Day 53. Took part in an improvised performance

On Friday, I took part in an improvised music and spoken word performance for the first time.

It was a large group of artists who I had the pleasure of working alongside over the past two weeks during a project called Collision. The improvisation lasted about half an hour and was conducted by Canadian Dave Clark.

I resisted taking part at first (knowing I have no musical let alone improvisation skills) and enjoyed the soundscapes created by the layers of different musicians, instruments and voices involved. When Dave pointed at me and told me to read from a piece of paper into a microphone at the front 'as loudly as I could' I couldn't really say no (though every inch of me was petrified and wanted to stay comfortably in the audience).

I was quaking in my boots as I had to shout into the microphone (and try not to let my voice shake):
'We laughed
We danced
We whistled
And chanted a song'

I had to repeat it over and over, sharing the microphone with someone else pulled from the audience reciting another piece, whilst the piece continued to build and include a clog-dancer, stomping, spoken word and poetry, percussion, ukelele solos, singing, marimba, folk and whispers.

I enjoyed allowing myself to be swept along with it and becoming less self-conscience as my voice became part of the piece and I became part of the group performing and going on a journey where none of us knew the destination.

I was thankful to be able to pull myself away and sit back again though. But it meant when I had to get on the mic later that day to do a simple intro I wasn't quite as normal as I would've been.

A film giving a flavour of the project, who was involved and some of the performance can be found here.