Terry Smith Co-Founder of Wavelengths festival explores ideas around his personal journey into performance work

Although I think of myself both as a newcomer and an outsider when it comes to contemporary dance and performance art, in fact my journey began a lot earlier than I realised.

The only lessons that engaged me at my school in East London in the early 1970’s was drama. And my first meetings with any kind of professional art and performance was in 1972 when on school trips I went to see backstage at the Old Vic, see an exhibition of the American artist Edward Kienholz at the ICA and watched the musical Hair performed in the West End of London.

These events changed my life. So the question I ask myself now, is why did it take so long to follow that direction. What can account for that over 30 year interruption? Well that question I will answer at another time.

My fascination with performance is mainly centred around the idea of an audience and a gathering. Live events that engage and connect people is probably the magnet that draws me into the possibilities offered my performance.

I am not interested in genres, categories or anyway kind of description that puts ideas into closed boxes.

So this is my first sharing of some of the names that have been circulating and been on the horizon of people that I should be looking at. I am not and do not care to be an academic. Below are just some names with links that begin the converstaion.

Beginnings

So I wrote on my whiteboard as many names as i could think of that have been on my mind. The I made another list and then bit by bit researched and tried to join the dots. But its kind of impossible.

This was the start of the beginning of mapping

Isodora Duncan

Merce Cunningham

Alvin Ailey