It’s a Thursday night and I am beyond exhausted. I’ve come home, done my washing up, whacked a pasta bake in the oven and attempted to tidy my room, before collapsing in bed.
My head is full of CVs, third year solos and thinking about what I might want to do for my research project. Add to this the disgustingly horrible frappe exercise, Aikido rolls and remembering performance practice rep I’m surprised I’m still mentally and physically functioning.
What I think has sent me into cosmic level overdrive is the contemplation of nothing in Aesthetics today. If you’re unfamiliar with John Cage’s Lecture on Nothing- Cage basically rambles on about nothing in a sort of stream of consciousness style for forty minutes, to which Clive treated us to a dramatic reading of today during class. You can also find a lovely article about it on Northernisms here.
How could you recreate nothing in a dance piece? Surely the obvious answer would be to do nothing. However, it is impossible to do nothing for we are living breathing organisms. We are always doing something. Hence, doing nothing is doing something- so if you’re doing something you can hardly be doing nothing.
It makes me feel a little bit like the caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland, constantly questioning the obvious. Is nothing possible or impossible? Just a little late night Thursday musing for you all….
Charlotte Arnold 