Facing the Mask continued.
BEING IN SPACE 6How do you fill a space? In writing on a piece of paper, you reveal yourself, not just by what you write, but by how you fill the space. Some people write from edge to edge. Others write only in the center. You are how you fill the space.
When a master makes a table, no nails or scraps of wood are left after he is finished. Everything is used. Everything is clean. Do not go to sleep at night until all the mistakes of the day have been corrected and the space is cleared. When some-thing is left undone or uncorrected, it creates tension. That tension keeps us uneasy until it is fully dealt with. The good carpenter straightens the bent nails.
Space is not a void. It is filled with thoughts, intentions and feelings. We always sense these, even if we don't acknowledge them. The ones not in accord with nature create tension. Wherever it is, tension attracts a kick.
A movement artist must be all eyes. We must learn to see with every pore like the blind. We look with the eyes; we see with the whole body. All the cells in the body have a consciousness and a specific function. There must be eyes in your toes, thighs, and belly. Walk as carefully forwards into the space as you do backwards. Don't walk, but be walked. There is a whole other world present to be experienced. Space awareness is an attunement that must be developed.
When we are in space we are like birds; we establish territories. How can you let the other person be in the space with you? Two people walking toward each other on a street often bump or disrupt their walking when they pass. There is no necessity for this if they simply give space to one another. When you walk, are you aware of the ants and the plants you step on? Do you trip and stub you toes? The feet, too, can learn to see.
At Le Centre du Silence, we do many exercises that develop space awareness quickly. For example, with your eyes closed, you must run across a floor covered with people lying down. . . and you must do this without kicking anyone. Another technique called "immediate replacement" develops the ability to fill a space the instant it is vacated by your partner, and in such a way that the tail of the imaginary line you create in space moves as one with the head of that line. By timing the space and spacing the time, each space is magically filled just as it is emptied. A kind of subtle contagion enflames a group when it perfects this attunement.
We also use sticks to test our alertness and our ability to respond immediately. Sticks let you see the amount of mercury you have in your blood. We roll the sticks in our hands, work combat maneuvers, exchange sticks in mid-air, and jump or duck to avoid getting hit. The body learns confidence and dexterity. It learns how to put only the exact amount of energy needed into motion. One iota of hesitation, fear or uncertainty can make the stick fall. Voila! It smashes your toe. Take care. If you overcompensate on one movement, you won't be ready for the next.
The stick teaches you how not to anticipate. It helps you give up all your expectations. The body and mind must be alert, both awake and quiet. The stick helps teach us that the right time to begin any movement is when all unnecessary movement stops and stillness descends.
In each of us there is a witness or "one who observes." This observer is there whether you are aware of it or not. You begin to be conscious of the observer when you stop your unnecessary movements, are still, and listen to silence. When you allow the observer to watch over you, everything will be all right. Even if you are not conscious of it, it is conscious of you. It is the one who catches the body when it trips. You are always being taken care of.
The Inner Director lives in every cell. It is your double. A technique call "75/25" teaches us to keep the observer always present and occupying 25% of our total being. It stays detached, witnessing, guiding the body. The observer lets us serve an idea, but keeps us from indulging in it. It saves us from accidents and fanaticism. Why doesn't an actor get carried away in a stage fight and really kill another actor? The observer keeps him aware of the truth and the still center within.
Another technique, called "Master of the Situation," teaches a whole group to act as one. It requires the members of the group to be fully conscious of the "one who observes" within themselves. Befriend the observer, and miracles happen!
When you allow your observer to be your director, you start to inhabit a space in a way that is both natural and conscious to you. There is purpose to the way you shape it. You can express eternity in a gesture. When your observer is always present, you begin to store up archetypes. In your storehouse are images common to human beings throughout the ages that provide the basis for a powerfully expressive common language of movement.
Speaking and thinking in archetypes and symbols also brings your thoughts and expressions to a level that is beyond linear. It breaks the logic of linear thinking. You sit peace fully and watch the train of thoughts go by. Suddenly, you jump on something. You choose. You say, "Ah, that's it!" A coalescence occurs. It is an alchemy of the spirit.
