Feldenkrais And Acting
Character
I would say that from my experience, as far as acting is concerned, Feldenkrais on the one hand improves the whole-body in character acting. These questions: how does the character eat, how does he walk, how does he run, how does he bend over, how does he gesture? - are then becoming more a matter of fluidly allowing it to happen that way, rather than it being a making up or a ticked off approach.
It's much easier to fix a character in some part of the body and then just play out the rest. The body parts are better connected, interact better, and the fingertips feel what the gut is doing.
Rehearsing becomes more about checking out where the flow is taking you, so that you get a much more improvisational idea of what - let's say according to Laban - the character's movement spectrum is, but can retain much more freedom, for example, that the character is also in a different mood from day to day, sometimes has a new tick that just suddenly arises. He becomes more of a real being, more of a jazz improviser.
Concrete example of character play
For example, if you can feel the upper ribs better over time and the rib cage thus becomes longer in feeling, you also really know what it means to play a stocky rib cage. Emotionally, too. Then the tears don't come through so sweetly and clearly, but maybe almost rip the ribcage in a brute way, or the voice starts whining upward out through the throat, and the audience thinks to itself, "Oh dear oh dear, whew. He's got to learn to let go." You can then play with these things more consciously.
„If you know what you are doing, you can do what you want.” (Moshé Feldenkrais)
Voice
The same applies to the effect of a disguised voice. If someone speaks higher than usual, for example, this moves or contorts his body in the play during certain action strategies - pleading, explaining, motivating - in a completely different way than usual. If a body is flexible according to Feldenkraisian ideas, the actor can also stand or let this flow out of him much more easily and then stand.
It no longer exceeds his physical limit, so that he virtually slips back down at the edge and loses the character or believes it is not there at all. Playing physical characters is basically easy if the body is 'danceable' or just flexible enough.
The Emotional
Also the emotional stamina in you as you and then in your character becomes better, because here, too, you have to dance reactively to a quasi certain music or a chant or a voice from the outside, and the character dissipates this energy in a certain way by lowering his head, looking away, becoming angry, suddenly grabbing his hair, characteristically distorting the corners of his mouth, and so on. Or - and this is often the most difficult thing - to remain still and to express all energy only on the surface of the body, so that, for example, the body trembles, the eyes blaze, but the body remains still and breathing. Especially in film acting this is very important.
In addition, Feldenkrais has therapeutic effects, because a better flow requires that spaces open up for movement that were previously blocked and created heat accumulation or were not perceived as blind spots. One feels oneself more intensely. One can also better trace triggers for the Inner Circumstances.
The limits of Feldenkrais are of course also in the possibilities of individual destiny, as with all other methods. 'It's all part of a plan.' What else do you need to do or to fulfill to let go of a major issue in your life? Until then, even Feldenkrais can't let you look into certain regions of your body. It also makes sense to combine Feldenkrais with emotional therapy methods in this regard, or cognitive visionary - that is, if you want to use it to develop as an actor in the medium to long term.
But there is no method that brings together the felt and the rational aspect of bodily self-awareness with the means of movement so well - felt: Is it pleasant, where is this movement taking me individually? - rational: Where are my bones on the way, what does the anatomy of movement dictate?
Feldenkrais as a relaxation ritual
Feldenkrais can always be good to get back into the body from everyday life with stress as a ritual. It can be understood as a kind of 'moving meditation', for example, if one also observes thoughts that arise during it. The movement is a good way to prevent the head from being cut off from the body and to continue writing bills in one's mind or planning the shopping or reflecting on the conversations of the day like earwigs. Feldenkrais is a good way to come to yourself.
