Being Seen, Being Moved-Ricky Chen- DANC163

In Being Seen, Being Moved: Authentic Movement and Performance, author and dancer Andrea J. Olsen drives home the point that movement should come from within, for performance, therapeutic or choreography purposes. Olsen is true is saying that our history is stored in our body. As a musician, I recognize the importance of liberating the inner self during a performance. To make the performance or the artistic work richer, we must trust ourselves and let go. We must use all the vocabulary we have stored in ourselves, derived from past experiences, background, family values, etc. In dance or in musical performance, the self no longer serves the individual but rather serves the greater artistic work for the audience-the witness. To embody this point of movement from within, we should no longer over-think every individual movements. As we get bogged down with the details, we forget the purpose of the performance.

However, I disagree with one point in Andrea Olsen's essay about allowing the unexpressed to be expressed. I believe that as a performer, we must expressed the unexpressed, but with control to provide the most aesthetically pleasing artistic work. Perhaps expressing the unexpressed is good in a therapeutic sense. However, performance is not about self but about serving artistic work. We must let go to a certain extent to produce the artistic product, not a pure reflection of self.