Acting for Dancers
(J. Alex Brinson with Sarah Brinson)
‘Acting for Dancers’ explores the use of acting within dance
education to enable the student to find a connection, engage the imagination and
attain skills to freely express oneself artistically through music. This book
provides today’s dancers with the means to develop artistry, from young
students through to aspiring professionals. The authors, a drama professional
and dance master have hosted acting workshops extensively around north America
specifically for dancers and dance teachers. Through the collaboration of drama
and dance professionals, this book combines methods, techniques and games devised
through many years of experience in theatre studies.
Theories
With relevance to my topic of inquiry I found the ‘Listening
with the entire body’ concept informative as listening skills are essential in
the development of musicality in artistry. The book presents the importance of
developing listening skills by going beyond simply hearing the music and moving
in time. Listening is only a small part of the equation, as all bodily senses
engage to establish an emotional connection, by feeling the vibration up through
your feet and entire body you experience thoughts images and sensations in
relation to the music.
‘Listening with your entire body means using more of your
nervous system, feeding your brain with more nerve activity both electrically
and chemically, having all of that neural activity connect to the physical body
for its expression’ (p21).
The training of dance technique is a long and gruelling
process, however the artistic element is where the fun lies, conveying joy and
passion for music and dance is a key component of artistry. Nevertheless, in
order to convey this tension must first be eradicated to find freedom in
expression and inspire an honest reaction from musical influence.
Imagination is a powerful performance tool used to
internally transform oneself and externally engage with the music to form a
connection with the audience. Again, the dancer must be relaxed, focussed and apply
their sensory and listening skills for this to take place. Once the choreography
has become ingrained the artistic layer can then be worked upon by asking
questions; why are doing this? Who are you? Where are you? What do you want to
communicate and who are you speaking to?
‘Dancers who use imaginative work have the ability to better
translate emotion.’ (P38)
The secret of good acting in dance is to instigate a process
of discovery, through exploring and asking questions, by creating circumstances
in order to build a character and portray certain emotions within dance.
Encourage students to think about the environment their dance might be set in
and envision it, what does it feel and smell like? How does it look? Consider these
circumstances to give an honest and engaging performance through one’s own
personal experience.
Conclusion
This book was straight forward and to the point, I felt it
gave valuable ideas in the use of acting to interpret music effectively. It
explored ways to help students dance with intention and purpose to engage with
the performance. By exploring the means to address one’s insecurities, gain the
ability to focus, develop listening skills and nonverbal communication, the
dancer can therefore demonstrate a high level of artistry through music. I now
plan to apply suggested methods to my forthcoming classes to evaluate their
effectiveness.
Brinson, A.J. and
Brinson, S. (2014) Acting for dancers: Dancing with intention, how to be a
dance storyteller! United States: U Publishing.
