Drama and
Authentic Movement as Intercultural Communication Skill
The
following article describes a workshop held at the international conference
“Drama and Theatre in the Teaching and Learning of Language, Literature and
Culture” at University College Cork, Ireland. Furthermore, it gives some
background information about Authentic Movement and its leading practitioners,
as well as outlining how it is practised. Finally, the article considers how
the principles of Authentic Movement can be applied to intercultural
communication.
1. Introduction
How
do people from different cultures engage with each other? How do you cope with
something or somebody unknown, strange, new and different?
One
does not need to focus on two geographically and culturally widely disparate
countries to encounter intercultural misunderstandings. Even when people from
two neighbouring, e.g. European countries meet for the first time, they usually
do so with certain preconceived ideas about each other. These ideas derive from
a combination of shared historic experience, the traditions of previous generations,
a differing awareness of the present, the perception of tourists from a
particular neighbouring country, the presentation of that country in the media,
and a variety of other things.
Facing another culture, the other, is
a complex process, and long before language even begins to come into play, we
perceive the body language, manner and appearance of the person we are dealing
with. These perceptions may be influenced positively or negatively by our
preconceived ideas and notions about a particular country. More often than not,
we seek to find them confirmed in the other (person), and this fact in itself
tends to counteract or, indeed, prevent any form of open-minded communication.
Our
workshop "Drama as intercultural communication skill. How to face the
other" was intended to offer strategies which may help to create an atmosphere
favourable to intercultural encounters. On the one hand, this workshop
was based on didactic theatrical methods which have their origins in the work
of such people as Stanislawski, Grotowski, Boal, Brook, and Mnouchkine.[1] On the other hand, the workshop drew
some of its inspiration from the discipline of Authentic Movement, which originated
in the field (and from the experience) of Modern Dance and is employed in
the context of dance therapy as well as the performing arts.[2] It is also a discipline with
potential for furthering the cause of intercultural encounters. It was above
all the Authentic Movement principle of non-judgmental observation or witnessing
that was used for this workshop.
The
first part of the workshop focused on working at a pre-linguistic level, in an
attempt to approach and tackle the following two questions:
1)
How do I face the other in an unbiased way?
2)
How do I deal with the other, with what is new and unfamiliar?
Using
drama exercises and principles from Authentic Movement, the workshop was
designed to develop a number of suggestions for an unprejudiced form of making
contact.
2. AuthenticMovement
The
workshop centred on the methods of Authentic Movement which I describe below.
In so doing I intend to outline the interrelationship between the practice of
Authentic Movement and intercultural skills.
2.1 Background
The
practice of Authentic Movement was initiated and named in the 1950s by the
dancer Mary Starks Whitehouse and is continually in the process of being developed
and articulated. Two other women have made a significant contribution to the
formation of the art of Authentic Movement: Janet Adler and Joan Chodorow.
Mary
Starks Whitehouse (1911-1979) received her diploma from the Wigman
Central Institute in Dresden (an institute of the so-called Ausdruckstanz) and she was also a student
of Martha Graham. She studied at the C. G. Jung Institute in Switzerland and
was a member of the American Dance Therapy Association, to mention only the
main aspects of her rich background. Whitehouse conducted both a private movement
therapy practice and a movement therapy teacher program in Los Angeles.[3] She developed an approach to movement
which is also called “authentic movement” or “movement in depth”.
Janet
Adler, PhD, a Californian dance/movement therapist and former student of Mary
Starks Whitehouse and psychologist John Weir, teaches the discipline of
Authentic Movement internationally and was the founder and director of the Mary
Starks Whitehouse Institute, the first school devoted to the study and practice
of Authentic Movement. She is the author of several publications, including The Offering from the Conscious Body. The
Discipline of Authentic Movement[4] and director of the film Still Looking (1988) which reflects on
her work in the discipline of Authentic Movement. She is a member of the
Authentic Movement Institute in the San Francisco Bay Area which was founded in
1993.
Joan
Chodorow, PhD, an analyst member of the C. G. Jung Institute of San
Francisco, is a registered dance therapist and former president of the American
Dance Therapy Association. Her early studies include dance studies, performance
and teaching. She also studied with Mary Starks Whitehouse in the early 1960s.
Since 1966 she has written numerous articles and publications on the philosophy
and practice of dance therapy. In addition to her private practice, she continues
to write, teach and supervise students and therapists. She has also taught
an intensive summer course in Switzerland for many years.[5] Like Janet Adler, Joan Chodorow
is a founding advisor of the Authentic Movement Institute.
