REFERENCE

ONLY

The Use of Yoga in Actor

Training and Theatre Making

Submitted by Maria Kapsali to the University of Exeter as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of
Philosophy in Performance Practice (Drama) in October 2010.

This thesis is available for Library use on the understanding that it is copyright material and that
no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement.

I certify that all material in this thesis which is not my own work has been identified and that no
material has previously been submitted and approved for the award of a degree by this or any
other University.

Signature:.. ...... " ".

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Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the practice of yoga in Western actor training and

theatre practice. The starting point of this PhD research is my observation that yoga is a popular

discipline that has often attracted the interest of actors, directors, and actor trainers. The aim of

this thesis is to explore through practical research additional possibilities for the use/application

of the discipline in training and performance. More specifically, this thesis asks the following

questions:

" How yoga has been used by key theatre practitioners, such as Stanislavsky, Grotowski,

Richard Schechner, and Dorinda Hulton, in their work with actors and how yoga has
influenced their artistic vision?

" How can I use the practice of yoga in order to facilitate the actor's training and rehearsal

process in relation to specific dramaturgical and performative demands?

" How do the social assumptions and historical contingencies that underlie the way yoga
is practiced in the West today affect the actor's training, his/her relationship to one's
body, and the way s/he embodies a role?

The practical investigation employed the use of Iyengar Yoga in a series of three projects, which

focused on performative and pre-performative aspects of the actor's craft. The practice of yoga

postures was thus explored in relation to the actor's movement, imagination and performative

relationship to other actors. It has also been used in order to facilitate the actor in working with

different theatrical scripts and dramaturgies as well as generate original material for

performance. In this manner, this thesis has developed a set of exercises and frameworks,

which combine the practice of the discipline with its application in training and rehearsal

contexts.

2
 Table of Contents

Part 1 11
............................................................................................................................................

Introduction 11
................................................................................................................................
Research Topic and Research Questions 11
..........................................................................
An Overview of the Bibliography 13
.........................................................................................
An Overview of the Practical Research 19
..............................................................................
Limitations of Thesis 22
...........................................................................................................
Outline of Thesis and Notes on Terminology 24
......................................................................

Chapter I: What Is Yoga? 26

..........................................................................................................
Introduction 26
.................................................... ... ...................................................................
Modern and Pre-modern Forms of yoga 26
.............................................................................
Classical Yoga and the Resurrection of Patanjali 28
...............................................................
Patanjali's Text 29
....................................................................................................................
A Brief History of Modern Yoga 34
...........................................................................................
The Rise of Neo-Hinduism 35
..........................................................................................
BrahmoSamaj 35
............................................................................................................
Neo-HathaYoga and MuscularChristianity 36
................................................................
The Western Cultic Milieu:Western Esotericism-Occultism...................................... 37

AmericanTranscendentalism 38
.....................................................................................
HarmonialReligion 39
......................................................................................................
SwamiVivekananda 39
...................................................................................................
Raja Yoga 41
...................................................................................................................
Raja Yoga versus Hatha Yoga 42
....................................................................................
Hatha Yoga and ModernPosturalYoga 43
.....................................................................
ModernYoga and Modernity 47
.......................................................................................
IyengarYoga 49
.......................................................................................................................
CentralThemes in lyengar Yoga 54
................................................................................
lyengarYoga, Religion,and Indian Arts 57
.....................................................................
Conclusion 62
...........................................................................................................................
PersonalPractice 64
................................................................................................................

67
Chapter II: The Use of Yoga In Twentieth Century Western Theatre ...................................
Introduction 67
..........................................................................................................................
3
 Stanislavsky, his System and Yoga 69
....................................................................................
Stanislavsky's Interest in Yoga 70
...................................................................................
Scholarly Studies on Stanislavsky's Use of Yoga 71
......................................................
Ramacharaka and Modern Yoga 75
................................................................................
Resemblances to Ramacharaka's Books in terms of Form 78
........................................
The System and Occultism 82
.........................................................................................
Conclusion 84
..................................................................................................................
Grotowski and the Use of Yoga 84
..........................................................................................
The Presence of Yoga 86
................................................................................................
A Search in Secret India 87
.............................................................................................
The Life of Ramakrishna 88
.............................................................................................
Grotowski's Sources of Yoga: Practice of Yoga Postures 90
..........................................
Yoga Training in the Theatre Laboratory 91
....................................................................
Grotowski's Repudiation of Yoga 96
................................................................................
Conclusion 99
..................................................................................................................
The Use of Yoga in the Work of The Living Theatre, The Performance Group, and The

Open Theatre 100

....................................................................................................................
Avant Garde Theatre in the 1960s and yoga 101
............................................................
The Living Theatre 103
....................................................................................................
Richard Schechner and The Performance Group 107
....................................................
The Open Theatre 111
.....................................................................................................
DorindaHulton 113
..................................................................................................................
Contact with yoga 114
.....................................................................................................
The Cat 115
.....................................................................................................................
The Use of Yoga as a Centering Discipline 116
..............................................................
Yoga and Imagination 117
...............................................................................................
Yoga and Performance 118
..................................... ....................................................
Conclusion 120
................................................................................................................
A Comparative Examination of the Different Uses of Yoga 121
..............................................
The Use of Yoga by 201hCentury Western Practitioners and the Practical Projects 122
. .......

Part 11 126
.........................................................................................................................................

Introduction 126
..............................................................................................................................
Yoga as a Social Practice 128
.................................................................................................
Yoga as Psychophysical Experience 131
................................................................................

4
 Body Image and Body Schema 134
.........................................................................................
The Theory of Image Schemata 137
........................................................................................
A Critique of the Image Schemata and the Body Schema-Body Image Concept 141
. ...........
Yoga and Self 144
....................................................................................................................
Practical projects 148
...............................................................................................................
The Participants' Introduction to Yoga 149
..............................................................................
The Use of the Participants' Experience in Training and Rehearsal 150
................................
Transition Phase: from Yoga Practice to Yoga Application 156
..............................................

Chapter III: Practical Project I 161

................................................................................................
Introduction 161
........................................................................................................................
The Lady Of LarkspurLotion 162
.............................................................................................
Second Phase: The Application of Yoga 164
..........................................................................
The Visualization of the Character's Room 165
.......................................................................
The Visualizationof the Character'sFantasy 167
...................................................................
The Visualization of the Character's Body 167
........................................................................
The Use of Asanasto Create the Character 168
.....................................................................
The Use of Asanasto Find the Characterand the ImageSchemata 173
...............................
The Use of 'Soft' and 'Hard' PsychophysicalQualities 176
.....................................................
The AccumulationExercise 180
...............................................................................................
Work with the Text 182
............................................................................................................
Aspects of the Performancethat Were Not Addressedby Yoga 184
......................................
Conclusion 185
.........................................................................................................................

