Fame or Famine

I recently did a performance art piece in Mexico City. It had some relatively dangerous aerial dance components for my partner, and so there was some stress involved, but it went well. In fact, it was a great performance.
Not that I was perfect. In fact, it was some of the sloppiest work I’ve done – it came after teaching a workshop all day, and I was not in top form. Neither would I say it went well because my partner was fine – it was a difficult performance for her, too, and we even had to end a little early due to the potential for some injury at one point in her flight. We covered it, though, and the audience didn’t care.

And that’s why it was a good performance. Because after the applause, people came up and told us how their hearts had beat faster, how our dance had touched them, and they were still commenting on specific parts the next day, thinking and re-thinking about the meanings involved.

See, I believe that a performance without an audience is, well, a rehearsal. And the objective of a performance is to touch the audience – whether in fear, joy, sadness, excitement, laughter, whatever, you need to reach the audience.

And this brings us to two videos:

Chris Bliss:

and Jason Garfield:As part of the juggling community, I’ve heard a lot about these two bits. I actually know Jason personally (he’s a great and intense guy). However, the comments I hear from jugglers about these – “Chris is just a hack, he doesn’t do anything really complicated or all that hard…” and simply the fact that Jason felt the need to show how much more technically sophisticated he is (and no doubt: he is one of the best in the world).Jason, however, is the first to agree with this difference. Chris is a fine performer – but not quite so great a juggler, technically. I would add that Chris’ performance in front of a crowd adds a level of skill, but that’s the kind of point you make after a Renegade show at a convention over a few beers.

As a juggler, I agree – Chris doesn’t do anything extra special. As a performer, I think he’s magnificent. And it’s a good thing I can appreciate these differences…because if not, I’d probably stop performing. We’re never as good as we’d like, and we’re always our own worst critic.

Thank god for applause.

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