During one of my lessons the other day a student made me remember something about this artsy profession that perhaps we forget.
She was surprised I had not heard of the musical 'Spamelot' and proceeded to do a demonstration of one of the pieces from the show. She spontaneously began interpreting 4 characters all at once. She was singing and moving about the stage totally channeling the characters as they came into play. She was totally in the moment, not a seconds hesitation as she transitioned from one character voice to the next, only interrupted by a little giggle here and there. She was amazing!
I am sure she had absolutely no idea how great the performance was. She didn't care, she was having fun.
I began to question 'Could she perform like this in an audition, with exactly the same intention, intensity, abandon? 'Could she do this again in a performance with the pressure of an audience sitting there analysing her every move? '' Then I asked myself 'Could I perform with that kind of spontaneous, exuberance even if I wanted to?' Blimey!
She is 21, yes she is young and kinda has that irrepressible youthful energy thing that begins to make many of us question 'where did mine go'?
If she had been able to perform the piece exactly as she had done for me, alone in the auditorium at The Independent, if there had been an audience there to see it....they would have been enthralled. They would have said she was a star in the making! Perhaps she will be.....
But I wonder.....how do we keep that naive excitement for life which makes us able to throw ourselves completely and utterly into our craft, allows us to be there, totally present, without fear or self consciousness, delivering all that we are in that moment. Uncovering ourselves, letting go of the constant 'trying' and just sing with all the skills we have or haven't acquired up to that point?
I remember one of my voice teachers in Italy saying to me ' Just because it is spontaneous and expressive doesn't mean it is art'!
I have thought about this statement for a number of years and can certainly see her point on one hand but on the other hand it throws into question the issue of where 'our art' actually comes from in the first place, does it not?
To be continued....