Chapter IV: Practical Project II 188

...............................................................................................
Introduction 188
..................................................................................................................:.....
Phase II: MovementImprovisation 191
....................................................................................
Improvisationin the Medea Project 192
..........................................................................
Initial Improvisationsin PracticalProject li 193
...............................................................
The Big Movement Theme 195
........................................................................................
The Image SchemataTheme 196
...................................................................................
Variationsof the In-Outschema 197
...............................................................................
Structure of Improvisation 198
.........................................................................................
Group Exercise 199
.........................................................................................................
Phase III: The Use of Imagination 200
.....................................................................................
The Association Exercise 200
..........................................................................................

5
 Use of Imagination and Improvisation 201
......................................................................
A Pedagogical Evaluation of the Big Movement and Image Schemata Frameworks

202
..................................................................................................................................
Towards Performance 204
...............................................................................................
Phase IV: The Use of Resting Poses 206
................................................................................
Structure of Activity 207
...................................................................................................
Active/Passive Practice and Performative Relationship 208
...................................................
Phase V: Exploration of Rockaby 209
.....................................................................................
Conclusion 214
.........................................................................................................................

Chapter V: Practical Project III 216

...............................................................................................
Introduction 216
........................................................................................................................
Autobiographical Performance 217
..................................................................................
Phase I: Generation of Autobiographical Material 221
............................................................
Phase I: Sessions I-VI 222
...............................................................................................
Phase I: Session VII-XIV 224
...........................................................................................
Intermediary Phase 225
...........................................................................................................
Phase II: Devising a Performance 229
.....................................................................................
The Use of the Image Schemata in Structuring the Performance and Creating

Movement Scores 230

.....................................................................................................
The Use of Yoga in Performing Autobiographical Material 234
...............................................
a. Opening Scene 236
.....................................................................................................
b. The Final scene 237
....................................................................................................
c. The Interplay between Active and Passive 238
...........................................................
Conclusion 239
.........................................................................................................................

Conclusion 241
...............................................................................................................................
Overview of Thesis 241
............................................................................................................
Outcomes of Thesis 244
..........................................................................................................
Outputs of Thesis and Dissemination 246
...............................................................................
Pedagogical Considerations 248
.............................................................................................
Summary of Findings and Future Directions 252
.....................................................................

Appendices 255
..............................................................................................................................
Appendix I: Descriptionof a Yoga Class 256
...........................................................................
AppendixII: A Note on Documentationand the AccompanyingVideos 259
...........................

6
 Appendix III: Additional Practical Projects 261
........................................................................
Appendix IV: The Ladyo fL arkspur Lotion.................................................. 275
......................
d i
Appendix V: Bo ystor es 280
....................
...............................................................................
AppendixVI: Questionnairefor Practitioners.................................................................... 283

Bibliography 285
.............................................................................................................................

7
List of Figures

Figure 1, PracticalProjects 22
.........................................................................................................
Figure 2, Chart from My System 45
................................................................................................ .
Figure 3, Mollie Bagot Stack in 'Seal' 45
......................................................................................... .
Figure 1, Mollie Bagot Stack in 'Legs in Air' 45
................................................................................
Figure 5, Chakras and Seals 47
......................................................................................................
Figure 6, Krishnamacharya in Trikonasana 52
................................................................................
Figure 2, B.K.S. lyengar in Trikonasana 52
.....................................................................................
Figure 3, detail from My System 53
.................................................................................................
Figure 4, Krishnamacharya in Parvritta Trikonasana 53
..................................................................
Figure 5, B.K.S. lyengar in Parvritta Trikonasana 53
.......................................................................
Figure 11, Sakuntala, 1960 93
.........................................................................................................
Figure 6, Cieslak in Headstand I 93
.................................................................................................
Figure 7, lyengar in Headstand I 93
................................................................................................
Figure 8, Cieslak in Headstand ll 93
...............................................................................................
Figure 9, lyengar in Headstand li 93
................................................................................................
Figure 10, Cieslak in ChatushPadasana 93
....................................................................................
Figure 11, lyengar in Chatush Padasana 93
....................................................................................
Figure 12, Cieslak in Dwi Pada Koundinyasana 94
.........................................................................
Figure 13, lyengar in Dwi Pada Koundinyasana 94
.........................................................................
Figure20, ParadiseNow, reproducedfrom Innes, 1993: 187 104
..................................................
Figure 21, Vrksasana 138
................................................................................................................
Figure 22, B. K.S. lyengar in Trikonasana, reproduced from lyengar, 1991: 42 144
.......................
Figure 23, Profile of Practical Projects 148
......................................................................................
Figure 24, B. K.S. lyengar in Trikonasana 153
.................................................................................
Figure 25, Mihra Mehta in Trikonasana 153
....................................................................................
Figure26, lyengar in Uttanasana 158
..............................................................................................
Figure27, lyengar in Virabhadrasanall 158
....................................................................................
Figure 28, Thor in Parvatasana 159
.................................................................................................
Figure29, Kyoung-heein Tadasana 170
.........................................................................................
Figure 30, Thor in Vrksasana 175
....................................................................................................
Figure31, Kyoung-heein Paschimotanasanawith the head supported 178
..................................
Figure32, The Writer's Room 179
...................................................................................................
Figure 33, Applications of lyengar Yoga in Practical Project I 187
..................................................

8
Figure 34, Victoria in Adho Mukha Svanasana 197
.........................................................................
Figure 35, Table of Variations of the Image Schemata 197
.............................................................
Figure 36, Pung in Uttanasana 200
................ ...............................................
Figure 37, The Active Framework 209
.............................................................................................
Figure 38, The Passive Framework 209
..........................................................................................
Figure 39, Self-ish 220
.....................................................................................................................

