Acting and dancing - 10 components that make a talented artist

I was spending an afternoon at the library and found a book entitled "Talent and Labour in an Actors Creative Work". The author, Voldemar Panso, a famous actor, director and drama professor, was one of the central figures of Estonian drama in the second half of the 20th century. This book was published in 1965, during deep Soviet period in Estonia, and although the communist ideology rings through a couple of times (quite possibly due to the pressure of state regulations), it contains an inspiring thought almost every couple of lines. The book is about acting, but as the author also states, any creative artist can relate to it.

As a dancer I was extremely inspired by this work and in this post I would like to introduce some of his ideas in a dance framework. All of the thoughts are of Voldemar Panso, I have only used my own phrasing and translation. Since the book is very rich in ideas, I only collected a few of them, so there is more left for you to discover :) You can find the book from Estonian libraries or bookstores (Rahva Raamat) in Estonian.

Hope you will find it as inspiring as I did!

What is talent? It is often described as "a divine spark" or "an inexplicable something". If you begin to really analyze talent, you find that it is a combination of different virtues.

Here are ten components that make a talented stage artist:

1. Memorability. A talented artist demands attention when she walks on stage. She makes you look and listen to her. The audience will remember her appearance even years after the performance.
2. Appeal. Stage appeal is separate from looks, accomplishments and talent. It mirrors the personality. There are artists who need only to appear on stage and the audience loves them. They are free to do anything without worrying whether the audience accepts it or not. When the personality fades, so does the appeal. Stage artists can be compared to storybooks, most of which enjoy their fame during certain periods of time or with certain types of people. But, there are artists who can be compared to "evergreen" books that appeal to everyone regardless of age or class. It is the contents that makes the difference - if they are full of life, they appeal.
3. Self-exploration. Talented artists are not satisfied with what they "are good at", they strive for what seems unreachable. There are no borders to their playground nor appeal, because they constantly change and expand. Much is expected from them because one can never predict what they accomplish next. They dig deep into human souls and their inner self, expanding internally. They are "self creators".
4. Will. Creative will is as important to an actor as competitiveness is to an athlete. Will is a source of inspiration - although its important what the person is like, its even more important what they want to be like. Willpower grows through overcoming difficulties. Not everyone has the will and persistence to work their way to true art.
5. Creativity. An artist should love dreaming and know how to dream. It is one of the most important creative talents. There is no creative work without imagination. There are people who only see the average and can´t see what´s near or far. A talented artist sees what most people don´t even notice, and even then they see it from their peculiar point of view. That is what keeps the audience anticipating in wonder - how will she see it now, how will she do it this time?
6. Right stage feeling. The no. 1 enemy of right stage feeling is muscle tension and cramp. Force should appear through restraint, much like intelligence. The paradox of the stage is - force appears in the force that you restrain it with. In order to concentrate mental force the artist needs to be physically free and relaxed. Art begins with the ability to control the muscles.
7. Communication. The time spent on stage is from beginning to end full of communication. This whole time the artist has to project thoughts, feelings and images and be prepared to receive them. Both the right stage feeling and communication are largely instinctive and should come naturally. Communicating with the audience can be compared to sending and receiving rays of energy, directly from eye to eye, heart to heart. The artist has to feel the audience, know who is clapping and smiling and who is not. We often consider the stage as the active and influencive part, and the audience as the passive recipient, but this is only so in the beginning. The audience, if being presented a good piece, soon becomes active and begins to influence the stage. The viewers expect to be conquered, and if that doesn´t happen, they become restless. But when the audience is drawn in, a great fluid force is formed between them and the stage. And that is when real art happens.
8. Intuition. It is very important that the stage artist is intuitive - they should "feel the inner" or "think with their body". Mental work is only preparation for the stage. Up there it is not the mind or logic that triumphs but sensibility and passion. Whenever the artist starts to show off their skills, the truth gets shaded and the artist becomes only a mechanical action. In this sense there are two types of artists - those who work with their piece and those who let the piece work with them. The first type work rationally, analyze and research until they completely master whatever they are going to present. The second type are much more passive. They work much less, they can hardly even remember the details, but as they listen to the music several times, the piece starts to open itself up to them, until it forms a guiding vision.
9. Childlike soul. All children are unique, sincere and real. Only as they grow older they begin to want to resemble someone else and lose their uniqueness. Every person, even the simplest, has something unique in them, has "their own song". A talented artist is much like a child - sensitive, perceiving the world without prejudice and free from routine. She is giving, surprising, creates effortlessly and intuitively. But she also receives, much more and faster than others. She sees what others have seen many times but have never noticed. She sees the world with exploring eyes, every day is new and different from the last. Only this way the artist can perform the same piece many times without getting dull.
10. Commitment. Every field has its dead points where the natural resources run out, the playfulness and romance fade away. At this point serious work with the self must begin, for the dilettante to become a master. No one but the artist herself can imagine the difficulties, doubt, searching and pain that accompany this stage. And only those who have the strength and courage to dedicate their whole life to the art will come through it. The others will remain half dilettantes, brighter or less brighter passing fashions. It may sound cruel but its true. Many reach the dead point, only a few transcend it.