{"id":231,"date":"2023-01-23T12:20:46","date_gmt":"2023-01-23T12:20:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vachikavoicework.com\/blog\/?p=231"},"modified":"2023-01-23T13:09:46","modified_gmt":"2023-01-23T13:09:46","slug":"energising-rasa-theory-breath-empathy-and-well-being-in-contemporary-actor-training","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vachikavoicework.com\/blog\/energising-rasa-theory-breath-empathy-and-well-being-in-contemporary-actor-training\/","title":{"rendered":"Energising Rasa theory: breath, empathy, and well-being in contemporary actor training"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>First published on 6th June 2022 in the scientific journal &#8220;Arts Academy&#8221; of the Kazakh National Academy of Choreography &#8211; part of the special edited volume on Indian art and culture.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Abstract<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Breath has emerged as the preferred locus of performance energy over the last two decades, presenting a pragmatic approach to questions of contemporary actor training, post-Stanislavskian approaches (such as <em>psychophysical<\/em> approaches) and vitalisation of traditional performance practices (such as <em>Kutiyattam<\/em> and <em>Kalaripayattu<\/em>). In this paper, we elaborate outwards from this \u201crediscovery\u201d of breath, to offer a methodological base from which to engage the concept of <em>Rasa<\/em> which occupies a pre-eminent position within Indian aesthetics. We argue that the constellation of bodily practices arising from within this field of knowledge, far from esoteric traditionalisms, inform the neuro-physiological basis for empathy. Practical engagement with these neuro-physiological processes widens understanding of the importance and role of <em>well-being<\/em> in contemporary actor training. We argue that a shift towards this <em>well-being<\/em> based approach within conservatories and performance training institutes, is a necessary adaptation to meet the challenges of a post-pandemic world.<\/p>\n<p>Key words: actor training, breath in performance, well-being, Rasa theory, theatre pedagogy, mirror neurons, empathy.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Contemporary actor training stands to benefit from recent advances in behavioural sciences and increasing global cross-disciplinarity of performance practices. This article is an invitation to think about actor training in a new way, aspiring towards an integrative and holistic learning experience with the actor\u2019s well-being central to the project. It builds on the increasing popularity of integrating physical practices (for example yoga and tai chi) into actor training in the service of specific pedagogical aims.<\/p>\n<p>The inclusion of these practices is necessarily reductive, since the practice is dislocated from its context and philosophy to serve some other instrumental aim \u2013 to increase physical flexibility or cultivate concentration for example. It then becomes a subset or functional aspect of a larger pedagogical structure, since it is invariably coupled with other practices or forms and decoupled from its epistemological roots. This predatory and extractive strategy invites critiques of cultural appropriation and the need to address inequities of representation when it comes to Eastern and Western contributions to the field. [1]<\/p>\n<p>This article seeks to offer an alternative way of thinking about actor training by locating within the convergence of contemporary behavioural science and classical approaches \u2013 rooting both endeavours in the immersive and ongoing study of the human condition. This is neither an ahistorical strategy nor a return to an essentialised conception of human nature as unchanging. The invitation is to consider the experimental impulses embedded within various practices as potentially transformational, value-based and guided by the human capacity to imagine.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Methodology<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>These reflections arise out of a practice-led research process initiated in 2011 that began with the creative impulse to explore voice as a dramaturgical tool to generate material for performance. Voice is often considered a delivery system for the words to be spoken, or as a part of building character &#8211; so it is either instrumentalised for clear communication or arrives <em>post-facto<\/em> as an acting choice on how the character should speak.<\/p>\n<p>In this creative process the \u201csound of the words\u201d as uttered by the actor was foregrounded &#8211; the turn of phrase, proper nouns, and the mantra-like potential nascent in the utterance of a syllable released moment to moment through breath, was explored. The stage performance that emerged titled <em>Hidden in Plain Sight<\/em> first premiered in London in 2012, with public and festival stagings in India in 2013. Elaboration of the post-humanist themes of the performance in a case study, is the subject of a forthcoming publication.<\/p>\n<p>An aspect of this exploration emerged from a profound dissatisfaction with the discursive construction of the body as <em>materiality<\/em> in the field of performance making. The counter-proposition was to explore the bodily potential for <em>musicality<\/em>, as experienced through utterance of sound, resonance and work with heightened physicality and the sonic properties of text. This led away from the blank <em>tabula rasa<\/em> of physical matter and space, towards <em>Rasa theory<\/em> and the exploration of performance energy!