Drama for Life Conference: Day three
October 1, 2010 – On August 28, teachers, learners, theoreticians and artists from around the globe congregated in the Wits Main Theatre for the conclusive chapter in the annual Drama for Life (DFL) Conference, an unforgettable three-day experience and the product of a collaboration between the Wits School of Arts (WSOA), the University of Pretoria’s music therapy and drama departments, the South African Association of Drama Therapists (SAAD) and the South African Network for Arts Therapies Organisations (SANATO).
Professor Mercedes Pavlicevic, who directs research at Nordoff Robbins, a music therapy charity in the UK, led the day’s discussion with her talk on “Taking Music Seriously: Between Therapy and Everyday Life”.
Pavlicevic argued that the transformative power of music lay in its collaborative application: “Music therapists have the role of a midwife: re-knitting music with its social purpose”. While elaborating on the benefits of using cultural idiomatic genres in conjunction with theoretical frameworks, she played a series of sound clips and short videos of therapy sessions, to demonstrate the way that “spontaneous work within an idiom which is familiar can be therapeutic in accessing whatever has been lost.” Her presentation conveyed the communicative power of sound formation, and the possibility of using music as a mode of mapping the quality of flow between therapist and subject.
Another discussion held on the day proposed a revisitation of the modes and practices found in the applied arts space. Theoreticians from Kenya, Botswana and Nigeria took part in this roundtable discussion on activisim and education.
Professor Chris Odhiambo, from the Literature,Theatre and Film Studies Department at the University of Moi in Kenya, began the discussion with a paper entitled, “The In-Between of Activism and Education: Intervention Theatre in Kenya”.
Citing the work of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, Odhiambo argued for the relationship theatre had with activism. He reminded the audience that, in Africa, art was traditionally pedagogical, and therefore interventionist: “When there was cosmic disharmony, then we would use ritual ... The role of art in Africa has always been to facilitate happiness [and to] make the world a better place.” He asserted that theatre is meant to disrupt our everyday lives, to educate, raise awareness, and increase agency. Odhiambo concluded by appealing to all practitioners to consider “to what extent ... activism [is] performance, and to what extent ... performance [is] activism”.
Dr Akinola Oriola, from the University of Ibadan in Nigeria, spoke about the relationship between ideology and art. He contested the notion that art can be created outside of ideology, and stressed that the popular view of art – as a production that serves only to stimulate the senses – was oversimplified. Art may have an aesthetic purpose, but the creator is informed by a body of knowledge and belief systems. “Art is an emotional expression, and ideology a set of things that direct a person’s goals and actions, thoughts, visions and way of looking at things ... Art is always projecting a form of ideology,” he emphasised.
The story of the Basarwa, or San, of Botswana was then highlighted by Dr Connie Rapoo, lecturer of theatre and performance studies at the University of Botswana. Rapoo addressed how this grouping were denied a history and exoticised as cultural curios.
Speaking through her research project, on the performance of memory in San musical theatre tradition, Rapoo related how groups often express collective cultural memory and identity through their performances, using their indigenous knowledge systems to assist in the process of healing. She hopes to apply her findings in this project at a broader educational level, assisting transformation in Botswana through cultural revitalisation.
The final roundtable of the day encapsulated the proceedings of the whole conference, re-examining the intentions of art practitioners when they collaborate with marginalised or dispossessed communities, asking whether methods used have real impact, and to what extent a participatory theoretical framework is effective.
The three-day experience was rounded off with workshops and performance pieces.