Movement is a type of therapy that is also one of the three pedagogues of actor training, the other two being acting and voice training. Movement is used to help the body become more free. For example, if a person has slumped shoulders with her head jutting forward, she will not be able to play royalty until she creates the option of upright posture. Often, habituated patterns do not allow for the body to simply spring up and be upright if the pattern of slumping has been in the body for a long time.
What do you DO?
First, I like to understand your goals and what you want to address.
Past clients goals:
behavior awareness to succeed in the workplace
opening of the body because of limited posture (like the example of slumped shoulders)
increased breath capacity
fuller range of motion throughout the body
enjoyment of each area of the body rather than disliking one (belly, legs, arms, etc.)
to decrease anxiety
What might we do as experiments in the session? Second, applied learning might include:
behavior examination and practice
guided relaxation or imagery
gentle range of motion exploration with all moving parts
sensory awareness experiments
passive and active stretching
mask work (so you use your body to communicate rather than face)
field trip to mall to observe and discuss behavior
If you would like to try Movement, which I call Moment Awareness Development, I am offering a workshop on Saturday May 15 from 9:30am -1pm in Altadena. If you would like more information, please visit my website www.BodybyHeather.com. Class size is limited. Cost is $30 - space will not be reserved until payment is made. Or feel free to email me or call me at 626-421-6296.
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting--
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
Yesterday I was transplanting a huge lemon bush from my neighbor's yard to mine (what a great gift!) and it occurred to me that many elements are necessary to uproot from the place where you have sprouted and lived for years.
For example, much of the root system of the shrub is disturbed or gone because the act of digging it up is tough when it is near a wall. Most of us are near a wall when we decide to move. Plus, for a successful transplant, the top of the plant needs to be removed so that the depth of the root matches the height of the plant. Transplanting anything is shocking to the organism, so to give the plant its best chance to adapt in its new home means cutting it down to a size where it can start again. Uhm... I have to point out the lemons to lemonade reference (groan here).
I have made several moves in my lifetime, 3 were cross country. Whenever I did move, I did an extreme "cutting of the fat" in my life and rid myself of items and things that were not necessary to my life.
Though you may not have the formidable goal of moving anytime soon, take time to notice your root system (people in your life), how you are living, where you are living, to make sure all of these elements are working for you. Every new season gives us a chance to make sure we are thriving - or make the changes necessary to thrive! Happy Spring!
In our modern day of 2010, many of the rituals and everyday doings of yesteryear can be fleeting, or even unbelievable. If you want to see how people lived in other times, PBS and the BBC (I'd rent them on Netflix!) have treats for YOU!
Another reason to view these gems is you really get a clear idea of where we came from as a society and how a time period can affect the mind, body, and being.
I'd love to hear from you if you have more to add to this list!!!
Click on the image and you'll be directed to Amazon for more information on the series, (other than 1940's House).
You can't regrow a family, much as we dream about it when we're young. In spite of miscommunications and hurt feelings that all relationships have, your family is yours for better or worse.
You don't have to like your family. Heck, you may not even choose to have them in your life. Or you may talk to one or more of your family every day and they may be the most consistent people in your life! Family defines who we are, the roles we play professionally and personally, and instill in us our self-worth.
If you have a great family - do something a little extra special for them today. If you have struggles with your family, do one activity today and dedicate it to growing love and tolerance in your family. Either way, the time you spend will increase love in your life.
And if your family is no longer in the physical realm, creating your own family whom you choose is a worthy and wonderful endeavor.
When a loved one exits my life, I am in turmoil. The History we built together cannot be replaced. They are no longer someone I can call, cry to, laugh with, and with whom I can build memories.
If you are unsure to seek out help to address grief, Rondi Lightmark, M.A. , offers "ten reasons why you might want to spend some time with a counselor:
You want to understand better about death and what happened to your loved one.
Your support system has moved on and you’re still struggling.
You can’t function, are losing sleep, crying every day, or having bad dreams.
Your health is breaking down.
You are filled with guilt and worry.
You have been having dreams or the sense that your loved one is near and wonder about life after death.
You are sad because you haven’t felt the presence of your loved one.
You need advice about how to help a grieving family member, a friend, or a child.
You feel angry, abandoned, or overwhelmed.
You want help figuring out how to share your experiences and find ways to integrate your loss through personal creativity."
If you feel a variety of healers might be appropriate for you, Guided Healing Journey is a local collective of healers that include working with a variety of healers who talk, touch, listen, and guide you through your solitude to help process grief. Getting Through Grief is an option to consider.
