Matthew and I met yesterday to discuss the creative writing workshops and the theory behind them. I was fascinated. My background is as a writer and teacher of creative writing, and I've never thought about the theory of audience, except insofar as I hope my readers like my writing!
Writing is one thing - performance is another. Writing fiction is a 1 to 1 communication. Performance involves a great number of people. And dance is wordless. How, then, do we understand what is meant by dance? Can we experience dance in a 'pure' way, or do we get sidetracked by human emotions such as envy of the dancers' agility or our own feelings of inadequacy in not knowing how we are supposed to respond? Can dance convey an experience which can be transmuted into another art form?
All these are fascinating questions and I'm hoping the project will suggest some answers. I'll come clean and say it's many, many years since I've seen a dance performance. I hardly know how I'm going to respond, let alone the workshop participants. For that reason I'm holding off constructing the workshops until I've seen the performance. The way I develop workshops is by thinking, what would I like to do, what would I like to write? I know a workshop won't be successful unless I wish I was doing it too.
Which makes me reflect ... I think of dance as a communal activity - something we do together at celebrations, parties, on the dance floor. Dance as a performance seems alien - what is the audience supposed to be doing? Admiring? Thinking? Not thinking?
We shall see!!
Sherry Ashworth
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