9
Acknowledgements

Although this PhD project has produced a single authored thesis, it is the result of the

contribution of a number of people. I would like to thank IKY (the Institute of State Scholarships
in Greece), who provided me with the necessary financial support that made this thesis viable. I

also owe a big thank you to my supervisor, Dr Rebecca Loukes, for her untiring intellectual and

emotional support and generosity. My substitute supervisors, Professor Phillip Zarrilli and
Professor Graham Ley, have also been instrumental in enabling me to develop parts of this

research project. I would like to thank them for their insight and help. I would also like to thank
Dorinda Hulton and Peter Hulton, who have been incredibly generous, helpful and supportive

throughout my endeavor. In addition, I am grateful to all the students who participated in my

projects and/or allowed me to share their work. Lindsay Gear, Thor Aagaard, Liz Pennington,
Kyoung-hee An, Victoria Papamichail, Ying-Ni Ma, Ha-Tzu Yun, Hui Chen-Yun (Pung), Simsim

Lai, Bobo Fung, and Kelly Miller: thank you for your time, energy and commitment to the

research. Many thanks are also due to the technical support team of the drama department at
Exeter University, Jon Primrose, Andy Yarwood, and Chris Mearing, who assisted me with the

technical details of the projects. Additionally, I would like to thank the theatre practitioners and

scholars who took part in the interviews and/or responded to the email I posted to SCUDD.
Alongside the academic community, I would like to thank my yoga teachers, Silvia Prescott and

Penny Chaplin, for their patience and generosity. Finally, I should say a big thank you to Helena

Trippe for proofreading this thesis, Olga Kyrmou for her friendship and final-cut wizardry,

Yiannis Paikos for his untiring efforts to format this thesis, my parents and grandparents for their

love and understanding, and Francesco Coghetto for his love and home cooking.

10
 Part I

Introduction

Research Topic and Research Questions

I first encountered yoga in 1998 as a drama student in the theatre department of Aristotle

University, Greece and since 2003 I have been practising Iyengar Yoga in the UK. In 2007

qualified as a teacher of lyengar Yoga. As my engagement with the discipline became more
frequent and consistent, I found that my work as a performer began to be gradually informed by

the embodied knowledge and insights gained through my yoga practice. My movement acquired

a better flow, I was more aware of the surrounding space and my confidence in my body and its

abilities increased. Alongside personal observations, I also noticed that the practice of yoga

postures would often feature in theatre related activities, such as auditions, rehearsals and

workshops, mainly in the form of a warm-up or cool-down routine of a whole group or individual

performers. In such a manner, I developed an interest in the discipline not only as a

psychophysical activity in its own right but also as a possible constituent of the performer's

training and creative process. How can the practice of yoga be employed in order to develop the

actor's resources and inform his/her work in training and performance? The above question
became more detailed and led to subsequent questions that this thesis attempts to address.

Although these questions underpin the overall thesis, below I also indicate the chapter where

they are primarily addressed.

" What is yoga and what are the social developmentsand historical contingenciesthat
underliethe practiceof the disciplinetoday? (Chapter 1)

" How have these contingencies affected the use of the discipline in theatre and the way

yoga is viewed and approached by theatre scholars? (Chapter 2)

" How has yoga been used by key theatre practitioners, such as Stanislavsky, Grotowski,
Richard Schechner, and Dorinda Hulton? (Chapter 2)

" How can knowledge gained from an examination of the aforementionedartists inform

my own attemptto employthe disciplinein a theatricalcontext?(Chapter3,4,5)

" How does yoga 'work' (Introductionto PracticalProjects)and which aspectsof yoga are
useful in training and rehearsal?(Chapter3,4,5)

" How can the practice of yoga be incorporated in a training/rehearsal session? (Chapter

3,4,5 and Conclusion)

11
 " How can I develop activities that combine the practice of the discipline with specific pre-
performative and performative aims? Specifically:

o How can the practice of yoga facilitate the actor's process in embodying a
characterin naturalisticdramaturgy?(Chapter3)

o How can the practice of yoga develop the actor's movement skills, use of
imagination,and performativerelationshipto fellow actors? (Chapter4)

o How can the practice of yoga facilitate the actor in generating autobiographical

material for performance and perform this material? (Chapter 5)

As the aforementioned questions make clear, this thesis aspires not only to use yoga in training

but also to create forms of application whereby the practice of yoga becomes an integral part of

the actor's process. Of course, it can be argued that any exercise, principle or method used in

training has an effect on the actor's overall engagement, and, as such, is integral to the actor's

process. Nevertheless, there are different ways in which a discipline can be employed in a
training and/or rehearsal situation and different degrees according to which it can be

assimilated. For example, in an interview I conducted with Richard Schechner, he maintained

that yoga can be beneficial for actors, because, in his opinion, North American thespians are

often ungrounded and find it difficult to concentrate (2008). Stanislavsky also used yoga in order

to address the actor's ability to concentrate, but, quite significantly and unlike Schechner, his

understanding of what concentration is and how it can be attained was heavily based on yoga.
As a result, Stanislavsky did not simply use concepts and exercises from yoga in order to

enable the actor to concentrate, but he developed concentration exercises, like the infamous

'getting into the circle', which used elements of yoga towards addressing specific aspects of the

performer's craft. In such a manner, in Stanislavsky's case, elements of yoga became

intertwined with the training, whereas in Schechner's work the practice of yoga remained a

separate, warm-up activity that could take place before the training/rehearsal and independent

of its content. In this respect, the aims of this thesis are closer to the way Stanislavsky

approached the discipline, because this PhD project experiments with new ways in which the

practice of yoga can extend beyond its use as a warm up and address particular pre-

performative demands as well as specific aspects of different dramaturgies and performance

genres. The aforementioned aims and questions are addressed through practical studio-based

exploration as well as scholarly research of the available bibliography. I will begin with an

overview of the bibliographical material and will then expose the basic elements of the practical

exploration.

12
 An Overview of the Bibliography

The bibliographical research has been based on primary and secondary sources, as well as

interviews and email correspondence I have conducted with several theatre practitioners. I also

consider my participation in workshops and/or training sessions led by actor trainers whose

work is relevant to my subject to be part of the bibliography. The title that is most closely related

to this PhD project is a doctoral thesis by Robert Aronson entitled Yoga and Actor Training

(1999). As the title suggests, Aronson's study focuses on the use of yoga in actor training, and

derives from an acknowledgment that 'despite the current prevalent presence of yoga in actor

training programs [sic], no documented study exists which examines this phenomenon' (1999:

3). In view of the above, Aronson contacted, interviewed and observed the sessions of twelve

actor trainers based in different university departments across the US. His study thus highlights
important aspects of the use of the discipline, such as different formats according to which yoga

is incorporated in actor training courses, the aspects of the discipline that are being used, the

aims of the actor trainers, and the observations/conclusions they have reached after employing

the discipline for a considerable amount of time. Based on these interviews, Aronson claims that

'the potential benefits of yoga for actors include concentration, breath cultivation, in-the-moment

awareness, dynamic stillness, stillness in the moment, relaxation, relaxed readiness, body-

awareness, postural alignment, balancing, centering, strength, flexibility, endurance, health,

energy, emotional balance, ego-abandonment, access to potential and openness to the

possibilities of self-transformation' (1999: 137).

