First day with the dancers today, and I had a go at explaining my concept to them. I'm sure they think I'm crazy, but as I have to hand in my program notes by tomorrow morning sharp anyway I thought what the hell.
So here it is:
“The Absence of TOM.”
“Theory of Mind (TOM) is the capacity to understand mental states such as: beliefs, feelings, desires, hope and intentions. It is the way we ‘imagine’ other people’s feelings or thoughts. This gives us the ability to predict some of the behaviours of others and anticipate them.
An example:
In this project, and with my nine dancers, we have been investigating this theory by developing a tactical game of movement. Just like a game of poker, chess or rock paper scissors, the dancers will need to anticipate each other’s moves, by strategizing, calculating, anticipating, manipulating and manoeuvring themselves to stay in the game.
This is a game of elimination; even I don’t know what's going to happen tonight. How will it end? That will depend on TOM.
