Sense-action – praktyka-jako-badanie rozpoznana ex post

Abstract

The paper describes the process of developing sensory performance: Sense-Action. Memories of children and teenagers living in Litzmannstadt Ghetto – Anna Skorecki, Dawid Sierakowiak and Lolek Lubinski – are used as inspiration, but also narrative and experiential matrix for the performance’s structure. Between 2013 and 2016 three versions of the project, different in terms of techniques used and creative strategies were developed. Each was performed in a direct correlation with three chosen traditions in theatre studies – semiotics, anthropology and cognitive studies/phenomenology – which supported the exploration in performative correlation of the individual memory and memory of trauma mediated by the narrative. At the same time, the transition between the research contexts was not categorical. The structure of the performance was growing with subsequent editions, allowing on the one hand recognizing the places where the paradigms disconnect, and, on the other, the potential ways of correlating them. In the paper I analyse the interdependence of creative and research strategies as a potential teaching tool. The conclusions serve to indicate the potential benefits and risks of double involvement in dance and theatre, and hence the need to share two different perspectives.