Despite its contribution to the study of the use of yoga in a training environment, Aronson's

thesis often betrays an advisory character and lacks a more critical engagement. This becomes

particularly apparent in his final chapter, which lists a number of 'guiding principles and practical
information for the incorporation of yoga into actor training' (ibid.). For example, Aronson

concludes his thesis by counselling actor trainers to 'teach basic asanas [yoga positions] that

everybody can do' (ibid.: 147), observing that 'the ideal floor for asana practice is a clean floor'

(ibid.: 155), and noting that 'sweatshirts are useful in a cool room' (ibid.: 157). In addition to the

above, Aronson's examination, having predated an important strand of scholarship on yoga,

does not take into account significant historical findings and critical arguments that have been

produced in the last decade. As such, his discussion, which explicitly deals with the practice of

yoga postures only, does not historicize such a practice and subsequently fails to acknowledge

the influence that the'historical and social dimension of yoga may have on the way it is being

used in theatre.

13
In addition to Aronson's thesis, theatre practitioner and actor trainer Phillip Zarrilli has recently

produced a volume documenting and discussing the actor training programme he has
developed, which incorporates the practice of yoga, Tai-Chi and South Indian martial art,

Kalarippayattu. In Psychophysical Acting (2009) Zarrilli offers a comprehensive account and an

in-depth analysis of the training through a phenomenological lens, as well as a discussion of

case studies in which the training has been utilized in relation to specific dramaturgies.
However, based on my experience in participating in Zarrilli's sessions on several occasions, I

would support that, although yoga is an integral part of the training, the focus is predominantly

on the martial arts. ' As a result, in his discussion of the way the training has informed his work

as a trainer, director and performer, Zarrilli primarily refers to certain aspects of tai-chi and
kalarippayattu. For instance, in relation to his performance in Beckett's Act Without Words 1,

Zarrilli talks about an 'impulse [that] arises from lower dantien' before being 'flung' on stage

(2009: 130). Similarly, when he discusses his task of being off stage and rocking the woman's

chair in Rockaby, he describes his position as 'basically the lion stance' i.e. a step in
kalarippayattu (ibid.: 129).

An additional volume that deals with the practice of yoga in theatre is Sreenath Nair's

Restoration of Breath (2007). Nair is exclusively concerned with the 'dynamics of breath within

the context of theatre' (2007: 7), and his study examines the notion of breath in the work of

various philosophers and theatre practitioners. It also pays attention to the concept of breath in

pre- modern texts on yoga and he further examines the 'Restoration of Breath' technique within

the South Indian tradition of Siddha Yoga. Nair argues the importance of the function of breath

in performance and he highlights the way in which prominent theatre practitioners approached

breathing and incorporated breathing practices in their work (2007: 135-49). He further

contends that Stanislavsky's and Grotowski's approach towards the breath was heavily
influenced by their contact with yoga (2007: 138-40), but he does not examine any further the

sources and/or nature of such a contact. Equally, Nair does not explore the practice of breathing
in contemporary yoga practices and his references to yoga predominantly derive from pre-

modern literature on the subject (2007,69-115). 2 Finally, although Nair provides an extensive

My account of the role of yoga in Zarrilli's work is based on my participation in his training on several
occasions (one week in 2001,2002,2004 respectively and three months in 2007).
2 It bears noting that in his discussion on the concept of breath In yoga Nair quotes Iyengar as well as Yogi
Ramacharaka (2007: 79). The citations are part of a wider section that also refers to the conceptualization
of breath in pre-modern yoga texts. Nair comments on neither the choice nor the chronological, and in
Ramacharaka's case geographical, diversity of his sources. As I will discuss in the second chapter, Yogi
Ramacharaka comprises a controversial figure in the yogic pantheon and Nair's treatment of
Ramacharaka as an authority on yoga is, indeed, quite interesting.

14
 exposition of the 'restoration of breath' exercise and argues the potential of the technique to
develop altered states of mind (ibid.: 188-9), he does not examine the practical application of

such a technique in an actor training context. In conclusion, Nair's study points at an additional

aspect of yoga practice that could potentially inform the contemporary actor, but does not

address the logistics of such an application. More importantly, although his interest in yoga is

related to a specific South Indian tradition, he does not position yoga within a historical
framework.

Apart from the aforementioned studies, the use of yoga in Western theatre is evident in

scattered references in the work of a number of theatre practitioners. The earliest of these

references can be found in Stanislavsky's writings, continuing with Grotowski's remarks, and
Richard Schechner's sparse information on the way he used yoga with The Performance

Group. The use of yoga by the aforementioned theatre artists has attracted the interest of

scholars/practitioners, such as Sharon Marie Carnicke and Eugenio Barba, and has led to the

publication of additional material. Carnicke, for example, in Stanislavsky in Focus (2009)

dedicates a whole chapter to the way Stanislavsky employed the discipline. Similarly, Stephen

Wangh's An Acrobat of the Heart (2000) is explicitly placed within Grotowski's legacy and offers

instructions for and illustrations of the yoga and yoga based exercises that Grotowski and his

actors used and developed (2000: 43-74). The focus of these publications, however, is on the

work of specific theatre practitioners rather than the presence of yoga in a theatrical context. As

a result, although these volumes offer important information on the way individual artists used

the discipline, they do not provide an overall and/or detailed account of the employment of yoga

in theatre. The work of these practitioners as well as the publications that deal with the way they

used yoga are examined in the second chapter of this thesis.

Apart from the aforementioned bibliographical material, I have not found another volume dealing

exclusively with yoga and/or discussing the use of the discipline in theatre. However, it should
be noted that the subject of this thesis bears similarities with a number of approaches that seek

to develop psychophysical methods of acting and actor-training. Volumes like Dymphna

Callery's Through the Body (2001), Lorna Marshall's The Body Speaks (2002), and David

Zinder's Body Voice imagination (2002) belong to a rich field of actor training/performance

practice and scholarly research that aim to cultivate the actor's bodymind and advocate the

actor's physical engagement in the creative process. It should be also noted, that apart from the

available bibliography I have had the opportunity to personally experience the work of some of
the aforementioned actor trainers and their approach has significantly influenced this thesis. In

15
chapter 3 and 4, for example, I refer to exercises I learned in workshops with Lorna Marshall as

well as David Zinder, and used in the first and second practical project respectively. Equally, I
discuss some of the exercises I devised myself in relation to the work of prominent actor

trainers. In the introduction to the practical projects, for instance I present the 'association

exercise' in relation to Richard Schechner's and Jerzy Grotowski's use of associations.

