Khan Market
At inner crossing; 5:30pm
Performers: Shibani, Pali, Shena
Observers: Aditi
Audience No.: Passersby, fluctuating 3 to 10 at a time
GROUP MIRROR followed by IMPROVISED FREEZES
This time we went with the intention of offering an experience that would allow people to join in -- only to discover that no one was interested in joining in!! Except for one person from Jammu, who was getting his shoes shined right next to where we were performing. (Throughout his interaction with us, the cobbler kept vacillating between watching what was going on with interest, and calling out to his 'errant' customer to return his slippers and take his shoes!) We also went with the intention of definitely bowing to our audience when we were done - only to realise that there wasn't really a fixed audience to bow to, AND we went armed with our little slips of paper with this blog address on it to give to people - heh heh to realise that no one really seemed to want them!! Well, except for our one friend from Jammu!
We were clear in our intent - offering something fun and interesting to people where they least expect it, and to allow them to partake in the experiment, if they liked. We started with a group mirror exercise. While the three of us were performing, we noticed a gentleman attempting to imitate us in the background, so invited him to be part of the circle, which he did gamely and with full enjoyment. The mirror exercise elicited some response from passersby, and a scattered circle of people who stopped to watch was created, including some shopkeepers, the cobbler and a policeman or two. Some people were genuinely amazed - one lady did a double take in shock as she came out of the 'galli' and noticed us - while others stopped to point and discuss what they thought was going on. Most of this was at a little distance, and no one decided to interact with us or to stay long enough to ask questions.
Next we did an improv exercise in which two people strike a freeze with narratives in their head, and the third person taps one of them on the shoulder to replace that person in the freeze, with a changed narrative. It was improvised in that we let the moment speak for itself, and moved in freely when and where we felt like.
This section was perhaps less 'dramatic' than the obvious concentration of a mirror exercise. Although this is where we thought people may actually join in - either they were shy, didn't understand that they could, were busy, etc... and that didn't happen. Shibani felt that we definitely should have stayed longer with it - we were done in less than half an hour. Certainly, it would be ideal to have enough time in hand to keep with an exercise/performance in order to truly watch how the action changes the space. One comment while we were doing the freezes: "Arrey dekh dekh... hang ho gaya"! It is also possible that some people passing by thought that we were simply posing for photographs (so the dog DIDN'T know??.... why not?... prefixed ideas, broken concentration, obvious awareness of what we were doing...). Again, people preferred to look on from a bit of a distance - we're not sure if this was due to the nature of the space, or the nature of the exercise/our energy.
At one point Aditi, as photographer, came into the freeze - taking photos from within the freeze, which was interesting, as it broke the subject-object divide. Here's the pic she took when in the freeze:
(p.s. we took ages figuring out where exactly we wanted to perform - as one of us was full of trepidation this time... )
At inner crossing; 5:30pm
Performers: Shibani, Pali, Shena
Observers: Aditi
Audience No.: Passersby, fluctuating 3 to 10 at a time
GROUP MIRROR followed by IMPROVISED FREEZES
This time we went with the intention of offering an experience that would allow people to join in -- only to discover that no one was interested in joining in!! Except for one person from Jammu, who was getting his shoes shined right next to where we were performing. (Throughout his interaction with us, the cobbler kept vacillating between watching what was going on with interest, and calling out to his 'errant' customer to return his slippers and take his shoes!) We also went with the intention of definitely bowing to our audience when we were done - only to realise that there wasn't really a fixed audience to bow to, AND we went armed with our little slips of paper with this blog address on it to give to people - heh heh to realise that no one really seemed to want them!! Well, except for our one friend from Jammu!
We were clear in our intent - offering something fun and interesting to people where they least expect it, and to allow them to partake in the experiment, if they liked. We started with a group mirror exercise. While the three of us were performing, we noticed a gentleman attempting to imitate us in the background, so invited him to be part of the circle, which he did gamely and with full enjoyment. The mirror exercise elicited some response from passersby, and a scattered circle of people who stopped to watch was created, including some shopkeepers, the cobbler and a policeman or two. Some people were genuinely amazed - one lady did a double take in shock as she came out of the 'galli' and noticed us - while others stopped to point and discuss what they thought was going on. Most of this was at a little distance, and no one decided to interact with us or to stay long enough to ask questions.
Next we did an improv exercise in which two people strike a freeze with narratives in their head, and the third person taps one of them on the shoulder to replace that person in the freeze, with a changed narrative. It was improvised in that we let the moment speak for itself, and moved in freely when and where we felt like.
This section was perhaps less 'dramatic' than the obvious concentration of a mirror exercise. Although this is where we thought people may actually join in - either they were shy, didn't understand that they could, were busy, etc... and that didn't happen. Shibani felt that we definitely should have stayed longer with it - we were done in less than half an hour. Certainly, it would be ideal to have enough time in hand to keep with an exercise/performance in order to truly watch how the action changes the space. One comment while we were doing the freezes: "Arrey dekh dekh... hang ho gaya"! It is also possible that some people passing by thought that we were simply posing for photographs (so the dog DIDN'T know??.... why not?... prefixed ideas, broken concentration, obvious awareness of what we were doing...). Again, people preferred to look on from a bit of a distance - we're not sure if this was due to the nature of the space, or the nature of the exercise/our energy.
At one point Aditi, as photographer, came into the freeze - taking photos from within the freeze, which was interesting, as it broke the subject-object divide. Here's the pic she took when in the freeze:
(p.s. we took ages figuring out where exactly we wanted to perform - as one of us was full of trepidation this time... )
As performer, again -- to go with the flow, to let go of intentions and expected outcomes, to be in the moment... when will I ever learn?
ReplyDeletelet go of expected outcomes - Yes - but cant let go of intentions no? if we let go of intentions then we loose perspective of why we are where we are doing what we are doing.. no? I think the intention is very important and foremost.. but yes it should not matter if the outcome matches the intention. that should not affect us..
ReplyDeleteMissing not being there!!!
well, yes, of course we must go with our intention and yes it should not matter if outcome does not match.. I feel that at some point, on some level, we must let go even of our intention though. or, maybe what I mean is that we need to internalise it so that it doesn't get in the way, in our consciousness. or worse, that it leads us to attempt to steer the outcome..
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