listen respond

LISTENING AND RESPONDING

There is a skill in performance that is quite separate from the specific skills

involved in different acting and dance forms. A skill that is about being

present and alive on stage with other performers, and with audiences. This

skill is very different from the notion that we usually have, of a skill being an

accumulation of abilities developed through practise by rote. The skill of

performance, whether you are a dancer, stage actor, film actor or even a

popstar lies in an ability to play within the performance reality. It enables the

performer to be totally at ease and free to create. It is similar to playing in a

way that was natural to us all as children, but in a fully conscious way, where

you are inside and outside of the play simultaneously. This ability to play

gives the performer the flexibility and alertness they need to take on any

performance task given them. The skill of performing well can be developed

by doing less, and learning how to listen to and respond to the performance

reality and letting that reality unfold, being part of that situation as it unfolds,

not blocking it, or forcing your own agenda onto other performers or the

audience.

Any dialogue is made up of a continuous flow of listening and responding, if there is

no listening, nothing is heard, if there is no response, nothing gets said. Listening

and responding in dialogue forms a rhythm. that at the simplest level can be

expressed vocally as hocket, the hocket is an old english song form, where a single

melody is sung by two voices singing alternate notes. The first step towards being

able to play is by developing the ability to listen and respond.

Listening with the whole body and mind, all the senses- listening internally to the

constant dialogue of thoughts, feelings and emotions, listening to the tiny impulses

and reactions within your own nervous system, listening to the other performers

with you, to the audience, to the stage, to your place on the stage, to your

relationship to other performers on the stage.

Exercise: Lying on your back, eyes closed. Let your weight fall into the

floor, a deeper relaxation with each out breath. Listen to the sounds

within your own body, your breath, heart beat, tiny muscular shifts.

Continue with this for a few minutes. Transfer your attention to the

outside world listen to the sounds from outside the room- traffic

aeroplanes voices, footsteps, birdsong or whatever, let the sounds

stimulate images imagine the people behind the voices, the footsteps,

where the cars are, who’s driving them.. Continue with this for a few

minutes. Move your attention to the sounds within the room- other

people’s breath, heartbeats, tiny movements.

This exercises involves no outward action- but a lot of action, energy and

concentration