Similarly, in the third chapter I examine one of the exercises I developed for the first practical

project in relation to Michael Chekhov's activity on Psychological Gesture.

Nevertheless, it has to be stressed that, although books on psychophysical actor training

comprise the very field in which this thesis is situated, references to yoga in such books are

minimal or completely absent. It is also worth noting that references to yoga are often

accompanied by the assumption that yoga is an Eastern discipline that has been imported to
Western studios. Mark Evans, for example, in a newly published volume on movement training

for actors, regards yoga as 'perhaps the best known form of movement practice from the East'

(2009: 76). In other cases the use of yoga towards training purposes is viewed with suspicion

on the grounds that yoga induces an introverted mode of attention (for example Callery, 2001

and Benedetti, 1972). As a result, although this thesis has significant affinities to the studies

mentioned above, it also aims to question the way yoga has been approached and viewed

within the field of actor training, as well as the assumptions that often accompany its use. In

order to achieve such a purpose, I also engage with the available bibliographical sources on

yoga. These sources, of course, do not discuss the application of the discipline in a theatrical

context. Nonetheless, I regard them as integral to this thesis, not only because they place yoga

and its various applications within a historical, geographical and social context, but also

because they highlight the ideologies that underpin yoga practices.

Indeed,the examinationof yoga as a separate subject of enquiry has produced a bibliography,

which apart from an impressivesize, features a number of languages,spans many centuries,

and boasts the contribution of scholars, practitioners, scientists, and religious pundits.
Furthermore,although scholarly interest in yoga used to derive from the fields of religion,
Sanskrit,and Orientalstudies, in the last twenty years yoga has begun to attract the attentionof
historians, anthropologists,ethnographersand-sociologists.The extent of the interest is such

that historianElizabethDe Micheliscontendsthat 'modern yoga study' marks the emergenceof

'an academic discipline' (2007: 8). In an attempt to map the bibliographicalterrain, I have

classifiedthe respectivebibliographyin five categories,which not only provide a brief overview

of the availablesources, but mirror the route that yoga itself has taken through space and time.

16
 Nevertheless, it would be wrong to treat these categories as a reflection of the actual field. Even

if books on yoga can be accurately classified, the developments in the discipline demonstrate

such a degree of cross-fertilization, that any classification can only serve heuristic purposes. It

would be equally erroneous to assume that books on yoga simply expose or describe their

subject. In fact, as anthropologist Joseph Alter argues, the production of such a vast volume of

books 'must be understood as having made yoga what it is, rather than as having simply

revealed yogic truth as a predefined entity' (2005: 5). Indeed, the sizeable and diverse
bibliography as well as recent studies on the subject point more towards an approach that views

yoga as a kind of a chameleon, that reflects and becomes transformed according to the

meanings and the agendas carried by the people who teach and write about it, as well as the

socio-cultural environment in which they belong.

In the first category of the available bibliography I have placed a large number of works, the

study of which is regarded in itself part of yoga practice. These volumes are located within the
frameworks of various Asian and South Asian religions, such as orthodox Hinduism, Buddhism,

Jainism, and Tantra. In relation to Hinduism the main texts that outline yoga are the Vedas, a

number of the Upanishads, the epic Mahabharata, and the medieval texts on Hatha Yoga. 3 The

study of these texts, as well as their commentaries and translations, placed yoga within a

religious and philosophical context which was complemented by ongoing oral and thus more
fluid transmission of knowledge. In the second category are more recent publications, dating

from the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth century. The British presence in India as well as

the emergence of Oriental studies has produced a considerable amount of Western publications

on yoga, which examined the discipline from a philosophical perspective marked, more often

than not, by strong orientalist undertones. From the nineteenth century onwards, there is also a

growing number of anglophone Indian publications. Contrary to their orientalist counterparts,

these books, guides, pamphlets and photographic reproductions approached yoga as a form of

practice and sought to render it accessible and available to Indian nationals. Based on the
distinct character of these books as well as their obvious divorce from previous elaborations on

yoga I place them in a separate, third category. In the third category, I also position the second

generation of these books which address a wider, and this time, Western public, and are

3 As noted by Anne Hunt Overzee, the Vedas (literally meaning knowledge) date
religious studies scholar,
from the 1500 to 900 BCE and they 'represent the common word (vac) given by the divinely seers' (1992:
31). The Upanisads form a'loose-knit body of spiritual teachings handed down through generations as one
of the most revered sources of the Indian religious thought' (ibid.: 38). The Mahabharata, finally, literally
meaning the great race or great nation, forms a collection of stories that have been grouped together,
possibly by Vyasa. In relation to yoga, the Bhagavad Gita, translating as the song of God, was arguably
written in the 5"' century BCE and 'epitomizes a devotional approach to the divine' (ibid.: 41).

17
composed by Indian as well as non Indian authors (mainly British and North American). As the

aim of these publications is to teach or at least initiate the layman into the practice of yoga their

usual layout consists of an elaborate exposition of yogic practices, mainly yoga postures and
breathing exercises, with a brief introduction into basic -and as we will see later 'polyvalent' and

'unfocused' (De Michelis, 2007: 6)- yogic concepts. These publications often attempt to create a

sense of continuity with the books found in the first category, but in fact owe more, both in terms

of theory as well as practice, to their turn-of-the-century predecessors. The number and

diversity of these books also reflects the proliferation of different schools and kinds of yoga.

