Body in Performance - Lecture 1a
Notes on part 1 or Performance Studies by Richard Schechner
Why does one write a textbook? How does one begin? In the text there is flow through personal details a simple overview. It is broad an focused at the same time. Made me feel overly self aware. How do I perform for myself through reflexive performance? How can I stop? Made me think of genetic histories and traumas. My mother just recommended ‘It didn’t start with you’ about all the things we never thought of being genetically inherited, including trauma. It’s definitely an idea I am familiar with. Another recent book recommendation was ‘The Body Keeps the score’ , which i believe is more about how trauma affects the physical body. But this bring me to the age old debate between nature and nurture, which the pendulum constantly swings. Do I walk like my mother because we share genetics or because she taught me how to walk??How do I stop walking like myself? I was fucking an actor once. Afterwards in bed he told me the hardest thing for an actor to do was to change the way they walked, and if you could truly find a new walk, then you had successfully created a new character. And I wondered if the same was true for fucking. Did I genetically inherit the way I fuck or is it a learned behaviour. Do I fuck like my mother? Our parents (hopefully) do not teach us how to fuck. I don’t think I will ever know if there is genetics involved in the way I fuck or if it is reflexive behaviour. I do know that it is always a performance - for myself and my partner(s).
Walking down a trail on an island in Greece, I notice how I perform for the people we pass. I must always be cute. I cannot help myself. I think a lot these days about one’s personal brand, which encompasses all sorts of preferences, attitudes. Going on a hike is quite off-brand for me. In order to keep it so… to keep myself sellable to myself and the people around me, I do it in bright pink shorts and make sure I am cute walking down the trail. I hold my hat and step daintily into the shallow waters, my wholly impractical sandals swinging from my fingertips.