Page 30 - The Moretonian 2025

The Art of Performance

Creativity as the

Heart of Learning

Scientific studies have shown that the performance of art exercises almost all

areas of the brain: vision, hearing, movement, memory and the whole gamut of
emotion. Through words acted, steps danced or notes sung, the consummate
performer can come to the apotheosis of human skill, simultaneously inside
and outside herself, aware of herself and her audience. The performer is also
conscious that it takes both parties to give life to works of art. Like the tree
falling in the forest, art unperformed doesn’t exist at all: esse est percipi.

This is why creative engagement is vital for
our academic development. It is only when we
can produce something out of new learning,
something inflected and mutated by its journey
through our own mind, that we can really claim
to have mastered it. It is also why anyone using
AI to write their plays, poems or lyrics is missing
the central point of creativity: what is admirable
in art is not just the product itself but the
testament it pays to the struggle of its birth.

Essay writing falls under the aegis of creative
engagement; after all, writing about art at any
level requires at least some original thought on
the subject matter and, at its most serious, aims
to add to the body of its understanding. No valid
point can be made about a text without the
confidence to think, say and write things about
it, coupled with the lexicon to express them.
The reason why every essay is difficult is that
there is never only one response to, one way
of thinking about, a great text. Every title asks
different questions, and to kid oneself that
coming to terms with them requires no personal
invention risks neglecting the intended interplay
between creator and audience that lies at the
heart of the work itself. Faced with this task,
our job as teachers of essay-based subjects is
to furnish our learners with both the confidence
for critical thinking and the opportunities to
articulate their ideas.

This thinking is behind the plethora of
performative events organised and hosted by

30 The Moretonian 2025