essay building the foundation in lessac's kinesensic training for embodied presence

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Essay Building the Foundation in Lessac's Kinesensic Trainingfor Embodied PresenceMelissa Hurta

a Melissa Hurt is a doctoral candidate in Theatre Arts at the University of Oregon. Her dissertationappraises Lessac's kinesensic theory as an embodied acting practice using Merleau-Ponty's ideas ofembodiment. She is a contributor to a forthcoming book compiling articles and oral histories aboutLessac's work published by the Lessac Institute. Melissa became a designated practitioner of Lessac'svoice and body work in 2008. Melissa holds an MFA in Theatre Pedagogy from Virginia CommonwealthUniversity.Published online: 25 Nov 2013.

To cite this article: Melissa Hurt (2009) Essay Building the Foundation in Lessac's Kinesensic Training for Embodied Presence, Voice andSpeech Review, 6:1, 100-110, DOI: 10.1080/23268263.2009.10761512

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Contemporary acting theorists and practitioners have debated the need for what Icall “embodied presence.”1 “Presence” may popularly be regarded as heightenedconscious awareness of character, others and one’s surroundings that the actorbrings to her moment-to-moment commitment to storytelling. Embodiedpresence instead incorporates the body’s perceptions that layer into the actor’scharacterization and relationships with others and her environment. The actoruses her intuitive, perceptive body to situate herself in the spontaneous presentin performance and beyond.

In the quest for means to accomplish embodied presence in actor training, Ipropose that Arthur Lessac’s kinesensic voice and body discipline can helpactors achieve such a goal while also developing optimal uses of their voicesand bodies. Lessac defines kinesensic training as an intrinsic sensing processwhere energy qualities are physically felt and perceived, then tuned and usedfor creative expression (Voice , ). Lessac developed an approach to bodyand voice training in the early twentieth century that relies on what he calls“the feeling process,” which allows the performer to sense the vibrations of toneand consonant contact as they resonate against the body’s bones and tissues.Kinesensic training enlivens the actor to understand better the use and expressionof her voice and body for offering presence onstage and off.

Just as Lessac states in the above quote, the sensorial feeling process composeskinesensics and continually informs perceptual acting since perceptions inter-twine and enhance each other. When the actor undergoes kinesensic training,she learns to trust her body and lets it guide her through its inherent wisdomof what feels good while synergizing with her mind’s awareness of its perceptualprocesses. When body and mind reflexively inform each other in concert, herbody becomes her consciousness. She discovers how her body learns voice andbody technique through its perceptions and how she eventually transcendstechnique toward embodied presence in the expressive moment. Sensationdoes not exist by itself; it leaves a footprint in the body and influences newexperiences, thus, enhancing the actor’s overall understanding of kinesensics andherself. To grasp how an actor begins kinesensic work, she must first engage inphysical explorations to assess the status of her body. This paper reveals thepractices and theories that establish the foundation for kinesensic understandingand questions how they bring the actor closer to perceptual embodied acting.Additionally, phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty illuminates how anactor fully inhabits her body and surrounding space in an active awareness ofself. Merleau-Ponty places his phenomenological query in the processes of thebody and describes how they create one’s experience in the world. His philo-sophical project focuses on describing the embodied experience.

The process for building such a foundation includes feeling gestalt in thebody, feeling the connection between the sensations within the actor’s body toall that surrounds her, developing self-awareness from this information byharnessing her awareness of gestalt, and identifying the layers of the perceptual

Melissa Hurt is a doctoral candidate in Theatre Arts atthe University of Oregon. Her dissertation appraisesLessac’s kinesensic theory as an embodied actingpractice using Merleau-Ponty’s ideas of embodiment.She is a contributor to a forthcoming book compilingarticles and oral histories about Lessac’s work publishedby the Lessac Institute. Melissa became a designatedpractitioner of Lessac’s voice and body work in 2008.Melissa holds an MFA in Theatre Pedagogy fromVirginia Commonwealth University.

1. See Shannon Rose Riley’s “Embodied PerceptualPractices: Towards an Embrained and EmbodiedModel of Mind for Use in Actor Training andRehearsal,” Theatre Topics (vol. 14 no. 2), Sept. 2004.See also Phillip B. Zarilli’s articles “Model of theActor’s Embodied Modes of Experience,” TheatreJournal (vol. 56 no. 4), Dec. 2004 and “An EnactiveApproach to Understanding Acting,” Theatre Journal(vol. 59 no. 4), Dec. 2007. Moreover, the January2008 issue of American Theatre profiled the top actingtheaters in the country and asked each of them toexplain what they hope to teach their students.Responses included a “re-discovery of self,” “braveand honest acting,” “inner-directed acting,” “fearless-ness with an active body,” “development of awarenessand self-reliance,” and “presence.”