You are the laboratory. You are the experiment. You are the alchemist, the artist/scientist. You have to distill the chemicals in order to make the elixir. The more you mix, unify, and distill, the better artist/scientist you are. Use inner awareness. Always speak from the one in you who sees. Find your internal rhythm.
To be a Master of the Here and Now, that is the art of mime. The mime artist makes moments elastic; he squeezes time and elongates space. He studies the "elan" of a movement. He creates a space for something to happen before it happens. His observer keeps the image or happening in mind, and his body reflects that image. He fills space according to his awareness, and he shapes space according to his sensitivity. When he is finished, his workshop is clean. Space has been filled with meaning.
THE HARMONIOUS CELL 7The human body is a community of cells. It is a macrocosm made up of millions of functioning bits of matter. Each part has its unique work to do. Each cell has its own consciousness. Ears, liver, uterus, blood, vertebrae, muscle, tongue, tooth, heart; each part is vital to the totality.
In the same way, the cosmos is a community of cells made up of many elements. Each person is a dot in relation to the universe, but each dot has its unique place in the whole. A group of people is also a collection of cells.
No matter whether the being is single or many, it must be harmonious. In order to be one being, there must be a unifying thought or motif holding the pieces together. When a being or group is harmonious, it has a certain balance that is clearly visible. In order for this balance to manifest, each cell must know its place and its work. Each part must know how it is vital to the totality.
To express the totality, we must first perceive it. We have to overcome our usual elephant-in-the-dark-mentality. Six men in a dark room each got hold of a different part of one elephant , explored it thoroughly by touch, and then got together to discuss their six perceptions of "elephant." One described the trunk, another the ear, and another the tail. The other three told their perceptions of the leg, the back, and the tusk. Each was sure he knew what an elephant was, but no one could see the total picture. If the being is fully awake and lucid, each cell will move and act very consciously and will be aware of the totality. An ensemble must serve an idea in harmony. Each person must know his or her place within the ensemble. Everyone occupies territory. You choose your place to sit, and then you must accept your position because you chose to sit there.
When there is harmony in a person or group, thought is transformed into an image or form. A "physical mandala" is an example of such a transformation. Three or four people freeze into a harmonious form like a mandala. Then, at the exact same moment, the all begin moving very slowly, changing the structure. Suddenly, the motion simply stops and miraculously , a new mandala is revealed. This can only happen when each member of the groups sees the whole picture. Each member must see not only his own perception, but everyone else's as well.
Every group contains leaders and followers, but the leader takes a certain initiative. An engine, for example, is the leader of a train. In movement, the initiating pulse or mark, is the leader. All the rest of the body parts are pulled along behind it like train cars following the engine. If the nose is the leader, it goes as far as it can on its own. Then, the head is pulled along after it. The neck follows, then the chest, waist and pelvis.
Walking uses two equal and perfectly blended leaders. Neither foot takes the lead. The leader was once where the follower is, and the follower will soon be where the leader is. It is simple. Accept that that which leads, leads and that which follows, follows. Any part of the body can be a leader. Any person in a group can be a leader. Just be careful not to al low the leader to become a dictator and the followers to become sheep.
Necessity is the leader of walking. An itch is the leader of scratching. Are you leading the movement, or is the movement leading you? A true leader is not seen. It does not make itself known. It remains hidden. As the root is hidden, the tree grows. When the blood stays in the body never to be seen, the body grows. In the same way, any leader should remain hid den. An audience doesn't want to see where the impulse to move in the group originates. And yet, in order to be hidden, you have to be very visible to those parts that must follow. It is because we stay tuned to that hidden leader that we succeed.
Mime is the only art form in which you can make the picture come out of the frame. You can make the sculpture breathe! The picture moves! The idea, the unifying thought, must be projected through movements. Every movement done by every person and every cell is seen by the audience.