Authentic
Movement does not have a specific theoretical basis. It has evolved, and continues
to evolve, out of the exploratory work of its practitioners and is influenced
by Modern Dance, Ausdruckstanz, as well as psychotherapeutic theories and methods.
DietmarE. Pallaschdescribes in his PhD thesis within the field of dance therapy
how he explored the similarities between Authentic Movement and related psychotherapeutic
theories such as the theories of C.G. Jung, Arnold Mindell, Carl Rogers and
Eugene Gendlinand, indeed, further research into this area is needed.[6]
2.2 TheForm
“Authentic
Movement explores the relationship between a mover and a witness, being seen
and seeing.” [7]
The
basic form of Authentic Movement is a dyadic form which includes a mover and
a witness. There is no movement instruction in Authentic Movement, simply
a mover and a witness. These roles usually interchange within a session, except
in a therapeutic context. During a set timed session, the mover closes his
or her eyes and allows inner physical or vocal impulses to guide his
or her movement. The mover’s eyes are closed in order to attend more deeply
to his or her kinaesthetic or inner experience. The movements may or may not
be visible to the witness. The movements and/or sounds may be in response
to an emotion, a dream, a thought, pain, joy, or whatever is being experienced
at a given moment. The witness sits on the edge of the movement space –
in the case of a group, in a circle and attends to both the mover and his
or her own internal responses to the movement. The witness serves as a compassionate,
non-judgmental mirror. Afterwards, the two speak about their experiences.
The mover speaks first, followed by feedback from the witness.[8]
“The
mover is the expert. The mover speaks before the witness. The witness doesn’t
refer to any material before the mover has. We must own our judgments,
projections and interpretations.”[9]
Within
the framework of specific guidelines mover and witness can communicate with
each other in a safe and
compassionate context. The guidelines free the mover and the witness from
judgement, projection and interpretation.
The
guidelines for both mover and witness:[10]
1)
I see observations based
on the actual movement of the mover
2) I
sense sensations of the body (kinaesthetic sensations in the body)
3)
I feel emotion
4) I
imagine image/story
In
the following description of the guidelines, I will concentrate on the
witnessing aspect, which seems to be the most difficult and demanding part.
1)
The witness describes what he/she has seen based on the actual movement of the
mover. It is important not to use interpretations (e. g. adjectives) but to
concentrate on the actual description of physical movement, e. g. “I see you
lifting your right arm”.
2)
The witness notices sensations in his or her own body and may or may not share
them with the mover, e. g. “I sense the contraction of my own biceps in my
right arm”.
3)
The witness may or may not share his or her feelings with the mover, e. g. “I
feel tired and sad while seeing you lifting your arm”.
4)
The witness may or may not share a particular perception of the mover’s
movement, e. g. “I imagine a wounded animal lying on the ground lifting his
foreleg”.
These
four principles are not always present in a feedback round. The most important
part is to start off with the description of the movement and then follow it up
with the other aspects of the witness’s experience. The witness speaks in the
first person singular to make sure that the feedback stays with him/her and to
allow the mover the opportunity of agreeing or disagreeing with his/her
response. The witness always speaks in the present tense and asks the mover
whether he/she wants to hear any feedback. If the witness is not sure about
what he/she has seen or has forgotten parts of the sequence, it may be enough
to say: “I see you” or “I hear you”.
Authentic
Movement is practised in many varied contexts such as psychotherapy,
personal/creative investigation and as a source of original artistic creation
in dance, theatre, writing and the visual arts.
3. Authentic Movementas an intercultural communication skill – an approach
The
principles of Authentic Movement and, above all, the witnessing aspect appear to be particularly helpful in an
intercultural context. In combination with exercises drawn from drama-in-education,
a foundation may be laid for initiating non-verbal contact, which may then be
expanded to include some form of verbal exchange. The emphasis here is
precisely on the initial non-verbal impressions, the messages of body language
that may prove decisive in opening channels of communication. Embedding
Authentic Movement in an intercultural context is a new approach to
intercultural encounters which has yet to be explored on a more theoretical
basis.
To begin
with, it seems essential to offer simple exercises in order to enable all
participants to make contact with one another. During our workshop in Ireland,
the participants were encouraged to do simple walking exercises with their
eyes open or closed, with or without a partner. They began their search for
a partner with their eyes open, i.e. quite consciously. One of the exercises
encouraged the participants to meet and greet each other. Here they had to
focus on how they wanted to greet
the other person: did they want to shake hands, did they want to embrace the
other person, to rub their noses or simply stay in eye contact and say “hello”?