Essay by Melissa Hurt

Building the Foundation in Lessac’s Kinesensic Trainingfor Embodied Presence

The whole idea of feeling through the senses rather than the intellect, you cansee that in a sense, once this sort of thing develops, you can rest assured that itis a continuing, almost braiding, act that is taking place. It keeps gettingbraided and constantly is more and more interesting as you braid more andmore. (Arthur Lessac, Personal Interview September , )

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body. An examination of these practices shows how an actor uses her percep-tions to create her base understandings of self for accomplishing embodiedpresence in her voice and body technique.

Gestalt

The first step toward building a foundation for kinesensic learning is under-standing gestalt as perceived in the body. Gestalt is a structure composed fromhappenings of the body, mind and creative spirit that acquires significance whenthe actor reflects upon it. In gestalt, sensations are measured against the ongoinghappenings of the body, gaining deeper meanings when they are considered aspart of the entirety of the actor’s experience. The whole of gestalt, however,cannot be broken down as the sum of individual sensations; meaning in gestaltcan only be ascertained from reflection upon interplay of sensations. Gestalt istypically regarded in the context of Gestalt therapy. Gestalt therapists usegestalt to understand how events occur, not why, and use this information toanalyze experience further. For instance, the gestalt therapist encourages thepatient use non-interrupted awareness to gather perceptual and emotionalinformation in a moment, no matter how cluttered the data may seem, anduse such insights to learn about the experience. Information is consideredagainst the larger frame of its context (which may include the physical body,emotional state, and social circumstance) as well as the information alreadyunderstood about the subject. Gestalt of information is relative to that whichsurrounds it and, when assessed, the synthesis and harmonics of how eventsexist against (and highlight) each other leads to a fuller grasp of the subject’sexperience. Gestalt constitutes the foundations for Lessac’s and Merleau-Ponty’s theories of perception.

Lessac acknowledges gestalt as the foundation for sensory experience anddefines it as:

Just as gestalt therapists use various data to reveal the experience of phenomena,Lessac asserts smaller clusters of sensual, physical or emotional significancemakeup the whole of the body; thus, the body holds infinite avenues forexploration as meanings harmonize and synergize with each other to createlarger significance. Thinking of the body as a whole consisting of smallerwholes enhances investigation of the body since each small gestalt containspotential toward a deeper understanding of self. The body is then infinite andinvestigation can never reach a stopping point.

Pure sensation does not exist for Lessac and Merleau-Ponty because the bodyalways takes in sensations that contribute to gestalt and holds them againstwhat the body experiences over time, thus creating an experiential field forthe actor to reflect upon. Merleau-Ponty posits, “The perceptual ‘something’is always in the middle of something else, it always forms part of a ‘field’”

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a configuration that asserts that the whole is greater than the sum of itsparts; in our frame of reference, ‘gestalt’ refers to a unified ‘whole’ that isalways made up of smaller unified ‘wholes.’ It is an organized field havingproperties that cannot be derived merely from the summation of so-calledcomponent parts; each component part is a smaller ‘whole’ gestalt, whichstands on its own and is itself made up of still smaller ‘whole’ gestalts.(Voice , )


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(Perception , ). Sensation cannot be measured unless it is held against itsbackground, thus, it is always a part of a field of physiological experience. Thefield of experience includes any information scanned and used in the gestaltof sensual awareness. This field could include the physical sense of the body,emotions that arise in physical exploration, or both. In addition, sense organsare not transmitters that simply move sensation directly to the nervous system;rather, the whole body registers perception and places stimuli in the perceptualfield of the body’s experience.

Gestalt brings the actor closer to embodied acting since she must tune into theperceptual happenings of her body. Gestalt brings information about how shefeels physically as well as emotionally. This information resonates within andharmonizes with other sensations, thus expanding and bringing the actor towarda larger field of awareness from which to understand her acting process.

Lessac calls the information the body reveals as occurring from within the“inner environment” and all that is outside of the body the “outer environment,”which includes other people, temperature, and society with its pressures (BodyWisdom , ). Lessac’s “body wisdom” encourages the actor to approach thebody with curiosity every day as re-connection is gained with the mind andspirit. As the body tells the actor what she needs to feel good and balanced, theactor finds ways to balance the inner environment against the outer environment.Gestalt sensation helps the actor learn how her body’s inner environment feelsas she relates to the outer environment.

