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Abstract
When teaching acting and movement in the university classroom, I often encounter a tension between training students in specific skills while simultaneously encouraging them to embody their psychophysical identities in relation to gender, race, class, age, and (dis)ability. In response to this tension, I apply my training in the ROSS system of Russian Martial Arts (RMA) to the acting and movement classroom. RMA exercises offer blueprints for self-exploration rather than formally structured patterns, prompting students to develop perception of their own bodies and minds, as well as those of their partners, while encouraging improvisation and adaptation. Students can practise at a range of intensities, from gentle and exploratory (Softwork) moving towards aggressive and outcome-focused (Hardwork). Further, students enter the training from their existing physical capacity and adapt, develop, and refine skills for playing committed action and sending/receiving impulses with a partner. Informed by the work of Ben Spatz, Ellis Amdur, and Sara Hendren, I will analyse how these RMA exercises develop specific psychophysical skills relevant to the training of actors while simultaneously inviting students to engage their social and artistic identities. I will place these exercises in conversation with theatre-based trainings, including the Six Viewpoints, the Acrobatics of the Heart, and the Michael Chekhov Technique. I argue that the open-ended nature of these exercises builds greater accessibility within existing performance pedagogy, opening the acting and movement classroom to a diverse community of performers.
Notes
1 Specifically Araki-ryū torite kogusoku and Toda-ha Bukō-ryū, which roughly translate to, the Araki school of close combat and the Toda method Buko mountain school, respectively.
2 For details of this system see https://www.uiltexas.org/theatre. Accessed 21 February 2022.
3 These terms or very similar ones are used throughout US versions of the Stanislavsky System or Method. I learned them first in Meisner training, but they are also used in the work of Lee Strasberg and Stella Adler as well as the many teachers in their lineages. They are common parlance in actor training at most universities in the US.
4 The ROSS system has four levels of ‘Instructor’, in ascending order categories one through four. For a more detailed discussion see Retuinskih (Citation1997, 102).
5 Gutter Fighting is a British system of military combatives developed by William E. Fairbairn (1885–1960) and Eric Sykes (1883–1945). Also referred to as ‘Defendu’.
6 This appears to be where the idea of using the word ‘systema’ to describe these arts first gained traction.
7 Primarily taekwondo, hapkido, bujinkan budō taijutsu, aikido, and xingyiquan.
8 I encountered the term ‘consent-forward’ through training with the Intimacy Directors and Coordinators: https://www.idcprofessionals.com/. Accessed 21 February 2022.
9 While I have come to understand this concept through my training with multiple teachers of the Six Viewpoints, Overlie does briefly discuss it in the chapter on emotion in her book Standing in Space (Citation2016).
10 Wendell Beavers from personal communication. Beavers has used the phrase repeatedly throughout my training with him which began in 2018.
11 I am speaking from direct training with Wangh and other teachers, but descriptions of these exercises can be found in his book An Acrobat of the Heart (Citation2010).
* The Cossacks contributed also to Ukrainian and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth’s cultures and histories. Editors’ note.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Slade Billew
Slade Billew is a physical theatre artist, director, fight choreographer, and intimacy choreographer. They teach acting and movement at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, TX. Slade holds an MFA in Theatre Pedagogy from Virginia Commonwealth University and a PhD in Theatre from Bowling Green State University. Their creative work has been seen on a variety of professional and academic stages. Slade’s scholarship theorizes actor training through the lenses of somatics, sports science, and performer autonomy. They have presented research at the American Society for Theatre Research, the Association of Theatre Movement Educators, and Mid-America Theatre Conference.