Il laboratorio artistico-performativo a scuola: riflessioni sull'esperienza di educarte

The present work comes through a 5 year research and development experience on some laboratories of performing art, musical and theatre ones, held in different schools of Milan in the frame of the Educarte project as a result of the cooperation between Fondazione Scuole Civiche Milano and the University of Milano-Bicocca and financed by Fondazione Cariplo. The leading purpose however is not much that of reporting the experience of Educarte but rather that of focusing on a subject among the many possible ones. This to go in depth two directions suggested by the empiric research assuming such directions could show a way to think and make theatre that disclose the artistic issue just in the middle of an extremely educational issue. The subject – the theatre laboratory - is therefore considered as an artistic performing laboratory. There’s no cosmetic attempt in this other than the purpose to underline the importance of approaching the artistic – performing perspective to the laboratorial one. The first suggests under a semeiotic point of view the possibility to feature the theatre as an artistic experience feeding particularly on temporality linked to the “body on the stage” and to the simultaneous presence of other bodies. The second one based on the deweyane suggestions shows the laboratory as a context that leads to think on learning, doing and on the school according to a pedagogic view that cannot be by-passed and is actually very often weakened by the scholastic daily life. The attempt to analyze such research directions by reviewing the “big test” resulting from the documentation of the project Educarte meant in the frame of the present work not only to go in depth the educational value of the theatre with the purpose to educate through the art but also to focus on the relationship between school and laboratory as a crucial point to wholly develop the potential of such experiences. Under this perspective the analysis explores either the relationship between the adults, the artistic operators and/or teachers or the one between those who lead and those are led identifying as central the reading of the leading task, that is able to keep together the different issues arisen by such leading task. It comes out from here the need to articulate categories, tools, attention fields, questions to go through to read and to direct the projecting work and the realization of these activities in such a way to respect and value the richness of the educational as well as the artistic field. As a result the need to promote in the laboratory responsibles, teachers as well as artistic operators, a research attitude interested in a pedagogic confrontation with the laboratorial practice by dealing with the projecting process as well as that of realization and assessment. This perspective suggests not only the necessity of a specific training for the responsible of the artistic- performing laboratory at school but also identify some areas to go in depth to establish “a common language” between artistic operators and teachers committed in the attempt of wholly developing the educational value of the theatre experience at school.