Rhythm and Resonance in Acting Practice, CISPA, Copenhagen 8-10 March 2019 – full programme link: https://docdro.id/yOHcn81
Keynote Speakers:
Dr Eilon Morris – http://eilonmorris.com Rhythm in Acting and Performance (Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 2017)
Dr Kiki Selioni, Affiliate Research Fellow Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London.
https://www.cssd.ac.uk/staff/dr-kiki-selioni-ba-ma-phd
Rhythm and Resonance in Acting Practice
In this conference, we intend to investigate the two illusive concepts of Rhythm and Resonance, and their possible correlation, from a variety of angles. The go-to definitions of rhythm are defined as a patterned recurrence of a beat, pulse or accent, and resonance as vibration, reverberation, amplification of the range of audibility, and distribution of amplitudes among interrelated bodily cavities. These two concepts are embodied by the actor, immediately relevant, even essential, and their interplay in actors’ training and practices is worth exploring further.
In the essay Towards an Organic Approach to Actor Training: A Criticism of the Stanislavski Scheme, (1968) Duncan Ross proposes that:
”… the organism as a structure of activity organizing its unitary totality in a continuous flow of configurations of its energy, maintaining in an ever-changing immediate situation the soul of its nature manifested in the cyclic duration of its life process, exhibits an entity for which the only comprehensive description is Rhythm….In such an entity every occurrence, percept, image, movement or any other function is a modification of the rhythmic whole, the vibratory ebb and flow”. In such a model, reading words on a page is a bodily activity which as it progresses becomes, “a vast cyclic agitation spreading all over the body” (Ross, 1968: 265). An energy of Imminence that flows, vibrates, resonates through us all, and from which the performer must create (move, dance, vocalize, do) in a constant transforming and shaping of their mindbodies.
We ask – In what way do acting methods train the actor to understand, embody and enrich their rhythmical configurations? How is rhythm experienced by actors in the rehearsal process / performance? In what way do actors’ rhythms function as a means of communication to the audience?
We hope you’re able to join us for this event.