Rational thought has dominated Western knowledge structures and systems for many centuries; our instinctual natures have largely been repressed. The purpose of this study is to find out what my bodymind is telling me about how to live in this world. I use arts based methodology to explore how I experience the place in which I live, to find my voice and to navigate through liminal spaces. As I spent time in the natural environment, I increasingly became more aware of my body and of the many animate beings with which I share this place. If we can understand/know/experience the processes by which we became separate from our instinctual natures, then there might be hope to bring ourselves back to the knowledge that we belong and are a part of all of creation. The website is located at http://www.apprenticeshipinnature.com

This research investigates sensory-somatic awareness based approaches to the conditioning, training and performance of Odissi dance in India. Through a multidisciplinary and embodied methodology it analyses the practices of three contemporary Odissi dance institutes and a selection of individual dancers in India, who are moving beyond the traditional methodology. Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork in India, this research explores how sensory-somatic approaches incorporated by these dancers generate meaning-making and in what ways this enriches the dancers’ experience of dancing Odissi. As an outcome of the fieldwork, the term sensory-somatic is proposed and analysed in line with the dancers’ embodied experience of dancing Odissi. The analysis entails a paradigm that embraces the corporeal, sentient and socio-cultural bodymind, and the sensory aspects of senses, sensation, perception, sensibility and sensuality. These form two layers: the somatic and sensory which merge together as the sensory-somatic awareness. It takes into consideration the sensory perception and awareness leading to an agentic, enactive and embodied meaning-making and emotional engagement of the dancers. It also examines how the changing socio-cultural situation has been continuously affecting the Odissi dance embodiment. This thesis does not address the religious aspect and the experience of the audience in Odissi performance. The main focus remains the dancers’ individual experience of learning and performing Odissi dance. Moving away from the study of Odissi dance just as a reflection of the state, regional culture and representation of mythologies, this thesis is an investigation of the Odissi dancer’s meaningful, embodied and lived experience of Odissi dancing. It contributes to the debates on body-mind relationship, emotional engagement, place of the ‘self’, the student-oriented learning, psychophysical training and performance, and rasa-bhāva aesthetics. This study reveals that the sensory-somatic awareness is based upon reflexivity, independent enquiry, psychophysical health, bodymind awareness and leads to empowerment, agency, autonomy, plurality, confidence and responsibility, a level of relief from gender biases, and an inclusive approach to learning and performing.

When portraying a character in a fictional world the actor is faced with many challenges. To circumvent these challenges, he must become congruent with the reality of the fictional world. In order to do so, the actor has to ‘believe’ in the circumstances of the unfolding scene and live ‘in the moment’. These external circumstances act as stimuli which the actor uses to create and consequently ‘believe’ in the environment that the character inhabits. However, the use of green screen technology in special effects limits or eliminates these stimuli and the external circumstances. Green screen is a technique used in film and television that allows the filmmaker to film an actor in combination with a green screen and then replace the ‘green’ with anything the filmmaker requires. This allows for compositing to occur and the filmed reality to be manipulated. However, this technology challenges the actor’s ‘belief’ and behaviour, thus affecting congruence with and the (photo)realism of the created fictional world. In a green screen environment the actor is challenged to imagine, experience and act in line with the circumstances of the fictional world that will replace the green screen, instead of the green environment in which he finds himself. One acting strategy that elicits imagination, action and feeling is Stanislavsky’s notion of the magic if. Accordingly, this dissertation proposes that this strategy can assist the actor in circumventing the challenges that arise when working with green screen technology. Stanislavsky developed his acting principles by observing human behaviour in an attempt to use the mind–body paradigm in circumnavigating the acting moment. The field of cognitive neuroscience has also investigated human behaviour and the mind–body paradigm and recent discoveries have increased understanding of the fields. These discoveries have validated the notion of the magic if and the components it incorporates. Yet, the discoveries surrounding the notion of the magic if and, subsequently, the increased understanding of the concept have not to date been applied to acting with green screen technology. It is therefore hypothesised that, by triangulating the challenges of ‘green screen acting’, the principles of the magic if and the knowledge gained from cognitive neuroscience, an acting strategy can be developed that will assist the actor in the green screen environment and thus create verisimilitude with the fictional world. This hypothesis has led to the theoretical development of explorations that will strengthen the skills the actor needs in order to apply the notion of the magic if; as well as an acting strategy to assist the actor when entering the green screen environment. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Drama / Unrestricted

This thesis examines the implementation of an actor-training programme in the context of Spanish drama schools during 2004-2005. Reflecting through the student's practice as well as my own practice as a teacher, actor and director, I investigate how a bodymind training based on martial arts disciplines and designed by Phillip Zarrilli may contribute to understand the theory and the practice of an actor's use of the imagination as Michael Chekhov proposes it. Core questions arise from the evaluation of what is the professional knowledge that the integration of both systems of training brings to the students. The action of research is placed in how the process of learning such competencies take place and become informative of both the research and the acting practice. The concept of acting is being analysed by looking at the significance of the actor's imagination from a phenomenological rather than a psychological perspective. The discussion includes the challenge that developing a new pedagogy in a drama school brings up to a better understanding of contemporary paradigms of theatre practice and education.'Interpretación Gestual' is since 1992 an established branch in the Real Escuela Superior de Arte Dramático de Madrid (RESAD). Acting in physical (gestural) theatre conveys some problematic issues concerning its theory and practice within both professional and pedagogical contexts. Implementing a new and specific teaching programme for the preparation of professional actors in the context of the RESAD urges me to clarify inpractice certain issues about these two different approaches to actor training, as well as their presence in today's education within the curriculum of official drama schools in Spain.

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