There seems to have been a lot of political leaders looking foolish lately. We look at their actions and explanations and wonder how they ended up there. I guess because they got into a trance where they were simply missing the cues that might warn them to change tack.
Viv and I coined the term teacher trance to describe the presentation and training version of this.
I think improv games are an awesome way of exploring trances. When we get tripped up in a game it’s often because we’ve gone into our head and settled into seeing the world through one particular pattern. A lot of the most satisfying moments in performance can be seen as interrupting the trance of the audience. I think a lot of learning happens when trances are broken. It’s a shame so much education seems to be about maintaining trances, not challenging them.
