TEACHING AS PERFORMANCE

malcolm's notes

STEPH : life as performance - lowering performance tone while teaching - as a teacher trying to stay in the real person body and not a performative body - enjoying the performances that happen in between activities - liminal performances

MALCOLM : conscious choice for financial reasons to focus creativity on teaching rather than performing - turning classes into performances - using improvisational and compositional choice making skills in construction classes that were really my own rather than repeating classes that I had learned

KERSTIN : likes teaching because there's no need to perform - creating performances in more interesting than showing the final performances - the students as audience have a different and more physical experience of something

PIA : teaching as sharing something and performance as sharing knowledge skills etc - so performance can easily be seen as an act of teaching - teaching/performing as a way of meeting people - using her skills as a performer in order to handle the situation - in her teaching encouraging people to practice being willing to be seen and be willing to see others

 STEPH : being open and vulnerable and willing to show yourself on stage is a form of teaching that the audience finds valuable

MALCOLM : in 1995 already I was thinking that the radical aspect of dance, particularly contact improvisation, is in getting the audience involved - getting them moving

Teaching as performance/ notes from stephanie

stephanie:

not to over perform while teaching, trying to bring things down to a lower tone, bring the personality of the teacher in a bit softer. A different level of presentation for me is important

as a teacher I try and stay in a real body, a person body, not as the performer body. I try and demonstrate less and give them a chance to experience the work without too much visual input from the teacher.

At the same time life is a performance, or being in public space with any focused attention around oneself is performance for me.. Being listened to while leading a situation. So as soon as I hold the space as the teacher( or person?) I am performing.

Malcolm:

It is a conscious choice to work as a teacher who is a identfying himself as the teacher who is performing. For example, from the experience of lecture demonstrations, I can get the audience to run around. They have learned to move, to get up and participate during my lecture.

All the skills of improvisation, the use of my voice, of attitude comes in as I teach and as a perform. I say things like you might have 13 ribs, 10 toes etc...” do not concentrate.”

By allowing the meaning of my language to shift, it does not have to be true, it is more important to encourage the experimentation of the expereince or lesson i am offering

So I am very clear I am performing....my teaching is a performance.

Kerstin:

When I teach I do not have to perform. I enjoy this. Imostly enjoy the the process of creating something but once it is on the stage I loose interest. Although, teaching has a performative quality which is holding the space. I can share my physical world. I see them and the space, they contribute to the teaching.They are somatically involved and we share this process together.

I like teaching more.the people in my class have a very different experience than a passive audience seeing a performance.Things come together, how I see what I see and this comes from the people in the class..unless one works with interactive performances. Then you have this interactive movement or moment hopefully happening.

Pia:

They( the audience) are sharing skills, knowledge from the performers performance.

My performances are almost like the same as when I teach class, because often there are so few people. I do a lot of site specific it is meeting somewhere public on the street or in the ministry of culture. I am using my skills as a performer to handle the situation. You can see the teacher in the performance. The teacher/ performer encourages or communicates with the audience interactively.

Asking people to answer my questions by moving, then they have to teach me the movements. I become a student in this moment of the performance and the roles change.

Steph:

One thing with performing, or of not wanting to perform or exclude my audience. I perform to teach people to be vulnerable, to take a risk in this abstract experience. This is the most clear way i see performance as a teacher. Showing this experience should inspire this possibility for the audience members.