<\/p>\n<p>During the covid-19 pandemic, the theatrical performance was reimagined as a digital theatre hybrid and streamed as part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival where it won an Infallibles Award for the Best Show in 2021. The universal crisis of global health caused by the pandemic prompted a renewed search for meaning making in a digital format, and a new performative aesthetic emerged from an exploration of being isolated, with mental health, voyeurism and the feeling of claustrophobia, as subject material. A by-product of this creative process has also been a sustained engagement with actor training pedagogy. The insights gleaned on well-being in actor training, its wider implications for global health in a post-pandemic educational ecosystem, and social resilience are therefore immediately relevant.<\/p>\n<p><strong>From the memory of emotion to the \u201crediscovery\u201d of breath<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Imaginative capacity in modern actor training is linked to \u201cmemory-based\u201d approaches. These approaches were influenced by scientific movements in psychology that took shape with the work of Pavlov, Watson and Skinner among others. Their emphasis on forms of conditioning and the nature of the stimulus-response loops, revealed powerful insights into mammalian behaviour, for the time. It is no surprise then that Strasberg couches his definition of acting in fairly explicit \u201cbehaviourist\u201d terms &#8211; &#8220;Acting is responding to imaginary stimuli\u201d. Broadly, performance energy is to be invoked through some form of emotional recall, a \u201cmemory of emotion\u201d based on past experience. [2, p.152]<\/p>\n<p>However, breath has emerged as the preferred locus of performance energy over the last two decades, presenting a pragmatic approach to philosophical and practical questions that have long dogged the field. These post-Stanislavskian approaches or <em>psychophysical<\/em> approaches root performance energy in the integration of breath and body, recognising that emotional states can arise independent of mining the subconscious mind. [3,4,5] The vitalisation of traditional performance practices such as <em>Kutiyattam<\/em> and <em>Kalaripayattu<\/em>, has also been informed by development of the patterns of breath associated with various emotional states or dynamic movements. [5,6,7] Post-Stanislavskian here also implies pre-Strasberg, that is, a hermeneutic approach to Stanislavsky\u2019s work before the Anglo-American turn (and fetishism!) associated with <em>method acting<\/em>. This close reading of Stanislavsky might return the practitioner to focus on his engagement with yoga, breath and the flow of energy, release of unnecessary muscular tension in the service of expressivity, and connection to imaginative potential. [11,p.64]<\/p>\n<p>Contemporary actor training in some sense has returned to the sustainable vitality of performance practices, reorienting towards embodied perspectives. This trend, at least to some extent, took shape through the 1970s New Age movements that cross-pollinated Jungian psychology with spiritual practices linked to the vital energy potential implicit in the body. In some instances this involves grafting an emancipatory project onto a popular understanding of the <em>chakra system<\/em> to enable an increase in the actor\u2019s emotional and physical range. [8] In other instances an eclectic assemblage of Reichian bioenergetics, yoga and shiatsu underpins the practice of voicework for performance and increased well-being. [4] These \u201cintersections\u201d West and East are charting new pathways into regulating the nervous system, incorporating elements of therapy and insights about stress resilience, for a holistic pedagogical framework for actors.<\/p>\n<p>In the Western consciousness, the continental philosophical tradition and the field of phenomenology is often the point of entry into the study of affective response to an aesthetic experience, most notably in the work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty and his particular conception of embodied experience. [3, pp.44-46] However, there are alternative ingresses into the terrain of embodied consciousness and <em>Rasa theory<\/em> is one of them.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Rasa theory: from pedagogy to practice <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Rasa occupies a pre-eminent position within Indian aesthetics, finding primary elaboration in the Natya Shastra of Bharata Muni, and further development and elaboration in the works of Anandavardhana and Abhinvagupta among others. [9] Rasa theory has been applied to a variety of artistic fields, widening its application to the evaluation of poetry, literature and aesthetics in general, from its origins within the field of dramaturgy. Rasa theory\u2019s basic elaboration \u2013 a definition of rasa \u2013 in the sixth chapter of the Natya Shastra presents the actor-in-training with a robust proposition. \u201cRasa is the cumulative result of <em>vibhava<\/em> (stimulus), <em>anubhava<\/em> (involuntary reaction) and <em>vyabhicari bhava<\/em> (voluntary reaction)\u201d according to the Rangacharya translation. [10, p.55] An alternative translation to these terms is: <em>vibhava<\/em> (determinants), <em>anubhava<\/em> (consequents) and <em>vyabhichari bhavas<\/em> (transitory states). [7]<\/p>\n<p>The philosophical implications of this aphorism lead to the heart of the rasa theory and the resultant debates inflect the locus of rasa from actor to