Dear Artist,
I return again and again to Anne Bogart’s book A Director Prepares because the way she lays out the creative process makes sense to me. She offers seven modes that one must face and challenge, one of which is “Embarrassment.”
She says:
Every creative act involves a leap into the void. In the midst of this leap there are no guarantees. To leap can often cause acute embarrassment. Embarrassment is a partner in the creative process, a key collaborator. If your work does not sufficiently embarrass you, then very likely no one will be touched by it.
The purpose of this blog is not to inspire greater art from you (although that would be nice) but to inspire greater courage in the face of marketing your art. I suffer the fear of embarrassment every time I write a post. When I go back and listen to my podcast, I can barely sit through it. But the moment of desire to reach out is stronger in me than this fear of being vulnerable. And, as Bogart implies, it is this space of vulnerability that adds power and presence to whatever you are making.
Danse Magnet/Embarassment
A couple weeks ago I interviewed Amber Lauletta about her performance piece Danse magnet.
Tomorrow, August 29, 2008, she is doing her second Danse magnet in Philadelphia, where she is visiting for the month.
Click here for information.
The theme of embarrassment runs high in her piece. Amber, an American living in Paris, stands in a busy area and starts dancing to music, inviting people to join her. It is a celebration, a joyous act, not meant to call attention to people’s limitations, fears, social norms, etc. But yet, I find myself reflecting on these questions of embarrassment whenever I watch it. Embarrassment for her, for those who won’t dance, for those who will, and excited at all the tension and interest that arises because of this.
Below are some response to the idea of embarrassment in Amber’s own words:
Artspan: Tell us again how you define Danse magnet.
Amber: A public work, inspired by concepts of music and celebration and the intention of the piece is simple in that I’m just asking people, by dancing, to celebrate life and each other.
This piece is just saying that every day is a good day to celebrate being alive.
It was a perfect summation of my experience, Danse magnet was a leap, and important to strike out into the realm of performance. It had to be simple. It came from a history of pieces done before based on this need to take the leap…there were no guarantees, I set myself up for that. I knew that once it happened I was not going to be bale to predict the audience response.
I took this project on knowing it would be more of a sketck and field research and I would know after this piece how to do danse magnet and how to do other performances. And I wa faced with the concept of embarrassment: I was going to have to put myself out there in order to make others feel comfortable to do that. So I practiced in my room and I practiced on the streets quietly. I would dance randomly now and again. Finally I went to a park in Paris where there were some African drummers to practice dancing in public.
On the day of the performance there was this raw courage that surfaced. I really did jump into the void…it’s true what she (Anne Bogart) says…going back, it is embarrassing…hard to watch…and I had to go through a process…had to forgive myself of the judgments that came of watching myself perform. Most of those judgment came as a result of being a woman, judging my body and that even though I was prepared for the piece to not accomplish what I wanted, after it didn’t, I had to forgive myself and focus on it being a learning experience.
It’s important to talk about the ego—what is driving your piece—I def. would love to be a rock star. But if that is driving your agenda….Feeding the ego, wanting to be adored, versus a relationship of giving.
All the subjects of my pieces have come form where I am personally in my life. It starts off as a curiosity I have as a social construct or the way be behave as humans…after research I want to take it to the streets…I want to pose a question and begin a conversation.
But what happened after Danse magnet was that I was faced for the first time with the artist’s relationship to the public and what the terms of that were…am I going to be invasive and preachy, or am I going to just offer something?
This is one of the reasons that theatre doesn’t attract me: because I don’t want to stand there and be watched…I don’t want to make it that easy for the audience. But I don’t want to approach it in a naïve, adolescent, rebellious way like the flash mobs do, but it’s important for me, too, with the public works in a way that I feel artwork in the gallery doesn’t. I don’t want there to be an institution between my work and the public.
Artspan: What do to you think of the public response from Parisians….
Amber: Parisians are tricky people…like New Yorkers, they are apathetic to art because they
have grown up in an artistic environment…are blasé…as a culture, they are subtle, not vulgar…to bring this idea, with Latin and African rootes, very expressive, to a culture that is emotionally reserved was a challenge and I knew it would be. And I imagine this piece would have more of the effect I want if I did in a Latin culture.
See the first Danse magnet at Amber Lauletta’s blog Advertising Shelter.