If you don't have resources to use healers, online resources might be an option. Journey of Hearts offers a variety of online grief resources.
Whatever your loss, please know support is everywhere.
When you are hired to play a person living in another time, though we share the trait of being human, that person moves differently than you do now. I am sure you are aware of the fashion discrepancies decade to decade, let alone in another century, so how do you allow these differences to inform how you re-create the world of that time?
Necessary To Do List:
rehearsal clothing that mimics your costume(s)
research on undergarments, clothing styles, and garment materials (wool would feel very different than silk - how would that inform how you move?)
research on that town/area to learn standards of living, culture, belief systems, and where your character would fit both truthfully and most interestingly
what sort of secret might your character have with these given circumstances?
what sort of props would your character use and how can you create relationships/personalize those props?
Your dramaturg is your best friend. Great information will be had through his or her research. Regardless, do your own research prior to your first rehearsal so you can go in with questions, ideas, and fun secrets with which to play.
If you find yourself getting bogged down with the era of the play, you might find tempo of movements free you up. For example, tempo can be the inner rhythm through which your character operates. If you're playing Hedda Gabbler, you might consider her tempo to be that of a persistent heart beat. How would that inform what you do given the time, place, and garment restrictions?
Rehearsal is the time to play, play, PLAY! Use your fine imagination to live in the world of the play; use your intelligence to inform distinct choices about that world.
In this modern age of television, computers, cell phones, gadgets galore - it's challenging to do one thing at a time. Do you recall the last time you just focused on one thing for more than 10 minutes?
A challenge developed by Corsini and Wedding is to allow yourself for one day to simply do one thing at a time.
If you think you have one of the myriad of attention disorders out there, test the theory. Can you focus? If you find this difficult, as most people will, be gentle with yourself. Zen masters dedicate their lives to this practice.
Not only can this approach allow more satisfaction in your daily life, it can enliven your acting to the point of riveting. Give it a go!
How do you know if you're living the way you'd like to live? According to Kornfield and Walsh, three major questions will help "motivate us to reorder our priorities, to live more fully and authentically, and to heal our relationships. Careful reflection on our life and inevitable death is a powerful means for developing wisdom.
Given that we will all die, what is truly important in life?
If you were to die tomorrow, what would you regret not having done?
What relationships remain unhealed in your life, and how could you begin healing them?"
Find a quiet place and reflect on these questions. Allow thoughts to roll around in you and let the answers be grand. You can always pare down what you determine and create forms of your grand thoughts IF THAT'S NECESSARY.
After earning an M.F.A. and a B.F.A. in theatre, I felt burnt out. Training or taking another class, even though I love classes, just seemed like a burden.
And then I met Alexandra Billings of Steppenwolf West who teaches Viewpoints. At FSU/Asolo Conservatory, while earning my M.F.A. I apprenticed movement expert Margaret Eginton because I find movement to be a delightful way to stay out of my head and dive into a role viscerally. Alex takes that diving to a whole new level.
I was introduced to Viewpoints in grad school, but the Viewpoints never made sense - because I don't think they made sense to my teacher. I read Anne Bogart and Tina Landau's books on Viewpoints and it still seemed murky. Alex cleared the murk and added shimmer!
Not only is Alex incredible at conveying the purpose of the Viewpoints to her students, she also puts the onus of learning on the student without judgment. That makes her one of the best teachers I've had, and I've been a professional student for 30+ (cough) years.
If you're feeling stuck or heady as an actor, or you are just looking for inspiration, do yourself a favor and take Alex's class. It's affordable -- and inspirational. DO IT. DO IT NOW!
What do you look like? How do you move? What is your range? How do you get cast? These are some of the answers a demo reel should fundamentally cover. If you don't have a demo, you should make one. In the age of flip cameras, you have NO excuse!
Invite a friend or two over with a camera and play. Learn how to edit, almost all PC's and Mac's have the capability now to do simple editing.
Determine a scene where both of you want something from the other that the other does not want to give, conflict. Determine if you want the scene to be funny or straight/dramatic. Think about where you can shoot it. Think about the place that has the least extraneous noise. Then ACTION!
I have a friend who locked herself in the bathroom at work and shot a funny video in there as if she were talking to her best friend. Do what works for YOU! And then get it on your website (if you don't have one, GET ONE) and get it out to agents and managers and casting directors.
The only way to get work is to make sure people know you can and do work!
As actors, we examine and live through a myriad of situations including love, killing, having a baby, loosing a child, ending a marriage, and countless more situations. To have an insight to these life changing events, you will have to imagine situations in your own life that could make you justify or understand how you would feel to live through them. That's not an easy task.
