ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the ways in which time restrictions influence skill acquisition in rehearsals, understood as creative but also as training contexts. It proposes possible strategies for rehearsing (inter)disciplinarity which circumvent the opposing pressures of aesthetic diversification and extended disciplinary practice. Yet interdisciplinary performance practice, which has emerged in response to contemporary pluralist tastes for diverse performance aesthetics and artistic innovation, often includes the creation of a production-specific skill-base in order to meet specific creative challenges. New disciplinary skills may have to be developed quickly within the time-restricted process of rehearsal; performers can be expected to learn skills in silk climbing, puppetry and/or martial arts to supplement – or perhaps as an extension of – their own practice as actors, opera singers or dancers. The existence of interdisciplinary practices indicates that it is possible to bridge the gap, thereby enabling the breakdown of established disciplinary boundaries.