When the actor meditates on her inner environment while engaging in bodyexplorations, the body gently tells the actor how to regain more optimal useof muscles and body weight.2 Lessac says, “Our task is to discover an innerframework that will instruct us to function satisfactorily within the outerframework, (without being destroyed by it), and eventually to become onewith it again” (Body Wisdom , ). Lessac promotes communion withinthe body and with those in the actor’s surroundings.

The actor continually returns to her inner environment throughout kinesensicwork. This vast interior holds information on proprioception, or the perceptions ofher joints, muscles, body spatiality and spinal alignment, and interoception, orperceptions of visceral feelings and breathing. As the actor embarks onLessac’s explorations to ascertain sensations, the inner environment providesinformation that the actor consciously tunes into. The perceptive body leadsin her explorations, not her intellect.

The outer environment contains not only all that is physically outside of theactor, but also relates to exteroception, or the actor’s perceptions of her relation-ship with the world and space. As the actor explores her voice and body inLessac’s exercises, her perceptive body relates to her surroundings, includingthe temperature around her, the textures of what she touches, what she hears,smells, and, if she opens her eyes, what she sees. Although the actor cannotcontrol her outer environment, she will be affected by it as an organic perceptivebeing. The actor then feels her inner environment adapt as she negotiates herrelationships with her surroundings.

When the actor explores her inner and outer environments, she discovers how

2. Such explorations include “muscle spreading”,“wafting and waving”, and “mapping the back”.

Voice Related Movement Studies

Building the Foundation in Lessac’s Kinesensic Training for Embodied Presenceby Melissa Hurt (continued)


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proprioception and interoception compose her perceptual self. Her shiftingsensations ground her in her body as she continually feels herself in space, thus,further situating her in her perceptual world with exteroception. These layersof perception shift with gestalt awareness in her inner environment standingout against sensations taken from the outer environment. Throughout theactor’s work with kinesensics, she will uncover additional ideas about her bodyusing these forms of perception while also developing her voice and body inher acting practice.

Meditation concurrently arises when initially exploring gestalt. Meditative“wafting and waving” is a kinesensic exploration in which the actor tunes into herinner environment sensing gestalt occurring in the body. Here the actor standsas if the top of her head floats up while her feet are loosely rooted in the ground,thus persuading the body to sway gently. Actors undergo “intrinsic activemeditation” when wafting and waving in body work sessions (Park, LessacIntensive Daily, week one, day four, ). Whereas meditation is popularlyregarded as a yogic activity performed seated in silence, intrinsic active medi-tation occurs during body explorations in stillness or slow movement. Since theactor maintains her awareness on gestalt sensations in the body (for example,how her breath feels in her body), meditation actively arises, offering insight tothe body’s experience. The inherent value on meditation regards her insightsas fundamentally valuable. In wafting and waving, the sensation of floating upthrough the crown of the head while the feet remain softly rooted brings gentleequilibrium to the body and breath. She then visualizes her inner space, whichincludes the sensations in her body, her emotions, and how her body feels as awhole. This exploration essentially provides the actor information from herbody to her brain in the present moment as she meditates upon her vast interior.

When the actor tunes into gestalt, she visits an occurrence in the body andsignifies it in her search for its meaning. This meditative process embodies theactor since it occurs between the reflective mind and the sensorial processes ofthe body. Gestalt therapist Richard Wallen says when a person meditates anddiscovers gestalt sensation that “there is no longer a cluttered field, but ratherone thing that draws the individual’s attention. His perceptual activity becomesselective as he becomes concerned with this particular thing” (“Gestalt Therapy”, ). Awareness of gestalt, or meditative gestalt, allows the actor to isolateperceptions and discover the processes and sensations of body, mind and cre-ative spirit. Attention to meditative gestalt must occur in an embodied actingprocess for the actor to discover how her body perceives through the senses,including the sixth kinesthetic sense. The actor then learns from her body’sperceptions and accumulates an inventory of perceptual knowledge fromwhich to grow.

This newfound body state gained in intrinsic active meditation creates thebackground for sensing breath, thus furthering her gestalt awareness. Lessac tellsthe actor to think of the torso as a bucket that fills from the bottom up. Asshe breathes, the bucket fills so she feels breath first in her lower back, lowerribs and belly. Breath moves up to expand the ribs and back while guiding theactor in gestalt awareness of the body’s status and ever-changing sensual expe-rience throughout the voice and body explorations. Breathing can change thebody’s qualities and relate to Lessac’s body NRGs, which are inherent physicalstates used throughout his explorations.