However, although these volumes often elaborate -or claim to elaborate- different forms of yoga

practice, they clearly share the same historical and ideological formulations. The practical,
health-related orientation that characterizes modern yoga has also given rise to a growing

number of scientific publications which examine the practice of yoga from a biomedical

perspective and in particular relation to specific health conditions (De Michelis, 2007: 11-15).
Because of the proliferation of these publications as well as their distinct standpoint I place them

in a separate, fourth category. The fifth group of my classification includes the books which

examine the works found in the first, second and third category and I divide them into two sub-

groups: a. current scholarship that continues with the production of commentary on and

translation of pre-modern texts, b. current scholarship that reflects on yoga as a phenomenon of

the modern world. Scholarship on modern yoga could, therefore, be regarded as secondary

literature when it discusses previous books on yoga, and primary literature when it examines

yoga in its modern manifestation and/or through the lens of modern theories. As this thesis

seeks to use a contemporary form of yoga practice in a theatrical context, it primarily draws from

the studies that investigate the practice of yoga as a modern phenomenon, and thus engages

with this final category. As a result, an examination of the books that I classified in the other

categories will be most of the time approached through secondary sources only. The available
bibliography on yoga could thus be summarized in the following way:

" Philosophicaland/or religious treatises that belong to Asian and South Asian religious
traditions,and place yoga within larger devotionaland/or philosophicalframeworks.

" Publications on yoga from the eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth century,
includingstudies of yoga within the orientalisttradition.

" Twentieth-and-twenty-first-century
written and photographicmaterial on yoga postures
distributed among and addressed to Indian nationals, as well as anglophone
publicationson yoga, which target an anglophoneand mainlyWesternaudience.

18
 " Twentieth-and-twenty-first-century medical studies which examine the health effects of
yoga practices.

" Recent scholarlyvolumes on yoga includinga. commentarieson and translationof pre-

moderntexts as well as b. studieson the practiceof yoga as a modernphenomenon.

In addition to the above sources, this PhD project has affinities with studies that explore the use

of other non theatrical disciplines in a theatrical context. Although these studies focus on
disciplines other than yoga, they have implicitly informed this thesis, since they allowed me to

view different kinds and formats of application. In particular, the PhD thesis of Jeungsook Yoo
(2008), which explores the use of a Korean form of meditation in acting and actor training, gave

me an insight into the logistics of practice-based research, such as the planning of studio-based

projects, the choice of participants, and the documentation of the exploration. Similarly, a paper
by Libby Worth on the practice of Feldenkrais method in creative writing (2009) alerted me to

the different aspects of performance that can be addressed by a movement discipline.

Finally, this thesis has drawn from recent publications on the deployment of artistic practice as a

form of academic research. Although the spectrum of the aforementioned field of inquiry is quite

wide and includes a number of disciplines apart from theatre, there are a number of

transdisciplinary issues that pertain to practice-based research projects regardless of the art

form in which they belong. John Freeman's book Blood Sweat and Theory (2010), as well as

edited publications such as Mapping Landscapes for Performance as Research (2009) by

Shannon Rose Riley and Lynette Hunter, and Practice-as-Research in Performance and Screen

(2009) by Ludivine Allegue et al have alerted me to the relationship between the artistic product

of a thesis and its written component; ways of documenting the research process; issues on the

I originality of the final outcome and in what the final outcome can consist of; and the double role

of the PhD candidate as both a researcher and a practitioner, i. e. both within and outside the

research process. These publications were not available at the beginning of this PhD project,

and as such they did not inform the planning and designing of the practical component.
Nevertheless, they enabled me to reflect on specific aspects of this thesis and view it as part of

a wider mode of inquiry.

An Overview of the Practical Research

The studio exploration consists of three practical projects which have been designed,planned

and delivered, in order to address specific questions related to performative and pre-
performative issues. All three projects have followed a similar process, according to which I

19
trained a number of actors/students of the drama department of Exeter University in yoga and

then I applied this training in predetermined aspects of training and performance. The

participants of the project had not been familiar with the kind of yoga I used in the projects, but
had significant experience in psychophysically based forms of training. More specifically, all but

one had attended Phillip Zarrilli's actor training programme at the University of Exeter and some
had participated in workshops with David Zinder at the same university. As a result, they

already had an interest in and appreciation of psychophysical actor training methods as well as

an ability to work with different movement disciplines in a committed and concentrated manner.
Apart from the first practical project which featured the performance of a naturalistic text, and

hence entailed gender-specific casting, the choice of the participants has not been conditioned

by questions of age, gender, previous experience in yoga, or artistic expertise. It has rather

been determined by the ability of the participants to commit to projects that made considerable

demands on their time and energy and their willingness to engage with a particular form of yoga

practice. All three projects culminated in a presentation and two of the projects also featured a

short performance. In all three projects the entire process has been documented by logbooks

and video recordings. My role_in all three projects has been that of yoga trainer and project
leader. In the two projects that featured a performance I also undertook the role of the director.

Finally, all three projects featured the practice of the same style of yoga, i.e. Iyengar Yoga.

My choice to use lyengar Yoga in the practical exploration has been determined by two factors.

The first reason is that my own yoga practice and professional training is embedded in this

method, whereas my experience of other yoga approaches has been marginal and certainly not

extensive enough to inform my teaching. The second reason derives from my wish to employ

the particular pedagogy of lyengar Yoga in a theatrical context. More specifically, my hypothesis

is that lyengar Yoga, because of its strong emphasis on the practice of the asanas (yoga

postures), offers both a distinct physical vocabulary as well as a sophisticated pedagogical

approach that can be of particular use to the actor and the actor trainer. lyengar Yoga features

clear 'right' and 'wrong' movements, which, however, do not depend on a preconceived

aesthetic model, as for example certain dance techniques, but are based on and seek to

promote optimal skeleton-muscular and physiological function. As a result, it can cultivate the

actor's physicality in a safe and consistent way. Moreover, my assumption is that an

engagement with muscles and joints can offer tangible points of entry for the development of

the less tangible aspects of training and performing, and as such it can develop a

psychophysical approach to acting that is rooted and can be accessed through one's flesh and
bones. My initial hypothesis, therefore, is that lyengar Yoga can offer a clear framework in

20
 which the performer can work through/in/with one's body and extend its possibilities. As a result,

the practical component of this thesis is distinctly rooted in the pedagogy of lyengar Yoga and

the principles that underlie it. The pedagogical principles of lyengar Yoga that are particularly

present in the practical component of this thesis are:

" Emphasison orthoperformancein the teachingof the yoga postures.

" Attention to the participants' level and physical abilities and/or limitations and a
respective modification of certain poses.

" An absence of experimentation with/application of pranayama techniques (breathing

exercises), since lyengar Yoga guidelines clearly specify that pranayama should be
practiced only after two years of asana practice.

" Use of props and equipments, peculiar to the style, such as belts, bolsters etc.