A movement is a transition. In everyday life, transitions like taking the cap off the toothpaste happen too fast for us to see what takes place. In mime, movements are done slowly, one at a time, so they can be seen. Every movement must be done consciously in order for the idea to form. Every member of the group must know what part of his body or which person is the leader at any given moment. Each must give up some of his individuality to find the group balance. I can be her leg and she can be my arm! By moving consciously and by perceiving the totality, the invisible can be made visible.
If the ensemble is truly serving the idea in harmony, it should be as though one person were performing. Nothing happens until the right people with the right skills come together at the right time in the right place. Until all these thing come together, we spend our time perfecting our skills and learning to listen. Then, when the right time comes, we'll be able to hear.
BEYOND OPPOSITES 8The Electrical Journey Between Simplicity and Complexity
For everything that exists, its opposite also exists. We call this the Law of Polarity, I call it the "Bouncing Principle". All opposites exist simultaneously. Polarity means having both positive and negative. Without hard, no soft, without tension, no relaxation, without motion, no stillness. After inhaling comes exhaling, after contraction, expansion. The journey of this existence through simplicity and complexity, a sort of ball bouncing "up" and "down", between the "ceiling" and the "floor", and like an electrical spark in perpetual motion, we try to find balance and exist in a way, to find equilibrium between the two worlds, the "here" and "there", the "visible" and the "invisible". That's probably how the universe was born, through electrical impulses, a kind of conversation between matrices.
We really cannot perceive things unless we separate them. We divide and we divide, and the more we divide, the more we have the positive and the negative. We are here and we want to be there. Eventually the time comes when the dividing process stops. Division precedes uniting. There is a Oneness, one consciousness, underlying all things. One root. One beginning. Different manifestations, one essence.
Each of us has his own center which is like the center of a circle. It is the place where we know who we are. It is the place we go our from and return to, identical with the Center of all things, the One. Artists and mystics want to go directly to that center of things. When you work from there, you are solid as a rock.
An important part of our work is learning to be harmonious with opposites, or becoming, as we say, "lovers of paradox." This is indeed difficult, but unless we do it, we cannot enter the palace of true art. We are all limited beings, but we have to reach for the unlimited. Effort requires effortlessness. At the edge of ugliness is beauty.
In our mime work we learn to embody the paradox in thought and action. For example, we have to express weakness with strength. Our point of reference, the body, is a structure made of both the hard and the soft. It has the appearance of permanence; actually, it will die. This is a paradox we can play on easily. If someone hurts you, play the opposite: say thank you. Break the logic of life, and laughter or crying result spontaneously. That is when education happens. If a bullet hits you, don't die; pull it out, throw it back at the gunslinger, and watch it hit him! Accept the paradox, perform it, and then you transcend it.
In theater, there is the performer, the performed, and the performance. In thinking, there is the thinker, the thought, and the expression of the thought. These three are one. When we realize this, then we know totality. The paradox here is that the expression of totality happens through separation.
That which appears still, is essentially in motion, and that which appears to be moving is, in essence, still. The earth turns and the sun seems to move across the sky every day, but we don't notice its motion. We only see it now, above that tree, and then later, above that mountain. Each time it appears still. We can't tell where the motion originates. A whirling dervish turns in a continual spiral, never wavering for an instant, but there is a profound stillness at his center that keeps him on one spot.
There are many other examples of this paradox in every day life: the hub of a wheel turning, the eye of a hurricane, the frames of a film. When a person sits perfectly still, the blood continues to course through her body and breath fills and empties her lungs. Time is the fluid in which all this motion takes place.
There is no stillness on this earth. But in art, in painting, and sculpture, time is arrested. Moments are captured in space. These moments are the spaces in between. It is the work of the mime artist to perceive them. He is the sculptor of space, the shaper of force. His medium is space and time, and his paradox is that he must work simultaneously in the moment and in the timeless. The mime artist knows that he shares the same space and the same consciousness with all other beings. His work shows the marriage of subject and object. In order to know the architect, you have to know the architecture. The true mime artist must know the illusion of separateness so intimately that he ceases to be separate. When he sees the One, he is free to reflect all the forms of the duality of the world.
