The Body of Language

7A. Body Parts Move on Out-Breath

7B. Narrative on Beat

7C. Narrative with Varied Timing

7D. Language and Movement/Interruption

7E. Performance Score: Seated Dialogues

"Text" is a body of words.

"Narrative" is the vocal expression of a text.

To narrate is to speak text. A single text may be narrated in many different ways.

In Action Theater, we arrive at text through improvisation. Nothing is written down or memorized. Language is discovered in the walk backwards. We prepare for language by centering on the body and its breath.

Today, we focus on language and its relationship to the body. Students are reminded that the body talks. Talk talks. Not metaphori­cally, romantically or poetically, but, really and truly. If the student were to relax and become internally quiet, the body's voice would arise. The direct experience of language would happen without the mediation of the talker.

Before we jump into language, we settle into our bodies and listen to it speak.

7A. Body Parts Move on Out-Breath I

• Everyone, stand still in a comfortable position. Watch your breath. The air cols i bounces out, and then there's a pause. Put your mmd on a por "a ^ace in your body that relates to your breath, a small place, a the base of your nose, your diaphragm, or your abdomen. Expenence e movement breath creates as it comes in, bounces out and pauses. Watch the sensation of breath for the next five, or six, breaths.

• Begin to move just on each exhalation of each breath When you inhale be stni Start with your head. As you exhale, move your head on y. The rest of you your neck your shoulders, etc., remain st I. As you inhale, on Lve at all.. Add your left arm. Only on the exhalation. Move your ead L yo r left arm. Add your right arm. Add your torso. And, now your leg. Every time you exhale, your whole body is in motion, and you re changing location.

• Play with re-ordering your breath. Make it percussive. Prolonged. Pants. Swirls. Etc.

• Get involved with what you're doing. Feel it. Be it.. Now within the next few minutes, become aware of somebody else in the room. Slowly begin to connect with them. Continue to move on only the out-breath in relation to one another.n unvoiced exhalation has a vastness: a breath may be long or short ALavy or light, and be exhaled in varions textures. An unvoiced exha-t^ nTy shde, gag, rasp, and sputter. It may sound ho o. or mighty. Since language rides on the out-breath it, like breath, has possibilities for design. The longer your out-breath exhalation is, heTore space you will have to work with this Practice making your out-breath last as long as possible before you take a breath in.

Present Pause

Whether we move or speak, we pause. "Pause" is different than "freeze." When a student freezes, he becomes immobile, static, both physically and psychically. When a performer pauses, he becomes physically immo­bile. Psychically, he is moving along, experiencing the ever-changing events inside and around him.

We're afraid to stop producing material. We think that not doing any­thing is "not being anything." We misinterpret a pause as dead space and, so, once within in it, we tend to panic, become inert: we leave the present and we leave our bodies. We lose track of what's going on around us, and just stand around, observe, think we're invisible, mouth the words someone else is saying (unconsciously), and may get more and more tense without being aware if it. We suffer.

The alternative is to experience a pause as an expression of present that transmits information through its deta alters or inhibits the actions of the other. he slams the door in my face and 1 ^f^ _r * _my face. Would you call this a connection?

particulars about the person who slammed the door. She was blinded by her personal agenda. In this scenario, no connection was made.

But, if the knocker had no expectations, and made no judgments that would throw her into blinding emotion, she would have been able to notice the person slamming the door. After all, she had three opportunities. She would experience the reality of the person being annoyed by answering the door. She would, then, also feel her connection to his condition and understand the occurrence.

Suppose I am connecting to my partner and I become aware of myself judging my partners actions. This is only a problem if I judge the judgment: if I feel shame, or am angry at her, or worry that the improvisation's not working. Alternately, I can recognize my judg­ing as simply an OK thought, not better or worse than anything else. I can either let it go, or enter into it directly, become that judge, and bring that judgment into the action. If there's no judgments about judgments, I've remained connected to myself and to my partner.

Countering or Blocking

Countering or Blocking is when one performers actions prevent, inhibit or attempt to control the actions of another. The most common exam­ples in language are: "No," or "Stop," "Calm down," or "Shh or You don't mean that." Physically restraining somebody or stopping their movement is blocking.