When preparing to tell these life or death stories, you are calling upon the crevices of your soul. You are shaking out dust from the primal places in you most people hope to hide from and never unearth. Making friends with your demons is not a task for the meek, it is a calling for the warriors who grace our stages and screens.
Living through these lives of characters, highs and lows, requires support from loved ones. If you are lucky enough to find that support in your family, cherish it and call upon them often. If not, cultivate your garden of friends. These people who believe in you will be your touchstone.
When putting on the paint of a warrior, remember you fight for the right of all humanity to have feelings, express big emotions, and to keep living life to the fullest. You, my friend, are an inspiration for others to LIVE.
1. Actors cannot have a family and success as an actor.
Though the pressures of traveling, regional theatre, always looking for the next job, and self-esteem can put pressure on a relationship and family, countless actors you've never heard of enjoy the stability and love of creating a family. Actors have always had to think outside the box to succeed; enjoying a family is no different.
2. Actors need to be unstable to be really talented.
On the contrary, more actors get fired due to irresponsible behavior, including stars. Having or exacerbating a mental illness will not insure a stable acting process, it will make an actor a time-bomb of misery. Actors are sensitive and aware of their emotions and how to access those emotions. To enjoy life, an actor needs to tend to her wellness so she can be resiliant and dependable on set - and off.
Do you have some myths to add? Let me hear about them!!!
Some people dedicate their lives to breath and awareness in the body; I am one of them. One of the fundamental involuntary processes in our body is breath. This life supporting function can also be adjusted voluntarily. Because of this duality, breath can and does link directly to the calming or stimulating of the nervous system.
Connecting to the breath will connect you to sensations that are occurring in your body moment to moment. Sensations connect you to emotions. So if you are able to allow and experience your breath, or let your body breathe you, you can then fully experience your NOW.
You may already understand and agree that breath work is fundamental to an actor. Actors take years to train and develop breath support. We hone the ability to breathe in large thoughts to avoid running out of breath. Without good breath support, an actor cannot do quality stage work - no matter how intimate the theatre.
If you are interested in exploring breath work, I offer private classes that are informed by Rodenburg, Berry, Linklater, Fitzmaruice, and Skinner. To breathe is to live.
Jim Wise, my seminal acting teacher, spoke to me of acting: "You should feel it in your blood." He also pounded into me that all acting should be "the day something special happens." Why else would anyone bother to act?
To successfully attempt both of these necessities, an actor has to know her buttons. The buttons to which I refer are the touchy places in yourself that are highly reactive to other people - primarily instilled by family. For example, don't make fun of my family. Can you imagine how this button might inform me playing the role of Antigone? Add the sprinkle of grief from loosing my mom -- and playing Greek tragedy is second nature.
When you sit with a script and keenly identify with the character, your process when approaching the role may be quick and easy - because you KNOW it. However, not all roles sing so clearly to the heart of an actor.
When you identify the character's need/essential action/overall objective (and for the love of GOD - please go beyond what the script is saying literally unless it's Shakespeare), compare that need to your buttons. Which need can you easily access to accomplish that goal? Who can that other person be to you to make your behavior specific?
Life or death behavior is more exhilarating than anything else on earth! If you think playing in your button zone is scary, keep in mind all actors are control freaks. Why? Actors know the end of the story and every bump on the road. An actor's job is to make that road cost her something and for it to be more exciting to her than any other doing. Make it so!
Charlotte Selver said, "We come into the world and soon learn to feel we always should be doing something instead of simply being open for what presents itself at the moment."
We are conditioned at a very young age to DO because simply noting something does not demonstrate to others you get it. Selver sites examples like a mother demonstrating for her "child, "mmmmm, doesn't that taste good?" (as she smacks her lips), or "Listen to the airplane!" (looking up strenuously)."
So how do we combat or learn alternative ways of being? As artists, or people, healing our souls is paramount. Without health, longevity lacks joy.
Meditation is embraced by many cultures to heal thoughts. WAIT! If you are repelled by the thought of sitting in a room with a bunch of other people trying to clear your mind, you are not alone. This is NOT the only way to create a centering practice.
A centering practice can be anything from traditional meditation to a repetitive action that requires focus, but allows the mind to percolate: it is something you practice often to rid yourself of any unnecessary feelings. Feelings begin from sensation, we interpret the sensation and give the experience meaning, and the meaning is often linked to our core belief system.
Do you crave to be more comfortable in your skin and in your life? Think about sensations you get that calm you down. What are the elements present in those experiences?
Sensations are great in that we can create a new one in our body at any given moment to override the sensations that may lead to uneasiness. Find your happy triggers and use them often!
