What
Happens There?
The focus of the work at Fantastic Space Enterprises is on developing
high levels of performance awareness and an
increased freedom with creative expression and play. All the
exercises are designed to increase our ability
to flow with our inspiration with increased
articulation and consciousness; physically,
emotionally, and psychologically. All the work
encourages the development of primary life skills
that nurture our creative awareness and the
ability to embody our intuition in a consciously
expressive and functional way that benefits
both our personal and professional life.
What is the Focus of
the Courses?
The courses offered are physically active studies
in the psychology and physiology of human performance.
They look at the physical, mental, and emotional
aspects of our being and at the quality of spirit
created among them. The intention is to relax
and release
holding patterns within ourselves and develop
more fluency and articulation with the powerful
skills of sensitivity, intellect, and imagination
we were born with. By developing more ease and
fluency we can enhance our personal and professional
performance, and promote a deeper understanding
of our human nature and how we share it with
others.
How
is the Work Done?
The work uses a body centered, humanistic approach
that allows each person the privilege of being
themselves along with the challenge of facing
themselves. It employs bio-kinetic release work
with the body and breath to dynamically support us to relax and create a "high stakes low consequence"
environment where we can practice and strengthen our relationship with the unknown. It draws upon tools and conventions
from the performing arts for frameworks that
help us to connect with ourselves and cultivate
personal presence in our relationship and communication
with others. The methodology supports principal
centered self education and the development
of our "inner Facilitator/Ringmaster"
for ongoing, self authorized personal and professional
growth. Each individual is appreciated as being
unique and is supported to grow at their own
pace within the principles of the work being
done. Self authorization and honesty are encouraged
within a framework of human respect in all the
work and diversity is celebrated as a catalyst
for growth.
Who Can
Take These Courses?
The courses are for mature, open minded, adventurous,
fun loving, self motivated people from all backgrounds
and interests who wish to enhance their performance
and are looking for the opportunity to step
"outside the box" of what is presently
familiar to them and create new possibilities
of seeing and being; Performing Artists, Professionals,
Athletes, and Adventurous Explorers from all
walks of Life. They are accessible to all levels
of experience and admission requires an interview.
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David MacMurray Smith
Philosophical Statement
Over the years that I have worked
and taught in various mediums of the performing
arts, I have been amazed at the challenges we
face in communicating with each other as human
beings. My curiosity has led me to explore the
phenomenon from different perspectives which
have included the physiology of behavior, the
psychology of communication, the linguistics
of structure, and various theories about the
nature of memory and perception.
My
impetus for this investigation is rooted in
my sense that there is great need today for
more personal and interpersonal transmythic
avenues for present event perception and communication
among ourselves.
This basically means that I perceive the need
for increased ways for people to more directly
experience themselves and each other across
boundaries of age, race, sex, and culture etc.
I view each individual's interpretation of an
experience as the creation of a small myth of
the event, a way that we describe an event to
ourselves. We each create our own interpretation
of what we experience by associating what we
are presently experiencing with what we already
hold in our memory. I consider this process
of associative interpretation as a form of self
narrative and a foundation of myth making. The
sharing of myths among ourselves is a primary
way that we attempt to communicate and relate
our experiences among one another. Although
it is a marvelous process, it is also inaccurate
by nature because it will always be a subjective
interpretation. It also has an inherent danger
because the subjective interpretation is full
of assumptions. Our memory of an event is only
a vicarious representation of the event itself.
A distant relative that becomes more distant
as time goes by. The more distant it becomes
the more full of assumptions it may become. This process
is unavoidable, yet our awareness of its inherent
shortcoming's might allow us to be more watchful
for our assumptions and more consciously present
to receive new, and perhaps more accurate information.
I believe that we have come to
a time in human development where we have more
awareness and knowledge than ever before in
history. And yet our abilities to converse among
ourselves within that awareness and knowledge
is hamstringed by the lack of appreciation we
have of the myth making process we use to discuss
our experience of life together. I am of the
opinion that our neurological structure is wired
to create myths. So, it is natural that the
myth making process expands from there to the
trans personal, cultural, and inter-cultural
dimensions. It is especially in these extended
dimensions that we begin to mistake that this
process of myth making we use to discuss our
experience of life together is actually the
life experience itself. In this way we confuse
the description of an event for the event itself.
This lack of discernment is a very natural outcome
of the phenomenon of how our systems of memory
appear to work. Is also very dangerous for we
can then easily fall victim to allowing our
assumptions of what we see and experience, or
what we want to see and experience, blind us
from receiving new information from our present
perception and inhibit our ability to see new
opportunities and avoid old pitfalls.