Countering is a substitute for connecting to yourself. Its a manipu­lative action; "I don't have anything going on with myself, so I m going to mess with what you have going on," or, "What you're doing scares me, so I'm going to stop it."

Some other countering methods are:

Using given names: When we call a person by his real name, it pulls him out of his fantasy and out of the improvisation. Instead, generate a name that s appropriate for the situation.

Using questions: Questions shift the attention and responsibility onto others It's more constructive, and less alienating, to say the statement behind the question, or makeup the information the question seeks. In that way, you're promoting the improvisation, instead of draining it.

Commenting on the experience of self or partner: Objective, analyt­ical descriptive statements that come from outside of experience and carry with them no feeling, nor image, halt the lively flow of an impro­visation. The problem isn't with the information, it's where it's coming from. The speaker is not involved in the experience. Instead, they re observing it. Their energy is flat and self-conscious.

Jon is sitting in the middle of the room, rocking back and forth on his feet, singing to himself. James walks over and says, "Looks like you're having fun."

If James' intention is solely to remark on John's situation, then he's commenting. If his intention is to indicate his inner condi­tion and his presentation does so, then it's not commenting.

Students are instructed to avoid all countering devices. They must accept everything their partner says or does. This challenges their self-imposed limits and forces them to be flexible. Later, when students have learned to not expect or depend on results, they may experiment with countering or blocking actions. Then countering or blocking actions are inroads and expressions of their own psyches.

Now, we approach language. Students build a narrative together being careful to accept everything each other has said.

7B. Narrative on Beat

• Everyone walk. Let's walk on the same regular beat. We're going to create a narrative together, a story with each one of us adding a segment. We're not going for a linear, rational story with a beginning, middle and end. Our narrative will unfold piece by piece, as we let our minds meander into dream world.

• You'll say a word, or a syllable, on every step and you'll speak for two or three minutes. You may repeat words, or syllables, as needed, particularly if the next word doesn't come to you in time for the next step. Feel the beat. Hear the beat. Listen to the unfolding narration. Put yourself inside it. Believe it.

• When you're ready to relinquish your turn, tap someone on the shoulder and, then, step off the floor. They pick up the very next step (or beat) with a word, or syllable, and continue the narrative. When they want to relinquish their turn, they'll tap someone. Eventually, everyone gets a turn.

• Speak loudly and clearly so you can be easily heard. Listen attentively to each other, so that if you are tapped, you'll know what you're coming into.

• The last remaining person on the floor concludes the narrative.

• I'll start us off.

•

Anyone who mastered hopscotch has no trouble with this exercise. Hopscotchers knew how to handle speech, movement, time and sometimes, even melody, all at the same time. The difference, here, is that the "stepper" is improvising the text. As with hopscotch, the less thought, the better.

This walking/talking exercise approaches language and the body sim­ilarly to the way sound and movement was approached on Day Two— as two aspects of a single expression. In this case, when there's speech, there's movement (stepping) and when there's movement, there's speech. A lot of balls in the air.

This lays some ground for speaking from the body. A conscious effort, again and again, of aligning speech and movement will, eventually, access an organic order.

The "beat" is incessant and the person taking up speaking and step­ping knows that some utterance must appear on every step. There's no time for planning. What comes, comes as a surprise.

7C. Narrative with Varied Timing

• Again, let's walk, with a word or syllable on every step. We'll begin by standing still. I'll start a different narration and, this time, I'll fill the language with feeling, texture. My language will vary in speed and energy depend­ing on the feelings behind the words. Even though I'm continuing to put a step to every word or syllable, the tinning and quality of the steps will con­stantly be changing.

• Everyone else walks at the same time as the speaker and with the same energy. Don't look at the speaker. Listen.

When I want to relinquish my turn, I'll tap someone on the shoulder and leave the floor. We'll progress until everyone in the group has had a turn and left the floor. Remember to pause as often as you like, for as long as you want.

