Applications in Actor Training

While it is clear that these practices present an actor/participant with a valuable collection of principles and approaches to rhythm, in looking to apply these practices within an actor-training context a number of considerations and questions emerge.

Firstly, it is important to note that the ability to facilitate and lead this work is based on an extensive training process, and relies on the cultivation of specific technical skills and modes of attention. Without the support of an experienced leader and drummer, the effective processes of dropping into and out of rhythm cannot be realised effectively or constructively. In this regard, TaKeTiNa is not so different from other specialist forms used in psychophysical actor training such as Meyerhold’s use of Biomechanics exercises (2.3) or Núñez’s training dynamics, each requiring the guidance and modelling of an experienced practitioner.

Secondly, in contrast to many rhythmic practices discussed in this thesis that involve dramatic shifts in tempo and dynamics, the processes of TaKeTiNa are based on a relatively stable use of tempo over which various degrees of complexity are then added or removed. This quality of stability may seem to be in opposition to other training approaches that encourage the actor not to get “stuck” in one tempo, but rather, constantly change the dynamics, rhythms and tempo of their actions in a responsive and “vitalistic” manner. While on the surface these two approaches may appear contrary, I would argue that the capacity to sustain a sense of rhythmic pulsation and find unity in the rhythms of a group, provides the necessary basis from which an actor can then experience what it is to disrupt, or “work against”, the rhythm of the group or a scene. In this way, participants retain a point of reference from which they can spring and return to. Further, as indicated by Vrobel, the fractal nature of the forms found in TaKeTiNa means that these structures allow for more, rather than less variability, as they are capable of adapting across multiple levels of organisation simultaneously (Vrobel, 2011, p.28–9).

In relation to actor training, TaKeTiNa is perhaps best understood as operating at what Barba refers to as a “pre-expressive level” (Barba, 1994, p.9). In this sense, TaKeTiNa does not have the intention of teaching a performer to execute specific phrasing, nor does

it teach them directly to play an instrument, or dance in a specific style. Instead, it offers the actor a far more essential set of mechanisms related to how they occupy the present moment of each action on stage, and respond and relate to their fellow performers and the context in which they work. Further, at this “pre-expressive level” the participant can encounter the most fundamental of skills, that of “learning to learn” (Barba, 1994, p.9). One way TaKeTiNa achieves this essential aspect of education is by supporting the participant in effectively inhabiting and moving between states of stability and instability. In this, new possibilities can be realised through the dissolution of order into chaos from which new forms of “self-organisation” emerge (Flatischler, 1996; Strogatz, 2004; Vrobel, 2011). It is in this way, that principles such as pulsation, repetition, simultaneity and I and It, offer a means through which many other skills and abilities can be approached and cultivated.

3.4.7 Summary

In this section we have observed the nature of the I and the It as representing aspects including the self and the other, conscious and unconscious, active and passive, voluntary and involuntary. Here I have noted the complex interpersonal nature of these phenomena and the ways that rhythmic practices can make such encounters more lucid and accessible to an actor. Further, it has been suggested that the polyrhythmic forms and processes found in TaKeTiNa afford a participant the experience of transcending what are commonly experienced as oppositional dichotomies, experiencing these as simultaneous and complementary aspects of a singular process in which the individuals themselves are nested. Such concepts feed directly into the discourses found in psychophysical acting practice described within this thesis. Tying in clearly with Grotowski’s principle of conjunctio oppositorum (2.2.1.1), such approaches offer a practical means of encountering what can otherwise seem to be a baffling logic of contradiction and paradox.

While TaKeTiNa was not originally designed as a form of actor training, it clearly offers effective mechanisms that can be used to facilitate an actor’s capacity for connecting, responding and transforming their relationships within the context of

performance and training. This work provides a framework for the cultivation of specific states of consciousness or modes of attention, which allow a performer the freedom to both synchronise with and remain independent of their fellow ensemble members and the environment within which they work. Through the use of “archetypal” rhythmic forms, TaKeTiNa establishes a clear set of structures and support mechanisms through which actors can gain an understanding and effectively change the ways they function at many levels of their practice. The supportive and yet direct nature of these mechanisms means that these changes can be realised at a fundamental level while also being effectively transferable to other aspects and contexts.

TaKeTiNa, Anthropocosmic Theatre, and John Britton’s ensemble training offer us three distinct perspectives on rhythm and the process of cultivating states of consciousness and qualities of connectivity within groups. While in each of these practices rhythm takes on unique characteristics influenced by specific principles and the requirements of each context, common to them all is the use of rhythmic mechanisms through which participants connect to what is at once greater than them, and yet formed through their own participation. In the case of Britton’s training, It is understood as an emergent aspect of ensemble, within Núñez’s practices aspects of It can be found in our relationship with the “cosmos”, and in TaKeTiNa It is encountered in the form of a “rhythmic field” emerging from direct contact with “archetypal” rhythmic elements. In each of these instances rhythm (in the form of attention, movement, spatial configuration and sound) acts as a means of bringing multiple aspects together into a unified relationship.

The analysis of these practices also raises questions about the further ways in which rhythm can be used to influence an individual’s relationship to both their own actions and those taking place around them, and the lasting impact that such work can have on an ensemble’s capacity to connect and perform together. While rhythm’s capacity to create bonds between individuals and establish greater qualities of ensemble is an attribute that is seen exploited across a wide range of actor training practices, the nature of how these bonds are formed and the creative potentials that these afford, is an area that deserves further investigation. In contrast to the complexity of rhythmic relationships observed in

TaKeTiNa, most use of polyrhythm in actor training remains relatively superficial and simplistic.

Rhythm’s capacity to unify multiple aspects within a “rhythmic field” of human perception will be discussed in greater detail in the next chapter of this thesis which deals specifically with the phenomenon of simultaneity, its significance in performance, and approaches to cultivating it within the field of actor training.

4

SIMULTANEITY