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Cabaret at Tepoztlán: Why We Act Out
Since the early years of the Tepoztlán Institute, there has been an element of humor and play, beyond the music and dancing, during the traditional Saturday party. This non-normative playfulness began as brief theatrical sketches and has grown to be an important component of what we do as a week-long institute. Artistic engagement with the theoretical readings and the papers discussed during the institute is seen as a community-building activity that centers the embodiment of collective forms of producing, sharing and exchanging knowledge outside traditional academic formats. In past years, this activity took the form of residential groups writing and designing an original cabaret-style performance based on our theoretical readings and discussions and performing this during the conference party on Saturday night.
Originally, this activity took the form of several important traditions in Mexico, honoring the location of the Institute. One of the main dramatic genres used by the Instituto was the “cabaret”—a bricolage of creative and artistic expressions, usually staged, that has been an important form of political artivism in Mexico. Indigenous historical and political performances have also taken place in Tepoztlán during the various protests (against the golf club, against the expansion of the autopista) where theatricality has been used as an effective form to voice dissent. In other words, through cabaret performance the Tepoztlán Institute is taking cues from the rich traditions of embodied practices that are locally and regionally situated in order to collectively re-imagine resistance and protest. Humor and playfulness have been key to address, confront and survive extremely difficult and oppressive experiences in Latin America, as well as in other regions and cultural traditions of the world.
In recent years, participants have argued for widening the scope of this activity to include other artistic and cultural traditions and to be open to other aesthetic sensibilities, including individual or group activities that participants consider to be creative, artistic, and / or freely interpretative. We encourage all participants to bring some ideas for presenting one or more themes of the conference; and to work in cooperation with one another in the fashioning of a (re)presentation that can be shared with the group on the evening of our fiesta, which celebrates our gathering with food, music, dance, and carousing.
Participation in the creative/ artistic event includes a wide range of possibilities, such as: performing as an actor, singer, dancer, visual artist; assisting other performers with props used during the performance; putting together and/or playing the music playlist for your group’s performance; assisting in the design of costumes or special visual or sound effects used during the performance; helping the group to find materials and props at the various local markets; assistance writing the scripts, lyrics for songs, or helping in choreographing and/or blocking scenes for the performance; supporting performances as an enthusiastic and devoted member of the audience, etc. Each member of the group decides which of these options works best for him/her/them. Even though participation is voluntary, we would like to invite participants to support this component of the conference in a way that feels comfortable for them.
Acting up and out is always welcome at the Tepoztlán Institute. We especially encourage participants to do so with a sense of good faith and good will in the collective friendship and solidarity of our intellectual endeavors. Good faith and good will are critical components of this process. In the attempt to translate serious, traumatic, and often triggering historical readings and theoretical frameworks into a performance, it is likely that suggestions will be made which in one cultural context may be acceptable and in another appear insensitive and hurtful. This exercise of collective creativity requires participants to listen to each other, to have empathy, to attempt to understand the difficulty of cultural translation, and to ultimately err on the side of not causing pain to our comrades through inflexibility. We are here not simply to learn from reading and writing, but also from each other.
Since the early years of the Tepoztlán Institute, there has been an element of humor and play, beyond the music and dancing, during the traditional Saturday party. This non-normative playfulness began as brief theatrical sketches and has grown to be an important component of what we do as a week-long institute. Artistic engagement with the theoretical readings and the papers discussed during the institute is seen as a community-building activity that centers the embodiment of collective forms of producing, sharing and exchanging knowledge outside traditional academic formats. In past years, this activity took the form of residential groups writing and designing an original cabaret-style performance based on our theoretical readings and discussions and performing this during the conference party on Saturday night.
Originally, this activity took the form of several important traditions in Mexico, honoring the location of the Institute. One of the main dramatic genres used by the Instituto was the “cabaret”—a bricolage of creative and artistic expressions, usually staged, that has been an important form of political artivism in Mexico. Indigenous historical and political performances have also taken place in Tepoztlán during the various protests (against the golf club, against the expansion of the autopista) where theatricality has been used as an effective form to voice dissent. In other words, through cabaret performance the Tepoztlán Institute is taking cues from the rich traditions of embodied practices that are locally and regionally situated in order to collectively re-imagine resistance and protest. Humor and playfulness have been key to address, confront and survive extremely difficult and oppressive experiences in Latin America, as well as in other regions and cultural traditions of the world.
In recent years, participants have argued for widening the scope of this activity to include other artistic and cultural traditions and to be open to other aesthetic sensibilities, including individual or group activities that participants consider to be creative, artistic, and / or freely interpretative. We encourage all participants to bring some ideas for presenting one or more themes of the conference; and to work in cooperation with one another in the fashioning of a (re)presentation that can be shared with the group on the evening of our fiesta, which celebrates our gathering with food, music, dance, and carousing.
Participation in the creative/ artistic event includes a wide range of possibilities, such as: performing as an actor, singer, dancer, visual artist; assisting other performers with props used during the performance; putting together and/or playing the music playlist for your group’s performance; assisting in the design of costumes or special visual or sound effects used during the performance; helping the group to find materials and props at the various local markets; assistance writing the scripts, lyrics for songs, or helping in choreographing and/or blocking scenes for the performance; supporting performances as an enthusiastic and devoted member of the audience, etc. Each member of the group decides which of these options works best for him/her/them. Even though participation is voluntary, we would like to invite participants to support this component of the conference in a way that feels comfortable for them.
Acting up and out is always welcome at the Tepoztlán Institute. We especially encourage participants to do so with a sense of good faith and good will in the collective friendship and solidarity of our intellectual endeavors. Good faith and good will are critical components of this process. In the attempt to translate serious, traumatic, and often triggering historical readings and theoretical frameworks into a performance, it is likely that suggestions will be made which in one cultural context may be acceptable and in another appear insensitive and hurtful. This exercise of collective creativity requires participants to listen to each other, to have empathy, to attempt to understand the difficulty of cultural translation, and to ultimately err on the side of not causing pain to our comrades through inflexibility. We are here not simply to learn from reading and writing, but also from each other.