Artistic Director, Philip Channells asks some of the dancers to respond to their first week of 'The Lure and Blur of The Real'.
What would you say is the highlight of being part of Adriano's masterclass?
Matt
The highlight of this week has been delving into the deep personal "who really is 'me'?" questions we have been exploring this week. I have done a lot of soul searching over the last few years and asked myself a lot of deep and meaningful questions that I feel have given me material to draw on during this week. Also it's really great to to be reminded (through the process of asking and answering these questions) what it is I live for and what I do with life and why. When I think about "why is it I'm alive?" and "what motivates me?" I am encouraged by the answers I find and it boosts my spirits.
Joshua
I'll have to admit that I've worked with Adriano for only two days, but that's probably where my highlight comes from: in a small period of time, Adriano's already pushed me to publicly question whether my answers to identity are the real answers. In answering "Are you comfortable with being yourself?" in front of the other artists in the workshop, I couldn't help but realize that I still don't know who I am. The moments in which I struggle to find an answer to seemingly simple questions are what I enjoy the most; this point becomes the start of what will be an intense and powerful period of self-discovery.
Tara
The highlight of Adriano's masterclass is I like doing different bits of movement and expressing the real me in dance and learning new moves.
Nigel
Highlight... the dancing as yourself. When dancing as yourself there are things that you can see yourself doing that you didn't know you did or you didn't think about creative wise!
Jianna
The warms ups are quite good with Adriano coz he likes it. I also like to do some dancing with Adriano and a bit of acting. I like to come and join the masterclass with Adriano coz I like him, he's funny and Paul is funny. I like working with them - it's fun. Instead of doing talking a lot I like to do some exploring dancing with them. We couldn't go to the zoo coz they didn't let us in, so we went to the Botanical Gardens to ask questions, and the people answered them. I liked walking around in the gardens, it was really nice day to go.
Felicity
A highlight of being a part of Adriano’s masterclass has been exploring my reality and the realities of others in the group. We are sharing raw emotion in a first confronting but safe environment. It is nothing like I have ever done before. I feel the way we are communicating and experimenting through speech, movement and song is slipping away from our daily lives and is occupied by other more isolated ways. This exploration brings comfort. It is so interesting to observe the layers of identity of myself and others slowly peel back to show the person within.
Jo S
The highlight has been watching so many people get up and reveal and honesty and humility. It's rare that we are asked to be so pure.
Zoe
The highlight was being involved in a new experience, it was fairly different to anything i have been involved in before.
What did you find most challenging?
Matt
Ironically, my highlight of the week was also the most challenging part. We often avoid asking ourselves really deep meaningful questions out of the fear of not liking what we will find. Although I am what I consider to be very in-tune with myself, I am still just as nervous as anybody else to poke my emotional insides with a stick and see what jiggles. It's uncomfortable and everyone in the workshop has been very brave in exposing ourselves to each other.
Joshua
I believe that we all have a difficult time with being honest. While I can simply say that "I am confident" in front of a group of people, there's a considerable part of me that that wakes up, raises an eyebrow, and almost says, "You sure about that?" The most challenging part of this workshop is honesty, and allowing yourself to face what the real answer - if there is only one - is, where it comes from, and why it is so. I think it's in these moments of hesitation and second-guessing that allow us to look inside and figure to whom we're lying: ourselves, each other, or something greater.
Tara
The most challenging is learning to express myself to other people like learning dance moves. I am not very flexible, I want to be. I think I have learnt to love doing it... it doesn't matter whether you're good or not, just try your best. I really love challenging what I can and can't do. I love being challenged, I love pushing my boundaries - I like that. And sometimes I need to be pushed coz I can learn better that way.
Nigel
The most challenging...the singing while dancing. People usually keep movement to a minimum because of how hard multitasking is. But putting a full dance piece on top of a song was hard to understand and really challenged me to keep on my toes.
Jianna
Nothing really challenges me, I like working them coz they're both funny.
Felicity
The masterclass is a challenge, and it is liberating. It has been difficult to ask some questions about myself. To share them with others has been hard. I know it is a challenge worth meeting despite how daunting it may feel to begin with.
Jo S
Not sure how to answer this one. I feel challenged but I feel more inspired and curious about how to sustain purity and how to use it. I have lots of questions for myself and for Adriano and am really excited to have the opportunity to feel like a learner again.
