Project of Training, Research, and Devising for actors/dancers/singers/musicians
The project The Body’s Journey is the fruit of more than 20 years of experience of Leela Alaniz in the theatre field (training, university research, teaching, devising). It concentrates on the fusion of two contemporary techniques for the actor/dancer training: The Organic Lineage research initiated and developed by Jerzy Grotowski and then by Eugenio Barba and his collaborators (Theatre Anthropology); and the Corporeal Mimeof Etienne Decroux. These different techniques find a commonplace in that they both develop through the actor/dancer the sense of scenic presence and autonomy as an author/performer/creator.
The exercises of the organic process liberate the energetic flux from the spinal column, and propagate to transform the physical body. The actor/dancer thus develops a concentration and identifies with his physical, emotional and mental centers. Instead of searching for a specific expression, the actor/dancer plunges into a real process of organic research, which in turn becomes an artistic expression. The corporeal movements are initiated by impulses that are germinated from the interior of the body and develop within and throughout it. The research in theatre anthropology draws its inspiration from traditional theater from diverse parts of the world.
In the practice of Corporeal Mime, the actor/dancer finds the possibility of creating his or her own personal compositions in isolating different parts of the body, in mastering its articulations, and in playing with varying speeds, resistances and designs of corporeal movement.
The play and the joy of playing, and the improvisation are part of the listening and of the sharing. The research with materials, the acrobatics, the voice work (text and sing) and the exercises of awareness and awakening the interior are also part of our training work, research and creation.
Our project, The Body’s Journey, will guide actors/dancers on a road to self-discovery in order to explore new corporeal paths through the listening of impulses, abandoning of stereotypical and mechanical behaviors, and through the discovery and the respect of a genuine organicity inherent in the body. A corporeal work conducted with attention and sensibility allows the actor/dancer to develop an original language capable of communicating to a larger audience and to cultivate openness to one’s self and to others, recovered through the artistic training of theatre and performance throughout the ages and across cultures.[/az_column_text][az_divider div_type=”thin-solid-div”][az_column_text]This new edition of The Body’s Journey benefits from the valuable collaboration of experienced artists/masters including: Dominique Moaty, practical training of singing, corporeal conscious, and musical play; Jean-François Dusigne, practical training of speech and breathing, and the impulses of text; Won Kim, practical training on play and improvisation.
Lectures-demonstrations enrich the conceptual understanding of the practical work and thus, we have invited specific teachers who come from diverse horizons: Gilberto Icle (Brazil) presents a Lecture on the Study of Presence and a practical training based on his book: From movement to the theatrical stage: techniques developed from popular Brazilian culture; Elizabeth de Roza (Singapore) presents a Lecture/Demonstration on Kalarippayattu – Technique and Artistic Creation; Won Kim presents a Lecture/Demonstration on The Counterweights of Etienne Decroux in the Contemporary World; Jesser de Souza (Brazil), Lecture/Demonstration: The Training Technique of the Actor; and Serge Troude presents a Lecture on the The Gurdjieff’s Teachings Today.
Training Program
Practice – with Leela Alaniz
- Exercises of the Organic Lineage – research of organicity, energetic flux, opening the blockages of the body, and of the release.
- Exercises of attention and interior awakening
- Stage Presence
- Acrobatics, Contact improvisation
- Corporeal Mime – Technique Etienne Decroux – articulations, counterweights, dynamo-rhythm, intra-corporeal and inter-spatial causalities.
- Alexander Technique – relaxation and liberation of the articulations
- Work with objects
- Voice – corporeal resonators, vocal improvisations, text
- Improvisations, play
- Compositions, structure
- Final Project and Show
Practice – with Dominique Moaty
- Singing, corporeal awareness and musical play
The relationship between movement and corporeal blockages will be explored through a series of physical exercizes in order to identify and overcome the obstacles that limit the freedom of the body. The meditation and contempation are also integral aspect of the work.
Practice – with Jean-François Dusigne
- Breathing and the words, the impulses of the text
Practice – with Won Kim
- Play and Improvisations
Lectures/Demonstrations with:
Gilberto Icle
- Seminar: The study on the presence
This lecture presents the Study on the Presence, highlighting the epistemological aspects for research on performance practices. It seeks to contextualize the research that gave rise to studies on presence, describing the Brazilian academic context in which it is emergent. This is to circumscribe the research on the analysis of the creative process by putting into perspective the connection between this process and the non-interpretative aspect of the research.
- Lecture/Demonstration: From movement to the theatrical stage: techniques developed from popular Brazilian culture
This work concentrates on the study of movement as the principle means to which the actor can present himself on stage. It requires developing the figures and characteristics of certain legends of the South of Brazil such as the Salamanca do Jarau (a Moorish princess); Anhangá-Pitã (a demon created from the natural surroundings); the Boitatá (an enormous and mythical serpent). These figures are represented in the physical training exercises of rhythm, energy and movement. Then, these techniques are applied to trick the senses and to avoid the clichés. From the study of these figures, the actor can, through an organic process, discover the possibility of creating personal compositions that will be worked in their dimensions of the fine arts, the body and semantics. The work’s objective is to experiment the entire range of expressive possibilities of the actor and of the dancer for the stage. It is aimed to build a personal repertory inspired from certain elements of the diversity of Brazilian culture. The goal is to utilize these studies for other creative approaches of the contemporary performance art developed from popular Brazilian culture.
Elizabeth de Roza
- Lecture/demonstration: Kalarippayattu – technique and artistic creation
How the training (esp that of Kalaripayattu) leads to the embodiment of physical awareness of an actor. Investigating ‘ the point of resonance’ that is akin to ‘presence’. Through this investigation, the actor develops a physical score that works on 5 basic rules of the body-in-space (soft fireworks). This active visceral response paired with the intellectually vivid physical vocabulary of Kalaripayattu retrained the actor’s body awakened to the creation of the body in performance (image-actions).
Won Kim
- Lecture/Demonstration: The Counterweights of Etienne Decroux in the Contemporary World
Through the optic of three existential levels: the physical, the technical, and the poetic, the study of the decrousien Counterweight presents the possibility of going beyond the illustrative representation and the illusion with the practical understanding of poetic counterweights not only for the art of corporeal mime, but across all corporeal activities related to sports, performing arts, and political resistance.
Jesser de Souza
Company LUME, Brazil http://www.lumeteatro.com.br
Conference-Demonstration : The physical and vocal training of the actor
Presentation based the work of practice types, or the training techniques of the actors of the Brazilian Theatre company, LUME:
- investigation of the construction of the extra-quotidian energy and stage presence;
- la dilatation de ces mêmes énergies à la fois dans le temps et dans l’espace ;
- the dilation of these same energies in time and in space together;
- the management of the energetic flux in and beyond the physical body;
- vocal resonators of work;
- the creation of characters through Mimesis Corporel.
Serge Troude
- Lecture: The Gurdjieff’s Teachings Today
A historical retrospective on the career of research and teaching of Georges Ivanovitch Gurdjieff (1877-1949), who had a profound knowledge of Eastern ritual practices for the development of presence and then his desire to develop and adapt then that they could be used to contemporary man.[/az_column_text]