Narrative

If you haven't told a story to a three-year-old, try it. This is an ideal test. If they stop listening and wonder off, more than likely, you've flattened, become dull, dry, lifeless. You've lost contact with your little listener. Children are drawn to contrast, the rise and fall of energy, change of pitch, surprise, tension, heightened drama, scary and funny things.

Because students step with the same energy as their words, they experience the dynamics of language as motion. Just as a dance may, or may not, elicit feeling, so language may, or may not, elicit feeling— depending upon its presentation.

Usually, speech is used to get an idea, or prospective, across. We focus on the content, talking towards the thought that lays ahead. In Narrative with Varied Timing, students play with each moment of speech and bring speech into present time.

Because they step with their words, students experience language as a moment-to-moment action. They make choices about each word, and every part of each word. They begin to dismantle their vocal conven­tions. They slow down to fill each moment with texture and feeling. Details get across. One sentence can carry a main idea, sub-ideas, and hints of other ideas. A sentence may carry one or more feelings that may even be contradictory.

Say these lines and play around with feeling and inflection. (Their page layout suggests different readings; the spaces between words might represent breaths, for instance.)

I want to touch you.

I want to touch you.

I want to touch you.

I want to touch you.

I want to touch you.

In performance, the content of the words is only one part of the meaning. The flesh and spirit that we bring to these words complete the picture. The combination of flesh (body), spirit (feeling) and language (content) create meaning.

The song sparrows in Union Square, in San Francisco, share the same song as the song sparrows in The Mission District, only a few miles away. However, they each adhere to a dialect that is indigenous to their region.

Our speech incorporates patterns of tone and inflection depending on where and how we live. It's not that we want to erase our idiosyn­crasies, it's that we want to know them. Idiosyncrasies suggest undis­covered expression. If we become conscious of a language quirk, the next time we experience that quirk, we can note its aspects and details. We can explore the details by amplifying, re-toning, re-timing, or contrasting. Once these details become conscious, we're no longer deafly bound.

7D. Language and Movement/Interruption

• In trios, you and your partners build a physical narrative, putting movement and text together. You're free to do any movement that you feel is appropriate to what you're saying. You're no longer limited to stepping.

• Begin from neutral stillness. One of you starts by moving and talking at the same time. Whenever you're active, you're active with language and movement. They're done as one action: the movement and the language are precisely concordant in time, duration, feeling and dynamic. When you're not talking, you're not moving, and vice-versa. Imagine that your body is doing the talking and your talking is doing the body. A loop of inspiration.

• You can fill the spaces with movement and speech, or pause. You can repeat yourself, play with a word or an idea. You can repeat your partner'sactions and language, or add on from where they left off. Don't feel that you have to jam a lot of information into a small space. There's nowhere to go except where you are. Make the most of it and be the most of it.

• The space is yours until you get interrupted by one of your partners. When you're interrupted, stop immediately, even if it's in the middle of an action. Don't return to neutral, but stay where you are, whatever position and shape. Don't blank out. Stay aware of your partners.

• Partners, listen to each other. What you hear affects what you say and how you say it. Play off each other's timing. Orchestrate, hear the beats. Be aware of each other's physical shaping and shape in response to that awareness.

• Keep your interruptions erratic. Who interrupts, when they do so, and the duration between interruptions is unpredictable.

This exercise is a more evolved version of Verbs Only introduced in Day Five. Again, students put movement and language together, continuing the practice of integrating body/mind awareness. Here the students are not limited by saying what they're doing. They are free to build text from their imagination. Their physical actions reflect their relationship to that text.

What kind of movement is relevant to language? There are three choices.

MIMETIC

The simplest and most direct is mimetic movement, movement that lit­erally interprets the text. The speaker says, "Tree," and forms a tree with her body.

SUBTEXTUAL

Another choice reflects what we call subtext: information of emotion, or feeling, that concurrently lies unspoken beneath the spoken. The speaker says, "Tree," while sensually stroking herself, signifying some personal reality relative to "tree."

ASSOCIATIVE

Another choice is associative movement that reflects a different idea, or image. Here, the speaker says, "Tree," while simultaneously tearing paper. Associative actions may stray far from the content of the actual text. Whether the movements are sub-textual, or associative, what remains important is that the mover experiences coherency. Their verbal and physical images stick together.

