How might Embodied Cognition, Contact Improvisation and Meisner’s Standard Repetition Exercise together illuminate actor movement training?

Abstract

This article presents research conducted during my time as a student at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London while completing my MFA in Movement: Directing and Teaching. The research comprised a study of the theory of embodied cognition and enactivsm in relation to actor movement training. Specifically, I looked at how Meisner’s Standard Repetition Exercise together with Contact Improvisation could help me assist the development of an enhanced embodied actor, as well as, explore how to teach Contact Improvisation in a way that was more specifically suited to the acting student, taking their particular expertise (transformation, language and emotions, while staying open and responsive to a scene-partner) into consideration. The work, comprising eight movement sessions of 1h40 min. taught over a period of three weeks to the BA Year One and Two students, was situated in my teaching practice at The Danish National School of Performing Art’s (DASPA’s), acting department in Odense. Here, I teach a range of different dance styles, contact improvisation, somatic work and yoga, movement-based character work, and movement direction. The article falls into two parts. Part one outlines the methods and theoretical foundation, part two presents the research performed with the students.