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The body NRGs are natural states of the body that are developed and percep-tually heightened in kinesensic work.3 The actor employs one of the threebody NRGs—radiancy, buoyancy and potency—in her body and/or voicework to remain embodied in her explorations while maintaining the familiarand natural sensations unique to the NRG. Due to similar qualities of thebody and voice NRGs, each body NRG has a cognate vocal NRG—radiancyis paired with consonant NRG, buoyancy is paired with structural NRG andpotency is paired with tonal NRG. The actor explores each body NRG indifferent rhythms and tempos while exploring basic physical postures such as sit-ups, walking and running. She will later ensure incorporation of the bodyNRGs in her vocal explorations. Use of the body NRGs engage the actor’swhole physical self while feeling the breath quality that arises in each. The bodyNRGs contribute to gestalt awareness since each NRGs’ breathing patterns,expressions of muscle action, and spiritual expression ground the actordifferently. In addition, the body NRGs provoke the actor’s creative spirit inher explorations in unique ways depending on her body’s usage. For example,performing a scene in potency involves muscle yawning through the bodyyielding in a stronger body posture, which may lead to feelings of power orfirm control.

Once the actor has experienced gestalt, her inner and outer environments andthe layers of perception, intrinsic active meditation, and inherent uses of herbody through breathing and the body NRGs, she can then discover how herbody further experiences different sensations as she gets closer to discovering herembodied perceptual self. Her kinesensic investigations will help her learn howto build upon her understanding of gestalt to develop her awareness of self.

Developing Self-Awareness

Lessac’s understanding of gestalt expands into theories that the actor incorporatesin her kinesensic practice. Lessac identifies key concepts making up kinesensics’foundation including body aesthetics, inner harmonic sensing, and organicinstructions to the body. Body aesthetics are the very nature of sensation, tuningthe actor into what feels good and natural to the body. Body aesthetics are notsimply how the actor registers and perceives sensation, they are the beginningsof sensation itself that then guides the actor in her perceptual experience ofthe world. The actor must first understand the nature of sensation as it is thefirst whisper of presence. When the body feels something, the actor trusts sheis grounded in a moment. Dance phenomenologist Sondra Horton Fraleighposits,

Body aesthetics ensure the actor is a sensitive, perceptual being. When theactor responds to her sentient self, she honors her body’s insights as sheresponds to her inner and outer environments. The opposite of aesthetics isanesthetics, which is force, heaviness or other body states that result fromimproper use of the body and prevent the actor from feeling gestalt in thebody. Anaesthetics happen on several levels including tightening muscles inphysical or vocal explorations, holding or restricting breath, or when the

3. Radiancy involves “vibration/vibrato,spark/sparkle, adrenalin/nerve impulse, spirit/anima,tickled/delighted” (Lessac Intensive Daily week one,day five, 2006, 1). The body feels radiancy, for example,as a child in an anticipatory tremor before opening agift. The same qualities can be used when exploringconsonants since the gentle tapping of percussives(K, G, P, B, T, D) are similar to any of the qualities ofradiancy. Moreover, the sustained hum of the strings(N, M, V, Z) provide vibration that tickles the contactpoint making the consonant. Buoyancy is “oxygencharged and breath fed” and incorporates a feelingof the body moving through “water, air, fog or mist”(Park, Lessac Intensive Daily week one, day four,2006, 1). The actor feels buoyancy, for example, inthe relaxation of soaking in a bathtub. The lightnessfelt in the body in buoyancy is similar to the lightnessfelt in the flexible reverse megaphone of structuralNRG; thus, they are cognate NRGs. The tones ofstructural NRG are mostly dilute. This results in theactor not feeling a concentration of tonal vibration inthe mouth or cranium and, instead, better feelingthe physiology of the reverse megaphone, lips, andcheek muscles as the actor explores the differentstructural shapes of the vowels. Potency is “chemi-cally charged, muscle yawn fueled” and combinesthe qualities of “yawn and reaching” with the “invig-oration and exhilaration” (Park, Lessac IntensiveDaily, week one, day four, 2006, 1). The actor feelspotency, for example, when yawning through the bodywhen she feels fatigued and needs to re-oxygenateher body. Potency is similar to tonal NRG becausethe power of the muscle yawn is akin to the concen-tration of tonal vibration felt when exploring the y-buzz, +y buzz and Call.



