Feeling capable of the most absurd and outlandish movement …
(paper about voice and movement for actors at the Accademia dell´Arte in Arezzo, Italy, by L. F. 2015)
„… I believe that an actor´ s best self combines both a powerful, quiet sense of self as well as a fearless body. … The work I do in Claudia´s movement class pushes me to extremes – to both the quiet individual strength that I find in Yoga and acrobatics as well as the physical and emotional demands of sharing my entire self and listening so closely to another human being´s body. … I deeply appreciate Claudia´s ease and confidence when it comes to the work. She makes everything feel possible. I feel capable of the most absurd and outlandish physical movements in her classroom. There is no room for hesitation, which i believe is also true on stage and in ensemble work. There is an inner grace she works with that sets a powerful tone in the room. Everything is accompanied by breath and movement. Everything flows. Contact Improvisation is a direct metaphor for ideal actor performance. It´s about patience and respect for my body as well as my partners´s. It´s about about fearless ness in the face of impossibility. It´s fundamentally about trust- trust that my body will do what makes the most sense, trust that the other person will take care of me and let themselves take risks alongside me, trust that everything will work itself out in the doing. There´s no planning or calculating, there´s only try, try and try again. There´s only movement and release, breathing into snd out of uses and plunging back in with strength and ease. It is never about the final product, because it focus has to be on the present moment. … „
With Feldenkrais technique – loving your body
(paper about voice and movement for actors, by M.W. 2015)
„My time at the Academia dell´Arte has been remarkably informative in my training as an actor. In my time in Italy I have not only learned a vast amount about my body as an actor, but I have learned also the importance f being kind to my body. As this has been a particular difficult time for my relationship with my body, because of my back injury, learning how to work with it and understand my body needs and to not expect things that it isn´t capable of at the time. One of the most revelatory experiences I have had in my time at AdA has been my work with the Feldenkrais technique (in movement class with Claudia Schnürer)…my experience with Feldenkrais this time was very different. Fk was one of the only exercises we did in which I noticed I had alost no back pain. This was because Fk taught me one of the most important lessons on my life, which I have been taught before but forgotten. It taught me how to really listen to my body. … I put myself at odds with m own body, Fk technique squashes this notion immediately. It helps you to love your body and understand what it needs …“
Playing and dancing instinctivly
(paper about voice and movement for actors, by S.M. 2015)
„… In my experience whenever teacher says the word ´handstand´half the class freezes up in fear…for the first time, I did not see this happen. Everyone around me was standing on their hands, without realising they were doing so. This movement training … had helped us completely skip the phase where you have to overcome your fear … (As we proceeded with classes in Movement: ) … we learned to trust one another with the weight of our bodies. The ´lifts´we executed were uncomplicated despite the differences in all our heights and shapes. We all played with instinct and it became a beautiful dance. To me, teamwork is part of the beauty of our ´sport´, you have partners acting as one and reacting to one another. You learn to collaborate, you become selfless …“
The process not (just) the product
This semester has been filled with invaluable training and practice in awareness. One of the most important elements of my training here has been that I am challenged to slow down and take a hard look at the way I process my acting work There was one day that Claudia mentioned that it´s not every actor should know how to do a headstand, but the process of getting threes one that involves the entire being. In many ways, this semester was about connecting my entire being and allowing myself to act in a fuller, more dimensional and dynamic way. It is about the process of getting there, not always the result or product. I tried to use this as a metaphor for the rest of my work at the Academia delete. Treat everything like a experiment, and let the process lead me to the product, rather than use force.
By returning to the fundamentals of movement, I have gained awareness, strength and confidence. … How does my body balance in space? What shapes am I able to do and hold? How can I use my weight as resistance, strength, a base? These were the basic tools that aid my foundation, and from there we sprung into improv work, Laban, composition. What is compelling to watch on stage? How can I be even more specific, even more dynamic, more interesting with my movement?
Possibly most importantly, I have made working with my body a HABIT, so that it influencesall of my acting work. …
(paper about voice and movement for actors, by T.T. 2014)
Contact improvisation
(paper about voice and movement for actors, by M.W. 2015)
… another hugely important experience that I have had here has been our work in the contact improvisation….this work has led me to do things that I did not think my body could ever do …What fascinates me most about this work is how human bodies can fit together. … a fantastic rehearsal technique or warm up between partners. When you are moving together, you are breathing together, and when you are breathing together, you are listening to each other. It´s an incredibly intimate experience to have with someone …