Give my Core to Win two minute "awakening sensations" a go!
1. Find 2 minutes where you are uninterrupted - TWO.
2. Get in a comfortable position (sitting, lying down, standing) and when your body stills (no fidgeting, scratching, etc.), bring your attention to the sounds around you. Close your eyes to tune into your hearing.
3. Begin noticing the closest sounds to you and keep moving out until your two minutes is up. (The sounds next to your body, 1 foot, 2 feet, next room, outside, etc. Be specific.)
4. When you open your eyes and come into awareness, note what that experience was like for you. How do you feel in your body now? What is your breathing like now? What was the closest sound, the furthest?
"Ambition is the germ from which all growth of nobleness proceeds." ~Oscar Wilde
If you love what you do, you'll do anything to do it. This is the artists' cross to bear.
Sadly, you and I know people who are amazing talents who do not have the ambition to wade through all of the necessary meetings, business rigmarole, nor embody the tenacity of spirit to remain okay against a barrage of assaulting thoughts.
What will carry a person through the storms? Ambition. How much you want it will determine what lengths you will go to accomplish your goal. What's too much? Where do you draw the line?
I waited until I was healthy, capable, and honed my craft before moving to L.A. Most actors are encouraged to move here when they are young because it's easier for agents to pitch the young ones. Sadly, many young actors do not an acting process intact so they may land the job, and then get fired or never hired again because the performance given is either flat or unrepeatable.
The lesson? Go take classes from people who inspire you who nurture you rather than tear you down. This business is already full of sharks. There are plenty of teachers and coaches who are wonderful both at sharing craft and helping you create your own. Unabashedly, I have been told I am a great teacher because I love what I do and I love helping another actor hone her process.
Look around and find your support system. Surround yourself with people who love you!!!
I'd be interested to learn what you do to remain in integrity - or even if you choose to remain in the business on and off because of the challenges you've found.
Finding your voice is the first step, using it is the second. Let me hear from you!
Acting is a tedious business. While actor training is delightful and insightful to an artist as a person and as a performer, the getting of jobs on the regional stage or screen in the jungle of Los Angeles can hurt the sensitive heart of an artist.
Finding the best match to go forward and tackle your career requires personal insight and listening to your gut. The gimme's of meeting with an agent or manager are:
1. Know who you are - your type. This can best be determined by how you've been cast in the past.
2. Know what type of person you like to work with (direct, brutally honest, nurturing, etc.). The person an artist chooses to represent and help mold her career will ideally have a myriad of elements - know which ones are most important to you.
3. Your representation must love your work. As an actor, you should be able to tell if a person truly enjoys your work. If you cannot tell, look for amount of eye contact during your meeting - if the agent or manager does not seem interested, it's because he or she is not. If you don't get that excited feeling, working together may not be the best match.
As for running your business, Phil Brock puts it best: "You are your own CEO and everyone works for you." If the ship is not going in the direction you want, it's time for a meeting. You need to hire the people who you feel will get you where you want to go - and YOU are the boss.
Okay Boss, YOU have to step up to the plate. First, get your tools in order, then build relationships. This is not the days of old where casting directors actually had open calls to meet new actors. If you want to make it in L.A., you need to MEET casting directors and get your work in front of them. Success is all about relationships.
Your tools are crucial: headshots (that look good as a thumbnail) I love Natalie Young, a demo reel (do a FlipCamera video if you don't have anything), and get some credits. If you just can't seem to get into a screen audition, do some 99-seat theatre. Keep acting!!! I don't suggest paying to get into an acting company because I am a firm believer in being paid for your craft, but to each her own. Get on Actor's Access, which is associated with breakdowns, so you can submit yourself. Get on IMDb Pro so casting directors can find you.
Varient Actors' Lab, run by Amie Farrell, is a great class because the format is casting director guests twice a month and class to work skills twice a month. Other options include places like The Actors' Key.
As an artist, you need to tend to your heart. Integrity is tough when jobs are fleeting, the "next best thing" is always around the corner, and people are fickle. Know the things that make you happy, do them, and keep PLAYING. This is your life, make it happen as you wish.
Movement is a type of therapy that is als
o one of the three pedagogues of actor training, the other two being acting and voice training. Movement is used to help the body become more free. For example, if a person has slumped shoulders with her head jutting forward, she will not be able to play royalty until she creates the option of upright posture. Often, habituated patterns do not allow for the body to simply spring up and be upright if the pattern of slumping has been in the body for a long time.
Copyright 2010 Heather Corwin
(image to left)