character to audience, from dramaturgy to literary criticism and to a rich historical tradition where Indian philosophical schools exerted their influence through infusion of their particular ideas \u2013 for example the Samkhya school\u2019s <em>guna<\/em> theory or the <em>samyoga<\/em> of the Mimamsa school. The density of this discourse meant that \u201cexplaining this compact statement remained for a full millennium and a half what it meant to explain aesthetic experience\u201d. [9, p.7]<\/p>\n<p>However, the <em>explanation<\/em> of the aesthetic experience of rasa is of somewhat less significance to the contemporary performer than pragmatic application in the field of performance. A productive point of entry for actor training is therefore a curiosity towards the <em>performative<\/em> elements discernable in this material on Rasa, and a <em>dialogic relationship<\/em> to the underlying philosophical systems. One such source of performative elements is the Kutiyattam tradition which formalised between the 11<sup>th<\/sup> or 12<sup>th<\/sup> century, with a variety of actor training manuals available for scholarly analysis, as well as contemporary performers developing the practice. [6, p.30] In many ways the training manual as a textual source is richer in its insights on the \u201chow to\u201d of performance than an elaborate intellectual history of Rasa!<\/p>\n<p>At the level of practice, Rasa theory finds harmony and resonance with contemporary psychophysical systems that work with the actor\u2019s body and breath to create affective states. It is noteworthy that Natya Shastra begins its taxonomy with a caveat. This caveat is nested within a narrative frame, a conversation between the author of Natya Shastra &#8211; Bharata and a group of sages \u2013 who are cautioned when they seek a list of five foundational definitions. Bhartha concedes that \u201cit is impossible\u2026 to know all about <em>natya<\/em> since there is no limit to <em>bhavas<\/em> and no end to the arts involved\u201d. [10, p.53] While this can be dismissed as a form of rhetorical strategy to mark off the unknowable realm of possibility from the knowable subject matter that is about to be enumerated, this cautionary note is worth remembering when the affective domain is constrained for pedagogical ends \u2013 be it in the form of five universal emotions, eight or nine <em>bhavas<\/em> or any mediating metaphor such a wheel, spectrum or gradient. The energy generating \u201cbuilding blocks\u201d of Rasa theory serve performance when they are observable and playable. Even the notorious <em>shanta rasa<\/em> \u2013 the ninth \u201cinert\u201d state of peace or serenity arising from equanimity and transcendence \u2013 has a dynamic and playable form.<\/p>\n<p>In Rasa practise a series of breathing sequences are taught to actors in training. These are typically very young learners who are still learning muscle movement and control. For the purpose of training young actors, this selection of 8 or 9 states of being are the basic building blocks for study and mastery. However, it is really a practice of <em>open and voluntary<\/em> exploration of a sequence of breathing patterns. This sequence mimics a set of 8 or 9 universal human conditions\u00a0 \u2013 each a breath response to a physical or imaginary impulse that leads the practitioner to unfolding subtler aspects of being. This is a voluntary exploration, so <em>pleasure<\/em> is embedded in the practice of the sequence and the practice enables the actor to experience the vast landscape of consciousness and existence. This pleasure of the aesthetic experience has very little to do with the sensation of taste (gustation) which in some literal interpretations is derived from the act of savouring a work of art. In live performance, breath becomes an outward expression of the internal reality of the performer as it integrates with body, voice, language and human connection. This manifests as heightened presence. Pleasure, linked with expression of the heightened consciousness cultivated by the performer through physical action, [11] is also where healing and well-being reside.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Rasa, embodied simulation and empathy <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Theorists have tried to characterise the relationship between an aesthetic experience, and its effect on social behaviour. [12,13] In 1873 Robert Vischer characterised empathy arising from aesthetics through the German term <em>Einf\u00fchlung<\/em>, literally \u201cfeeling-in\u201d. [12, p.141, 13, p.198] In the <em>Ten Dramatic Forms of Dhananjaya<\/em> written in the 10<sup>th<\/sup> century, the consciousness arising from an aesthetic experience was linked with <em>bliss<\/em>, so much so that the self-other distinction vanished. [9, p.24]<\/p>\n<p>The formulation of Rasa from within the aesthetic experience shares significant resonance with advances in the behavioural sciences linked to the discovery of somatic mirroring mechanisms, resulting from a specialised class of neurons: mirror neurons and canonical neurons. [13, p.199] These neurons, from their discovery in macaques, have been linked to a variety of phenomena in the field of human social cognition.