In 2009, the Board of Directors from CODARTS, the University for the Arts in Rotterdam invited Frank Heckman to research the phenomena of excellence in performance. Heckman called it Sustainable Performance, looking at the ability to perform at your best, again and again, as an evolving process.
The sustainable performance website states: ‘Enter the Journey, the Stage is Yours!’
I would like to say the same here. For what you are about to enter here is not an ordinairy book, it is more the collective experience of a journey. We present it in an open, successive –chapter by chapter-, and multi medial way –filmclips, apps, text.
It is a journey undertaken by your peers, ranging from students to teachers, artists from the classical, pop, jazz, worldmusic, music theatre, modern dance, dance therapy, dance education and circus arts. But also several staff members from the health department, dean’s office and communication group. Around forty people embarked on a two year journey, they were my teachers, researchers and respondents. But they, of course, had their own drives and motivations and became masters of their own destiny.
I am herewith inviting you not to just open this and take a peek (of course you are welcome to do so) but to seriously embark on your own Journey. I don’t think you will regret it. As I made it clear to the forty forementioned nomads, I will make it clear to you too: ‘Travel light, strip life to the bare essentials!’ ‘I’m providing the structure, the dimensions of the journey, and some concepts, tools and skills from my own travel experience’. ‘But, once you have the overview, see the whole picture you can consciously decide what information fits you, what you will take with you on this Journey. Moreover, you realize that you yourself have valuable experiences, knowledge and resources. And as they make all the more sense to you against the backdrop of this adventure, you can kind of download your own ‘performance data base’ into the Journey ‘software’.
And I am inviting you to indeed do so. To leave your best experience, knowledge of a topic or valuable resource on this open source WordPress site. At the places or chapters where you feel you have something to contribute. To share it with all your brother and sister performers out there, who are ready to take their place on the world stage. Just post a reaction or ask us through email permission to post a blog text yourself.
We are laying the foundation, you help us to make this a very cool, evolving source, a good place for everybody.
If you want to know how, just check and see what some of you have already done.
Like I said: Enter the Journey, the Stage is Yours!’
Frank Heckman, Professor at Codarts HS Rotterdam, December 2012
Copyright © 2012 Frank Heckman
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Flow on Stage 
Reblogged this on Ned Hamson Second Line View of the News.