I am proposing that the aesthetic, defined as the affective, is a quality ofbeing moved, in the sense that when I say ‘I am moved’ I mean ‘I feelsomething,’ and in fact my sense of feeling has been increased. Moreover,when I say I feel something, I am implying an awareness of my sentientself ” (Lived Body , ).


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mind supersedes what the body insists feels good. When the body and voiceare in competition with the mind, the actor is using force to achieve a goal orrelies on the intellect and judgment to achieve an imagined standard. Whenthe actor trusts in what feels good for the body, she does not need force.

Inner harmonic sensing occurs beyond the five senses and relies on gestalt as afoundational unit. Lessac defines the “Principle of Inner Harmonic Sensing” as“the process of a modality of ‘feeling,’ through organic sensation and perceptionthat leads to kinesthetic understanding and appreciation” (Body Wisdom ,). Harmonic sensing occurs by tuning into gestalts resonating from variousperceptions. Inner harmonics help the actor remain tuned into her perceptualbody as she relates to her outer environment. Harmonics are a major tool inkinesensics as multiple meanings of gestalt information refract through eachother and provide larger meanings. Harmonics synergize and expand, thus,leading the actor to new opportunities for voice and body exploration. Forexample, when exploring Lessac’s sit-ups in the different body NRGs, gestaltawareness may include how the actor feels her body on the floor, her use ofbreath, the energetic sense of the incorporated NRG throughout her body, thefeel of her torso moving from the floor as she discovered a seated posture, andhow her back finds its way to the floor. Each body NRG will yield a differentexperience as various levels and harmonics include how these sense experienceslayer to create larger meaning in the moment. The actor must remain present tothe feelings within her inner environment to gather information from harmonicsensing, thus, keeping herself grounded for embodied presence.

Body aesthetics and inner harmonic sensing expand upon Merleau-Ponty’s andLessac’s understandings of gestalt as a foundational tool for the body’s feelingprocess. Body aesthetics ties closely with inner harmonic sensing in that theformer creates gestalt that harmonizes through the actor’s awareness of the latter.The actor’s attunement of one mutually develops her attention to the other,therefore, heightening her grasp on each in her search for gestalt meanings.

When the actor engages the “inner feel” of kinesensics, she can understandand learn from the basic structure of the body and its layers of perception,which creates the pathway for what Lessac calls “organic instruction.” Theactor receives organic instruction when the body executes something that feelsgood, natural and aids in optimal usage of voice or body. This is not instructionthat comes from the mind telling the body what to do. This only leads to themind judging what the body should do, which leads to judging what a standardmight be and only sets up anesthetics. Instead, organic instruction uses thebody’s physiology as reference points leading the actor to self-teaching how tobest use her voice and body. For example, a popular example of organicinstruction is the lifting of the soft palate that naturally occurs in yawning.The actor engages this open space in her vocal explorations and tunes into itreadily since the body organically provides it. Here the body “tells” the actorwhat feels good and natural and when the actor explores this open space withher vocal work she feels the quality of her voice differently than if sheexplored her voice without the open yawn space.

Assessing self involves deeply experiencing and understanding the three con-ceptual tenets of kinesensics of body aesthetics, inner harmonic sensing, andorganic instruction. These principles appear repeatedly in the actor’s kinesensic

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work and, if honored, aid in embodiment. Once the actor has honed hersensitivity for kinesensics, she can better experience the phenomenal field fromwhich she can explore vocal and physical opportunities. Next in kinesensictraining, the actor will discover means of harnessing awareness of her body’sperceptions and habitual self. This new level of foundational exploration willbring heightened awareness of the data the actor has gathered throughoutgestalt awareness while further keeping her present in the moment.

