Butoh – Week One

First Butoh class of 2008. How terribly excited we all were. I know it is pointless to talk about Butoh, but I guess I will describe what happened, and how I feel about it all.

Moving Meditation

• Start in neutral, feet shoulder-width apart, eyes open, or in soft focus. Image of a string extending from the top of the head, keeping the body upright, but free of tension.
• Take attention to the breath, making it audible and energised.
• Feel a connection to the earth and let the feet relax into the floor, relieving any tension.
• Working the way up the body, relieving tension and finding a state of empty relaxation.
• Using the image of a string attached to the right hip, slowly let the string pull your hip forward. Suddenly, the string is cut, and the body returns to neutral. The string attaches itself to points around the hips, always being cut, and bringing the body back to neutral. Repeat with the chest.
• The string now attaches itself to the right elbow, and draws it up as far as possible. A string is attached to the elbow, and then the middle finger, drawing the body up. The strings are sequentially cut, and the body reacts accordingly. This repeats for the other arm.
• From neutral, the image is used of a paintbrush extending from the centre, painting figure-of-eights on the far wall. These gradually expand in size, so that the movement encompasses the entire body. The movement gradually decreases until it is entirely contained within the body. Different parts of the body are then used to paint the figures.
• From neutral, the body rolls down so that the torso is hanging from the hips. The image is used of roots extending down, through the feet and into the earth. These roots find a subterranean stream, and draw water up into the body, which gradually fills up until it is once again upright. After experiencing this sensation, the water is gradually let go through the top of the head, until the empty vessel is left, once again, with the torso hung from the hips. This image is repeated, with great specificity, and the tempo increases until the movements coincide with single breaths, in and out. The body eventually finds a point of stillness at the top of the cycle, and the water slowly drains for a last time, until the body is completely in contact with the earth.
• The image of a precious object is then placed in the hands, with the intention of giving the object to the group. This brings life into the hands, and eventually the body, bringing the body up, out of the earth. Once standing, the objects are brought together in the space, and collectively relesed into the sky.

One of the key principles of  is the concept that the body does not move of its own accord. The dancer must cultivate a ‘dead body’, one that is empty, primed for the placement of an image, or pure emotion which stimulates movement. This concept can be practiced by the use of any number of sense memory exercises. Eventually, we are working toward a state of being that embodies the notion that it is the negative space around the body that generates movement, and not the body itself. This negative space can also exist within the body, which is just a vessel.

Leading the Blind

• In partners, dancers take turns to lead each other around the space. One participant has their eyes closed, and must only move in relation to the stimulus created by their partner through the connection of the hands.
• Eventually, the partners share their dance with the group, focusing on the poetic potential of the movement.

The Back Dance

• In partners, dancers have a conversation using only their backs, which are in constant contact. Eyes are closed.
• There is incredible freedom in this dance to explore every possibility, as long as the dancers backs stay in contact.
• Eventually, the dancers split up, each performing their experience of the conversation for their partner.

The Feather and the Pencil

• Once again in pairs, dancers take turns to give their partners a sensory experience, conjuring a dance through the stimulation of the body by an object (feather or pencil). The dancer must abandon totally to the experience, moving only in relation to the external stimulation.
• Eventually, the stimulation is halted, and the dancer performs their experience for their partner.
• After both dancers have participated, they come together, initially to recreate The Back Dance, and moving on to drop in the images of their individual sensory experiences.
• It is an exploration of what beauty can be created by simply combining contrasting images.

Reflections:

• The partner work becomes less about what you are creating and more about what happens within the body of your partner.
• I had an overwhelming sense of nurturing from my partner, who worked with the image of the feather – her dance was light, and mine was twisted and erratic. We were playing with not letting the each other’s images cloud our experience, whilst still creating a unified image between us. There were points where we did come together in a unique compromise, and then we broke apart, and continued to work with our own images, albeit slightly modified. It was a very beautiful experience.
• My partner had just returned to performing after breaking her neck in a Contact Improvisation class over a year ago. At the time, I was only aware that she had an injury, and it turned out that this was her first experience performing with a partner since the accident. I felt terribly was privileged to go through it with her. She was incredibly beautiful to watch, and to dance with, completely open and aware. We had a beautiful level of sincerity and sensitivity between us, really one of those moments that is a joy to dance.

Master’s Seminar – Week One

Well, what can I say?

The most important thing we learned was that it is a waste of time to go to LA to work. Unless we, by some fluke of universal consequence happen to get a visa, and also have a flawless Standard American accent.

Also, don’t sit on your arse waiting for work, make it happen (duh).

If you set out to be a celebrity, you will fail.

It’s all about who you now, how many names you can drop, and how many parties you sneak into.

*Insert boring story about how you have a name in LA for sneaking into Studio Parties here*

That is all.

Meisner, Week 1

These are classes in 100% pure naturalistic acting.

After 12 weeks, you WILL be changed. This course is challenging, and you will be constantly questioning yourself and your craft. You will sit in the unknown.

“Know Thyself” – The Oracle at Delphi
This is one of the most important principles for the actor. Without knowing yourself, you can never hope to act with any kind of conviction.

Acting is about Listening and Responding.

Some History: The Moscow Art Theatre brought life to the stage in a world saturated with demonstrative production. This caused a riot in America in the early 1900’s, and as a result artists such as Lee Strasbourg and Sanford Meisner started to develop what is now known as ‘Method’ acting. Somewhere along the line there was a rift.

STRASBOURG: Believed in the effectiveness of Emotional Memory. Playing real memories and personal emotions on the stage.