For effective and progressive communication
to take place in the fast-paced cross-cultural
dynamics that exist in our society today, there
is need for the emotional and psychological
mobility to converse across the apparent boundaries
of personal and group identity concerns and
the willingness to adjust to new perceptual
frameworks at a quicker and quicker pace. My
interest lies firmly in developing an awareness
about the challenges that are presented by the
very skill we have as human beings to communicate
symbolically with one another and to develop
our ability to do so with increased clarity.
This is a challenging process that demands discernment,
diligence, patience, and determination.
As we lean our way into the 21st
century I think is essential that we increase
our ability to directly experience one other
by lifting the veils of assumption and seeing
beyond the myths we have created of ourselves.
By doing so we may begin to expand the number
of perspectives and possibilities for increased
human understanding and communication, and also
open the door for new hypotheses toward solutions
regarding the challenging circumstances we face
today concerning our continuation as a species
on this planet.
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SHORT
BIOGRAPHY
David MacMurray Smith
Over
the last 40 years David has worked professionally in the areas
of Theater, Ballet, Opera, Mime, and Clown,
as a Creator, a Performer, a Director, a Choreographer,
and an Educator. He is a Movement Specialist,
Body worker, Creative and Performance Consultant,
and an Experienced Counselor who has taught
at several universities, was Head Instructor
at the Vancouver Playhouse Theater School, for eight years was the Movement Director for
the Music Theater and Opera Programs at the
Banff Center for the Arts, and has also been
a guest resource artist at The People's Light
& Theatre Company in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania since 1987. He is a Core Trainer with Full Circle First Nations Performance, under the direction of Margo Kane, on faculty in the Douglas College Theatre program teaching Physical Training and Voice, and is a teacher and Founding Faculty Member of the Expressive Arts Therapy certificate training program through the Continuing Education department of Langara College.
David considers himself an independent educator
who founded Fantastic Space Enterprises in 1995 where the focus of the work is on self
liberation and self realization through creative
expression. His special-interest is in how memory
moves and patterns itself in our bodies and
in how this affects our perceptions, behavior,
and communication. As a movement specialist
David has drawn on his broad range of experience
and sources to develop his own body centered,
humanist approach to personal and professional
development. His expertise lies in his ability
to facilitate learning environments that promote
principle centered self-education and provide
strong foundations for continued personal and
professional growth.
(back
to top)
LONG
BIOGRAPHY
DAVID MACMURRAY SMITH
Over the last forty years of his professional
career David has worked in the areas of Theatre,
Ballet, Opera, Mime, and Clown, as a creator,
a performer, a director, a choreographer, and
an educator. He is also an experienced counselor
and an advanced practitioner in the body discovery
and therapy known as Kinetic Awareness. His
association with theatre began with productions
at church and in high school and his first formal
education with it began at the University of
Massachusetts where he graduated cum laude with
a double major in Theatre and Dance.
While at the university he had the opportunity
to work with many advanced artists in both the
areas of theatre and dance. Over the four years
of his studies at the university David had an extended
opportunity to study with professional artists
who did yearly artist-in-residence programs
at the university. In the area of dance he worked
with Eric Hawkins, Alwin Nicholais, Murray Lewis,
Alvin Ailey, Jose Limon, Jennifer Mueller, Martha
Graham, Paul Taylor, and Lewis Falco and with
Andre Gregory and his company, The Manhattan
Project, Charles Ludlam and his company, The
Theatre of the Ridiculus, and Joseph Chaikin
and his company, The Open Theatre in the area
of theatre. While at the university David was
nominated as Most Promising Student Actor in
the National College Arts Festival in 1973,
one of 20 young actors nominated from across
the United States, for his interpretation of
the Pardoner in the Pardoner's Tale in an adaptation
of Chaucer's, Cantebury Tales which was a winner
in the national festival.
Upon graduating David went on
to continue his training in New York. He obtained
a full scholarship in the professional program
of the Joffery Ballet at the School of American
Ballet, studied to advanced levels at the Luigi
Dance Centre with Eugine "Luigi" Louis,
and continued the theatre and mime training
he had begun at university at the Herbert Bergough
Studio.
The first professional opportunity
came when he was hired as a company member in
Les Ballets Jazz du Montreal. This brought David
to Canada in 1975 and he has made his residence there ever since. He went on to work with La
Companie du Danse Entre Six, and Les Grandes
Ballets Canadiens before deciding give dance
a rest and return to his work in theatre. Over
the next four years he continued intense studies
in mime and clown while supporting himself teaching,
doing television work and delivering mail. He
graduated from the Mime School Unlimited, in
Toronto at the time, and worked as a member of the company Mime Unlimited,
Ron East, director. He did extensive studies over
a four year period with Clowning Pioneer Richard
Pochinko and finished the advanced curriculum
in Decroux Mime technique at the Ecole Du Mime
Corporeal Du Quatsous in Montreal with Jean
Asselin and Denise Boulanger, directors.
