An ethnographic approach to performance would position the
scholar/researcher at “a view from ground level” in a local context, producing “knowledge
that is anchored in practice and circulated within a performance community” (Conquergood,
146) and helps avoid what we could term the fallacy of “monolithic wholes”
(Kealiinohomoku, 34). An ethnographic approach allows researchers to focus on
subjugated knowledges, “to meanings that are expressed forcefully through
intonation, silence, body tension, arched eyebrows, blank stares, and other
protective arts of disguise and secrecy” (146). The work by Reason and Reynolds
on audience experiences of watching dance is an example of researchers focusing
on the body in an ethnographic study that seeks “a personal connection: ‘knowing
how,’ and ‘knowing who’” (146). Their study of dance audiences shows the
extreme variability of response an observer will have of kinesthetic changes in
the dancers. In other words, the subjectivity of the observer complicates their
understanding and interpretation of the movements they observe. This suggests a
similar difficulty would face the alien researcher attempting to first recognize
and then accurately interpret or understand the subtle kinesthetic changes that
constitute the subjugated knowledge gleaned through an ethnographic approach to
performance studies. Overcoming this barrier, however, allows for deeper and
fuller knowledge in myriad situations, both in theatre and in the real world.
In the world of theatre, ethnographic approaches allow performance
studies practitioners new ways of seeing and understanding the events on the
stage and their effects on the audience. The stylized facial expressions and
body movements of bharatanatyam, for example, or of kabuki or even of ballet,
might be analyzed in terms of their significations within their respective
cultures of origin, thus providing an alien observer with a new and hopefully
more accurate (or closer) perspective on – and understanding of – those
performances. It might help us to avoid inadvertent colonial practices of
consumption and possession (Foster, 81; 89). Changing tack to focus on the
audience, imagine observing the audience during a performance of Beckett’s Not I in order to track their external displays
of kinesthetic empathy or other physical changes that might indicate affective
reaction to the performance (e.g. searching for signs of stuplimity). Furthermore,
in translating a dramatic work from one culture to another in preparation for
performance, an ethnographic approach to performance studies could help dramaturgs,
directors, and actors to more accurately understand the original scenes, character
behavior, and especially past “native” performances prior to making their own
decisions of how to interpret and perform the work in their own idiom.
Something like that could be said to have occurred with the IU production of Richard III; for example, the inclusion of
visual cues such as Queen Anne’s pill bottle and her (to us, an obviously
drugged) demeanor and body language. An ethnographic approach might also be a
tool for helping actors gain new awareness of their own craft, if such an
approach could be incorporated into theater exercises. Lastly, I’d like to
suggest that an ethnographic approach to performance studies could also help outsiders
to understand the performances enacted within various sub-cultures (e.g.
Japanese visual-kei bands).
In the real/political world, ethnographic approaches to
performance studies can be utilized by researchers to inform their work across
disciplines ranging from international politics to sports studies. In politics different
cultures have different ways of expressing themselves in body language and
facial expression. For example, to the uninitiated, it might be difficult to
recognize that the unsmiling face of a Japanese politician or corporate CEO
does not necessarily mean anger or some other negative emotion as it might more
safely be presumed were that person American. (Whether that example falls under
the domain of performance studies is perhaps arguable.) As for the
applicability of ethnographic approaches to performance studies being used in
sports studies, the Reason and Reynolds article made me think about my own
experiences as an athlete and now as a spectator of athletic events. It seems
very useful to take such an approach when studying fan behavior and the
performance of team support, especially comparatively; e.g., a comparative
study of the fan cultures/behaviors of American, English, and Spanish soccer
fans, or even of the differences between regions within a single country, or
between first division and second division team fans.
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