The canon is widely recognised in drama school training contexts as the dramatic and practitioner texts with which actors can expect to work. The canon studied is often proscriptively - and therefore prohibitively - narrow. These two observations lead to the questioning of who, and for what industry, training actors are being prepared. Articulation of the Western bias and shortcomings of the hegemonic

This article proposes a methodology for training partnering in aerial dance that I developed while restaging a trapeze duet with four undergraduate students in a semester-long performance course. Due to safety considerations inherent in the aerial arts, including risk of falling, beginning instruction typically focuses on individual skill acquisition and solo performance. Training for partnering, defined

Published in Theatre, Dance and Performance Training (Vol. 14, No. 1, 2023)

Published in Theatre, Dance and Performance Training (Vol. 14, No. 1, 2023)

Published in Theatre, Dance and Performance Training (Vol. 14, No. 1, 2023)

Published in Theatre, Dance and Performance Training (Vol. 14, No. 1, 2023)

Published in Theatre, Dance and Performance Training (Vol. 14, No. 1, 2023)

This article proposes a methodological approach to site-oriented and expanded performance documentation practice. Taking a performance laboratory work that was carried out in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, as an example, it discloses how a specific place can be mapped, sensed, and recorded, especially through a mode of performing while documenting. By emphasizing the narrative qualities and/or layers of a

This article provides a brief overview of the Nobbs Suzuki Praxis (NSP), an Australian variant of the Suzuki Method of Actor Training (SMAT) developed by John Nobbs in collaboration with Jacqui Carroll from the mid-1990s onwards. After a brief introduction to SMAT and the context in which NSP evolved from it, the article outlines NSP’s key differences in exercise practice and design, particularly in

What can touch, as operational metaphor and physical method, offer to voice work for an intersectional performer in an intercultural context? This analysis considers 3 voice practices I have researched within the frame of experimental deviser training with diverse student groups, grounded in my work at the Norwegian Theatre Academy (NTA). The exercises work with different touch interfaces; (1) Vocal

Discussion on the role of listening in actor training is limited. Compared with studies on ear training for conservatoire music students, there is a gap in the literature regarding the ways in which student actors acquire and improve listening skills. This paper investigates the musicality inherent in Meisner Technique, an approach to actor training, and points to intersections with ear training in

In this paper I, as an autistic actor-trainer who was once an autistic student-actor, explore some of the access issues faced by autistic student-actors. I look at the practices commonly taught on actor-training programmes, and uncover what exclusionary ‘dominant narratives’ they hold, and why these create issues for autistic students. This paper focuses specifically on the example of empathy, asking

Published in Theatre, Dance and Performance Training (Vol. 13, No. 4, 2022)

Published in Theatre, Dance and Performance Training (Vol. 13, No. 4, 2022)

Published in Theatre, Dance and Performance Training (Vol. 13, No. 4, 2022)

Published in Theatre, Dance and Performance Training (Vol. 13, No. 4, 2022)

Published in Theatre, Dance and Performance Training (Vol. 13, No. 4, 2022)

Published in Theatre, Dance and Performance Training (Vol. 13, No. 4, 2022)

Published in Theatre, Dance and Performance Training (Vol. 13, No. 4, 2022)

Published in Theatre, Dance and Performance Training (Vol. 13, No. 4, 2022)

Published in Theatre, Dance and Performance Training (Vol. 13, No. 4, 2022)

Published in Theatre, Dance and Performance Training (Vol. 13, No. 4, 2022)

Published in Theatre, Dance and Performance Training (Vol. 13, No. 4, 2022)

Published in Theatre, Dance and Performance Training (Vol. 13, No. 3, 2022)

Published in Theatre, Dance and Performance Training (Vol. 13, No. 3, 2022)

The article provides an overview of the problematics of martial arts in actor training. Its first section explores the complex meaning of the widely used and discursively constructed notion of ‘martial arts’ and underscores that it refers to a whole spectrum of approaches and techniques that are present also in actor formation. The article’s central part includes a brief historical background and lists

Published in Theatre, Dance and Performance Training (Vol. 13, No. 3, 2022)

Published in Theatre, Dance and Performance Training (Vol. 13, No. 3, 2022)

Historically, a fit body, combined with a balanced mind and an enhanced ability for focusing, was a basic tool for warriors from various cultures. Today, it also provides valuable assistance to actors. Undoubtedly, fighting arts improve psychophysical fitness, agility and the ability to concentrate. They make the body more flexible, better coordinated, able to see and/or sense one’s own and one’s opponent’s

Published in Theatre, Dance and Performance Training (Vol. 13, No. 3, 2022)

W. S. Rendra, the most prominent director-pedagogue in Indonesian theatre of the dictatorial era, staged Sophocles’ Antigone in 1974 and Aristophanes’ Lysistrata a year later. Clear cases of political provocation against the authoritarian regime, these productions confirmed his Bengkel Teater (Workshop Theatre) as one of the most disruptive, prolific and admired ensembles of the years of socio-political

This article describes the creation process of Arquitectura del Aire (Aerial Architecture) devised by La Mancha Theatre Company, Chile, a company I co-founded. The point of departure was the ‘Painting’ exercise initiated at the Jacques Lecoq International Theatre School in Paris and continued in La Mancha Escuela Internacional del Gesto y la Imagen (La Mancha International School of Image and Gesture)

