inging American Realness 2013. Credit: Ian Douglas

From the artist profile of Jeanine Durning:

Last performance you saw that really inspired you:

It’s an interesting question these days. I really believe that being inspired is a practice and takes work, that it doesn’t just happen, or is given to me, and I really take that on as an audience member – to meet the performance on its own terms. I’m usually inspired by anything or anyone who is purely generous, purely committed, where I feel something is at stake for them, when someone is “all in,” when I’m not treated like an idiot, where an aspect of humanity – whether that’s terrifying or joyful – is revealed to me, not because the choreographer or performer want me to see it, or is forcing it on me, but because it emerges as a result of truly being fully inside something. That usually has nothing to do with being “smart” or witty or ironic. The question reminds me of a Chuck Close quote I recently saw, something like: Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just get to work.

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