The purpose was to find out what kind of distance or proximity each one of
the participants wanted to have to the others they encountered. Since the
cultural greeting vocabulary is different in every
country, it is important to find out where the individual feels comfortable
while greeting the other. In the framework of a workshop we can experiment
with proximity and distance while learning to have a non-judgmental attitude
towards our partner. During the next stage, the participants relied on other
senses, mainly their sense of touch, in trying to find a partner blindly with
their hands. As we discussed this later on, it was interesting to see whether
the same partner had been chosen or whether one´s blind choice had
been anticipated, and what conclusions were to be drawn from that fact.
The
principal of non-judgmental observation was made use of in a very simple drama
exercise: one of the participants crosses the stage at his/her own speed with
open eyes, moving towards the circle of witnesses. The person who volunteered
may then comment on what he/she experienced crossing the stage and facing
the witnessing audience. Next the witnesses
render their observations, trying to make sure that any kind of evaluation
– either positive or negative – is carefully avoided. The first step is an
exact description of the purely physical act of walking. This may be repeated
several times with different volunteers in order to practise the act of watching.
In our workshop, there was one occasion when two participants crossed
the stage engaging in a non-verbal dialogue both with each other and the witnesses.
This
exercise was followed up by an exchange of views in the workshop group. Not
surprisingly, impressions and emotions which derived from witnessing the
movements on the stage varied among the participants. And here further issues
of interest emerge that could be explored more systematically: where do the
boundaries between intercultural and simply interpersonally rooted perception
lie? Is it possible to identify and isolate particular aspects that influence
the way human beings perceive one another’s gestures, expressions and
movements? And – are there factors which can be attributed solely to the
diversity of cultural backgrounds at all?
Just
formulating these questions is bound to raise even more questions, illustrating
the complexity of this field of interest and the necessity for further scientific
exploration. Finding and sketching the corner stones of this field is in itself
a challenging task. Two central questions may be worth noting here:
is it always the intercultural aspect that plays a key role in intercultural
misunderstanding and how can we identify it? Authentic Movement could be another
tool in developing an approach to answer these questions.
Sixteen
people from different European countries attended the workshop: language
teachers, university lecturers, lecturers in drama-in-education and other
people dealing with pedagogical and intercultural issues mentioned above. Due
to time constraints I introduced and practised only the first guideline
mentioned above. The other three were mentioned but not practised. However, the
exercises done provided a means of experiencing the field of non-verbal
intercultural and interpersonal understanding.
4. Conclusion
When
trying to achieve intercultural communication the realisation that a particular
gesture or posture may have a particular meaning for oneself and an entirely
different one for another person is an essential basis to start out from.
As we move on to speech and behaviour the individual differences increase,
making it even more important to be very sensitive and clear from
the beginning. The aspect of “(cultural) awareness” was an issue which we
discussed in the final round of our workshop, concentrating on the guidelines
of Authentic Movement. What all participants came to realise was how difficult
it was for them to exclusively observe a mover. Being a witness and a non-judgmental
mirror was a much more difficult task than the participants had expected.
The
guidelines of Authentic Movement offer a way of meeting the other in a safe framework.
In everyday life, projections, interpretations and judgments fill our thoughts
and may easily be an obstacle to any open-minded communication. Especially
in an international context you may meet a ‘confusion of body-languages’ which
often leads to misunderstandings. We tend to interpret the other’s body language
and behaviour from the perspective of our own social and cultural background
and this may be a major reason for mutual misunderstandings. In using and
practising the principles of Authentic Movement, each one of us may experience
the role of the mover and the witness.
The practice of merely watching the other’s actual movements – without taking
a judgmental attitude but with an awareness that pictures and interpretations
are rooted in ourselves and our personal, social and/or cultural background
– might have a liberating effect on our meeting the other on a basis of mutual
understanding.
Authentic
Movement may be exploited yet further in the area of intercultural
communication. Following specific instructions, it may be practised either it
in its original form[11] or used in combination with
drama-in-education techniques. No doubt further research, testing and in-depth
study will be necessary. However, our workshop in Ireland was clearly
indicative of the applicability and the usefulness of the method in this field.
Bibliography
Adler, Janet (2002): Offering from the Conscious Body. The
Discipline of Authentic Movement. Vermont: Inner Traditions.
Bauer, Susanne (2002): “Mindfulness in Motion”. In Touch, A
Quarterly Newsletter Exploring Touch, Healing and Consciousness, Autumn
2002, p. 3.
Boal, Augusto (1989): Theater der Unterdrückten,
Übungen und Spiel für Schauspieler und Nicht-Schauspieler. Frankfurt am
Main: Suhrkamp Verlag.
Boal, Augusto (1999): Der Regenbogen der Wünsche, Methoden
aus Theater und Therapie. Seelze: KallmeyerVerlag.
