Write-up on Suzuki/Viewpoints session
(grace chong 04a52)
The most intriguing point I personally found from the session focusing on Suzuki and Viewpoints was the pure physical intensity of the exercises, and how in a way similar to Yoga and Navajo traditions, your mind has to be empty to let in the essence of introspective reflection of the spirit, a heightened sensitivity to your environment you normally do not collide with at all. It differs from normal Western exercises in the need. You are forced by pure instinct and the physical onslaught of weariness to endure. The first exercise, though I have forgotten the exact procedure of it, was to balance and find your center by bending low to bring your center as close to the earth as possible – (from personal reading it is an important point to note that Japanese believe that our roots to the earth are the most significant, while the Western ballet thrives on liberation, a desire to fly) But regardless all facts, or the need for any thought at all is removed when you actually perform the exercise, you actually stop thinking and concentrate on the parts of your body, just purely moving, and not even which part of your body continues, but just a voice ringing in your mind to endure. Very different from Stanislavski, the physical action drives you, and in the center of it all you find yourself in a state of emptiness, driven by instinct and need alone. There was another memorable exercise (noted by everyone as the ‘suffering’ exercise afterwards), a continuous march to a beat without losing the tempo till one had to collapse immediately and yet in the seeming calmness and stillness of the body the energy, the underlying currents and the need to explode and claim air, even the longing to give large grunts of frustration had to be contained, when you collapse suddenly you feel liberated, the sweet aching in your body, blood surging to all parts of your body, your mind…it is aching suffering but the liberation afterwards is something unspeakable. Alike to acting, when you demonstrate a certain calmness or stillness to your character at times, only showing a certain percentage, but inside, that intensity, that seething hot bed of emotions is still bursting, waiting to overflow. It is the process of holding back, the physical in contrast with the mind, which creates the conflict that makes an actor so vivid in his form of theatre. No director can ever give that to an actor. It is something he must discover for himself.