FACING THE MASK 9When a person covers his face with a mask, he thinks his real face is hidden. He feels safe behind the facade , and he acts as though he were not seen. Faces customarily dominate expression. We are accustomed to watching faces; consequently, we rarely notice what emotions the rest of the body is expressing. There are muscles in the face that we tense even when we think we are relaxed. When the gesticulations of the face are concealed by some sort of covering, a mask, suddenly we take notice of the body. Then something startling is revealed. By covering the face, we discover the real face, the real self.
Any appearance is a mask. Everyone knows that things are often not what they appear to be. Clothes, cars, jobs, routines, attitudes, and false smiles all mask the real person. Even personal history cloaks the real self.
Masks are the border between appearance and essence. At Le Centre du Silence we use plaster gauze to make white, neutral masks of our own faces. Neutrality is the space between yes and no. We use the masks to put the personality aside so we can find the observateur inside.
MASK SESSION
a verbatim guidance of the mask workshop experience"Sit with the spine straight, in stillness. Hold the mask in your hands and look at it. Observe the texture and other de tails. It's part of your skin that you have peeled. It's a replica of your physical face. Think no thoughts other than about the mask. Look at the shape of the features. Do not judge, just look. Look at the eyes. They appear as two holes that reach infinity . Become familiar with your face that you hold in your hands.
"This tool, the mask, is a place. It's not a time. Become friends with the mask and it will teach you many things. Your face is looking at you. It is covered, somehow, by different thoughts.
"Very slowly put the mask on your face. Take five million years to do this. No brusque movements. Every movement should be very conscious. With the mask on, keep the eyes closed. Breathe very calmly. Begin to feel your own facial structure under the mask. It is covered, as if by clothes.
"Visualize yourself sitting in water up to your neck. It is the ocean. What you see is the horizon of the waters. Nourish the waters, the horizon, and ask who is behind the mask. It has no name. Is it your face? Is the mask really that important , or is it just a tool to help us realize the essence? No at tributes, no name, no concept totally pure. If we can grasp that ungraspable, then later we can express that essence.
"Find the neutral one, the no-name one, the circle, the empty one within. That center of the circle is there living be hind every being.
"Open the eyes halfway. What you see on the other side of the horizon is the reflection of yourself. Be detached from it. There is no such thing as near or far. You cannot measure the horizon. The water is cool and helps the body in that total peace.
"In very slow motion, like moving for the first time, check to see if the mask is still there. The hands don't touch as if they know, they touch as if they want to know. Look at your hands through the windows of your eyes.
"Stand up using very slow motion. Who is behind the mask moving the body? It is a new physical being that you discover, but who is discovering it? Who is moving the body from the in side? The goal is to stand. Do not plan any movement. Let the one behind the mask move you.
"Once you stand, get in touch with that presence. The presence is not you. It's no-name. If we are aware of it, everything becomes fresh, as if for the first time. Let the presence walk, using the vehicle of the body. Any movement we do now is in the service of walking, with appreciation and reverence. The presence goes for a promenade. It is not limited in any way. Turn. When the head meets the limitation of the body, the presence continues. The presence will teach you to turn.
"Now we take certain conditions and see how the presence relates. Be cold! Let coldness contract the body, as the presence stays remote, observing the expression of the body. Watch how the mask keeps the face from interfering in the body's expression . Now change; be hot! Immediately the body expands and droops, but the presence stays distant.
"The body takes on archetypes. Be a warrior! The archetype of the warrior is one who knows his power and knows how to use it positively. Be a coward! Receive the universal coward in you. Cowardice is not negative; it is a state of being. Let the presence teach you how to use the body as a brush. Presence never needs to justify itself. The presence knows.
"Come back to the original spot where you began. The presence sits like a king or queen. It knows how to sit. The one who is sitting has a right to be there. Turn the head to brush the horizon. Just the head. C'est une noblesse de presence. Close the windows and sit still in the waters. Very slowly, eyes closed, take off the mask and hold it facing you."