At this point David was offered
an opportunity to participate in the development
of a new program at the Banff Centre for the
Arts as an instructor in the newly developing Music Theatre Studio
Ensemble, Micheal Bawtree, director. During
his tenure there from 1981 to '86 he began to
work as a director and creative consultant as
well as Movement Director in the program. His
first directing endeavor, an original production
of Arnold Shoenberg's, Pierrot Lunaire , won
him a Guthrie Award at the Stratford Festival in Ontario where he was working as a company member in
1983 and '84.
From 1985 to 1988 David also worked at the Banff
Festival of the Arts as movement director for
the summer classical Opera Program, Colin Graham,
director. David took a personal sabbatical in
1986 - '87 and completed the Advanced Actors
Physical Training program with Linda Putnam
at the Foolscap Theatre School in Massachusetts.
Having developed a passion for
teaching, David was excited to be offered the
position of Head instructor and Associate Director
of the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre School and
saw two groups complete the program between
1987 and 1991. Since then David has also taught
at the University British Columbia, Simon Fraser
University, Douglas College, Kwantlen College,
and the William Davis Centre for Actors. He
has also been a guest resource artist at The
People's Light & Theatre Company in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania since 1987, where he taught physical
training and body sense and acted as a Creative
Consultant in the development of new works as
well as being an artists' development counselor,
Abigail Adams, artistic director. He is a Core Trainer with Full Circle First Nations Performance, under the direction of Margo Kane, on faculty in the Douglas College Theatre program teaching Physical Training and Voice, and is a teacher and Founding Faculty Member of the Expressive Arts Therapy certificate training program through the Continuing Education department of Langara College.
In the area of production David
has more than 60 productions which he has either
stage directed, movement directed, or choreographed.
He has worked for Opera Theatre of St. Louis,
St. Louis MO., Opera Lyra, Ottawa, the Banff
Center for the Arts, Banff, Alberta, The Society
of Composers, Actors,& Musicians, Toronto,
Ontario, The Blue Rider Ensemble, Kitchner,
Ontario, Vancouver Playhouse Theatre School,
Vancouver, B.C., The People's Light and Theatre
Company, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Douglas
College, New Westminster, B.C., Bard David
on the Beach, Vancouver B.C., and The Dusty Flowerpot Cabaret, Vancouver B.C. David has also
created seven original Movement Theatre and Clown Works
of his own which were performed at Theatre festivals
in Quebec, Ontario, at the National Dance
Conferences in 1981 and 1982, and at Fringe Festivals across Canada.
David is now an independent educator
who founded Fantastic Space Enterprises studio,
in 1995 where the focus of the work is on self
liberation and self realization through creative
expression. His special-interest is in how memory
moves and patterns itself in our bodies and
in how this affects our perceptions, behavior,
and communication. As a movement specialist
David has drawn on his broad range of experience
and sources to develop his own body centered,
humanist approach to personal and professional
development. His expertise lies in his ability
to facilitate learning environments that promote
principle centered self-education and provide
strong foundations for continued personal and
professional growth.
(back
to top)
HISTORY
Fantastic Space Enterprises was
founded in 1995 by David MacMurray Smith. He
had been teaching in institutions and post graduate
conservatories for the arts for many years and
had found that, although institutions were well
designed to support curriculums, they were much
less flexible in their ability to adjust to
the unique and changing circumstances of the
learning processes of individuals. He also discovered
that the post graduate students he was working
with were often lost, empty, and ungrounded
within the skill and result training they had
received.
A lot of his time as an educator
was spent in assisting individuals to fill their
technique with presence. He established Fantastic
Space Enterprises in order to provide a studio
environment that could be more flexible in how
it could adjust its curriculum in relation to
the individual and devote a more balanced amount
of time to the process of personal fulfillment in
the work.
Over the years David discovered
that his primary allegiance was to human beings
and not to any single convention of the arts
he had been working in. The Studio has afforded
him the opportunity to openly address both the
personal and professional development aspects
of the performing artist and assist them in
finding their own "voice" within the
skill and result training they had received.
It then became clear that the core principles
of work being done were beneficial to more than
only the performing artist. The life skills
being learned and the lessons in personal presence
were central to the functional creativity and
performance of people from all walks of life.
So, now the work at Fantastic
Space Enterprises holds a focus on developing
how these core principles apply and are beneficial
in more and more diverse personal and professional
situations as well as how they increase the
quality of work for the performing artist.
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