Movement for actors

Príspevok reflektuje časť štúdia vyučovacieho predmetu Herecká pohybová výchova IV. na Fakulte dramatických umení Akadémii umení v Banskej Bystrici dištančnou formou. Keďže denné štúdium a kolektívna tvorba neboli možné, hľadali sme iné spôsoby, možnosti a zadania v rámci stanoveného tematického okruhu pre daný semester. Zamerali sme sa viac na individuálnu prácu jednotlivca, ale tiež na pozorovanie a analyzovanie ľudí z blízkeho okolia. Ako prirodzene reagujú a konajú v rôznych situáciách a ako môžeme vidieť rôzne zmeny v ich fyzickom výraze. Pozorovanie môže hercovi slúžiť ako východisko a inšpiračný zdroj pre jeho ďalšiu tvorbu.

Access to new technologies has often been difficult and inadequate for the needs of contemporary choreographers during the recent history of dance in Brazil.  However, digital inclusion is now a government objective while economic and educational inclusion is still a dream.  It is argued that technology might now have an important role in the artistic work of choreographers, since it is becoming gradually more accessible.  The objective of this research is to develop ways to assist choreographers that are willing to use computers within their choreographic processes but find it difficult because of the lack of educational or financial support.

To assess the tasks a computer application can accomplish within choreographic processes in Brazil, four works were used in this research.  An extended definition of Distributed Choreography, developed from Distributed Cognition and Group Creativity approaches, was the framework employed to analyse the use of computer-based artefacts within dance creation.  This theoretical framework supported the generation of a new concept: the Choreographic Planning Environment (CPE).  This seeks to provide parameters for the creation and use of computer-based artefacts to support dance creation.

Based on these parameters, a series of practical proposals has been created and evaluated exploring the use or adaptation of existing software packages, and also the design and implementation from scratch of a new program.  These proposals enable the choreographer to sketch aspects of choreographic design and organise material for rehearsals using a standard computer.  All proposals are in the early stages of development and are included in a companion CD (Choreographing With Your Computer) together with tutorials and a multimedia database containing part of the material collected for this research.

Synthesizing the pedagogy of acting with new findings in Neuroscience and archetypal understandings of human ways of learning and seeing. This book contains practical exercises for directors, actors, and teachers to use combining these three elements.

Keywords:
ABSTRACT
Singing; Formation of the Singer; Body and Vocal Language; Fusion of Methods; Musical Performance.
Despite the relevance of studies on the role of the body, usually, the training dedicated to the formation of the body of the singer as an instrument of expression is not clear. Singers, in their early years of studies at the Conservatory, are usually anxious to train the body to serve the vocal technique and less anxious to train it to serve performance. So, a detailed work for body expression for recitals proved to be necessary. This study, therefore, reflects the search for exercises that could be related to the development of bodily expressions to the vocal performance. This investigation was based on action research methodology and consisted of a field research in three stages. Initially composed of stages based on techniques of François Delsarte, Jaques-Dalcroze and Constanza Macras, whose concepts were applied in workshops of body movement for singers. The results form the workshops, in turn, helped in the construction of the master class for the third field research stage. The goal of these steps was to select exercises that, from the point of view of singers, would complement their expressive development for recital purposes. On the three stages of the field research, participants worked as actively, going through practical exercise and evaluating them through tables, interviews, questionnaires and informal conversations. The exercises had as general objectives the body awareness and the relationship between the body and the sound. For the evaluation of the effectiveness of the exercises, all classes were filmed. The second and third stages voice pupils from Brazilian universities. The process and the conclusions in this work are also justified by the latest discoveries of neuroscience: the process, by relying on full-time relationship between actions and memory; the findings, by confirming that new actions can be learned and that these actions can lead to the expansion of artistic-expressive capacities.

The application of Laban's method in actor training has a long history that extends beyond his work in dance, and it is this area that this paper focuses on. Although Laban himself applied his method to the training of actors, it was mainly left to his followers to develop-often erratically, or this is what this paper suggests-Laban's insights. Practitioners such as Jean Newlove (1993), Yat Malmgren (Mirodan, 1997), Geraldine Stephenson (McCaw, 2009), Brigid Panet (2009) and others have all continued developing Laban's work by offering movement classes for actors that are based on his principles; moreover, each of these individuals has developed a specific method based on Laban's principles. It is worth noting that these methods do not differ from one another, and all of their practitioners agree in principle that the philosophical foundation of Laban's theory and practice is to be interpreted according to Platonic precepts. I will argue that this Platonic foundation underpins each of the above practitioners' own development; furthermore, notwithstanding the differences between them, it is Platonism that unifies them all under a common philosophical approach. This paper is a theoretical enquiry into the proposition that there is a strong link between Laban's movement theory and Aristotle's Poetics. More specifically, it proposes that Laban's analysis of human movement is inextricably linked to Aristotle's concept of mimesis perceived as a ζώον (life force).

