Fundamentals of movement for actors, conductors, musicians, yogis . . . and everyone else

The performing arts represent a significant part of the artistic production in our culture. Correspondingly the fields of drama, film, music, opera, dance and performance studies are expanding. However, these arts remain an underexplored territory for aesthetics and the philosophy of art. Expression in the Performing Arts tries to contribute to this area. The volume collects essays written by international scholars who address a variety of themes concerning the core philosophical topic of expression in the theory of the performing arts. Specific questions about the ontology of art, the nature of the performances, the role of the performer, and the relations between spectators and works emerge from the study of the performing arts. Besides, these arts challenge the unchanging physicality of other kinds of works of art, usually the direct result of creative individual artist, and barely affected by the particular circumstances of their exhibition. Expression is one of the issues that adopt a special character in the performing arts. Do singers, dancers or actors express the feelings a work is expressive of? How does the performer contribute to the expressive content of the work? How does the spectator emotionally respond to the physical proximity of the performers? Is aesthetic distance avoided in the understanding of the performing arts? How are the expressive properties of work, performance and characters related? And how are the subjectivities they embody revealed? The contributions presented here are not all in agreement on the right answers to theses questions, but they offer a critical and exciting discussion of them. In addition to original proposals on the theoretical aspect of expression in the performing arts, the collection includes analyses of individual artists, historical productions and concrete works of art, as well as reflections on performative practice.

Creativity and the Performing Artist: Behind the Mask synthesizes and integrates research in the field of creativity and the performing arts. Within the performing arts there are multiple specific domains of expertise, with domain-specific demands. This book examines the psychological nature of creativity in the performing arts. The book is organized into five sections. Section I discusses different forms of performing arts, the domains and talents of performers, and the experience of creativity within performing artists. Section II explores the neurobiology of physiology of creativity and flow. Section III covers the developmental trajectory of performing artists, including early attachment, parenting, play theories, personality, motivation, and training. Section IV examines emotional regulation and psychopathology in performing artists. Section V closes with issues of burnout, injury, and rehabilitation in performing artists. Discusses domain specificity within the performing arts Encompasses dance, theatre, music, and comedy performance art Reviews the biology behind performance, from thinking to movement Identifies how an artist develops over time, from childhood through adult training Summarizes the effect of personality, mood, and psychopathology on performance Explores career concerns of performing artists, from injury to burn out

A tight throat; held breath; stiff muscles; stage fright: impediments to performance come in many guises, but they all spring from the same source-tension. In Physical Expression on Stage and Screen Bill Connington, a renowned teacher of the Alexander Technique, shows you how to recognize and release the tension that keeps you from performing at your best. If you're ever not certain of what to do with your hands or how to make a meaningful gesture, or if your movement feels fine in daily life but then you suddenly become self-conscious when onstage or in front of a camera, this book is here to help. More than one hundred clear, accessible exercises-including many filmed tutorials available online-will enable you to • Move more naturally and easily • Breathe more freely • Speak more clearly • Free your creative impulses • Play a character with an unfamiliar physicality

A practical book on the Alexander Technique for actors and acting/movement teachers.

'Stimulating and intelligent' Yoshi Oida Seventy percent of everyday conversation is conveyed through body language, twenty percent is the voice and only ten percent is the meaning of the words. In The Body Speaks, expert RADA trainer Lorna Marshall, shows how to recognise and lose unwanted physical inhibitions that our background, education or family have taught us and presents a fundamental re-thinking of our relationship to the body and its role in performance. Good performers - be they trapeze artists, Shakespearean actors, Butoh dancers or film stars - are able to fully reach their audience and engage with them because they have learnt to use their bodies to its best effect. Through a series of practical exercises, Lorna Marshall encourages us to unleash our potential, discover new possibility for the body and express ourselves more clearly. This new edition has been fully revised to include the latest thinking on the subject and more exercises particularly for performers in TV and film.

This text provides an up-to-date analysis of what psychology has to offer actors, musicians, singers and dancers. It makes suggestions about how the particular stresses that performers are under can be managed.

Modern psychology has much to offer performing artists in terms of understanding themselves and optimizing their art: it can explain the instinctual origins of the impulse to perform, examine the two-way relationship between performer and audience, describe the way in which emotions are transmitted via non-verbal processes, test theories about the nature of music and humour and their influence on our emotions, and offer suggestions as to how the particular stresses that performers are under can be managed. This book provides a unique and up-to-date analysis of what psychology has to contribute for actors, musicians, singers and dancers. Drawing on numerous practical examples from the arts as well as scientific and clinical research, it will be an invaluable resource for student, professional and amateur performer alike.

This volume collects research and critical explorations of the performing body by scholars and practitioners in visual and performing arts, textile, fashion and experimental design research, scenography and costume design, dance and performance history. Authors examine performativity of the body, its materiality, immateriality, and virtuality, and investigate experiences of embodiment. They reenvision the body as a site for representation, exploring the absent body in performance and as performance through time and space. Contributors bring a broad variety of contemporary approaches, from live performance to mediated performance, from installation art to performance art, and from experimental fashion to theatre and dance. They discuss issues of process and meaning-making and practices from concept and interpretation to creative production and reception. The volume expands possibilities for the role of the body in performance, while also challenging roles and hierarchies of existing performance practice.

Wake up your body with this unique program of solo, pair-work and ensemble exercises, inspired by the writings of the great directors from Stanislavsky onwards. Delve into the physical side of characterization with Laban, and learn practical ways of organizing rehearsals and movement improvisations. Topics include the power of physical expression, the motion of emotion, the plasticity of the body, and techniques for expanding reach-space. There are also illustrations, movement charts, and reference sections including mini-biographies of Copeau, Decroux, Barba and other prominent figures of the 20th century theater. Every performer needs to establish a connection with the audience, and the key to this is body language. Learn from the writings of the theater greats to develop as a professional, and as a person.