Rhythm and Resonance in Acting Practice

Juliet Chambers-Coe
Director of Labanarium; Laban tutor Drama Studio London; PhD researcher University of Surrey
www.labanarium.com

Workshop: Cosmic Rhythmicity – the bodily practice of Rosicrucian principles of
correspondence; rhythm; vibration; cycles and polarity in the LMA model.

Rudolf Laban’s interest in the occult practices of the Rosicrucians has been widely acknowledged
(Moore 2009; Preston-Dunlop 2008; Kant 2002), but there has not been a comprehensive approach
to investigating how this spiritual philosophy is manifest in Laban’s theories and their practical
embodiment. This workshop aims to explore how we might come to understand Laban Movement
Analysis (LMA) as a mystical practice, fore-fronting experiences in the physical and subtle bodies
of the mover though the practice of LMA interwoven with an understanding Rosicrucian doctrine.
An understanding of Rosicrucianism relies upon the everyday practice of its principles as key 20th
Century writer on Rosicrucianism, Rudolf Steiner suggests. He says that the Rosicrucian must not
withdraw from the physical world in order to obtain spiritual knowledge, but rather must fully
embrace the physical world of action where such knowledges are manifest. The Rosicrucian must
“rise to the highest regions of spiritual life and with the knowledge there obtained labour actively in
the physical world” because “Rosicrucian wisdom must not stream only into the head, nor only into
the heart, but also into the hand, into our manual skills, into our daily actions” (Steiner, 2000; 8).
This workshop aims to reassert Laban Movement Analysis as a spiritual movement-philosophy
which collapses the theory/practice, thinking/doing dyads – “the new dance technique [LMA]
endeavors to integrate intellectual knowledge with creative ability” (Laban, 1975; 13). Through this
understanding of LMA, this workshop aims to override other existing dyads within the field of
movement, dance, theatre and training such as those of technique and research; body and mind;
matter and spirit and investigates the endless streaming of and permeation of rhythm through the
body and its reciprocal impact on the cosmos.

Katia Savrami
Assistant Professor, Department of Theatre Studies, University of Patras (GR). www.savrami.gr,
www.chorosjournal.com

Workshop: Rhythm in action: the paradigm of Greek Chorus

The Chorus is a fundamental element of Greek tragedy and an important interpretative key for
every play. Language in Greek drama is a form of lyric poetry, in dense and heightened style, a
variation of Doric dialect and meter apparent in Anapaestic variations and various types (ie the
parodos is often written in “marching anapaest” – a rhythm that suited best the solemn entry of the
chorus into the orchestra). Trochaic Rhythm is rarely apparent. For the conversation of the leader
with the characters the Iambic rhythm is used. Thus the core of Greek Chorus is the three elements
of speech, music and movement which are harmoniously combined and they form the main
expressive power of the Chorus in ancient drama. From the bibliographical sources we have only
fragments of how the Chorus was performed and not the entire flow of the whole dance. In this
workshop Laban’s concept of Movement expression written in his book the Mastery of Movement
on Stage (1960) is used as a source to create Greek Dramatic Choruses (both tragic and comic) with
particular emphasis on Action and Effort rhythm in an attempt to re-enact Choral odes.

Liana Nyquist
Movement coach, director and tutor at Drama Centre London (UAL)

Workshop: “Me and the other”

Rhythm is at the core of human existence. There is no real division between the brainwaves
of our mind moving through the functions of our being into the expressions of the space we
inhabit, where it encounters and braids with those of “the other”.
This workshop is an exploration of the rhythmic and resonant space in between me and
what/whom I encounter. A reciprocal relationship, which is ongoing in the infinite figure of
8.
We humans will intuitively understand the “dance” of any encounter. We will know the
movement, “the dance” of any object, any building, any name, any tool and any human
sensation. We know! This knowledge is shared in human interaction and in this case, the
practitioners of our workshop. The workshop will analyse, and then physically explore this
embodied knowledge. We will find the “triggers” which propose to you, the actor, who am
I? in this “dance”.
We will look at the body and how the body’s structure is reflected in everything we know,
any inanimate object, architecture, our sciences and our belief systems. As long as an
encounter with “the other” has a volume and a density it will manifest itself in a rhythmic
and resonant “dance”.
The actor whose only concern is that of “character” will need tools to recognise the
movements within this reciprocal relationship, hence to “catch” necessary patterns of
rhythm and resonance in the encounter for the development of the character. The workshop
will introduce a method of the body’s geometric forms to awaken complex mental patterns
and how these are physically expressed and responded to.

Michael Wighton
Tutor and director at CISPA (Copenhagen International School of Performing Arts)

Workshop: Rhythm and Resonance in the Suzuki System

Tadashi Suzuki’s system of actor training posits that an actor’s presence arises from their
contact with the stage, indeed from the very floor itself. Based upon the traditional
movements of Japanese theatre, Suzuki strives to reintroduce the modern actor to their
body’s weight and form, reestablishing a united psychophysical body that can both feel and
react to the environment which it simultaneously inhabits and defines. This ground-up
approach inverts the 20th century influence of American theatre which swept Suzuki’s
nation after World War II, threatening to erase nearly a millennium worth of theatrical
practice and wisdom.
As in ancient times, it is the floor which is the great teacher in Suzuki’s system, grounding
the actor in their body through powerful contact. In one direction, the performer acts upon
the stage, literally, propelling their lower body towards the stage boards in varying shape
and rhythm of stomps such that their consciousness drops down within the flesh of their
body. In response, the boards themselves resonate back upwards through the foot of the
actor and into their bones, teaching them the truth of their presence one beat at a time.
Whereas a false action from the actor is echoed instantly by physical discomfort, the reality
of an honest moment can resonate holistically within the whole body and spirit of the actor,
filling them with the extra-corporeal material to inspire a moment of transcendence.
Stepping beyond quotidian existence, Suzuki charges both the actor and the act of theatre
itself to draw their spirit from the percussive power of flesh on wood. Focusing on the basic
rhythms, physical structures and internal dynamics of Suzuki’s system, this three-hour
workshop will point the way towards an embodied state of heightened consciousness for the
performer.