Zoe
Most challenging was opening up to new people without fear of judgment and being confident enough to venture into the unknown.
Is there anything that you think you'll take away with you from this experience?
Matt
I am very philosophical and psychologically analytic (of myself) and I feel that this week I have had an experience that I don't usually get by sharing with the other attendees what lies underneath the masks we put on to be socially accepted. I often analyse what's going on in my own head space, but it's not often I share what's in there with others, or have others sharing their feelings with me. It's suprising how much we hide the emotions that come with our experiences, even though we are all experiencing the same emotions, insecurities, anxieties about how we look and feel and even how we feel about how we look and feel. Under the masks we show each other we all look the same. We all look like scared children.
Joshua
Something that I've taken away from several neuroscience classes is that the more emotionally involved an event is, the more likely the brain will be able to recall it later. While I'm not saying that Adriano's workshop is traumatizing, I can really see that some exercises are tapping into a very deep and hidden part of ourselves that we don't normally access. While I can't put into words what this workshop is liberating from inside [is that even possible?], I can certainly say that we won't really be taking something new from this workshop, but that we'll remain in contact with a part of ourselves we might have long forgotten.
Tara
I'll never forget what I have learnt - that's what I'll take away. Dance has taught me to not be afraid to dance in front of other people and I am happy to be at the classes rather than at home being on the computer and being bored and I find it an escape from being afraid all the time because I know I can do it and I don't care what people think. I am doing what I love they cant stop me from being who i am .
Nigel
I will be able to use some ideas from the master class with my dance students in the future. Good way to get them relaxed in their own body and explore natural movement!
Jianna
I would like to learn more about the company so I can join them (Ranters). I really like doing this project - its fun.
Felicity
The masterclass has made me think about what reality is for myself and for others. I feel curious to understand more about the world we live in and my place within it. I realise we are very similar beings in a lot of ways.
Jo S
The purity and the simplicity of revealing real people. I will take away the knowledge that whatever we do is interesting because we are all so different. Also Adriano said, " you're the only one who can judge your emotional state, or that you are the only one who can decide if you invested or not". I like that...often as a performer you can feel like you work for someone else.
It's been very interesting and strengthening.
Zoe
I have become more self confident and willing to experiment more with new ideas.
Monday, December 5, 2011
Friday, December 2, 2011
How do we feel about the world we live in?
The group took to the Adelaide Botanical Gardens a series of questions which they asked the general public to respond to. Some of the questions are below.
What do you look forward to when you wake up?
What would your fantasy life be like?
How do you feel when you’re alone?
What makes your life worth living?
Can you tell us a love story? (What do you need to have in a love story? What are the main ingredients of a love story?)How would you answer these?
Feel free to post your answers in the comments section below.
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Botanical Gardens
The day was spent designing and interviewing strangers (as they enjoyed a quiet moment) in the Adelaide Botanical Gardens.
Below is Sally's reflections.
I have really enjoyed the past few days. It has been really great to meet like-minded artistic fellows. I have always been intrigued by real people and real life, not make believe or 'Hollywood' stories. In the past few years I have loved the films I have been watching (mostly foreign) that have been really 'simple' stories about 'everyday' people. For me that is the most interesting.
I love to delve into the lives of people just living their lives. The last film I can recall enjoying was simply about a Turkish man living in a small rural town close to the Armenian border. He was a wild bee-keeper and the film just narrated his life as a bee-keeper and his son and wife.
Stories that are not filled with SO MUCH action, that are real and with real people. People who are thin, fat, beautiful, ugly, slow, fast, tall, short etc etc stories that portray people not this ideal of people that our social societies have created. Beauty is found within existence. What makes us go on, be real, be honest?
I was moved today by our interviews with the public. That last man I interviewed was magic. He was a poem waiting to be written; a painting waiting to be painted, and he told us just honest things about life...and his experience with life....
Anyway...the workshop this past week has made me think a lot - when I'm home making dinner or driving home it makes me feel glad and thoughtful, so that's the kind of theatre I want to be involved with...nice!
Sally Miller, artist
Below is Sally's reflections.
