Performance Pedagogy: Toward an Art of Politics

I began reading Performance Pedagogy: Toward an Art of Politics by Charles Garoian with great anticipation. Here was a pedagogy founded on art-making, I thought. Here was a pedagogy that dealt with civic engagement and social justice. I quickly skimmed the text and then started reading and re-reading it. I found ample definitions. For example, “Performance Art Pedagogy represents a liminal space, an aesthetic dimension wherein social and historically constructed ideas, images, myths and utopia’s can be contested and new ones constructed as they pertain to students’ experiences of reality and the desires to transform that reality” (Garoian, 1999 p 10). I looked up luminal. Merriam-Webster defines liminal as, “of or relating to a sensory threshold” (Merriam-Webster, 2010). It is not clear to me at this early stage of my reading what threshold Garoian is referring to, however it is possible it is the threshold between artist and spectator.

I returned to Garoian, “performance art pedagogy …considers the aesthetic dimension of performance subjectivity as an educational imperative, a practice of teaching that necessitates the critique of hegemonic cultural performances and the creation of new performance myths” (Garoian, pg 10). Merriam-Webster defines hegemonic as, “the social, cultural, ideological, or economic influence exerted by a dominant group (Merriam-Webster, 2010). This sentence conveys the message that performance art pedagogy provides for the critical review of the dominant culture that has been imposed on the student.

Garoian, continues, “performance art pedagogy resists cultural conformity and domination by creating discourses and practices that are multicentric, participatory, indeterminate, interdisciplinary, reflexive and intercultural. This is a mouthful, but provides deeper insight into the pedagogy. In this passage, Garoian begins to explain how one practices performance art pedagogy – one creates discourses and practices, that are based upon and require participation by students, teachers and mentors.

Performing art pedagogy does not function like conventional theatre wherein art is presented to spectators with little or no opportunity for participation. Performing arts pedagogy encourages communication by directly involving spectators. Performing arts pedagogy is a tool that can be used to facilitate and promote social awareness, community consciousness and democratic ideas. Garoian presents the concept of critical citizenship in the following passage, “performing arts pedagogy recognizes the cultural difference as a vital resource to the development of a broader understanding of reality and where participants work toward the goals of critical citizenship and democracy” (Garoian, 1999 p 67).

I can see some interesting parallels with the volunteerism exhibited by performing arts trainers and the critical citizenship identified by Garoian as one of the goals of performing arts pedagogy. By its very nature, the performing arts encourage students and teachers to enter into a body and mind discourse based on equality and reflexivity, where cultural boundaries are examined but do not function as shackles holding back free thought and expression. The performing arts create an opportunity for thoughtful discourse by stimulating critical dialogue. Teachers who train students in the performing arts are uniquely positioned to influence creative and reflexive thought in their students.

It occurs to me that the pedagogy demonstrated by performing arts trainers shares some of the characteristics of performing arts pedagogy: they are both participatory, reflexive, intercultural and multicentric. Therefore it is not surprising to see high levels of volunteerism and civic engagement being practiced by performing arts trainers consistent with the goals outlined by Garoian of performing arts pedagogy.

References:

Garoian, C. (1999) Performing pedagogy: Toward an art of politics. New York: State University of New York Press.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hegemonic