Communal Experience in Performing Instantly Created Fiction
This class is meant to address the experiential disconnect between what happens in the rehearsal studio and what happens ‘on stage’. So often in Isabel’s experience of performing, she has gotten the feeling of losing time, that time inside of the act of performing moves so fast that afterwards, she feels like she’s missed the experience somehow.
There can be a strange distance between the actions of her body and her conscious mind. This can be interesting in the context of exploring trance; however, this class is an exploration of what it is to be fully conscious inside of the altered state that is performance. Can one slow down performative time for themselves and experience it in all of its bodily and fleshy mystery?
In an attempt to address this question, the group will approach each class as though it were a performance, from its very beginning to its very end. The workshop will begin with a guided improvisational body/mind activation and continue with the group activity of performing together in instantly created fictions. Emphasis is on action, on making and doing things, on imagination. Participants will at times alternately watch and perform for one another, while being generous and kind to themselves and one another. Isabel asks that everyone keeps a notebook for reflecting on each class/performance.
Isabel Lewis
