Recently, I listened to a harangue or a rant delivered by a young actor and playwright to a younger group of dancers. He emphasized the importance of work. He said that it was
no compliment to be told that you work hard. That was taken for granted. He was
annoyed when graduating students were paid the compliment: They worked so hard.
He pursued this theme with great vehemence and at length.
He also did say why it mattered: because with the performance you (the assembled dancers) have coming up, you will establish your "brand".
As I listened in silence, I felt extremely uncomfortable. I was, in fact, annoyed and disturbed.
I do not think that a theatrical performance is a product like any other and I do not think that the laws of capitalist production and distribution apply to the arts. I realize that most people in the USA think otherwise, or blindly assume so, but I am of a different opinion.
I prefer to recall the words of the Slovak dancer, Tomas Danielis, when he was asked about working hard. He said something like this, "Well, yes I work hard, very hard. But, then you stop and think about it, and you realize that, at the same time, you are having lots of fun."
I very much prefer Danielis's words to the rather grim portrait of endless toil suggested by the American playwright.
However, I do think that the American simply got it wrong.
First, let's think about students.
Students of theater and dance are acquiring tools which they will use for the rest of their lives. So, it is important for them to learn as much as possible, to acquire skills, and acquire them with as much mastery as possible.
In actual practice, no student is equally skilled at all the components of his craft--and so, too, no full-fledged professional is equally talented in all respects. Nonetheless, the skills are quite simply useful--they will come in handy later in solving specific problems.
But, that is only about technique. There is more to art. And that region of the "something more" is precisely what cannot be taught, but can only be learned during a career in which the dancer or actor uses whatever skills his or her training has provided.
From the outside, lengthy rehearsals and practice, repetition, working and re-working can be described as "work", but it is not the work of the assembly line, not the work of the factory, and not the work of the telephone salesman or even the work of an advertiser or marketing agent. It is creative work. It is an open-ended activity because the target of the activity, the goal and what it aims at is, quite simply, reality---not reality insofar as it matches our prejudices or our silly fantasies, not reality insofar as it will earn money, not reality insofar as it will satisfy the wish of the politician for glory and honor--but raw, unfiltered,
reality--standing there and not caring about you, not caring about your plans or your projects.
The goal of the dancer and the actor is to uncover some part of the beautiful and complicated mystery of being or reality or humanity and make it available to others.
A writer writes hoping to be read and the dancer or actor needs an audience.
So, there is a kind of debt. You demand someone's attention, and you had better have something to say that is worth hearing.
But, then again, you are devastatingly ignorant of reality, and you want to know her,
and if you ever see some glimpse of her, you will want to share what you've seen.
And all that is very demanding. We say it requires "work" which is mainly time,
focus, attention, a willingness to follow paths and see where they lead, an openness to
failure and a willingness to continue. And none of that is the "work" for which the rich pay people. The rich, the wealthy, the ruling class want your praise and your adoration, but they don't want to know the truth about themselves. And, that's why, as Ferlinghetti once said, the arts are always revolutionary. Or, in a different mode, they've got to be surprising and disturbing or else they are a waste of time. And, that means they will be surprising and disturbing for the practitioners as well as their audiences.
But none of that is the Puritanical self-flagellation suggested by the talk of endless toil.
Better to follow Danielis and talk about how much fun it all is!
LINK
Tomas Danielis performing choreography by Frey Faust.
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