23 - 27 AUGUST 2000
LEIDEN, THE NETHERLANDS
Conference 'Audiences, Patrons, and Performers' A Great Success
The conference 'Audiences, Patrons and Performers in the Performing Arts of Asia' took place in Leiden, 23-27 August 2000, and included just over one hundred papers. It was greatly enhanced by some video and CD-ROM presentations, performances, and workshops. The conference was co-organized by the PAATI (Performing Arts in Asia; Tradition and Innovation), a research project at the IIAS, the European Foundation for Chinese Music Research (CHIME), and the University of Leiden.
By WIM VAN ZANTEN
The conference addressed the roles of context and environment: the audiences, the patrons who enable the performing arts, the sponsors who organize and support them, and the spaces and places where they work and play. How do these participants influence performances and performers, and how are they influenced by them in turn?The Asian 'artists' to be considered range from singers to storytellers and dancers, from puppeteers to actors and musicians, from entertainers to ritualists and shamans. These themes were highlighted in several panels, including ones focusing on: 1. Hybrid and Popular Theatres in Asia (twenty papers); 2. Asian Diasporas (eleven papers); 3. The Creative Process in Folk Music and Musical Ritual in Asia (eleven papers). Besides these core papers, there were several panels dealing with related topics.
The keynote address 'The Performance Triangle: Whole or unholy?' was delivered by Professor James Brandon. It was generally felt that the papers and discussions were of a very good quality. The results will appear in special issues of journals and in two books.
On the first day the participants' registration took place to the accompaniment of Chinese teahouse music performed by the 'Yellow River' ensemble from Paris. After the dinner the Surinamese-Javanese society 'Gotong-Rojong' from Delfzijl, the Netherlands, performed a hobby-horse dance, Jaran Kepang, in which the dancers fell into trance. Performances also highlighted the other evenings. Quite a few of the performers (for instance, Vayu Naidu, John Emigh, Tran Quang Hai, Hugh Livingston, Kalpana Raghuraman) also gave workshops and presented excellent papers at the conference. This was particularly gratifying, because the PAATI research project also tries to use participation or 'learning by performing' for scientific research.
The possibilities of a follow-up conference were discussed. Dr Surapone Virulrak offered to explore the possibilities to have the next conference at Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand in December 2002. *
Some photographs taken during the registration for the conference may be found on the website: http://www.iias.nl/oideion/general/audiences/contents/contents.html
More information: Wim van Zanten (IIAS-PAATI) or Frank Kouwenhoven (CHIME)
E-mails: zanten@fsw.leidenuniv.nl, chime@wxs.nl