Brook, Peter (2001): Der
leere Raum. Berlin: Alexander Verlag.
Chodorow, Joan (1996): “The Moving Imagination”. A Moving Journal. Ongoing Expressions of Authentic
Movement 3, 2, pp. 11-12.
Geissinger, Annie (1998): “Towards the Unknown. An Interview with
Janet Adler”. A Moving Journal. Ongoing
Expressions of Authentic Movement. The Collective 5, 3, pp. 4-10.
Grotowski, Jerzy (1986): Für ein armes Theater. Zürich: Orell
Füssli.
Féral, Josette (2002): Ariane Mnouchkine und das Théatre du Soleil. Berlin: Alexander Verlag.
Oida, Yoshi (1993): Zwischen
den Welten. Mit einem Vorwort von Peter Brook. Berlin:
Alexander Verlag.
Pallaro, Patrizia (ed.) (1999): Authentic Movement. Essays by Mary Starks Whitehouse,
Janet Adler and Joan Chodorow. London and Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley
Publishers.
Pallasch, Dietmar E. (2002): Tief bewegtzum Ziel. Ein tanztherapeutischer Ansatz aus NLP und Authentic Movement. Bielefeld: Junfermann Verlag.
Stanislawski, Konstantin S. (1999): Die Arbeit des Schauspielers an der Rolle. Hg. v. Dieter Hoffmeier. Berlin: Henschel Verlag.
Uretsky, Lynne (1996): “On Language and Authentic Movement”. A Moving Journal. Ongoing Expressions of Authentic Movement.3, 2, pp. 7-9.
Biodata
Marie
Louise Blankemeyer holds an M.A. in Angewandte Kulturwissenschaften and a certificate
in Drama-in-Education from University of Lüneburg and a certificate in Integrative
Bodywork and Movement Therapy from Tanzinitiative Hamburg e. V. TRIADE, Zentrum für Tanz und
Performance, Authentic Movement having formed an integral part of the
latter qualification and with Linda Hartley (Great Britain) being her main
teacher. Based in Denmark, she does freelance project work for the Goethe
Institut, Copenhagen, as well as organising and giving workshops on Authentic
Movement, drama-in-education and breathing and vocal techniques.
Contact: ml.blankemeyer@gmx.net
Recent Publication: Georgia
Herlt/Marie Louise Blankemeyer (2003): Abenteuer Deutschland. Dänen im
Nachbarland. Kopenhagen: Goethe
Institut.
[1] Broadly speaking, all theatre directors referred to here have dealt with intercultural theatre forms. For further reading, see titles by Boal, Brook, Féral, Grotowski, Oida(Original title: “Hyoryu-Hyoru”, in which this Japanese actor describes the intercultural theatre experience derived from Brook´s(stage) work), Stanislawski.
[2] For further reading see titles by Pallaro and Adler.
[3] See Pallaro, Patrizia (ed.) (1999): Authentic Movement. Essays by Mary Starks Whitehouse, Janet Adler and Joan Chodorow, London and Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 17-28.
Chodorow, Joan (1996): “The Moving Imagination”. A Moving Journal. Ongoing Expressions of Authentic Movement 3, 2, 11-12.
Uretsky, Lynne (1996): “On Language and Authentic Movement”. A Moving Journal. Ongoing Expressions of Authentic Movement 3, 2, 7-9.
[4] Adler, Janet (2002): Offering from the Conscious Body. The Discipline of Authentic Movement, Vermont: Inner Traditions.
[5] See Pallaro 1999: 209-228.
Chodorow 1996: 11-12.
[6] Pallasch, Dietmar E. (2002): Tief bewegt zum Ziel. Ein tanztherapeutischer Ansatz aus NLP und Authentic Movement, Bielefeld: Junfermann Verlag, 6, 10-11.
[7] Introduction on the homepage of the Authentic Movement Institute in San Francisco, http://www.authenticmovement-usa.com
[8] See Bauer, Susanne (2002): “Mindfulness in Motion”. In Touch, A Quarterly Newsletter Exploring Touch, Healing and Consciousness, Autumn 2002, 3.
[9] Geissinger, Annie (1998): “Towards the Unknown. An Interview with Janet Adler”. A Moving Journal. Ongoing Expressions of Authentic Movement. The Collective 5, 3, 4-10.
[10] The specific guidelines as they appear here were passed on as a teaching instruction during my training with Linda Hartley. But the guidelines are also embedded in Janet Adler’s bookOffering from the Conscious Body. See the first chapter “Individual Body”, especially pp. 34 – 36.
[11] See section 2.2: Authentic Movement – The Form