Awareness of the body’s perceptions brings about attention to the informationit receives. Merleau-Ponty says, “Perception awakens attention…[and] attentiondevelops and enriches it” (Perception ). Perception and attention harmonizeand mutually depend on each other. Attention and awareness share similarmeanings in the search for embodied presence. When an actor gives attentionor awareness to gestalt occurring in the body, she brackets that experience andisolates her insights from extraneous information. Merleau-Ponty explains howthe process of attention occurs in the body by first establishing a perceptual ormental field which can be surveyed. Here happenings in the body enlightenthe actor and either correspond to that which she already is consciously awareor provide a new avenue for exploration. In Lessac training, for example,wafting and waving, small ball rolling, or feeling the reverse megaphone inthe voice work create the field against which attention measures sensation.4

Although relaxation occurs in the body, consciousness is not reduced to hazi-ness (in which information gained from perception would be lost), but isactually heightened. Merleau-Ponty posits how attention clarifies information:

Before building up and articulating new information, the perception of theobject (which could be a new sensation in the body) existed on an undefinedfield. Once attention occurs, the object is reconstituted in light of the actor’simmediate understanding of it. Attention maintains the object as unique withmany facets open for investigation. Attention and the perception it measuresmutually depend upon each other in the actualization of experience. AsMerleau-Ponty posits, perceptions are not “pre-existing data,” but “new artic-ulations.” Moreover, when perceptions are actively constructed in gestalt, theystand out from what was once from an “indeterminate horizon” and becomearticulate or focused. As perceptions heighten attention, the information gath-ered remains present as the body and consciousness continually recapture itsessence in the moment.

Unearthing the Habitual Self Through Awareness

Attention clarifies perceptual information as something worth investigating.When the actor gives attention to her perceptions and gestalt information, shecreates an inventory in her sentient self from which she can explore voice, bodyor creative motives. Furthermore, when the actor discovers how to bracket, orisolate, her awareness of gestalt in the body, she taps into perceptual heighteningthat informs her of her body’s implicit uses and perceptual layers that contributeto how she experiences the world.

4. Lessac’s exploration called “wafting and waving”(previously described) involves standing as if the topof the head floats up and the feet are loosely rooted,thus persuading the body to sway gently. “Smallball rolling” allows the actor to experience movingvery slowly from atom-to-atom while meditativelysensing the body as it breaths and rolls in space.Here the actor curls the body into a small ball whilelying on her back and very slowly rolls onto one sidewithout feeling heavy or as if the body will fall over.Eventually she rolls slowly from her back onto her side,then over her hands and knees onto her other sideand returns to her back. The small ball explorationencourages tuning into her inner environment whilethe body experiments with different body NRGs toroll smoothly. The “reverse megaphone” involvesyawning to lift the soft palate while gently bring thelips forward as if saying “shhh.” The muscular shapeof these two simultaneous actions create the shapeof a reverse megaphone in which the most openpart of the megaphone is at the back of the oral cavityand smallest part is the round lip opening.



To pay attention is not merely to elucidate pre-existing data, it is to bringabout a new articulation of them by taking them as figures…[A]ttentionis…the active constitution of a new object which makes explicit andarticulate what was until then presented as no more than an indeterminatehorizon. At the same time as it sets attention in motion, the object is atevery moment recaptured and placed once more in a state of dependenceon it. (original emphasis Perception , )


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Merleau-Ponty offers two perceptual layers of the body that compose existence:the habit body and the body of this moment [or, as I call it, the present body](Perception , ). The habit body consists of all the body has performedand remembers how to do. It is the body that performs tasks with actions thatare programmed, such as reaching for a cup of coffee on one’s desk. Merleau-Ponty defines habit as “knowledge in the hands, which is forthcoming onlywhen bodily effort is made, and cannot be formulated in detachment fromthat effort” (Perception , ). Thus, when the body performs a familiartask, the habit body executes the action it has remembered. This does notmean habits cannot change. In a lecture course from -, Merleau-Pontydiscusses, “Habits are plastic and neither situations nor bodily instruments arefixed once and for all” (“Experience,” -, ). He then contributes to hisearlier definition of habit: “A habit is an aptitude for responding to a particu-lar type of situation with a particular form of solution. Thus habit as an oper-ation is both bodily and spiritual” (“Experience,” -, ). The body privi-leges an action it executes habitually, but still holds potential to change. Thehabit body is a storehouse of the actor’s perceptual knowledge that she hasgained throughout her life. It is where the majority of the actor’s understand-ing of kinesensic work will be assimilated.

The present body is a more spontaneous body performing in ways that arenew. For example, when the body learns something new, it takes it into thepresent since it cannot rely on habitual movement patterns. However, oncethe body grasps how to execute a new activity, the information is thenrepressed into the habit body. Merleau-Ponty says,

When a movement occurs that has not been incorporated into the body’sworld, it might not get adapted into the body’s vocabulary. But, when thebody has understood it, it gets incorporated; it becomes familiar. For example,when learning the reverse megaphone, it may feel foreign to use tone throughthe open yawn space at the back of the soft palate while also keeping the lipssoftly forward. However, once the actor incorporates these physical sensationsinto her habit body, she can then explore her voice within this new space. Theactor uses what she learns in the present body to create new sensations shesediments into the habit body.

