Dear Carrie and Ana-
I just want to make a connection between your characterization and emphasis
on "not knowing" in improvisation and Bakhtin's notion of "unfinalizing". He
also stressed importance of listening and responding to others. Bakhtin
argued that Dostoevsky did not tell about his characters more than they
already know themselves. He generalized that this type of unfinalized and
addressed relations have to be the key for any social sciences.
What do you think?
Eugene
> -----Original Message-----
> From: lobman@rci.rutgers.edu [mailto:lobman@rci.rutgers.edu]
> Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2003 1:18 PM
> To: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> Subject: RE: improv
>
>
> I think improv does change some of the expert/novice dynamic because its
> a not-knowing activity--as Ana says no one "knows" where it is going. I
> do think I think for me the prerequisite to listening and responding is
> not knowing. It is impossible, not to mention not necessary, to listen
> to people if we already "know" what they mean--it stops the process of
> making meaning together.
>
> I see this as different than equalizing people or making people
> equal--in my experience when people improvise together all of the power
> relationships are still there, but they are played with or used in the
> process of creating the performance.
>
> For example, there was one man and seven women in the group of teachers
> that participated in the improv trainings. During the first couple of
> weeks some of the women had reactions to the more his "more male"
> performances--more vulgar or lifting up his shirt... In addition he was
> the only one in the group with any theatre training so his performances
> tended to be a little more polished. Over the course of the eight weeks
> the group began to use his offers to create interesting scenes--they
> began to use their more "honest" reactions to him to create playful
> scenes about sex roles.
>
> Carrie
>
>
> > I loved the idea of improv leveling power differentials. That is a
> major
> > goal of various customs in the 5thD. It is, however, very threatening
> to
> > teachers who are working in regimes where they must appear to be in
> > control all the time!
> > mike
> >
> >
>
>
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