The work with masks opens beautiful doors to us to be in touch with ourselves and to become aware of the presence, that formless guidance, that springs up from the center of our being. This form of work opens new vistas of self exploration to the student. Further, it provides specific tools to enter into the inner self, learn, experience, and emerge with a definitive artistic expression.
HANDS 10The Instruments of Formation and Creation
In mime and in dance, hands design the space and sculpt the air. From one creative impulse, the air is given movement, the space takes shape, by simple movements.
The Uniqueness of the Human Hand**
The hand exhibits one of the most important distinctions between human beings and other animals. It has profoundly influenced our evolution, enabling us to create works of art and feats of engineering.
The arboreal life of our ancestors encouraged the develop ment of this efficient grasping mechanism, capable of performing delicate manipulations. The sense of touch sharpened and indirectly enabled our progenitors to judge distance and direction more accurately. When early hominids descended from trees, the prehensile hand, now free, became the main exploratory tool.
Primates, including humans, lost their claws early in their evolutionary ascent. But of the primates, only humans can join the tip of the index finger with an opposable thumb. Due to the maneuverability and dexterity of the thumb and fingers, humans gained a precision in grasping small objects and a lightness of touch, and thus a facility with the use of tools that would be impossible with claws.
We owe the architectural and functional excellence of the hand to an intricate system of muscles, a metacarpal (palm bone), and phalanges (finger bones). Around and within the layers of ligaments, fibers, and tissues that stabilize this skeletal structure, there is an intricate network of muscles that makes possible the amazingly versatile motor performance of the hand.
The prehensile action of the hand makes two basic movements possible: the precision grip and the power grip. The first permits accuracy and fine control. The second is a posture of labor, in which the entire hand holds an object between the flexed fingers and the palm while the thumb supplies the necessary pressure to maintain the grip.
A network of nerves of the fingers transmit heat or pain and convert the mechanical energy of touch into electric energy that is carried by the nerves to the higher centers. Other more sensitive neural tactile receptors permit discrimination among objects. Even the fingerprints with their unique configuration of whorls, loops, and arches, assist the fingers to grip and pick up objects.
The thumb and fingers are primary organs of the vast human sensory system. A relatively large area of the brain governs them. The thumb, for instance, is governed in the brain cortex by an area almost as large as that which controls the entire hip and leg.
The Awareness of Touch - Hands exercisesHuman beings have very highly developed eye-hand coordination, the hands responding instantly to silent messages from the brain, informed by the eye. But the very delicate pressure sensors (propioceptors) in our fingertips enable us to know when we are approaching an object, even without the assistance of our eyes. This is how, for example, we can close our eyes and touch the tip of our nose. Even the most sophisticated robot cannot begin to match this kinesthetic capability, which we take for granted. To become aware of the subtle capabilities of the hands we suggest a few exercises:
1. Rub the hands very vigorously for about a minute until you feel heat created by friction. Inhale and raise your hands over your head. Feel the generation of energy flowing through the body.
2. Once again, rub the hands very vigorously for a minute. Then place the palms in front of you as if you were holding a ball about six inches in diameter. Feel the lines of force, like the lines of force of a magnet, connecting the hands. Now slowly bring the hands together until they almost touch. Do you feel the tingling? Do any "sparks" leap the gap between your hands? Now s-l-o-w-l-y pull your hands apart until the lines of force snap, just as do the lines of force in a bar magnet when the poles are pulled apart and then suddenly release. How far apart are your hands when you feel the snap?
3. Clap the hands lightly for about a minute in such a way that the palms and all the fingers meet. Then, with the arms at a right angle, shake the hands at the wrists in a variety of motions -- up-and-down, side-to-side, towards each other, away from each other -- for several minutes. Finish by dropping the hands at your sides. Discover for yourself the intensity of the energy concentrated in them by the tingling sensation of sparks shooting out the ends of the fingertips.
