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

From: bella kotik <bella.kotik who-is-at gmail.com>
Date: Mon Feb 04 2008 - 13:57:06 PST

Hear are some

On 2/4/08, Shirley Franklin <s.franklin@dsl.pipex.com> wrote:
>
> 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
> >>> ----
> >>> _______________________________________________
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> >>> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
> >>
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> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Sincerely yours Bella Kotik-Friedgut
> > _______________________________________________
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>
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-- 
Sincerely yours Bella Kotik-Friedgut






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Received on Mon Feb 4 14:02 PST 2008

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