MEISNER: Believed that what is in the actor’s past is unnecessary for the creation of art. He believed that the imagination is far more powerful than memory, and that it was all the actor needed. For Strasbourg, acting is about action (reaction).

• You cannot let go of memories – you cannot totally disconnect after the fact
• Memories wear out, lose their power and sometimes forgotten altogether
• Knowledge is limited, imagination is limitless. It seems that many would agree (Einstein, Napoleon etc.)

Precepts of the Meisner Method:

1. Acting is the ability to live truthfully under the given imaginary circumstances.
   • ‘Ability’ implies that acting is a skill. Skills can be taught.
   • What is the difference between living ‘truthfully’ and living ‘reality’?
     Reality exists, whereas truth has the potential to exist. Of course, there is an overlap, but this is the essential difference between what is everyday, and what is on the stage.
   • The ‘given imaginary circumstances’ is the world of the fiction of the piece. Not just the narrative, but the entire reality (however fictional) that this engenders.
2. The foundation of good acting is the reality of doing.
   • “I will do whatever I am asked to do, however absurd, 100% truthfully as myself.
     • You can never hope to be an amazing actor without having a grasp of who you are.
     • What is not accepted by the actor, cannot be used on stage.
   • Character doesn’t exist. the only thing that exists are versions of the actor, however extreme. The process of ‘becoming’ a ‘character’ is not so much ‘putting it on’, rather, stripping back what is unnecessary for the role, and letting the audience in to your performance. Even if the role demands things that you think you are not capable of, your JOB is to GO THERE.
     • “There is no crime of which I am not capable” – Goethe
     • “Get in touch with the inner child killer, rapist, murderer…” – Jamie Kable

     EXERCISE: “Counting the Bricks”

     • One half of the group was asked to count the bricks in the wall. There was a time limit. Towards the end, Jamie informed the group that if they didn’t get the answer right, they would have to leave the course. The other half observed.
     • Nobody was interested in who got the right answer, what was interesting was the truthful reactions of the participants who reacted to the stimulus. They were ‘performing an action for which there was a consequence’ (perceived or otherwise). Emotion will come from this truthful action (reaction / response).
   • There is nothing you can experience on stage which the audience will not recognise.
   • You are Enough!
3. LISTEN!!!
   • It is not about you. It is about those that you share the space with.

General Notes

• You will not be amazing overnight – be content with experiencing and enjoying the journey.
• You must renounce the fruits of your actions, the only thin you need to do is your duty as an actor.

Do. Feel. Think

EXERCISE: “What do you see?”

• A pair of participants sit facing each other in front of the group. They are asked to look at each other, and tell the audience what they see. Only what they see. They asked to be as specific as they can, without passing judgement, and without using ‘shades of grey’. Terms such as; like, almost, relatively and ‘…ish’ are banned in favour of clear-cut choices.
  • Something is, or it is not. Theatre exists in the now, and Holy Theatre must be conscious and specific. The Deadly Theatre is wishy-washy and non-committal.
  • An actor must know what they want and how to get it.
  • Extraordinary acting is a condensed and heightened form of existence. It does not exist in the everyday, in the mundane. That is what makes it engaging, that is what makes it interesting.
  • You cannot fail if you are truthful.

EXERCISE: “Repetition”

• One of the pair is now instructed to lower their gaze, close their eyes, and on cue, open them and name the first thing that they see. Their partner is to repeat everything they hear. This is not an exercise in repeating words. It is an exercise on listening, letting that affect the actor, and having the actor speak from that, albeit with strict constraints.
  • Words are not important.
  • Don’t change for the sake of variety – this is not truthful.
  • Do not go too fast – let the words land, affect you, then speak. . Fee. Think.
  • Play is important, but have a level of respect for the exercise. Find real relationships.
  • Do not intellectualise the exercise. It is not about the exercise, but rather the outcome.

General Notes

• “General is the enemy of Art” – Stanislavski
• Acting is not about changing the self, it is about affecting change within the other.
• Behaviour never lies?? [Maybe behaviour that comes from truth never lies]

“Self-betrayal, magnified to suit the optics of the theatre is the whole art of acting” – G. B. Shaw

Homework

• An hour of the Repetition exercise with partner (Jeremy)
  • No Thinking
  • Just repeating
  • You will know when to change subject

My Zenlike Future

So… I am in.

I have 2 months of freedom left before I embark on 6 or 7 months of (hopefully) rewarding hell.

I am prepared for it, I have purchased the books I need to read, I am readying my body for the arduous process, and my goal is to look amazing in a g-string BEFORE the internship commences. Because I KNOW what goes on in Montville. And we don’t want any embarrassing incidents.

I also need to spend the next 2 months stockpiling my resources.  I will eventually need to think about housing, but I will leave this thought till later. Maybe there will be others in the same situation. I am told that there isn’t much time for a casual job. Maybe 1 day a week. If I have amazing time management skills. Which I don’t.

I am also told that everyone in my life needs to be on board, and positive about this choice. Because they will possibly not see me until next August. I’m sure it will be fine. Most of them will just pretend that I never came home form Korea.

I have also decided not to go to Woodford. This has been a bbit of a tennis match in my mind for the last two weeks or so. At first I didn’t think I could face it. and then I decided that it didn’t matter. Then I REALLY wanted to go. And now, I know that I simply cannot afford it. And I could use that time to make amazing amounts of money. Which will come in handy.

Apparently we are not allowed to fall in love with our fellow interns.

We will see how much of a problem that is in the future.

All I know about the demographic is: 4 from Brisbane. One from the Gold Coast, 2 from the US and the rest from interstate. 8 boys, 7 girls. The odds are in my favour. Also, most of the successful applicants are mid-career artists.

So… I guess you could say…