4. Stand facing the sun in the morning and stretch the arms to shoulder level. Close the fists, contracting the fingers, and then open the fists, stretching the fingers. Do this for one minute and feel the result. After performing any of these hand energizers, touch an object s-l-o-w-l-y, as if for the first time. What new sensations do you discover?
5. Stand erect. Stretch the right arm forward until the hand is at shoulder level, then extend it straight out to the side at shoulder level, and then let it come back down to your side. Repeat this with the left arm. This exercise is especially good for coordination of the right-left crisscross of energy in the body.
6. Practice the "Fish Wave", a wavy movement in which the hand is taught to undulate like a fish.
Begin with the palms together, fingers touching.
Second, fan the fingers, keeping the palms together.
Third, cup both hands away from each other, keeping fingertips and heels of the palms touching.
Fourth, bring the first knuckle joints together, leaving the outspread fingers still cupped.
Fifth, slowly stretch the fingers up until the whole hand is flat against the other once again, and then allow the fingers to peel outward as far as possible from each other, like the petals of a flower opening.
Finally, bring the palms together as in the beginning and repeat the exercise many times. Eventually do it with one hand alone in space, moving it in many different directions -- vertically, horizon tally, diagonally, right-to-left, left-to-right -- like a fish swimming.
With continued practice of this exercise, your hands will become remarkably supple and responsive. You will be able to touch with greater sensitivity and have a fuller appreciation for tactile nuances.
By increasing our awareness of the hands through exercises, we come to realize that they are actually transmitters of energy and of the knowledge in which our fluid thoughts take form. If we take this into consideration, we will see a positive transformation in our lives. Every moment and gesture becomes of utmost importance to us. We gain poise and calm envelops all life within and without. We will then write our poems on the walls of history with these hands.
It is said that when the hands are flexible, it is a sign of spiritual flexibility. An ancient Chinese exercise of pushing the fingers backwards makes them flexible so that the spirit will also be flexible. The ancient Greeks would test children's hands for flexibility to see if they had the potential to become artists.
The attainment of high spiritual powers by the individual has been associated with certain postures of the body, especially hand gestures, which not only aid concentration, but are capable of evoking the inner spiritual consciousness.
The Hindus have devised a highly formalized and cultivated gesture language, kathakali, a grammatically complete language of hand symbols or mudras, regarded to be expressive of spiritual states and the qualities of deities. The palm, for example, symbolizes the calm center of action, the meditative control over the five senses or fingers agitated around it. One hand held up, palm outward, is known as "turning the wheel of the law." It is also a teaching position. The hands held together indicate the begging bowl.
Some of these gestures, apart from their spiritual significance and symbolism, are wonderfully articulate, with a grace and tenderness of poetic expression, and capable of depicting any theme, situation, emotion, or action required. Each theme has its own sequence of hand positions and movements, with coordinated attitude and body movements based on certain archetypal or idealized forms.
The opening lotus bud, for example, is shown, not only by a single symbolic gesture, but also by a series of hand movements, beginning with a cyclic twist of the hand to suggest the very growth of the flower, followed by delicate movements of the fingers to indicate unfolding petals. Visualize for a moment an Indian dancer, her hands fluttering to indicate water, the flight of the bee, or the opening of a lotus. An undulating hand suggests waves, or a fish; a swinging hand creates elephant ears or the flight of a bird; and a shaking hand shows anger, a river, rising flames, or lightning. These movements of the hands are thought to represent divine actions, being distinguished in their conventions from the movements and gestures of ordinary human beings.
Native Americans evolved elaborately codified ceremonial sign languages which yet retain a beautiful mimetic simplicity and directness. A ceremonial dancer, for example, shades his eyes to see into the distance. This action is repeated toward the four points of the compass as the dancer looks to ward the approaching rain gods who bring the rain. He may also enact motions of sowing seeds, digging, and gathering plants. Native American animal dances are highly mimetic, imitating the flight of geese or eagles or the supernatural powers of bears or bison.
