4 from ritual to theater and back: the efficacy ... - AAAARG.ORG

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toward a poetics of performance
take the physical perspective of a child. To be filthy – playing with excrement
and mud – is a regression to infantile behavior. It opens a channel
to farce – and farce is probably more ancient than tragedy. 16 Finally, to
be low is to escape from rigid mores – being low is a way to be free.
But these phenomena are only half of the dialectic of performing.
The other half is ecstasy: a soaring away from the body, an emptying of
the body. Eliade:
The shamanic costume tends to give the shaman a new, magical body
in animal form. The three chief types are that of the bird, the reindeer
(stag) and the bear – but especially the bird. . . . Feathers are mentioned
more or less everywhere in the descriptions of shamanic costumes.
More significantly, the very structure of the costumes seeks to
imitate as faithfully as possible the shape of a bird. . . . Siberian,
Eskimo and North American shamans fly. All over the world the same
magical power is credited to sorcerers and medicine men. . . . An
adequate analysis of the symbolism of magical flight would lead us too
far. We will simply observe that two important mythical motifs have
contributed to give it its present structure: the mythical image of the
soul in the form of a bird and the idea of birds as psychopomps.
(Eliade 1970: 156, 477–9)
Aborigine “Dreamtime” songs and dances are examples of this kind of
performing. A person, often in sleep but sometimes wide-awake, is
transported to the original “timeless mythical past during which
totemic beings traveled from place to place across the desert performing
creative acts” (Gould 1969: 105). Some of these beings are natural
species such as kangaroo and emu, some are special beings like Wati
Jutjars (the Two Men) and Wanampi (the Water Snake). “Although
they lived in the past, the dreamtime beings are still thought of as being
alive and exerting influence over present-day people” (Gould 1969:
106). Performances are passed on down the generations. When new
material is added it is learned by “dreaming”: a man participates with
the mythical beings in their ceremonies, then he teaches his comrades
what he has learned. Aborigine performances are staged with extreme
care, especially regarding scenography, body decorations, and the execution
of song and dance routines. This care is not a matter of beauty in