" Apart from the aforementioned elements, the practical projects have also been
significantly influenced by my own professional skills in transmitting this form of
practice, as well as my position within the distinct lineage of the lyengar tradition, which
I expose in more detail in the last section of Chapter 1.4

Apart from the three practical projects I have designed as part of this thesis, I have also been

involved in projects that have been conceived and delivered by fellow students at the Exeter

drama department. All projects were part of the Individual Practice component of the MFA

programme in Theatre Practice, and in most cases the students involved had already taken part

in the projects of this thesis. My role in the MFA projects has been quite varied, ranging from

being a 'yoga trainer' aiming to address the particular demands that the student/director placed

on the students/actors to being fully involved in the project and using yoga actively in the
devising and directing process. These projects have contributed greatly in developing aspects

of this PhD project or experimenting with new ones, but were not planned in advance and with

the aim to address specific questions posed by this thesis. As such, my involvement in these

projects would usually commence with a precursory briefing on the text and/or aspect of

performance being explored. It would then continue in the studio, where I would often start by

asking the respective colleague 'what do you want to do today', and trying to understand which

aspects of yoga they had identified as potentially useful to their project. For the aforementioned

reasons, this thesis will not examine these instances of exploration, although references to them

4I have been taught by direct

students of B.K.S. Iyengar which would render me a 'second generation'
practitioner within the overall lineage.

21
will be made. An outline and brief discussionof these projectscan be found in AppendixIll. The
table below (Figure 1) gives in a chronologicalorder a summary of all the projects that are

relevantto this thesis and the ones that have been designed specificallyfor its purposesare in
bold.

Projects Role Duration5 Yoga application

Use of viloma pranayama in

4: 48 Psychosis performer Ten weeks
relation to performing silence

yoga trainer Use of asanas to facilitate actor in

Medea facilitator Fifteenweeks embodyingcharacterof Greek
director tragedy

yoga trainer Use of asanas to facilitate actor in

The Lady of Larkspur
facilitator Sixteen Weeks embodying characters of
Lotion
director naturalistic dramaturgy

yoga trainer
Use of asanas to facilitate actor in
Red Sky facilitator Five weeks
embodyingage

yoga trainer The developmentof yoga based

Exercises and exercisesthat addressthe
Frameworks facilitator Fourteenweeks
performer's use of the body,
space and imagination.

yoga trainer Use of asanasto assist performer

Blood Mother facilitator Five weeks In creating the character and
devisor composingphysicalscore.

Use of the exercisesthat

yoga trainer
developedin Exercisesand
facilitator Frameworks for the generation of
BodyStories twelve weeks
devisor autobiographical material and the
director crafting of such material into
performance.

Figure 14, Practical Projects

Limitations of Thesis

This PhD project does not aim to offer a complete historiographical account of the way yoga has

been used in Western theatre, although the work of a number of theatre practitioners will

occupy a considerable part of this thesis and indeed it will be presented in chronological order.
The examination of their work aims to highlight the different ways in which yoga has been so far

5 The duration
refers to the length of time I was involved in each project and not to each project's overall
length. Of course in the projects that I was fully involved the two durations overlap.

22
 approached and utilized, rather than exhaust all the instances in which yoga has been used. As

such, the work of Michael Chekhov and Jacques Copeau comprise perhaps important cases of

the use of yoga in theatre which, however, will not be discussed. In the first case the influence

of yoga has been deemed too oblique, in order to lead to any conclusive remarks In the
.6
second case, a considerable amount of sources was in French and thus - to me- unavailable.
Neither will this thesis engage with a quantitative examination of the subject, as it does
not aim
to create a cartography of the theatre practitioners and companies that are currently using the

discipline. 7 Had such an examination existed, it would have been a great assistance to this one,

since a quantitative account of the use of the discipline would automatically provide a rationale
for this thesis. As a result, this PhD project is conditioned by the absence of quantitative and

qualitative data on the use of yoga in theatre. Although in the field of modern yoga there are

studies that examine the practice of specific kinds of yoga by specific population groups at

specific times (for example, Strauss, 2005 and Newcombe, 2007), I did not find any equivalent

studies that document the use of yoga in theatre. It is thus not known how many actors,
directors or theatre companies use yoga, which aspects of the discipline they employ and to

what extent. Equally, it has not been identified whether yoga appeals to theatre practitioners of

particular genres, and, if this is the case, which kinds of performers and theatre makers tend to
be attracted to the discipline. Qualitative data is also missing and as such the reasons and

expectations that fuel the interest of theatre practitioners in yoga remain unaccounted.

Published material on -usually celebrity status- actors who practice yoga go some way to

explaining the reasons for yoga's popularity with performers! However, such accounts also
highlight a fine line between those who resort to the discipline and practice it as part of a life-

enhancing agenda and those who employ it as part of their artistic activity. Such a line may not

always be easy to discern, but it marks an important difference between the practice of yoga for

personal and professional gains and the use of the discipline towards specific aspects of theatre

and performance. As I have already mentioned, this thesis aims to develop an application of the

6 In an article on the concept 'irradiation'in Chekhov's

of and Stanislavsky'swork, Andrew White states
that Chekhov used yoga (2009: 25). However,he does not cite any other sources that support such a
claim.
In order to gain a general picture of the extent to which yoga is currently used I posted an email to
SCUDD (Standing Conference of University Drama Departments)in 2008. I received emails from four
lecturers of UK HE institutionswho confirmedthat they are using yoga either in their work with students
and/or their own theatricalpractice.I also receivedeight emailsfrom theatrepractitionerswho attestedthat
they either worked with a theatre director who used yoga or are using yoga themselves.Attempts to
directly contact certain practitioners, such as Melly Still and Nancy Meckler, who allegedly use the
discipline,have not been met with success.
8 Professionalfilm
and theatre actors Roger Lloyd- Park and Julian Sands, for example,offer a personal
accountof their experienceof practicinglyengarYoga, see Busia,2007.

23
discipline that it is inextricably connected with the actor's overall process. Due to this premise,

this PhD project will not engage with certain topics, which although worth pursuing in their own

right, do not comply with such a premise. Questions around the use of yoga as a warm-up or

cool-down activity, as a restorative technique to cope with the demands of gruelling touring and

rehearsal schedules, and as a remedial practice to deal with profession related injuries and

strains will not preoccupy this thesis, since such questions cast yoga as an external activity to

performing, which actors, like any other professionals, may chose to employ independently of

their artistic pursuits. Furthermore, my impression is that the aforementioned questions belong

to the domain of yoga research rather than the domain of theatre/performance research and

could be seen as part of the numerous applications that have already resulted out of yoga

practices, as for example yoga for children and yoga for pregnancy.