Additionally, Merleau-Ponty presents two components of consciousness thatmake up one’s conscious world: sedimentation of past actions and spontaneityof present occurrences. Sedimentation folds itself into the habit body as it col-lects repressed actions. Spontaneity occurs through the present body since itcontains all that is new to the body. For example, when the actor speaks, herarticulations are an act of spontaneity since they happen instantaneously, eventhough the words she expresses may be planned. Once she utters the word,the ideas and emotional and/or intellectual residue of speaking sifts intosedimentation in the habit body since they are no longer present-time actions.If she reflects on what she said or how her body felt, she investigates sedimen-tation. Merleau-Ponty claims that the body exists through this sedimentation:

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A movement is learned when the body has understood it, that is, when ithas incorporated it into its ‘world’…We say that the body has understoodand habit has been cultivated when it has absorbed a new meaning, andassimilated a fresh core of significance” (Perception , , ).

Whether a system of motor or perceptual powers, our body is not anobject for an ‘I think’, it is a grouping of lived-through meanings which

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The flow between spontaneity and sedimentation ensures kinesensic learning.The actor must first gather what she feels in her habit body before creatingnew understandings in her perceptual pedagogy. After she familiarizes herselfwith her sedimented history, she can then navigate ways to free herself towardspontaneous expression in her kinesensic technique.

Lessac defines two principles related to Merleau-Ponty’s habit body for deter-mining sedimentation and discovering spontaneity: The “Habitual AwarenessPrinciple” and the “De-Patterning Principle.” Lessac stresses “habitual” as ameans of sensing one’s habits, or behavior, in the moment. When the actorexplores voice or body habitually, she falls into patterns that may inhibit herfullest explorations of her perceptual self. Lessac is interested in uncoveringhabits and helping the actor discover her natural processes that may encouragefreer explorations. He suggests the actor explore vocal work in various dynamicsto get her out of her habitual comfort zone and into newer ways of expression.5

When the actor confronts her habits, her heightened awareness then allowsher to self-teach toward new opportunities leading her to embodied presencethat is not grounded in habitual, patterned, intellectual safety.

The “Habitual Awareness Principle” works with the “De-Patterning Principle”for accomplishing spontaneity. De-patterning is one of the most importantprinciples guiding one toward spontaneity and presence to the body, voice andtext. When one falls into patterns in performance, whether in how one uses thebody, expresses text, relates to another, or even uses tempo-rhythm, one tunesout of presence and into a habit that instead promotes simply “going throughthe motions.” This may be one of the most difficult principles to implement inthe moment since habits and patterns become standardized in everyday behaviorin the habit body. However, when an actor gains a deeper awareness of patternsin the body or voice, she appreciates new outlets for spontaneous expressionand can incorporate her present body more fully in embodied presence.

Lessac provides an approach to ascertain habits and patterns in what he calls“Sensation-Perception-Awareness-Response” (SPAR). Engagement with SPARtunes the actor into many of the principles discussed thus far: gestalt, innerand outer environment, body aesthetics, inner harmonic sensing, organicinstruction, habitual awareness and de-patterning. Here the body and all of itssenses act as filters taking in sensory information that creates gestalt, perceivingits harmonic resonances, and guiding awareness for instantaneous response.This ongoing process frees the actor from planning action or response andallows for presence and integration of body, mind and creative spirit. SPARawakens the actor toward not only perceiving habits that express themselvesthrough patterns, but also internal signals of the inner environment that comefrom external stimuli of the outer environment.SPAR does not occur in response to one moment of sensation, but as an over-lapping sequence over time with each contributing to the background of thegestalt. Consider SPAR as it is applied when the actor explores the y-buzz, atonal exploration in the lower third of her speaking pitch range in which thevibrations of tone buzz against the back of the front teeth onto the gum ridge.

