In The Knowing Body (Hayes 2010, 222), I examine the case of a student actor who abandons an authentic self-reflexive exploration of her actions and gestures in order to stay in competition with the rest of her cohort. The process of developing Zarrilli’s ‘Aesthetic Inner Bodymind’ and ‘Aesthetic Outer Body’ take time, with differing developmental times for differing students. For the trainee actor in question (Hayes 2010, 222), she felt so pressured to keep up with the demands of the course and with the output of her fellow trainee actors that it became simpler to imitate actions rather than explore the interconnection between her physical expressions and her own felt meanings. Consequently her processes of learning became stultified and as she states, imitating rather than investing herself in her actions ‘is not worth anything’. I believe this to be a not uncommon occurrence in tertiary performance courses
One simple gestural problem that occurs frequently for actors-in-training is the misinterpretation of the need for gesturing as a need for offering signed information. Trainee actors can be seen pointing to themselves, or to others or to parts of their bodies or particular directions. This type of gesturing, that is gesturing substituting for speech, is not what would be happening if the words were connected to thoughts that were occurring in that moment. What are needed are imagistic and analog gestures but frequently trainee actors are unable to discern or comprehend the embodied desires or intentions that are being enacted. Whilst it is readily apparent to audiences when actors’ gestures are a mismatch with the text that is being spoken, it is more difficult for the actor-in-training to grasp what is required.
Michael Chekhov’s (2002), To The Actor: On The Technique of Acting, promotes the stimulus of the ‘psychological gesture’ to liberate performative actions for actors. This rehearsal technique aims to expand the imaginary landscape of the characters played by actors, whilst the gestures used in exploration of the text are not necessarily incorporated into any actual performance. Chekhov’s ‘qualities’, such as molding, floating, flying and radiating, like Delsarte’s gestures or Laban’s movement scales are experiential patterns of movement effecting sensations and muscles.
In a similar manner to Chekhov’s psychological gestures, Yat Malmgren (Hayes 2010) uses Rudolf Laban’s ‘basic actions’ of punching, slashing, pressing wringing, dabbing, flicking, gliding and floating (Newlove 1993, 78) to physically score an actor’s intentional actions in any performed scene. As with Chekhov’s ‘gestures’, these movements may not appear in the performed scene but, importantly, they add an internal spatial, rhythmic and intentional dimension to an actor’s embodied expression. The aim of this approach is to link actors’ vocal expressions with kinaesthetic imagery for as McNeill (2005, 4) states language is inseparable from imagery… The imagery in question is embodied in the gestures that universally and automatically occur with speech.
Malmgren’s actor training initially requires actors to present individually in order to emphasise the chiasmatic junction between each actor’s body as an observed material entity and at the same time as an expressive locus for the body/subject who is performing (Hayes 2010, 216–223). Through working first with self-devised and improvised scripts, actors become aware of their own language structures and how these are linked to the rhythms of the ‘eight basic actions’ (Hayes 2010, 29). Self-written scenarios performed by trainee actors allow for each actor’s ‘Ecstatic Surface Body’ to function with varying degrees of experiential awareness of their own kinaesthetic positions. As the training progresses specific language packages, relating to the eight basic actions are required for each presentation. Whilst the content of any scenario remains self-written and self-chosen, the rhythm patterns of the scenarios are specified. Consequently each actor begins to perceive the interconnections between their gestures and the structure of their verbalisations. So begins the possibility of the development of Zarrilli’s ‘Aesthetic Inner Bodymind’.