Dance Magazine: Sebastian Abarbanell remembers being asked as an undergrad at Trinity Laban in London to perform wearing only a dance belt. "I said no," he says, "because I felt uncomfortable." Now a performer with Sidra Bell Dance New York, he's performed partially nude several times, without reservation. The difference? "It comes with more experience and maturing as a dancer," he says. "When you see a dancer living in their skin, you don't need to put anything else on them. When I said no in college, I wasn't in my skin yet."
5 comments:
Performing in general can be a very scary and nerve wrack ign time to many people. Stage fright is definitely very apparent with some and even with some who wouldn’t consider themselves to have stage fright. In this article, the subject (Sebastian) opened by speaking about how he initially turned down the offer for dancing nude on stage. He said we felt uncomfortable and he would be able to do it. But now because of experience he feels more comfortable and vulnerable on stage. I like being vulnerable is a challenging thing to allow oneself to do. To permit yourself to bow down and give up your thoughts and emotions is something that takes time along with trust in order to feel okay with letting that vulnerability with certain people go. Vulnerability is crucial in performers because they are the ones telling the story and evoking the emotion, and it would be impossible to put on performance without sharing those stories and emotions.
It is interesting for me to hear people speak about how crossing the barrier into being nude onstage is one that opens an actor to vulnerability. I would make the assumption that if it were me in that position I would spend so much time searching for something to hide behind, something to take away that raw feeling that I would certainly not find comfort, as Abarbanell writes about in his piece. That kind of vulnerability he describes is one that you hear actors and performers in constant pursuit of, and I find it so fascinating that the simple act of removing clothing can open one’s emotional world enough to allow that raw emotion to flow so freely between them and their audience. There is also an immense amount of trust that he has in his audience that they want to be there and share in his experience in such an honest way.
I thought this article really touched on the important aspects of dancing while nude. I do not think I have seen any performances where the dancers were naked but I can imagine that it would be a very different experience from seeing dancers who are in costume. There is something incredibly brave and vulnerable about being able to get up in front of a room full of people and be completely open and vulnerable. Performing, in general, is all about making yourself vulnerable in front of hundreds of people and opening yourself up to criticism and I think it is very impressive that there are dancers out there who have the confidence to be the most vulnerable they can be. I also thought it was interesting to hear from the dancers’ perspective; I have a very hard time just speaking in front of large groups of people and I thought it was interesting that the dancers actually find it freeing and are able to connect more with themselves and with the dance, when they are nude. I would love to see a performance like this someday, so I can fully understand what it is like to experience this kind of art.
I have never ever had the desire to perform nude in any way in front of an audience but I am glad that for some people it is not the scariest and they can get past their fears. I feel like any type of performance where someone is not fully clothed can be hard and scary in many ways. I've worked on shows in the past where actors had to change onstage, exposing their body in some way to the audience, and we had a lot of discussions about how and when and how long these sequences would be. When we did "The Odyssey", there is a part in the script that says he is naked onstage and we decided that it was in our best interest to not do that. He ended up shirtless onstage for about five minutes, but I think that any type of exposure in front of an audience is a lot. I think that nudity has a power of its own that comes from owning your body and I find it very interesting but for me when someone is fully nude on stage, I am not sure I would be able to look beyond that.
I chose to read this article because I am always interested in how different processes deal with sensitive content. I found it really interesting how the article talks about rehearsing barely clothed as a way to get more comfortable with being naked while dancing. This is pretty different from what I’ve experienced in theatre with people usually only rehearsing the nudity during tech or people rehearsing with no one in the room and not having a moment when people rehearse barley clothed. One strategy that I will definitely take with me when dealing with naked performers is suggesting that they go into the rehearsal room and performance space alone and just getting comfortable before all the theatrical elements are added. Another thing to take with me is raising the temperature of the performing is pretty smart but not necessarily something that I would think about. I am lastly surprised how comfortable the dancers say they are with being naked as I don’t think I’d ever be as comfortable as they say they are.
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