A Welshman’s perspective : an investigation into the influence of cultural background upon one’s approach to performance and the creative process / Osian Meilir Ioan (2017)

Performance, process and culture.

This investigation is a personal enquiry; exploring my own cultural background and my up-bringing within a Welsh speaking community. I am eager to discover how one’s cultural background can influence one’s approach to performance and the creative process. Is possessing a knowledge, awareness and understanding of your own, and others’, culture helpful for performers in terms of studying movement and interacting with one another, during a performance, and throughout the creative process?

People are the main focus of my project; to be specific, dancers and performers. They are at the heart of my research. My key questions to them will be: Who are you? Where do you come from? How has your cultural surroundings affected you in your relationship with dance, performance and the creative process?
Firstly, I will be looking at notions of culture, what ideas are there around culture and what could it mean to different people. I shall research the various definitions and uses of the word, before narrowing my study to focus on my own experience of culture within a minority language group and how it correlates with dance and performance in various individual situations. I shall be delving into the physical, emotional and sociological influences that culture could have on an individual, making distinctions and discoveries about the patterns of performance within Welsh-language culture and discussing topics such as community, identity, political performance and cultural empathy.

I will be considering issues such as: the way we move, the manner in which we conduct ourselves with others, how we approach performance from different cultural experiences and perspectives, and the effect of those differences on our performance.

This is an investigation of our cultural selves, our past and present, within a performative and creative setting. I finally attempt to draw some lessons that could be applied to the study and execution of contemporary dance going forward.