The aim of this thesis is to explore through historical and practical research, the use of gymnastics-based practices for contemporary performer training. This thesis addresses the following key questions: What are gymnastics-based practices? How have gymnastics-based practices already influenced performer training, particularly in the work of François Delsarte, Rudolph Laban, and Jacques Lecoq? How can gymnastics-based practices be understood, applied, and developed in order to contribute to performance/performer training? The practical investigation employs the use of gymnastics-based practices in a series of three studio-based projects which focus on the development of the training. Project 1 explores gymnastics-based practices in relation to my own process as a performer. In Project 2, I apply gymnastics-based practices to the facilitation of a group-devised performance. Project 3 uses gymnastics-based practices to facilitate the actor in character development, vocal work, and performance of a naturalistic text. In this manner, this thesis has developed a set of exercises, workshops, and frameworks which draw on gymnastics-based practices to activate the performer in several different contexts.

ABSTRACT This study investigates performer training in ankoku buto dance, focusing specifically on the methods of Japanese avant-garde artist Hijikata Tatsumi, who is considered the co-founder and intellectual force behind this form. The goal of this study is to articulate the buto dancers preparation and practice under his direction. Clarifying Hijikata's embodied philosophy offers valuable scholarship to the ongoing buto studies dialogue, and further, will be useful in applying buto methods to other modes of performer training. Ultimately, my plan is to use the findings of this study in combination with research in other body-based performance training techniques to articulate the pathway by which a performer becomes empty, or nothing, and what that state makes possible in performance. In an effort to investigate the historically-situated and culturally-specific perspective of the body that informed the development of ankoku buto dance, I am employing frameworks provided by Japanese scholars who figure prominently in the zeitgeist of 1950s and 1960s Japan. Among them are Nishida Kitaro, founder of the Kyoto School, noted for introducing and developing phenomenology in Japan, and Yuasa Yasuo, noted particularly for his study of ki energy. Both thinkers address the body from an experiential perspective, and explore the development of consciousness through bodily sensation. My research draws from personal interviews I conducted with Hijikatas dancers, as well as essays, performance videos and films, and Hijikata's choreographic notebooks. I also track my own embodied understanding of buto, through practicing with these various teachers and using buto methods to teach and create performance work. / Dance