5. These dynamics of exploring voice include high tolow pitch, fast to slow tempo, long to short rhythm,connected or paused rhythm, concentrated or dilutetone, and voiced or unvoiced.



moves towards its equilibrium. Sometimes a new cluster of meanings isformed; our former movements are integrated into a fresh motor entity…which by its coming suddenly reshuffles the elements of our equilibriumand fulfils our blind expectation. (Perception , )


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The experience could resemble: sensing the open yawn space in the back of thethroat or the lifted soft palate, sensing the soft, forward facial muscles withsmall lip opening, engaged “spirit in the eyes” that keeps the actor interestedand committed, the feeling of the tongue against the back of the lower bottomteeth as vocal tone in the lower third of the pitch range makes a gentle “y”French horn. From here the actor senses where the tonal concentrate resonatesin her mouth. She cannot perceive the tonal placement without consideringits location in the mouth, thus, this initial sensation is part of her gestaltawareness. Depending on where she senses and perceives tonal vibration, shebrings awareness to either its quality from where it vibrates or makes adjust-ments to the yawn space, tongue placement, or pitch note. Exploration beginsto find the pure, concentrated tone that must land on the back of the upperfront teeth and vibrate through the mask of the face into the forehead. Thus,awareness and response occur almost simultaneously. Once the actor makeschanges and the quality of the tone changes, perception of sensation occursthat guides awareness and response. When she finds her optimal y-buzz, shethen explores within the y-buzz range for the purpose of enriching her tone.Now, she may use the y-buzz tone as the background as she explores text. Thelong “e” sounds of the y-buzz give opportunities to feel the concentration oftone against the back of the front teeth while maintaining communicabilitywith full vocal tone. She will then explore believable behavior while she com-municates the text with another. She will explore different body NRGs andSPAR will continue as she discovers her body’s expression within the textexploration. SPAR happens as a harmonic occurrence and cannot be determinedas progression with clear delineations. It engages the actor in moment-to-momentpresence as she commits to her perceptual processes.

When the actor receives the information from sensation, perception, andawareness, she then responds in an organically grounded manner since herbehavior comes as a response to perceptual information. SPAR continues asshe may gain emotional or physical sensation from the resonance of herresponse. This may impact how she receives sensation from her surroundingsor scene partner. The gestalt of sensation and perception will continue for aslong as she remains tuned into the information given by the body and creativespirit. Like the continuing braid Lessac spoke of in the opening quote, SPARopens the actor for heightened perceptual expression. The actor can then unveilhabits and patterns that, once undone, will help her achieve more spontaneityand embodied presence.

Summary

This paper has explored the practices and theories behind establishing a foun-dation for learning kinesensics. Merleau-Ponty’s and Lessac’s ideas aboutgestalt clarify how the actor begins understanding her perceptions against thewhole of her body. Merleau-Ponty’s idea of how the actor uses attention tounravel perceptual ambiguities illustrates how the actor uses awareness of herbody’s processes to learn about herself and her technique. Gestalt and attentionfunction together as the actor explores her inner environment and outer envi-ronment and intrinsic active meditation with the use of breath. Additionally,the actor ascertains how body aesthetics, inner harmonic sensing, and organicinstruction work together in the kinesensic feeling process as she determinesmeaning from her body’s perceptions. Merleau-Ponty’s ideas of the perceptual

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layers of the body reveal how the body assimilates new information. This opensup a way to think about learning technique and examining Lessac’s habitualawareness principle and de-patterning principle. When the actor bringsawareness to her habits in the moment of expression, she can then work tode-pattern her typical modes of expression and find more spontaneousdynamics. Lessac’s SPAR provides an example of how the actor implementsthese theories into practice. The groundwork discovered in these preliminarypractices can be explored daily with the actor learning more about herselfeach time, aiding in a deeper sense of self and enriching her connection withher surroundings for embodied presence.

¶

Bibliography

Fraleigh, Sondra Horton. Dance and the Lived Body. Pittsburgh: The University of Pittsburgh Press, 1987.Lessac, Arthur. Body Wisdom: The Use and Training of the Human Body. California: LIPCO, 1978.___. Telephone Interview. 10 September 2007.___. The Use and Training of the Human Voice: A Bio-Dynamic Approach to Vocal Life. 3rd ed.New York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 1996.Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. “The Experience of Others (1951-52).” Trans. Fred Evans and Hugh J. Silverman. From Review of Existential Psychology and Psychiatry 13.1-3 (1982-83). 33-63.___. Phenomenology of Perception. New York: Routledge, 2002.Park, Sue Ann. Lessac Institute Summer Workshop Intensive Daily. Summer 2006.Wallen, Richard. “Gestalt Therapy and Gestalt Psychology.” From Gestalt Therapy Now: Theory/Techniques/Applications ed. By Joen Fagan and Irma Lee Shepherd. New York: Harper Colophon Books, 1970.




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essay building the foundation in lessac's kinesensic training for embodied presence

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