Podemos desenvolver um processo criativo pessoal em dança fundamentado nas Ações Físicas? Para responder a esta questão, norteadora de nosso trabalho, fundamentamos, descrevemos e analisamos o processo de criação da coreografia Homem, na qual um personagem é abordado em três versões distintas: uma cômica, outra dramática e por fim uma animal. A coreografia tem a particularidade de ter uma mesma sequência coreográfica executada de forma diferenciada em cada uma das versões.
Iniciamos nosso processo de criação a partir da Quietude Criativa, da teoria de Rudolf Laban e das ferramentas para composição coreográfica desenvolvidas por Jacqueline Smith-Autard. No entanto sentimos ainda a necessidade de buscar em Stanislavsky, Grotowski e Eugenio Barba um conhecimento complementar que nos permitiu abordar a dança de uma maneira pessoal.
As técnicas de observação da pesquisa, como os Avaliadores, o Caderno de Campo e o Vídeo, passaram a ser ferramentas de interação com o trabalho prático, influenciando diretamente em nosso processo criativo.
Homem, cujo registro em vídeo acompanha esta dissertação, tornou-se um laboratório no qual foi, e continua sendo possível realizar experimentações das mais diversas.
Concluímos ao longo da pesquisa que sim, graças ao embasamento teórico e às rotinas práticas adotadas, é possível desenvolver um processo criativo pessoal em dança, fundamentado nas Ações Físicas.

How could a basketball team function if the following questions were at the top of their training and performing lists?
Do you mind if I touch you?
Don't we need a 'violence coach' for this?
Should we bring in an Intimacy coach to avoid distress?
When did actors stop being athletes of the heart, mind, and body? Is this the culmination of the in-going, psychologically analytical, open wound style of acting promulgated by the Strasberg Method folks? Is it about the idea that acting is emotion? Does it concern the film close-up wherein actors reveal their tortured hearts with tears?

Or perhaps the reason for the required questions has to do with the overall fearfulness in the US population as a whole, stemming from a Puritan background that seems to have reared it punitive head.

Or maybe it is a result of the 'build self esteem' teaching movement that swept the country a few decades ago where every child was given a reward and not taught how to deal with overcoming obstacles through conflict.

Whatever the reason, conflict and story telling seem to be losing the battle as we retreat from true interaction between and among actors and seek self-inflicted emotion.

Actor training today is mostly solo, ingoing, and introspective. We do very little to encourage the conflictive interaction at the heart of drama outside of combat class. We leave action in the head, relate it only to plot, and never fully explore what releasing the conflict physically might uncover. In our acting training the powerful senses of touch and smell presented by another's body are not fully addressed. We shy away from these vital and powerful ingredients because we literally fear the archetypal sensuality, sexuality, and violence of which theatre is made.

If we still lived in a literary world, wherein theatre was an auditory event dressed up with costumes, witnessed by other literary people, we might not need anything more.

However, the latest neuroscientific research tells us that the perception of action whether fully accomplished or only intended is what keeps people engaged, merely to see what is going to happen.

How do we create actors who are 'actors' rather than 'feelers'?

My search as an acting specialist is to find a way to reinvigorate the stage, to equalize the creative relationship between directors and actors, and to explore what moves audiences and what doesn't. As a result, I have written a book entitled, Acting, Archetype, and Neuroscience: Superscenes for Rehearsal and Performance, Routledge, 2016.

Having studied body movement analysis in Paris 8 I'm applying it to analyze documentaries about Pierre Gagnaire and Michel Bras chefs to understand relationships between their movements and some of the specificities of their creativity in the  kitchen.

A leading figure in the development of twentieth century theatre practice, Jacques Copeau pioneered work on actor-training, physical theatre and ensemble acting, and was a key innovator in the movement to de-centralise theatre and culture to the regions. This is the first book to combine: an overview of Copeau's life and work; an analysis of his key ideas; a detailed commentary of his 1917 production of Moliere's late farce 'Les Fourberies de Scapin' - the opening performance of his influential New York season; and, a series of practical exercises offering an introduction to Copeau's working methods.