The last two choices offer a broader scope of information from which to make meaning. Since the verbal and the physical images don't directly reinforce each other, the audience experiences a wholeness that is beyond the sum of the parts.

Blocked/Stuck/Empty

What do you say when you don't know what to say?

Again, there are some choices. One is to come to terms with your speechlessness and speak about it. For example:

"I would say something if I knew what to say." "I have nothing to say about..."

"I'm afraid if I say something it might be wrong... and you will think... and then I will have to" "I need some silence to think." "Wait, Ym thinking." "I'm hot, in a panic and can't talk." "I'm not moving — speaking—frozen — paralyzed..." And on and on.

Obviously, if you get yourself to the point of talking about not talk­ing, you're talking. You've slipped out of speechlessness and into speech. But, it's not always that easy. Consciousness must be brought into the experience of speechlessness, and for some people that, in itself, is an arduous task. Sometimes, just experiencing an unconscious freeze, over and over again, leads to conscious recognition. Side-coaching from a teacher, or an observing partner often helps: "Where are you right now?" A question from the outside may jar the student, and wake him up to his state. Once recognition occurs, the change has begun. The experi­ence can be observed. Objectivity and detachment can come into play. An observed experience is diffused of the power to strangle and gag. The observer has taken charge. He can interact with the condition of speechlessness and mine it for riches.

Another choice is to copy what one of your partners says. If you can't think of anything to say, then don't think, simply say exactly what another person is saying—maybe even try to do it at the same time. "Empty Vessel" them, so to speak. This approach often activates an energy flow and the previously stuck speaker can take off.

An even more sophisticated approach would be to build a metaphoric, or fantastic, narrative using present feelings as a base. For example:

Sabine is feeling confused. She isn't clear what her partners are talking about and doesn't know how to fit in. Sabine notices this experience. She talks about an orphan who comes upon a strange village. The orphan doesn't know how to fit in. The orphan's con­fused, can't get clear what people are talking about. She goes from person to person trying to find shelter. The story builds from there and Sabine's home free.

We're not making theater about robots who always have the perfect things to say, the perfect gestures to make and are perfect. We're mak­ing theater about people who have all kinds of experiences: some flow; some are light, humorous, deep, profound; some are about confusion, stuck-ness, stupidity, fear, anger and other perfect imperfections. This is theater of people.

7E. Performance Score: Seated Dialogues

• Two or three of you sit in chairs facing out toward the rest of the class, turned slightly toward each other. Have a dialogue, a conversation. Talk about anything. Be simple. Really listen to each other. Take what each other says seriously. Believe it. And listen to yourself and believe that. Be with each part of each word as you speak it. Play with pauses and hold tension in them. Hear the way your partners speak words, their timing, pitches, quality of energy. When you speak, follow through with the sound patterns as you hear them, or break patterns and create surprises.

The Sound Of Language

This exercise is the introduction to dialogue. We enter dialogue by lis­tening. To simplify the task, we de-emphasize content. We keep it sim­ple. Dialogue tends to trap us in mundane, ordinary, and dependent relationships. We bog down and get lost in our own and another's agenda. Listening prevents this from happening. By listening, we create music together with the spoken word. A simple example of a musical dialogue follows. Notice the patterns and rhythm. Imagine the rise and fall of inflection and pauses.

"Hello."

"Hello."

"I haven't seen you in a long time."

"Yes."

"You're looking well."

"Yes."

"Healthy."

"Yes. I've been away."

"Really"

"In Germany."

"Really."

"Yes, for a year."

"Really. I have family there."

"Really."

If we can let just sound inspire, we can free ourselves from the absorp­tion in content. The sound of speech furthers the sounds of speech. Whatever one partner says to another is perfect. Everything they say, or do, is accepted. Nothing is denied or countered. We adapt, flex, change, and shift perspective to further the music, to satisfy our listening.

Day Seven tuned the ear to hear the present, the music of spoken language. As our capability to listen increases, the students' need to speak particular ideas at particular times lessens. This in turn allows more room for a choice of utterance and silence.

Day Eight

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