Michael Jackson
Innovating Contemporary Performance Practices.
We are witnessing, at the beginning of the XXI century, a comeback of the original concept of performance (defined as the representation of an artistic product before an audience), and, also, a return to the ancient performance model, mainly characterized by great spatial and temporal coordinates (ex. the Roman Coliseum gladiator shows, the esthetically hybrid Greek feasts, musical, dance and theatre, religious celebration given in the honor of the god Dionysus).
These years represent also the turning point for the foundation and the consolidation of the “spectacular society” (Guy Debord), also known as the Western society, within which human experiences (life, death, sufferance, disease, criminality, happiness) are turned into merchandise ready to be consumed, to be possessed by an audience that, through mass media, becomes globally wide spread and interconnected.
The social and political areas turning more theatrical, or more spectacular, coupled with the redefinition of citizens as audiences whose realities are meditated and turned into hyper realities, are, in my opinion, some of the factors that have determined not only the returning of the performing arts towards the ancient Roman/Greek performance model (defined by grandeur), but also a trespassing of esthetic grounds and a hybridization of various genre and styles. Nothing seems too great; nothing is too much in this amazing era.
MEGA and SUPER are the keywords of this new century, while the most representative esthetic format of the artistic life becomes the scenic concert, a performance structure that reunites dancers, musicians, actors, singers, artistic, technical directors, scene designers, costume designers, make up artists, video artists, special effect artists and thousands of audiences from all over the world. In other words, an interdisciplinary structure, between various arts, merging verbal, musical, theatre, filmic, video and body practices amplified and augmented at gigantesque proportions.
The innovator of this new esthetic format is the American artist, Michael Jackson, who, starting from the 80, has invented and constantly rewritten the rules based on which the scenic concert remains still a functional contemporary artistic structure.
Yet, the American singer is most known for innovating another esthetic format (the short movie video starting with Thriller in 1983), and who, in my opinion, reached a perfect format in 1997 with the short movie GHOSTS, produced by the American director Stan Wilson, based on a script written by Stephen King and Michael Jackson. Released at the 50th edition of the Cannes Festival, Ghosts could be seen for the first time in the off section of the festival.
The film tells the story of a scary Maestro with supernatural powers, who is being forced out of a small town by its mayor. The movie includes a series of dance routines performed by Michael Jackson and his "family" of ghouls. Every song from the film was taken from Michael Jackson’s HIStory and Blood on the Dance Floor albums. Ghosts has much in common with its most direct predecessor, "Thriller". Originally released in 1983, "Thriller" also featured Jackson as the main protagonist/antagonist, interacting and choreographed with "undead" dancers. Likewise, both films act as homage to monster films past. While "Thriller" could be viewed as a tribute to 1950’s – ’70’s genre films (I Was a Teenage Werewolf and George Romero’s Living Dead Series among them), Ghosts owes more directly to the Universal Monsters series of films. Even its opening sequence recalls scenes of torch-wielding villagers storming the castle gates of an assumed antagonist, a repeating motif in movies ranging from 1931’s Frankenstein to 2004’s Van Helsing.
Ghosts also can be viewed as a not-so-thinly veiled self-commentary by Jackson on his personal circumstances in the years preceding (and ironically, following) its production. Direct parallels can be drawn between various elements in the film and Jackson‘s own life: The Maestro – a reclusive, solitary figure, living removed from the townspeople, and interacting primarily with their children – suffers much the same reaction as the self-styled "King of Pop" did. (It could be similarly argued that the character of The Mayor most directly represents vocal Jackson critic and prosecutor Tom Sneddon).
Artistic codes taken from various artistic practices (theatre, film, dance, video, scenic concert, video clip) interfere and fuse, creating an outcome that can not, even nowadays, be categorized and easily referenced.
From a theatrical point of view, it is amazing to observe the amount of focus the creators of Ghosts give to the concept of public (the villagers brought by the Mayor), as almost 45 percent of the film footage consists of general shots and zoom in-s on different characters, capturing their reactions to what they are experiencing. Another interesting aspect represents the implicit classification of these reactions in the context of Aristotle and post Aristotle’s cathartic esthetic categories: fear, pity, joy. These moods and reactions change and replace themselves very quickly according not only to the evolution of the story line, but also to a subtle manipulation of the so called safe space between the audiences and the actors (the public is delighted, laughs when the ghosts dance, walk on the walls, make tricks, but keep their distance from them, and becomes frighten, cries and yells when they get closer).
A third theatrical element worthy to be pointed out, when considering the theatre practice, is the typology of two characters; the Buffoon ghost and the Maestro (Michael Jackson), who, as a stage director, sets the rules of the game, creates his acting/performing troop (materializing the ghosts) leads and controls this troop, separates the performance space from the public space, and, at the end, asks his audience if they have liked what they had seen. (Were you scared? But did we all have a good time?).
To this theatrical structure, video and media codes are added (the virtual special effects for the creating of the skeleton of the maestro) together with contemporary dance codes that imply a set choreography not only for the dancers but for the video cameras themselves.
The artistic genius of the American performer, Michael Jackson (who has recently made himself present in the artistic world, after a time off for almost 2 years) has given to the artistic and entertainment world two esthetic formats: the scenic concert (the mega concert or the multimedia concert) and the short movie/long video clip (still having trouble finding a right name for it), by which, he has not only innovated the contemporary performance practices, but he has also established himself as an international vanguard artist, pushing even further the questions of what art and entertainment are supposed to be. The wonderful news is that this great artist is back again in the rehearsal studio, creating and innovating new material to the delight of his public.
You can watch GHOSTS at this address:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwOA8H5Vaak