<\/p>\n<p>Their role in \u201cembodied simulation\u201d has been described as \u201ca functional mechanism through which the actions, emotions or sensations we see, activate our own internal representations of the body states that are associated with these social stimuli, as if we were engaged in a similar action or experiencing a similar emotion or sensation\u201d. [13, p.198]<\/p>\n<p>While this particular conception of embodied simulation has been elaborated in the context of viewing visual art, it is not hard to see how a performer\u2019s breath is also mirrored by the audience observing the performer. Rasa, in its performative form as codification of breath and associated states of being, elaborates the neuro-physiological basis for empathy. In practice, Rasa is empathy.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The <em>trauma inherent in training<\/em> has a deep and lasting impact on the actor, her autonomy, and self-image of body and voice. [14] When actor training becomes about \u201cfixing\u201d the problems in an actor &#8211; her embodied experience is deprioritised. Bringing the focus back to a <em>felt experience<\/em> of the actor will help orient the training towards well-being.<\/p>\n<p>This deserves greater importance in actor training pedagogy. The experience of an overwhelmed nervous system was felt across the world during the global pandemic. One of the strategies to regulate the nervous system was to bring the focus back to breathing. The practice of Rasa involves a process of voluntary entry into simulated states and a safe way of exiting them via breath. This becomes a means to initiate a charged state with a heightened sensory awareness for performance, while also having the tools to regulate the nervous system back to a place of ease. This is empowering and healing for the actor, and the larger educational ecosystem.<\/p>\n<p><strong>References<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Bharucha, Rustom Theatre and the world : Essays on performance and politics of culture New Delhi: Manohar Publications 1990<\/li>\n<li>Mullin, Dan W. Acting Is Reacting in The Tulane Drama Review , Mar., 1961, Vol. 5, No. 3 (Mar., 1961), pp. 152-159 The MIT Press Stable URL: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jstor.com\/stable\/1124668\">http:\/\/www.jstor.com\/stable\/1124668<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Zarilli, Phillip B. Psychophysical Acting: An Intercultural Approach after Stanislavski New York: Routledge 2009<\/li>\n<li>Morgan, Michael Keith Constructing the Holistic Actor: Fitzmaurice Voicework\u00ae LaVergne, TN, USA: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform 2012<\/li>\n<li>Chawla, Veenapani Adishakti and its Performance Techniques presented as a talk at the National School of Drama, New Delhi in 2009 in Gokhale, Shanta edited. The Theatre of Veenapani Chawla Theory, Practice and Performance India: Oxford University Press 2014, pp.103-115<\/li>\n<li>Nangiar, Usha translated by Rajagopalan L.S. &amp; Chandran Subhas Abhinetri The Strisaradhi of Natyayana \u2013 Thrissur: Krishnan Nambiar Mizhavu Kalari 2018<\/li>\n<li>Paul, G.S. Deep into the rasas The Hindu 2015. &#8211; \u2116 269. Accessed May 2022 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/features\/friday-review\/koodiyattam-exponent-g-venu-explains-the-ageold-practice-of-navarasa-sadhana\/article7301566.ece\">https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/features\/friday-review\/koodiyattam-exponent-g-venu-explains-the-ageold-practice-of-navarasa-sadhana\/article7301566.ece<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Simpson, Fay The Lucid Body: A guide for the Physical Actor New York: Allworth Press 2020<\/li>\n<li>Pollock, Sheldon A Rasa Reader Classical Indian Aesthetics \u2013 New Delhi: Orient Blackswan Pvt. Ltd., 2017<\/li>\n<li>Rangacharya, Adya The Natyashastra: English Translation with Critical Notes &#8211; New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd., 1984<\/li>\n<li>Madhavan, Arya Kudiyattam: Theatre and the Actor\u2019s Consiocunsess Amsterdam: Rodopi 2010<\/li>\n<li>Ganczarek, J., H\u00fcnefeldt, T., &amp; Olivetti Belardinelli, M. From &#8220;Einf\u00fchlung&#8221; to empathy: exploring the relationship between aesthetic and interpersonal experience. Cognitive processing, 19(2), 141\u2013145. <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/s10339-018-0861-x\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/s10339-018-0861-x<\/a> 2018<\/li>\n<li>Freedberg, David and Gallese, Vittorio Motion, emotion and empathy in esthetic experience in Trends in cognitive sciences. 11. 197-203. 10.1016\/j.tics.2007.02.003. 2007<\/li>\n<li>McAllister-Viel, Tara. \u201cTraining Actors\u2019 Voices: Towards an intercultural\/interdisciplinary approach,\u201d in Thomaidis, Konstantinos and Macpherson, Ben (eds). Critical Approaches to Process, Performance and Experience. London: Routledge, 2015: pp. 49-63.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>Appendix<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Full name author 1: Mallika Prasad Sinha<\/p>\n<p>Academic degrees: Diploma in Acting National School of Drama, India; MA Performance Making Goldsmiths College, University of London<\/p>\n<p>Full name author 2: Ram Ganesh Kamatham<\/p>\n<p>Academic degrees: MA Anthropology of Media SOAS, University of London; MSc. International Relations, RSIS, NTU, Singapore<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>First published on 6th June 2022 in the scientific journal &#8220;Arts Academy&#8221; of the Kazakh National Academy of&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":233,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-acting"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Energising Rasa theory: breath, empathy, and well-being in contemporary actor training - Vachika Voice Work<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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