I have really enjoyed the past few days. It has been really great to meet like-minded artistic fellows. I have always been intrigued by real people and real life, not make believe or 'Hollywood' stories. In the past few years I have loved the films I have been watching (mostly foreign) that have been really 'simple' stories about 'everyday' people. For me that is the most interesting.
I love to delve into the lives of people just living their lives. The last film I can recall enjoying was simply about a Turkish man living in a small rural town close to the Armenian border. He was a wild bee-keeper and the film just narrated his life as a bee-keeper and his son and wife.
Stories that are not filled with SO MUCH action, that are real and with real people. People who are thin, fat, beautiful, ugly, slow, fast, tall, short etc etc stories that portray people not this ideal of people that our social societies have created. Beauty is found within existence. What makes us go on, be real, be honest?
I was moved today by our interviews with the public. That last man I interviewed was magic. He was a poem waiting to be written; a painting waiting to be painted, and he told us just honest things about life...and his experience with life....
Anyway...the workshop this past week has made me think a lot - when I'm home making dinner or driving home it makes me feel glad and thoughtful, so that's the kind of theatre I want to be involved with...nice!
Sally Miller, artist
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
What is The Lure and Blur of the Real?
As a director, how do you explain what it is you're interested in and what are the techniques you adopt to find these things?
Well for me its um... I don't particularly trust my imagination. I enjoy it I have a lot of fun with it but I don't make work or use it consciously when I'm making work because I don't trust it ultimately. I have enough trouble with reality - so 'the lure and blur of the real' is a line from a book by David Sheilds called 'Reality Hunger', where he articulates a kind of a manifesto um... that responds to contemporary society and what he calls our thirst for all things real. In the last 15 or so years we have been increasingly obsessed with 'reality ', via information pathways , the way the media operates now, reality tv shows and our culture has become , he says, obsessed with real events because in our lives we experience hardly any.
And I'm just interested in how that manifests itself in performance. It opens up a whole lot of questions... What is real? What's fiction? What's non-fiction? That if something is perceived to be real it has a tantalising hook for us to the point that we actually blur what's real. The line between what's real and what's not is utterly blurred.
I'm interested in the world I live in, the world outside and how we live our lives. I'm interested in personal stories. How we feel about ourselves. I'm interested in relationships that people have to the worlds that they live in, how connected or unconnected we feel and for me that's enough to explore as an artist. I'm not interested in the history of theatre. In one sense I'm not really interested in theatre - I'm interested in using theatre as a way to express aspects of how we live in the world. I'm interested in the everyday, I'm interested in the ordinary. I like to be surprised. I like imperfection.
Our main technique or method would be using the participants as the primary source for the work - so we look at our own lives, we look at how we experience the world.Its a very personal vision that we hope people can identify with. I like to take time when creating a piece of work - I think, for me, slowing it down, slowing down the process of creating work is really important. We start out with and idea and see where it takes us. We search hard with the participating artists to find personal connections to a concept to the point where we start using the performer's own lives (literally) as the written text.
Adriano Cortese, Artistic Director Ranters Theatre
Well for me its um... I don't particularly trust my imagination. I enjoy it I have a lot of fun with it but I don't make work or use it consciously when I'm making work because I don't trust it ultimately. I have enough trouble with reality - so 'the lure and blur of the real' is a line from a book by David Sheilds called 'Reality Hunger', where he articulates a kind of a manifesto um... that responds to contemporary society and what he calls our thirst for all things real. In the last 15 or so years we have been increasingly obsessed with 'reality ', via information pathways , the way the media operates now, reality tv shows and our culture has become , he says, obsessed with real events because in our lives we experience hardly any.
And I'm just interested in how that manifests itself in performance. It opens up a whole lot of questions... What is real? What's fiction? What's non-fiction? That if something is perceived to be real it has a tantalising hook for us to the point that we actually blur what's real. The line between what's real and what's not is utterly blurred.
I'm interested in the world I live in, the world outside and how we live our lives. I'm interested in personal stories. How we feel about ourselves. I'm interested in relationships that people have to the worlds that they live in, how connected or unconnected we feel and for me that's enough to explore as an artist. I'm not interested in the history of theatre. In one sense I'm not really interested in theatre - I'm interested in using theatre as a way to express aspects of how we live in the world. I'm interested in the everyday, I'm interested in the ordinary. I like to be surprised. I like imperfection.
