In Practice groups we engage in existing and living forms of practice: fluid models which invite embodied and enlivened experience, expression and inquiry. I feel that there is an important difference in the quality and development of our work when the focus shifts from the 'Training' to the 'Practice'. It offers the person another way than 'getting it right' according to an external measure; Practice demands participation, calls for an 'inner compass' and develops responsibility.
Our personal or professional tool-boxes may be empty or full, even too full. What we already know (or think we know) may even get in the way of how we need to respond to any given situation. I'm not saying that all training is useless. It is most certainly necessary. It builds hard earned knowledge and skill. However, tuning in to how we approach the present moment is what builds presence, becoming aware of how we apprehend and engage the moment engenders authenticity. Our tools and training fall short without knowing how, when and even if to use them.
If we practice starting from where we are right now, discover and name feelings, sensations, thoughts and questions arising moment by moment- then we are practicing. This practice enables us to choose which tools are appropriate at any given moment, in any given place; which training to use and which to forget.
Life is an art that demands we change our attitudes and approaches according to existing circumstances, without compromising our integrity, all the while building a sense of continuity. Engaging in shared practice, anchored by direction and moderation, enables us to discover which modalities of behaviour we fall into out of habit, allowing ourselves to let go of these habits sometimes by standing (in) the unknown long enough, so as to discover our authentic response and learn trust in its inherent wisdom. With body and voice, whether in silence, speech or song and text, proposed creative modes of being and doing which belong (perhaps) originally to the arts, act as safe vessels within which we can practice the art of living.
‘Jean-Marie Pradie’s answer, during the Third International Conference in ‘dialogues between theatre and neuroscience’ (2011) on the possible therapeutic value of theatre … ‘not that art is therapeutic,
but its absence is pathogenic`
-Gabriel Sofia, The Effect of Theatre Training on Cognitive
Function “Affective Performance and
Cognitive Sciences”
JOIN ME:
Private and small group coaching sessions. Mentorship for Performance Creation.
Voice Performance, Solo Improvisation, Choreographic Theatre and Collaborative Performance Creation.
Voice performance work involves refined technique and expressive risk. It deepens a process of personal discovery and develops greater expression of character and musicality. Grounded in Roy Hart Voice Work, it is a practice of inquiry, embodied and enlivened experience, and expression through sound, song, speech and scream. Combined with movement and image it engages us in performance creation be it in solo or collaborative improvisations and in-situ approaches to a choreographic theatre alongside devised performance and design driven artistic practice.
Groups are mixed level and open to both performers, other artists and people from all walks of life.
sharonafeder@gmail.com
+1 778 239 2742
No comments:
Post a Comment