Re: [xmca] Vygotsky and performance? Eisenstein, Meyerhold?

Yes I am interested. please.Thanks a lot
Shirley
On 4 Feb 2008, at 21:07, bella kotik wrote:

> Just a lateral association: Vygotsky wrote many theatrical reviews in
> 1922-1923. If anybody is interested, I have some scanned copies
> form newspapers (in Russian)
>
> On 2/4/08, Lois Holzman <lholzman@eastsideinstitute.org> wrote:
>>
>> HI Matt,
>>
>> This may be peripheral to your specific question regarding Vygotsky
>> and Meyerhold but it might be interesting anyway.
>>
>> The idea that performing is key to or even is development is the
>> heart
>> of my own work and a growing number of others. Performance in the
>> sense we use it is developmental in the sense Vygotsky spoke about
>> free play being developmental, what we performance people call being
>> who you are and other than who you are/who you are becoming
>> simultaneously. Others here who look at learning and development
>> performatorily (and improvisationally, as a form of performance) are
>> Ana and Artin in particular. If this interests you you might want to
>> check out some of our writings.
>>
>> Another thing you might not be aware of is the work of Nicolas
>> Evreinoff (1879-1953), a Russian actor, director, playwright,
>> composer, musician and theorist. Evreinoff was a supporter of the
>> Bolshevik revolution and directed many of the "Mass Spectacles"
>> staged
>> in the early years of the revolution, which involved thousands of
>> ordinary people re-enacting recent (and not so recent) historical
>> events. For Evreinoff performance was not a teaching tool, but a
>> transformative activity that could be practiced in daily life as well
>> as on stage. In his book, The Theatre in Life, published in 1927,
>> Evreinoff identified performance (which he called "theatricality") as
>> a human instinct that allowed for transformation. Evreinoff wrote:
>>
>> Man has one instinct about which, in spite of its inexhaustible
>> vitality, neither history nor psychology nor aesthetics have so far
>> said a single word. I have in mind the instinct of transformation,
>> the
>> instinct of opposing to images received from without images
>> arbitrarily created from within, the instinct of transmuting
>> appearances found in nature into something else, an instinct which
>> clearly reveals its essential character in the conception of what I
>> call theatricality…The instinct of theatricalization which I claim
>> the
>> honour to have discovered may be best described as the desire to be
>> 'different,' to do something that is 'different,' to imagine oneself
>> in surroundings that are 'different' from the commonplace
>> surroundings
>> of our everyday life. It is one of the mainsprings of our existence,
>> of that which we call progress, of change, evolution and development
>> in all departments of life. We are all born with this feeling in our
>> soul, we are all essentially theatrical beings.
>>
>> Evreinoff, Nicolas. The Theatre in Life. Trans. Alexander I.
>> Nazaroff. New York: Brentano's, 1927: 22-23.
>>
>> All best,
>>
>> Lois
>>
>> Lois Holzman, Director
>> East Side Institute for Group and Short Term Psychotherapy
>> 920 Broadway, 14th floor
>> New York NY 10010
>> tel. 212.941.8906 ext. 324
>> fax 212.941.0511
>> lholzman@eastsideinstitute.org
>> www.eastsideinstitute.org
>> www.performingtheworld.org
>> www.loisholzman.net
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Feb 4, 2008, at 8:40 AM, Matt Ratto wrote:
>>
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> I'm a new subscriber to the list but some of you may know me. I
>>> did my
>>> PhD in Communication at UC San Diego and often visited LCHC and
>>> talked
>>> with Mike (Hi Mike!). I also spent a few months in Helsinki at the
>>> Center for Activity Theory and Developmental Research with Yrjo
>>> Engestrom and the great crew there.
>>>
>>> I'm currently in Umea, Sweden and had a conversation a few weeks ago
>>> with Victor Kaptelinin about a book I'm currently working on. He
>>> recommended that I post to the list some of my questions about the
>>> links between Vygotsky and performance. I've noted a number of
>>> similarities between the theories of emotion and activity in
>>> Vygotsky
>>> and those in the performance theories of Meyerhold. (Basically, that
>>> emotion is embedded in activity, rather that prior to it.) Has
>>> anyone
>>> written on these connections, or connections between Vygotsky,
>>> Luria,
>>> Leon'tev and contemporary theater or dance?
>>>
>>> I hope you don't mind a newbie posting a question!
>>>
>>> best,
>>>
>>> Matt
>>>
>>> --
>>> Matt Ratto
>>> Research Fellow
>>> HUMlab/Department of History of Ideas
>>> Umeå Universitet
>>> 901 87 Umeå
>>> SWEDEN
>>>
>>> Assistant Professor (Summer, 08)
>>> Faculty of Information Studies
>>> University of Toronto
>>> Toronto, Canada
>>> ----
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> xmca mailing list
>>> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
>>> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
>>
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>
>
>
> --
> Sincerely yours Bella Kotik-Friedgut
> _______________________________________________
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> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
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Received on Mon Feb 4 13:42 PST 2008