Many traditional ceremonial hand gestures also prevail in the Christian church. The thumb and first two fingers raised represent the Trinity and are used by the Pope in blessing the faithful. The arms outstretched form a cross with the body, expressing suffering in life and death.
The seated Buddha calls the earth to witness with a downward pointing right hand, while receiving from above with an upturned left hand laid in his lap. Similarly, dervishes whirl with the left palm extended upward to receive from heaven and the right palm facing the earth to transmit the energy through their bodies to the earth.
At ancient Egyptian funeral ceremonies, the hands held palms upward above the head signified the rising of the soul; holding the arms in a gesture of throwing dust on the head indicated mourning; arms held directly upward signified interceding with the gods for the dead; a pushing movement sent threatening evil spirits away from the dead.
In the Hebrew tradition the hand is the connector through which the spirit may touch matter, and with which we may touch spirit with matter while living in the flesh. In Hebrew, the word for hand is Yad. ( ) Yod ( ), the first letter of Yad, is the tenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet and designates the ten fingers.
Now Yad numerically in Hebrew equals 14, designating the 14 phalanges of the human hand. We have two hands, equaling 28 phalanges. The number 28 creates the word Koah, meaning "Power," the power that we possess in our hands or actions.
The hand is also our point of contact with others; we shake hands to make contact with a friend two hands come together. In Hebrew, the word Yedid, meaning "friends," is spelled Yad Yad, which also adds up to 28, (Koah,) power. So the power of two hands is friendship. And in joining hands we gain a mighty power to create and expand.
Copying or redistribution not authorized in any form without the author's express written consent. This publication is private and directed only as information to those who genuinely inquire it, and for those who are interested in BodySpeak™™ training, classes, seminars, private consultations, or to whom this information is offered.
1 Adapted from "Archetypes in Mime," Mime and Beyond. pages 40-41.2 Adapted from "Archetypes in Mime," Mime and Beyond. pages 40-41.
3 Adapted from "Archetypes in Mime," Mime and Beyond. pages 40-41.
4 Adapted from "Geometrical Mime," Mime and Beyond. pages 36-37.
5 Revised from "On Being Alert," Mime and Beyond. pages 33-34.
6 Revised from "Being in Space," Mime and Beyond. pages 29-30.
7 Revised from "The Harmonious Cell," Mime and Beyond. pages 31-32.
8 Revised from "Beyond Opposites," Mime and Beyond. pages 38-39.
9 Revised from "Facing The Mask" Mime and Beyond. pages 42-43.
10 Adapted from "Hands The Expression of the Soul," Mime and Beyond. pages 135-136, and from an Unpublished manuscript.
See the Mime and Beyond web page for more information and for ordering the book.
** See "So What " exercise and movement in "Defintuitions" and "In Brief to Ponder: Few Words for Big Things" section. (This is an exercice, from the NOT YET published book, and is in THE new manuscript where "Facing the Mask: 10 Essays on Living Art from the new book: BodySpeak™™ The Avital Method, Moving Body And Mind by Samuel Avital)
About Samuel AvitalSamuel Avital, an artist, performer, teacher , mentor, creative consultant, coach and author, He is praised by his peers and students for his innovative approach to personal and professional creativity.
He studied mime, dance and theatre in Paris with Marcel Marceau, Etienne Decroux and Jean-Louis Barrault. His solo show has toured Scandinavia, Europe, and North and South America.
In 1971, Avital founded Le Centre Du Silence in Boulder, Colorado, to provide an atmosphere free of dogma, judgment and negative competition. There he developed his unique method of teaching, and Created BodySpeak™™ The Avital Method. The approach is based on a philosophy of total honesty, the integrity and creativity of the individual, and the knowledge that artistic perfection is possible. He also published Mime WorkBook and Mime and Beyond. His video The Silent Outcry: The Life and Times of Samuel Avital can be ordered through: Le Centre Du Silence P.O. Box 1015 (Indra-98) . Boulder, CO 80306-1015. (303) 661-9271