What Does That Mean?

When I began this blog over 6 years ago, I was very specific with my intention.  I was making a dance per day and I wanted a place to post the video each day.  My goal for myself was to successfully complete this task each day.  My hope for my "audience" was that they may engage with my work differently just as I was.  I was heavily sharing process to help myself get away from a sense of preciousness, product and perfectionism about art and making art.  It was also a chance for the viewer to be something other than a consumer.

Eventually, I was done with my dance-a-day project, but I was still interested in blogging.  I did not want to start a new blog because I appreciate the continuum that I can reflect by keeping the same blog.  At that point, I changed the name to (Was) Daily Dances because it was.  For quite some time, the blog remained focused on dance/movement.

From April 2014-April 2015, I did not touch the blog.  I was indeed still dancing and creating, but the blog was temporarily irrelevant to my process.

When I came back to blog in April 2015, the idea of only posting dance was ridiculous and impossible as that would in no way would reflect my creative life.  However, I was done changing the title of the blog.  This was also more in line with my way of approaching art and life... not to obsess about the words, but to trust and allow the essence to come through.  Really, the blog is about improvisation and thus about life, so anything goes here now.  As time passes, everything is fusing for me:  art, life, philosophy, spirituality, sexuality, creativity, love, work, play, poetry, photography, music, movement ...

So, that's a long(ass) intro to the reason I am writing this entry.

In the heading of this blog, way back when, I wrote:

 I INVITE AND WELCOME YOU TO BE A PARTICIPANT (RATHER THAN A "VIEWER" OR A "CRITIC"). I INVITE YOU TO QUESTION YOUR OWN PERCEPTIONS AND VALUES AS MUCH AS MINE.

Yesterday, my friend asked me how one can be a participant rather than a "viewer" or a "critic".  He had some interesting thoughts about how things shift when something is observed, that the thing that is happening is actually changed by the fact that it is being observed (science has indeed measured this).  Another idea of his was about how the audience is part of the environment that the performer must navigate and thus is an active part of the performance situation.  While I don't disagree with these ideas, I had something else in mind.

When we watch a performance or look at art, I think the first thing we do is have our natural response.  Then we may articulate what we liked or didn't like about how the artist shaped time/space/light/topic/etc etc.  I think we may sit comfortably and quietly in our seat with our value systems.  What I was hoping for and inviting the "audience" to do was to notice their ability to shape and shift themselves and how they relate to the artist and the work... to be inside and outside the work and also to be inside and outside of themselves... what is is about them that makes the work appear as it does.. everything from how you position your body in relation to the art .... to how you position your mind and your soul... Thus perhaps you are not only learning and experiencing the artist and the art, but you are also experiencing yourself as part of it.  You see what you see partially because of what the artist did but also because of what your eyes and your brain did with the information.  There is a continuum and you are on it.

I wonder if that makes any sense to you.  Sometimes things are so clear in my mind that I have no idea if I have said or done enough to articulate what I mean ...  especially with these things called words.....