Play, Improvisation, Workshop as an art form

Thoughts for notes after yesterdays group;

*workshop as an art form

-Moveable Feast, that Phil went to some years ago.

*continual dialogue with the work, solutions often arising spontaneously while working

*highs and lows of it; as a faciltiator observing my own attachment and vulnerability felt within it

*fortunate to be working with people

*gestural communication - the fun  of it

*the humour of gestural communication

*the pleasure / privilege of watching people, the continual surprises and development

*play as serious activity for the young, practise / rehearsal of life skills, refind old quote from, "The Knowing Body."

*play as integral to improvisation ......once people can play together.....

Then I went on to research Moveable Feast and these quotes are from that;

“We learn how to learn.” Tony Gee, from Resurgence article, "All roads lead to Ermo."

“We can have discipline and rigour alongside freedom and play because in workshop everything matters, nothing is wasted – it is not about success and failure, it is a journey from I can’t to I can. It is an ecological pedagogy.”

“Moreno, the originator of psychodrama wrote that, “we may survive in this changing difficult world only if we are able to perceive what is really going on in the ’here and now’ and if we are spontaneous and creative enough to invent new solutions.” It is too late for us to be dictated to, we must discover for ourselves. Workshop as a popular form is in its infancy but it is crucial that it is not viewed as an educational luxury but positioned at the heart of an education founded on dialogue, participation and discovery. This requires us to embrace the central premise of 20th century science: uncertainty. We start all of our workshops with knowledge of how we will begin without ever knowing who will be the one to raise a new standard in Ermo. If, as in a prescribed curriculum, you know what is going to happen then you don’t come up with anything new, nothing is created, least of all solutions. You are not part of the fundamental generosity essential to generate active and creative culture.” 

“It is my belief that Workshop is a contemporary form of arts practice and that its effects could be profound on how we learn if we go beyond scraping the surface of its potential. "So 'What is Workshop?' "Workshop's history is unwritten. It has succeeded in eluding institutionalisation. There is not 'A Workshop Theory'. Workshops are something you 'just do'. There is no body of literature that expounds their history and no professional body to standardise practice. This has the advantage of allowing great licence to play, invent, improvise and to be responsive to the moment. But, conversely, it allows events to be dry, fixed and didactic or simply disorganised and still claim the title, 'workshop'." Tony Gee, "Workshop. A Moveable Feast". (see Books) www.dartington.ac.uk

...given an opportunity to expand their view of what is possible and what Workshops are all about, by being totally immersed in Workshop for several days. As well as dreaming..."Chaos, taking risk, collaboration, site specifity, exploring a theme, opening the group, busting the expectation, breaking new ground, learning about others, leading and following, performing to each other, spectating for each other, playing with available resources, looking at the stories inherent in the group, connecting art forms and practice, being in a particular environment and transforming it, employing media, forms and disciplines other than your own and experimenting without financial obligation or expectation"...are some of the things that go on.

We believe Workshop is an arts practice in its own right with unrealised potential for 21st Century experiential learning.

....Moveable Feast website....http://www.themoveablefeast.co.uk/