Event overview
On Actor Training and Pedagogy: Enhancing Students’ Learning Though Encouraging the Accessing of the Flow State (AE) AND Power Play: From Capoeira to Performance (DL)
Aphrodite Evangelatou recently completed her practice-based PhD research which investigates potential pathways for the student-actor to access emotion safely and with ease. In this paper she will discuss some key findings from the research, focusing on the question of pedagogy. In addition to identifying particular ‘lures’ for emotional activation, such as working with musicality and breath, her research indicates that the pedagogue’s role is crucial for the activation of emotion. Challenging the politics of power in classroom and/or rehearsal and the hierarchical relationship between teacher and student, the discussion will highlight the importance of qualities such as warmth and care, as well as their role in actively encouraging the creation of a positive and safe learning environment, where the trainer can function as an enabler of emotion. The paper will also discuss the importance of pleasure in the training process - particularly in relation to the activation of so-called negative emotions- and propose ways to achieve this through examining Csikszentmihalyi’s theory of flow.
Aphrodite Evangelatou is an actor, actor trainer and Associate Lecturer at Goldsmiths, where she also completed her PhD. As an actor, she trained at Drama Centre London, the Vakhtangov Institute in Moscow, and Delos Drama School (Athens, Greece). She has also travelled around Europe to attend workshops and train at places such as the Odin Teatret, the Grotowski Institute, and the Workcenter of J. Grotowski and T. Richards. Her teaching practice focuses on acting and devising while her research interests include physical theatre, acting pedagogy, and the psychophysical.
Dafne Louzioti's talk will focus on how the dynamics of strategic power play in Capoeira Angola can be applied to the performer-audience exchange in performance. Departing from a brief analysis of the Capoeira Angola game, she will propose that the shifts in awareness it produces are of benefit to its practitioners both individually and socially. Attaining this way of thinking requires numerous years of training in what is a highly codified mode of embodied discourse and has been the subject of a growing body of research. With a view to broadening access to the interactions Capoeira Angola affords, the proposition of this research is the creation of a structure based on contemporary performative conventions that provokes a similar dynamic to the Capoeira Angola game without necessitating knowledge of the practice.
Dafne Louzioti is a performance artist whose work stems from research and work with the body, exploring encounter, power relations and games. Spanning dance, theatre, martial arts, live art, writing and photography, her practice focuses what happens when we really meet and the thresholds such meetings may reveal. Often in collaboration, her work is process-driven and experimental and informs her Higher Education and freelance teaching.
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 12 Mar 2019 | 6:00pm - 8:00pm |
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