Getting Our Bodies Back by Christine Caldwell

Getting Our Bodies Back by Christine Caldwell: Recovert, Healing and Transformation through Body-Centered Psychotherapy.

This is an excellent book- for those just beginning to want to find a deeper physical life and for those who already have a practice and for teachers working physical as well. It delves into addiction in a useful and intelligent way and this section I found particularly exciting, as I know from my work with students that physiological awarenss can really help with addiction and she has articulated this well. She offers useful tools for therapists and those in therapy... all in all, if you are someone who wants a practical, readable guide to physical embodiment practice and how it relates to emotional issues, this is an excellent book! 

For actors as well- but closer to the psychological than the physical. It will not give you any advanced physical processes, but it is a great companion to an embodied physical process and therefore a good companion for actors!

12 questions to ask yourself before taking a movement class for actors

These questions are specifically for actors when they want a place to practice awareness in particular versus technique/skill building.

but remember, nothing replaces ones own actual practice!

Classes such as-

A GOOD yoga class, Alexander technique, Feldenkrais, Continuum, BMC, mindfulness meditation, Tai Chi, Chi Gong, a good physically based voice class (Roy Hart for example)…  the list could go on and any of these classes could be very helpful, but which one do you need?

If you are new to movement practice and have had mainly a text based theatre process so far, you may need to take the class nearest you that fits into your schedule and not be too fussy to start! Just getting out there and moving will help your acting more than you may realize

The right class depends on where you are in your physical practice.  These questions help determine some differences that you might want to consider- and all of these possibilities are good at different times. There is no PERFECT class. I would encourage people to intuit which appeals to them as well as where they might not usually chose to go- this choice might help you extend your range as an actor. Sometimes if you hate the idea, it might be a good one.

On the other hand, going where it feels familiar and comfortable might help you go deeper into something you already know you need to work on.

Ask yourself these 12 questions-

1- Do you need more muscular skeletal stimulation or less?

2- More of an external or internal approach?

3- More release work or activation work?

4- A course/method that includes or excludes touch?

5- A class that does not enter theatre/performance practice at all or one that DOES include performance practice?

6- A healing approach?

7- A more technical or more metaphorical/image based approach?

8- A practice that is still or very physical?

9- A practice that includes vocalization or none at all?

10- A group or private process?

11- A practice that includes humour and is more relaxed or one that is more serious and disciplined, like an intense Dojo?

12- An instructor who has many disciplines/modalities available to them or one that is single minded? (Are they sticking to one strict form or are they using several?)

You can also use these to help you formulate questions for the instructor if you want more information about the class.

Some notes on how to deepen physiological awareness as a performer

(Some of these notes to performers are to folks who have studied with me- if you have questions... feel free to contact me!)

follow the path of the blood system... from one pulse you can feel to another

-capillaries feel very different than veins/arteries... so hands and blood feel very different from say- belly and blood...

-and remember ... juggling awareness... more manageable and realistic than real full simultaneous awareness that tends to feel more like... getting high or being intensely alive (if you are familiar with runners high- feels like that)

-Some of the folks in Italy (Pontedaro Grotowski center) say that it is impossible to feel all this simultaneously I agree  and yet i disagree- it is just really hard and takes many years of practice... and it doesn't last that long. I mention this because it is important to know that it is this hard- because if it is coming easy... likely you are missing pieces (I mean consistently easy and by conscious choice- we all have great performances where grace/awareness visits us!)

-the way i get there is by building specific pieces, one at a time INTO the scoring on my performance work, like picking up one ball, then another, then another... with the foundation specific and clear and the details all choreographed... both the external shape AND the things my mind is holding

-and I usually have one or two places where I am working this way for minutes at most- the rest is more normal acting stuff where I am scoring elements of this awareness work into normal acting scoring

-and sometimes I have a blissful moment or two where i get more than I bargained for OUTSIDE those times where I am consciously trying to juggle way more than the normal joe...

-over the years I am getting better at holding this for longer and longer periods of time- but I am talking minutes versus seconds.. I would say that I can hold it consciously with an audience and memorized text etc... for maybe 2+ minutes at best and it is REALLY HARD with text! really hard! and also hard with movement that is predominantly muscular (similiar challenge for actors with difficult text as for dancers with intense choreography)

-next show i am going for more! Cause when I am there (and I have done studies with other performers to examine this very thing) the audience feels it! and i want to see how far i can go with this stuff!! So build specifically and slowly with small and realistic objectives

Notes to an actor asking about meditation

try movement meditation... (the slow walk we used in class, walk on a rope)

take 5 minutes to stand up from the floor, then 10, then 15... to 45 minutes

try using music... one song over and over, doesn't have to be 'meditative necessarily if you loop it or get some music intended for meditation.. 

try calligraphy... (write one important word over and over again)

try a mantra (saying something over and over)

a yantra (something you look at like a mandala- can be used as meditation – or any image/object you like

try holding a stone or any object and seeing it, feeling it for a long time....

there are lots of different kind of meditations...

every culture has used all of these above and many more in different forms-

make meditation fluid and fun and slowly add rigour

experiment!!

also make sure that your spine/heart/breath etc are really warm BEFORE you meditate (like a yoga class, which is ultimately getting you ready for stillness but our contemporary materialistic culture has turned it into fitness alone) HAVE FUN!

remember the simple things first

I really think the simplest things take the longest to learn. We use terms like-
get grounded, he's in his head, she's riding high, they were off the floor...

The simple act of breathing to stop adrenaline and feel gravity is so easy to do and therefore to forget to do. I asked my chiropractor what I could do to support the work she was doing... she said- if I tell you what you can do, you will think it is too simple- and you won't do it... I asked anyway

what?

Take time to breath and drink water.

And she is right, that is hard to do, because it is so simple.

'I (God) am closer to you than your life vein' says Baha'u'llah

This great gift- gravity- is right there, every moment and I take it for granted... the gift of my heart beating and the sensations in my entire body are right here with the floor... now, anytime I need it, I can feel the floor hold me- not an abstract idea, but real sensation of gravity... my best lover, my most trustworthy and supportive friend... it holds me unconditionally and I ignore it, I think I can handle things on my own... SUCH AN ILLUSION!!

So breath and feel the floor and then see what else is missing! Oh- and drink some water...