I have always been very interested in the arts and seeing them performed live on stage is one of my favourite things. There is something so incredibly powerful about sitting in the audience and watching a story unfold in front of you, whether that’s done through movement, words, song or music. If a performance is good, you get this amazing connection with the action that is taking place and it can be very intense and emotional – this is what I love.
I also love that watching a performance requires you to be very much in the moment. It all happens right there in front of you, making it very organic and authentic. During that time you don’t have to think about anything else. The real world can be put on hold and you are drawn into another. In an age where technology, the internet and social media are all at the forefront of our lives, it is so refreshing to leave all of this behind and devote yourself exclusively to the moment and the ‘real time’ unfolding of a performance. You walk up the stairs into the auditorium, surrendering yourself to the stage.
After seeing something really amazing, I always find that I need some time before I can return back to the everyday world. This for me is a sign that a performance has been spectacular. When something has the ability to draw you in so completely and entirely, when it consumes all of your thoughts and manipulates your emotions… that is when a performance has succeeded.
Earlier this year, my mum and I went to London to watch Wayne McGregor’s latest ballet, Woolf Works – a piece inspired by the works of Virginia Woolf. This was very appropriate considering I had just handed in my dissertation on The Waves by Woolf. During my final year at university I fell in love with her literature. Her writing captures the experience of life in a way that is so real, so relatable, so moving and so artistically beautiful.
I have seen some very very good performances in my life but this one hundred percent topped them all to date. The interaction of the dancers, the music, the choreography, the use of space, the costume, the lighting… everything together created a piece of art that was just so incredibly moving. The first piece, based upon Mrs Dalloway, presented a powerful juxtaposition between the young Ms Dalloway, and the old – just like the book. This was done so beautifully and it triggered deep personal reflection – just as the older dancer reflected on her own life. Alessandra Ferri who danced the older Mrs Dalloway was the most hauntingly emotive dancer I have ever seen. The final act, based on The Waves placed the self in a sea of others, just as we are all placed into a world full of other people. It demonstrated the connection that an individual has with the world and the attempt to fit ones self and identity into the non-stop current of life.
Woolf Works completely overwhelmed me and I was reduced to tears! I realise I must sound as though I am being very over the top but it really was such a beautiful, heartfelt and moving performance. It struck so many chords. I had studied Woolf so intently and I had such an existing fascination with her thoughts and writings that to see them brought alive like that was a unique experience. Although I think it would have derived a very similar reaction had I not have been so familiar with her. It was truly incredible. I cannot express the extent to which I wish that I could see it again. Please, Wayne McGregor, take this on tour?!
A collection of other performances that have come pretty close to McGregor’s masterpiece, are those of Matthew Bourne. His Car Man in particular was exceptional. People say that words sometimes are not enough to convey the complexity of human experience and I really felt that Car Man demonstrated this. Dance, shape and movement encapsulated certain emotions so vividly and so exactly but in a way that I could not have conjured up the right words to accompany them. Still, I understood exactly what Matthew Bourne was trying to say. It consolidated that thought and feeling go much deeper than language. Language can only offer so much definition to our experience of life. The first half was riddled with frivolous sexuality and passion, and the second half took a much darker turn, taking us down a path of twisted human emotion. The story unfolded in a very disturbing but compelling way. Car Man was extremely gripping and explored so many different emotions. We left the auditorium as though we had just disembarked the original ’emotional roller coaster’ from which the phrase was coined.
You could say it is the extremely cathartic effect that top quality theatre has on me that keeps me coming back for more. Be it acting, musical theatre, ballet, dance, music… I am obsessed and I will no doubt continue watching live performance throughout my life. One genre that I have yet to see though is opera. After watching Woolf Works in The Royal Opera House, I decided that it was time I see some. Perhaps my parents never took me when I was younger as it is suited to a slightly more adult taste, but I think now I would definitely appreciate it.
The English National Opera have some amazing well known Opera shows in London, from La Boheme and The Barber of Seville, to The Magic Flute and Madam Butterfly. The English National Opera says:
‘At ENO opera is theatre; expressing drama through the unique combination of music, text, dance, and design. We sing in English and believe that singing in our own language connects the performers and the audience to the drama onstage, and enhances the experience for all’.
I really love this. It links back so nicely to what I was saying about the importance of that connection. How a really strong connection can instil such an incredible amount of emotion and feeling in a single individual.
This, at the end of the day, is what live performance is all about. This is what keeps me coming back for more.
*Post written in collaboration with English National Opera. All views and opinions my own.
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