Replying to LO24761 --
I find that belonging to this list as a grazing member is important to me.
I'm very busy at the moment and often delete most of the posts knowing
that I can return to the archive whenever I need and pick up on the
interesting threads. So it is not an issue of someone monopolizing my
time but allowing others to work through their own practical issues in
whatever fashion they need.
In the arts there is that incredible need for self motivation in almost
everything that we do. The extrinsic world of print is a way of
remembering what must slowly be made manifest from within. But for us
there is only the "within" when doing the work. Later there is the need
for others to develop their learning curve in order to "read" what one has
been done, but the work is individual or if in ensemble then it is two
highly developed skills dialoguing in a task. Egos only come into play
when the skill is not roughly equal. It is not competition but a sense of
being overwhelmed on the one hand while being out of control on the other.
I have at times experienced with At de Lange being asked more than I had
the time to give or study to give. Overwhelmed. I have at times felt
like I was talking to Darwin or Marx or maybe Wagner. All great
assimilators of the threads of society while bodying them forth as a
mighty expression. I don't know whether that he is such a person but it
feels like it sometimes. Only history tells who are the great minds and
who are the blowhards. Often people are surprised. But all we have is
the present and respect.....
I have some rather strong feelings about learning organizations. I've
been in them and have developed them and have at times failed miserably
with them. "When its good it is very good but when it is not it is
miserable" and can take years to recover from. The only thing that I can
say about what Rick asked and Lon seems to be saying is that our tasks are
from within, from our own vision of our work.
Each person has a role, grazer, lurker, expounder, coyote etc. and each
role is a necessary part of a dialogue. It is my experience that any of
these can be called forth, often embarrassingly so, by the needs of a
discussion. Why for example is there a need to change At or Andrew? Is
there a limited amount of time and space? Is there not a need for theory
and the holistic expression of the artist as well as practical solving of
problems in a practice situation in open forum?
I often find that I am better at answering than initiating. In the
jargon, I am more reactive than proactive on my two favorite lists. I
sometimes get irritated that people do not entertain me and bring forth my
best answers. Well, my teacher once told me not to move until my body
told me the dance. I lay on the floor for six weeks five hours a day. I
finally got it and I danced my own life rather than another's. It was
inside all the time but I didn't know how to listen.
My company now uses opera to teach people to listen to one another as well
as to the music. We enlist everyone, the local sheriff, the minister, the
rabbi, the schools. We enlace it with the DAR program and we use the
sacred art to teach lessons about life to all ages, like the Greeks. Not
bad for a Cherokee from the number one super fund site in America.
America's Terezine where the oily lead dust, fine like silk, has weighted
their wings until the butterflys no longer fly but crawl the ground as if
transformation was a joke.
I've been able to come up with many programs that have been successful at
creating a product but the creative "team learning" together in an
"Economy of
Scale" in a market economy seems like an oxymoron. But I keep trying and
I keep reading this list and listening for questions.
Ray Evans Harrell,
Artistic Director
The Magic Circle Opera Repertory Ensemble, Inc.
mcore@idt.net
--"Ray E. Harrell" <mcore@idt.net>
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