Introduction to Electra Workshop (April 14)

Introduction to Electra workshop

This was the second part of two workshops that Christina Sergeant taught us, and today's workshop focused primarily on Tadashi Suzuki's adaptation of "Electra".

The first activity for the workshop was for us to watch the prologue of the play Electra. The introduction for the play itself was 10 minutes long and it left most of us with many questions as to what relationship it had with the play, despite its funny moments. After watching the prologue, we learnt that Suzuki's style tend to place more emphasis on the feet, as can be seen through all the stamping. Every actor were part of a commited ensemble that worked together to convey a message. Action and sudden immobility is also a crucial part of suzuki training, and thus, the use of the core as well as maintaining the tension of the body is an important part of being a suzuki actor. We learnt that for suzuki actors, connection with the floor through the body results in not only a finely tuned strong voice, but also a physically powerful strong breath. (All the breathing sounds we heard.) Lastly, in suzuki training, whilst moving, the upper body is not disturbed, and only the lower body is working like mad and is working seperately.

Next, we tried a suzuki style practise. For the rest position, it is important to keep a low centre of gravity, bent knees, and maintain a lax upper body. We were then to do a short warmup whereby we had to sit down with our knees to our chest, with our toes up and heels on the ground. On her command, we were to open up our body like turtles, and remain immobile. This exercise was quite interesting to do and see, considering that some of us had trouble keeping balance.

Next. she taught us the suzuki way of walking, where essentially we used our hips to move our legs and then move forward, and not moving our whole body as we are used to. We then had to apply this in slow motion, with our eyes and mind focused on where we want to go. Through this exercise, I learnt how important it is to be aware of your weight as well as the tension in your muscles.(This seems to be a common trend in the workshops we have attended.) I found it difficult to maintain a lax upper body as my upper body would tense up naturally.

Statues was the name of our next exercise, where we had to go up from rest position to 3 different levels of height. T.H.O.S.E anyone?

The last exercise of the workshop was an improvisation of an Electra text. Many groups had different versions of Electra, which included a court version, a korean drama version, and an interview. It was really interesting as it allowed us to see how one story can be conveyed in many different ways. All in all, this workshop was very fun!

People to look up on : Tadashi Suzuki
Ethene Decroux
Jacques Lecoq
Vesevelod Meyerhold
Alexander, Feldenkrais, Pilates, Laban.

Cheers,
Melvyn.