a primary source of income and as such Busking has become associated in the mainstream with urban semi-migrant populations and the homeless as a form of "begging". There are Buskers who seek to transcend this label, seeking out not only monetary rewards but gratuity in the form of experential contact or publicity, while others do use it as a primary means of economic survival.

New Oxford American Dictionary Definition

busk ¹ |bəsk|

verb [ intrans. ]

play music or otherwise perform for voluntary donations in the street or in subways : the group began by busking on Philadelphia sidewalks | [as n. ] ( busking) busking was a real means of living.

• ( busk it) informal improvise.

DERIVATIVES

busker |ˈbəskər| noun

ORIGIN mid 17th cent.: from obsolete French busquer ‘seek,’ from Italian buscare or Spanish buscar, of Germanic origin. Originally in nautical use in the sense [cruise about, tack,] the term later meant [go around selling,] hence [go around performing] (mid 19th cent.).

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