Professional Research: Character Development through movement analysis

Through physical research, I have found that acting techniques can promote discoveries in movement and emotional commitment to relationships developed in the studio and on stage. Because of this, my research includes a unique method that draws from aspects of Anne Bogart’s Exploration of Movement for the Dancer and Actor, Konstantin Stanislavski's Acting Techniques for Creating Characters, and Sanford Meisner’s training for ‘Performers Acknowledging what is Happening in the Moment’ to shape my creative practice.  Through researching the notion of story, emotion, timing, shape/ design, movement and space with the body, these methods provide a  framework for movement research. Once these languages are addressed, the use of movement and acting tasks based on the “outside-in” approach is layered in to create a deeper understanding of movement composition, providing a space to work with personal histories, story, and emotion to work towards unifying concept and content.  Stanislavski concluded that "a character is sometimes formed psychologically, i.e. from the inner image of the role, but at other times it is discovered through purely external exploration."

When working from the outside-in, the dancer is feeling an instinctual, physical response which encourages the embodiment of the doing of a task without thinking or over-analyzing the task leading to discoveries concerning movement and content.

These philosophies influence how movement is formed and how dancers develop and embody character.  This will, in return, effect how movement is created and performed while deepening discoveries and creating an immersive practice to develop a process of recreating honest embodiment of human behavior through choreography.