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Articulating the Psychological and Physiological Responses in Voice and Movement Training

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Articulating the Psychological and Physiological Responses in Voice and Movement Training University of Calgary PRISM: University of Calgary's Digital Repository Graduate Studies The Vault: Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2015-09-30 Unnamed Encounters: Articulating the Psychological and Physiological Responses in Voice and Movement Training Dyment, Jackie Dyment, J. (2015). Unnamed Encounters: Articulating the Psychological and Physiological Responses in Voice and Movement Training (Unpublished master's thesis). University of Calgary, Calgary, AB. doi:10.11575/PRISM/28588 http://hdl.handle.net/11023/2566 master thesis University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission. Downloaded from PRISM: https://prism.ucalgary.ca UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY Unnamed Encounters: Articulating the Psychological and Physiological Responses in Voice and Movement Training by Jackie Dyment A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF FINE ARTS GRADUATE PROGRAM IN DRAMA CALGARY, ALBERTA SEPTEMBER, 2015 © Jackie Dyment 2015 Addendum This addendum is to be applied to “Chapter 4: Case Study A, Examining Articulation in Judith Koltai’s Embodied Practice™ through a PAR Methodology”. Following a conversation with Embodied Practice™ founder Judith Koltai regarding Case Study A she disseminated the following edits on April 4th 2016, which I stand behind as necessary to the integrity of this thesis. As they apply most directly to articulating the practice, it is essential they are read. These comments hold within them a seed of the rigor required for the continual and precise articulation of all Voice and Movement disciplines: p. 86 Line 3: in the French spelling Antigymnastique, then there is no ’s’ at the end. In English often the word ‘Anti-Exercise’ is used. Occasionally the anglicized form ‘Antigymnastics’. However, plural on the French version is wrong. Line3/4: It is incorrect to say that Authentic Movement originated in dance therapy. Dance therapy adopted Authentic Movement as one of its methods. The roots of Authentic Movement are early German Modern Dance and Jungian Psychology of Creativity. Mary Starks Whitehouse fought fiercely against the label ‘therapy’ for Movement in Depth and pointed out repeatedly that her work was with dancers, choreographers as ‘ persons’. She also described her students and followers as “ normal neurotics like you and me” rather than clients or patients or people needing therapy. Line 8: Judith Koltai was an invited guest teacher at the National Theatre School, not a coach. p.89 Line 3/4: Mezieres never used the word alignment. That was not a concept in that methodology. Line 6: The body itself is not the series of muscular chains, The muscle system, which is a part of the body, forms a series of chains. p. 90 Line 6: the Mezieres method is primarily –but not completely – reliant on the therapist’s hands. Line 3 para 2: Using the name “Quadripedic Plantigrade” is problematic. It was the whimsical choice of word for that position given by practicing Postural Reconstructionists. It was never intended to be given as the serious name of a posture.There is no instruction or even mention to the client or patient to consciously intend or attend to the lengthening of the posterior chain. This lengthening sometime happens. But, mostly, inability to perform the posture flawlessly reveals posterior shortenings and that is its main virtue. p. 91 Line 3: Tone is not observable. Its very nature is that it is underlying and only the resulting inability of certain normal movements is observable. This is a very important distinction. Tone is definitely not defined by a specific movement – it is an underlying, unfelt and unconscious habitual shortening of muscle. Line 6 from bottom paragraph: the word “alignment” is not an operative word in Method Mezieres, Antigymnastique or Postural Reconstruction. p. 92 Line 6: Mary Stark Whitehouse studied in Germany but was born in the U.S.A. p. 95 Line 3: “vehement” should be added to “rapid” if safety guidelines are mentioned. A movement can be slow but have strong impact power and can shock or injure an unexpecting mover as much or more than a rapid movement. p. 96 Line 2, paragraph 3: while an articulator might use movement, the gesture circle is a separately defined form and not an articulating circle, so saying ’speaking practice or gesture circle’ muddles matters. Abstract This thesis seeks to articulate the physiological and psychological responses that arise from voice and movement training in drama by providing a context of some of the training lineages and methods, outlining physiological and psychological responses based on observation and research, and examining the current approaches to both articulating and responding to them within the field of actor training. Following a Practice as Research (PAR) methodology this thesis reviews the current body of published work on several primary vocal and movement techniques utilized in theatre performance training comparing the commonalities and differences of their vocabularies. It looks to psychology and neurobiology to identify the effects of performance training on actors. Interviews with voice and movement teachers regarding their methods and terminology are utilized as well as case studies of a voice technique and a movement practice in order to study articulation within a methodology. ii Preface “The voice is the muscle of the soul” – Roy Hart (Dark Voices 96) In 2009, I was invited to teach drama in the Eating Disorders Ward at British Columbia’s Children’s Hospital in Vancouver, Canada. Through applying a combination of modified actor voice and movement training exercises including Shakespearean text work, I saw a dramatic change in the openness of many of the patients within a short period of time. By inviting them to use their voices and bodies they grew in confidence, posture and volume. While they had been hospitalized for behaviors that were actively shrinking their bodies, speaking the lines of Juliet, Cleopatra and Lady Macbeth had the opposite effect. They began to take up space purposefully, vocally and physically. This was true both in text work that required vulnerability (like Juliet) and strong characters that required power (Cleopatra). The act of giving voice to a character began a transformation of giving voice to themselves. Voices that had been turned inward -- hidden in the dropping pounds and visible bones -- were daring to make themselves known, expressing the passionate souls of the speakers. While I had undergone a similar transformation through voice and movement experiences in my own undergraduate training, witnessing this profound change in others moved me to recognize the consistent effect that this work had on the psyche and body of the individual experiencing it. I realized I needed to know more about the psychological and physiological responses that were brought on by voice and movement training. If it was possible for the training of the voice and the body to bring about positive change, were there reasons to be cautious as well? What is the nature and origin of these responses? Were they events that should be experienced within the walls of a classroom or stricture of an acting training program, or were they the domain of the counsellor’s couch? It was these questions that led me to my current line of research and the topic of this thesis. Through continued research, both in teaching roles and as a participant, I continue to observe the effects of voice and movement training. These effects often reach beyond simply improving a performance iii skillset for an actor, to at times inciting personal transformation, seeming to restore what had been lost through injury, hardship or age. I have witnessed the negative aspects of a teacher crossing the fine line between acting instructor and counsellor: where the psyche is put on display for the class to see and is muddled about in the way a magnet would clumsily draw metal out of the brain, ripping as it goes; stories of master teachers who cross boundaries into being a guru rather than a guide, and have loyal followings of actors who do not feel they can find their voice or movement without them. Most of all what I have come to uncover is a lack of articulation and absence of documentation regarding these psychological and physiological responses, without which further research and pedagogical assessment is difficult. By defining what is happening in the body, voice and psyche of students in the voice and movement studio through scientific, anecdotal and experiential means — I seek to give voice to the responses themselves. iv Acknowledgements Special thanks to my supervisors Dawn McCaugherty and Valerie Campbell, the support of Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Graduate Scholarship, the many voice and movement teachers and students who participated in the studies needed to complete this thesis, and my wonderful husband for making sure I continued to eat and shower while writing this. And to Tim Sutherland, my friend. “Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave” (Edna St. Vincent Millay). v Dedication To all those who have had the bravery to peer into the depth of their souls and give voice and body to what they find there vi Table of Contents Abstract
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