The pursuit of excellence

This is something that I have been considering for many years and is sparked off today by going to see Cirque du Soleil yesterday. Together with seeing the Edvard Munch exhibition last Saturday, it has made me realise again how the connection is between performer and audience is like the object and it's shadow. Without an audience the performance loses it's connection with people. Without people seeing what artists produce is like working in the dark.

What has prompted this is seeing how much the audience last night were so enthralled by the skill, bravery, colour and theatricality of the performance and came out with their spirits lifted. The years of practise and dedication to pursuing a skill, the performers pushing their bodies to their limit applies to people who give their lives to this pursuit of excellence.
What is does for the viewer is to realise what is possible; it opens the eyes and ears to people. When the senses are opened it is similar to cleaning the windows. Everything looks brighter.

When playing in an orchestra I am so aware of how much every musician is in the present, putting all the practice and skill into the performance. At every moment, nothing else matters. This is what comes across to the audience and makes that connection between performer and viewer.

While I was at the Edvard Munch exhibition in Edinburgh I was aware, after some time, that I was beginning to feel the energy of this man who had put his life into his work. The sadness, despair, loneliness and pain of existence. I could identify with it all. What lifted it from being a depressing experience was the skill and passion of his commitment to producing works that conveyed this. Seeing how he worked over months and years to get the lithographs to is liking was uplifting. The delicacy of his drawing showed his feelings towards his subjects.

Coming out of the gallery I felt as though something had been added to my life. I saw the richness of pain and suffering and how it could be transformed into works of art that communicated this to the audience. The drawings had such sensitivity and beauty that lifted the spirit in spite of the subject matter.