Published in Theatre, Dance and Performance Training (Vol. 13, No. 3, 2022)

Published in Theatre, Dance and Performance Training (Vol. 13, No. 3, 2022)

Published in Theatre, Dance and Performance Training (Vol. 13, No. 3, 2022)

Published in Theatre, Dance and Performance Training (Vol. 13, No. 3, 2022)

When teaching acting and movement in the university classroom, I often encounter a tension between training students in specific skills while simultaneously encouraging them to embody their psychophysical identities in relation to gender, race, class, age, and (dis)ability. In response to this tension, I apply my training in the ROSS system of Russian Martial Arts (RMA) to the acting and movement classroom

Published in Theatre, Dance and Performance Training (Vol. 13, No. 3, 2022)

In martial arts, as in dance, embodiment is of the utmost importance (Zarrilli 2009 Zarrilli, P. B. 2009. Psychophysical Acting. An Intercultural Approach after Stanislavski, with DVD-ROM edited by P. Hulton, Abingdon, New York: Routledge. [Google Scholar]; Minarik 2014 Minarik, M. 2014. Taekwondo zwischen Spektakel und Ritual: Kampfkunst im sozialpolitischen Kontext. Wien: Promedia. [Google Scholar])

This essay discusses the use of selected coaching approaches – specifically the person-centred philosophy of Carl Rogers, and clean language pioneered by David Grove, as synthesised by Relational Dynamics training given by Deb Barnard – as a key resource in performer training. The essay draws on performance research undertaken between 2012 and 2020 and on professional coaching practice with artists

This research examines the relationship between student, Higher Education (HE) institution and industry as future employer, proposing that the ethos of HE institutions must grow to reflect educational values that aspire to enable learners, teachers and leaders whilst connecting meaningfully with industry. Utilising the case study of a single vocational performer training provider at HE in the United

This paper discusses a training scheme to develop a first-person dramaturgical practice where the performer is the thinking agent of the work. To advance this argument, together with Bleeker (2003) and Behrndt (2010) I consider dramaturgy as an act of thinking, as well as a decision-making labour in performance-making. Using Rudolf Laban’s Choreology and Preston-Dunlop and Sanchez-Colberg's (2010)

This paper takes, as it’s starting point, the statements of solidarity with Black and non-White students in UK drama schools which were issued in the summer of 2020 and tracks the commitments made against the writers, directors and actors who took part in the graduation shows of the following academic year. It analyses how (or if) change of representation was established in the sector as a whole and

Published in Theatre, Dance and Performance Training (Vol. 13, No. 2, 2022)

Published in Theatre, Dance and Performance Training (Vol. 13, No. 2, 2022)

This writing sets out to explore the Social Circus program in Nunavik in the Arctic in Far North Canada which in various forms has now been running for nearly twenty years. The initial program begun by Cirque du Soleil in 2002 had little uptake by the Inuit. There was a lack of community support and very sporadic attendance by the Inuit young people and after five years it was discontinued. The Social

Published in Theatre, Dance and Performance Training (Vol. 13, No. 2, 2022)

Published in Theatre, Dance and Performance Training (Vol. 13, No. 2, 2022)

Published in Theatre, Dance and Performance Training (Vol. 13, No. 2, 2022)

Published in Theatre, Dance and Performance Training (Vol. 13, No. 2, 2022)

This article addresses staff- and student wellbeing in performer training by acknowledging and engaging with the role of the pedagogue in the complex grey area of training where we are not doing therapy, but also not not doing therapy. In doing so it seeks to open up for scrutiny and productive exchange an aspect of training that is often present but rarely discussed in pedagogical terms. The article

Published in Theatre, Dance and Performance Training (Vol. 13, No. 2, 2022)

Published in Theatre, Dance and Performance Training (Vol. 13, No. 2, 2022)

Published in Theatre, Dance and Performance Training (Vol. 13, No. 2, 2022)

In this paper we reflect on our collective efforts to co-create Wayne State University’s first student-led dance company dedicated to digital media creation – the Virtual Dance Collaboratory (VDC). VDC was created in Fall 2020 when the dance program learned it would conduct most of the academic year remotely. Despite institutional pressures to build VDC as a techno-centric solution to student retention

Published in Theatre, Dance and Performance Training (Vol. 13, No. 2, 2022)

The aim of the experimental project we present is to study the clinical efficacy of a performing art workshop in the rehabilitation process of post-stroke patients, in the frame of the specialized Physical and Medicine Rehabilitation Units in Saint-Denis Casanova Hospital. The distinctiveness of the project lies in the multicultural and social identity of the mixed group of patients aged between 40

Published in Theatre, Dance and Performance Training (Vol. 13, No. 2, 2022)

This article draws on qualitative data gathered during research workshops exploring embodied learning through the Suzuki Method of Actor Training and Linklater Voice. In it, we propose forms of resistance to neoliberal educational trends by developing actors’ well-being and artistry through a methodology of Reflective Appreciative Education. Segmentation and commodification of student skills are part

Published in Theatre, Dance and Performance Training (Vol. 13, No. 2, 2022)