Motion, Emotion, and Love: The Nature of Artistic Performance

Tom Mark has done it again! Just when it seemed safe to think that, as a performing artist, I had been probing the "doing" of artistic performance sufficiently well, along comes Motion, Emotion, and Love to let me know that there is way more to think about. This is a book to which I will have to refer, and re-read, often in years to come. Such a shaking of the assumptions, of course, happened just a few years ago when I read Dr. Mark's What Every Pianist Needs to Know About the Body. Oh, how we pianists can go on and on for years hoping for the better sound, the greater velocity, etc., and never have anyone tell us that specific, subtle adjustments in how we position and use the body can have tremendous effect. (This is his "body mapping," also treated with detail in Motion.) I have become a shameless proselytizer of his theses and the book itself, and have used so many of its details in my own teaching in recent years. Now, after two readings of Motion, whole charts of questions and "re-framed answers" hang before me. Philosophers among us will delight in his parsing of the particulars of what constitutes a performance. Performers will be glad to have confirmed many of their instincts about where their energies must be focused to make a performance "work." Too, some will feel chastened about where energies have sometimes been foolishly placed. Listeners will be challenged and pleased, I think, to know of great opportunities to participate more fully in the stuff of which any performance is made. Motion, Emotion, and Love is not a casual read. But, engaging in performed art, from either side of the edge of the stage, should rarely be a casual activity. All of the author's intended audiences will benefit from his clarity and insight into that very important human activity of engaging in art vividly.Bill Crane

As a certified Alexander Technique Teacher and a Licensed Andover Educator®, I have read many books on movement and music performance. This book is less about the details of movement than a philosophical justification for teaching movement to performers. The strength of this book lies in the chapters that address the complexity of emotional expression in practice and performance. Mark is at his most compelling when he reveals his own struggles with self-acceptance. Those of us who teach and perform can resonate with the need to address the whole person, not just the mechanical aspects of movement.Kay S. Hooper, author of Sensory Tune-ups: a guided journal of sensory experiences for performers of all ages.Available at [...]

Thomas Mark's fascinating new book, "Motion, Emotion, and Love," is a beautifully written and thought-provoking yet ultimately practical exploration of the nature of artistic performance. Differentiating between the unique nature of performance art--music, dance, or theatre--and the other creative arts, which exist outside of time and are not dependent on it, Mark explores the dynamic psychology of performance and the communion that takes place between performer and audience. He demonstrates how the creative act of performing is dependent not only on the performer's ability to project to his or her audience but also on the audience's active emotional participation.Starting with the premise that emotional authenticity is the sine qua non of successful artistic performance, Mark argues that to achieve this authenticity, the artist must first be aware of his own emotions. He cannot try to escape, disguise or conceal them. Instead he must embrace them fully and draw on them. The performer's self-awareness and honesty then become an inseparable part of the performance. Mark explores the emotional vulnerability of the artist on stage, where the performer must expose himself/herself emotionally in the most intimate manner. This exposure allows the audience to participate actively, at least in an emotional sense, and enables the reciprocity between performer and audience that is essential to intimate artistic communion. Moreover, Mark's perceptive analysis of this delicate process gives us, in effect, a practical guide to achieving the ultimate goal--the profound magic that can only occur when performer and audience connect at the highest level of communication.Mark demonstrates that this emotional reciprocity is really the expression of love between the performer and the audience. In this sense performance can be seen as analogous to love between individuals, which requires complete honesty and mutual give-and-take. Mark convincingly shows us that this process applies not only to artistic performance at any level or ability, but indeed to all forms of human communication. In this regard, the book transcends its stated purpose and becomes nothing less than a practical guide to living a full and integrated life.Drawing on his own extensive experience in both philosophy and music (he is an accomplished pianist), Mark discusses the concept of body-mapping (awareness of one's physical approach to performing) and the importance of mindfulness when rehearsing or practicing. He cites a wide array of cultural sources along the way but always wears his erudition lightly. The reader never feels overwhelmed or intimidated by references. Mark's prose is always straightforward and highly readable, and often quite entertaining. Despite its rigorous grounding in philosophy and science (there is a chapter on recent advances in neurophysiology), this book is above all practical. Anyone involved in artistic performance on either side of the footlights will want to read it, profit from its wisdom, and keep it close at hand.The book itself is a thing of beauty, carefully designed and printed, and illustrated throughout with delightful and lively 17th century etchings by Jacques Callot.

A kind of airy dissertation that I wished I would have skipped, and so I did. Pictures are from the Middle Ages I think, and entertaining.

For pianists who search on a deep level.