I guess I'm on an exercise kick these days. So my role model this week is an award winning actress, a great singer and someone who in her own words is 'naturally good at her body'.
I arrived in Scarborough yesterday to do a teaching residency with Theatre and Performance Students at The University of Hull. As a result of this residency, on Friday 25 March at 7.30pm I will be performing alongside my 7 new students in a professional collaborative piece. The pressure is on.
Yesterday during the first session, to get them inspired I shared my story of personal transformation from a shy and mousy painter to the confident and poised performance artist I am today. Then, following in the footsteps of consciousness raising sessions and group therapy, we sat around and shared stories, expectations and concerns about the workshop days to come. Because I believe strongly in physical as well as emotional wellbeing and the connection between the two, we also did some folk dancing and aerobic exercise. We listened to the words from Cher in this clip and felt as if she was in the room with us. Her energy fueled our steps as I lead the students through a series of hot dance moves including the hitchhiker, the swim and my personal favourite, the roger rabbit. That was the best part of the day for me.
The workshop was an intensive 6-hour session and this cardio-routine provided the necessary endorphins to plow through the second half of the day. I delivered a slide-show presentation of 5 works of performance art from the 1960s to today. The students then had to come up with ways to re-enact each of the performances by changing any number of elements such as the identity of the peformer, the props used, the context in which it is performed, the intended audience(s) and the media employed with which to document and/or disseminate it. They came up with some really thought-provoking ideas. It's my job to enable them to continue in that direction in another 6 hour session today. Wish me luck!