Our main technique or method would be using the participants as the primary source for the work - so we look at our own lives, we look at how we experience the world.Its a very personal vision that we hope people can identify with. I like to take time when creating a piece of work - I think, for me, slowing it down, slowing down the process of creating work is really important. We start out with and idea and see where it takes us. We search hard with the participating artists to find personal connections to a concept to the point where we start using the performer's own lives (literally) as the written text.
Adriano Cortese, Artistic Director Ranters Theatre
Monday, November 28, 2011
Day one at the Restless Studio
How was the first day of The Lure and Blur of the Real?
Matt
We had such a small group - that was good coz we did such kind of up close and personal work today, but at the same time, the walking around thing at the beginning of the day would've been good to have different people to interact with. But if we had a larger group we couldn't have done that 'stare off' exercise with each other.
Jesse
We went beyond the physical a bit more and into emotional and personalities, which was draining to stand opposite someone and stare intensely at someone and establish a connection with them. Its exciting to be doing something that's not really dance - its theatre but its feeling like it's a different approach.
Matt
Yeah I feel it will help with duets more when we get to dance again.
Sue
It was kind of thrilling because I joined at the last minute and I found myself in a very deep experience straight away and feeling comfortable with people I've never met before who didn't know anything about me either. I felt comfortable as soon as I walked into the studio. But I'm really curious to see what happens next.
Caroline
It was good. It was a bit nerve wracking having different people who I haven't worked with before in the same room. I will hopefully get to work with Paul and Adriano tomorrow. I liked the singing. We had to look at people in the eyes and say what we could see - it was actually quite close, but I just watched people.
Paul
Its so weird because I've been doing this work for so long that I always feel really humble when I work with a group of people this way - and I wish I could stay that way but I cant. Its just a funny thing - you do it for so long but you don't really master it. So I feel really grateful to be working with people this way in this environment. It reminds me of all the good times I've had and how powerful it is.
Sally
It was really great to be on the floor again and connecting with my body physically and working with new people. It was intimidating and fantastic to stare at Jesse.
Adriano
It was great to get into it at the beginning to understand and communicate the things that have preoccupied me for a awhile and to see and share the responses between the ensemble. There's an instinctive thing here with the Restless performers where they don't tend to perform - they commit to the act in a way that's fresh and I find that its a great quality to work with so I'm really looking forward to seeing where we go these next two weeks. There's a real willingness so its going to be great to get to know each other and engage with the people here.
Matt
We had such a small group - that was good coz we did such kind of up close and personal work today, but at the same time, the walking around thing at the beginning of the day would've been good to have different people to interact with. But if we had a larger group we couldn't have done that 'stare off' exercise with each other.
Jesse
We went beyond the physical a bit more and into emotional and personalities, which was draining to stand opposite someone and stare intensely at someone and establish a connection with them. Its exciting to be doing something that's not really dance - its theatre but its feeling like it's a different approach.
Matt
Yeah I feel it will help with duets more when we get to dance again.
Sue
It was kind of thrilling because I joined at the last minute and I found myself in a very deep experience straight away and feeling comfortable with people I've never met before who didn't know anything about me either. I felt comfortable as soon as I walked into the studio. But I'm really curious to see what happens next.
Caroline
It was good. It was a bit nerve wracking having different people who I haven't worked with before in the same room. I will hopefully get to work with Paul and Adriano tomorrow. I liked the singing. We had to look at people in the eyes and say what we could see - it was actually quite close, but I just watched people.
Paul
Its so weird because I've been doing this work for so long that I always feel really humble when I work with a group of people this way - and I wish I could stay that way but I cant. Its just a funny thing - you do it for so long but you don't really master it. So I feel really grateful to be working with people this way in this environment. It reminds me of all the good times I've had and how powerful it is.
Sally
It was really great to be on the floor again and connecting with my body physically and working with new people. It was intimidating and fantastic to stare at Jesse.
Adriano
It was great to get into it at the beginning to understand and communicate the things that have preoccupied me for a awhile and to see and share the responses between the ensemble. There's an instinctive thing here with the Restless performers where they don't tend to perform - they commit to the act in a way that's fresh and I find that its a great quality to work with so I'm really looking forward to seeing where we go these next two weeks. There's a real willingness so its going to be great to get to know each other and engage with the people here.
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