Outline of Thesis and Notes on Terminology

The content of this thesis is divided in two parts, with the first part including chapters 1 and 2,

and the second part including chapters 3,4 and 5. The first chapter presents the basic tenets of

yoga philosophy, offers a historical account of the practice, and situates the development of
Iyengar Yoga as well as my own engagement with this particular school. The second chapter

examines the use of yoga by Stanislavsky, Grotowski, The Living Theatre, Richard Schechner,
The Open Theatre, and Dorinda Hulton. The chapter explores the way the aforementioned

practitioners have used yoga, discusses previous scholarly works on the subject, and provides

new information based on interviews.

The second part of the thesis deals with the practical exploration and begins with a second

introduction which examines the practice of yoga from a phenomenological and sociological

lens, presents two theories that have informed the practical projects, and outlines the manner in

which yoga has been taught to the participants. Each subsequent chapter of the second part
deals with a practical project. As such, the third chapter examines the first practical project and

discusses the use of yoga and the embodiment of character in a naturalistic dramaturgy; the

fourth chapter presents the second practical project and examines the process of using yoga in

a workshop environment and the devising of certain yoga-based exercises; the fifth chapter
deals with the third practical project and discusses the use of yoga in the generation of

autobiographical material for performance and the creation of a devised piece of theatre.

Based on the twofold arrangement of the thesis, the first part could be described as the
'historical' component of the research, and the second part could be called the 'practical'.

24
Although each part is distinct and separate from the other, there has been an ongoing

interaction between the two. The historical and ideological premises that underpin contemporary

yoga practices have informed the way I employed the discipline in the practical projects,

whereas my attempt to apply the discipline in a practical manner has affected my understanding

of accounts on the use of the discipline. It also bears mentioning that, although the overall

exploration had to be articulated and presented in a clear and comprehensive manner, the

organization of the material and the linear narrative of this thesis do not reflect the circularity

which underpins much of the current exploration. In this respect, certain arguments that are

presented, for example, in the first chapter may have, in fact, crystallised through engagement

with ideas that feature in subsequent chapters. Equally, exercises and concepts that appear at

the centre of one practical project may also quietly underscore the others.

Finally, it should be noted that apart from the section that deals with the philosophy of the

discipline, the term 'yoga' denotes the practice of yoga positions only. Equally, in the second

part I often use 'yoga' and 'Iyengar Yoga' interchangeably. This is because I consider certain

characteristics to be present in lyengar Yoga as well as other styles and in these cases I use
the more generic term. Lastly, all italised words in quotations derive from the original text,

unless otherwise specified.

25
Chapter I: What is Yoga?

Introduction

My attempt to use the practice of yoga in performance presupposes an understanding of what

yoga is. This chapter addresses this question from a historical perspective and discusses the

major developments that the discipline has undergone in the last one hundred years. I will first

point out the differences between modern and pre-modern forms of yoga, I will then expose the
basic tenets of classical yoga (or what came to be regarded as classical) and the developments

that gave rise to what is termed by various scholars 'anglophone, transnational' and/or 'modern

yoga'. Based on this exposition I will then discuss the lyengar school, and I will finally offer a
brief account of my personal encounter with the discipline. I consider an account of my own

experience to be part of the 'bibliography', as it will aim to place me within the field and
demonstrate the way the ideological and historical layers that have been exposed by various

scholars shape current practices. In such a manner, I wish to give an overview of the style of

yoga I employed in the practical projects, and paint the background against which I will examine
the use of yoga by theatre practitioners in the next chapter.

Modern and Pre-modern Forms of yoga

As I have mentioned in the introduction, the subject of yoga features a vast literature, which I

have organized in five categories (see Introduction, Overview of Bibliography). This thesis

draws particularly from recent publications, which examine the practice of yoga as a modern

phenomenon. This category of yoga literature unequivocally identifies a clear line of

demarcation between the yoga that is presently practised and disseminated in urban, modern

societies and its pre-modern forerunners. Furthermore, a number of scholars also draw

attention to the fact that even in its pre-modern formulations yoga does not present a unified

entity (De Michelis, 2008: 17; Singleton, 2008: 78; Liberman, 2008: 100). As a result, one can

neither presuppose a single yoga tradition nor use such a tradition as a marker for the

authenticity and quality of current practices (although, as I will discuss later, this is often the

case). Based on these developments, historian Mark Singleton proposes 'to speak of multiple
"yogas" than to imply one stable, cohesive identity' (2007: i). He furthermore points at two

inescapable considerations: 'how much can an ideology or practice be transformed and added

to before it itself becomes a new distinct tradition' and 'is everything that cares to call itself

"yoga" in fact yoga'? (ibid). The above suggestions do not only imply the influence of a number

of ideologies and practices, but pose the inevitable question of what yoga is, and who can lay

claims to a definite answer.

26
 An attempt to give a comprehensive account of the different yogas is mounted by historian

Elizabeth De Michelis who offers the following model. De Michelis lays aside the differences

that pertain to pre-modern forms and concentrates on their common 'conceptual foundations'

(2008: 18). She thus identifies 'four cornerstones' on which the 'building' of yoga rests. The first

three notions are clearly exposed in the Bhagavad Gita, a part of the epic Mahabharata, and

include:

" karmayoga, i.e. the yoga of action, most often related to ritual;

" jnanayoga, i.e. the yoga of (metaphysical) knowledge;

" bhaktiyoga,i.e. the yoga of religiouspiety (ibid.).

Tantric practices are considered by De Michelis to be the fourth cornerstone, and involve 'forms

of yoga [that] aim at bringing the assimilation of practitioner and what we may call metaphysical

entities: deities, cosmic powers, perfected transcendent qualities, and the like' (ibid.).
Furthermore, De Michelis mentions the presence of a 'common substratum' that forms the

ideological basis of 'all pre-modern styles of yoga and meditative practices' (2008: 19). This

underlying layer comprises of the interlinked notions of karma-samsara-moksa, which adheres

that a person is subjected to continuous reincarnations (samsara) depending on the actions that

one has undertaken in previous lives (karma). Yoga is the discipline that allows one to break

away from this cycle and achieve liberation (moksa) (ibid.). Modern forms of yoga demonstrate

a variable degree of ideological and philosophical affiliation to the above concepts (according to

the predisposition of different schools and individuals), but 'were largely born of symbiotic

relations between Indian Nationalism, Western Occultism, neo-vedantic philosophy,

and.. .modern physical culture' (ibid.: 20). In addition to the above, De Michelis maps out three
key areas in which modern yoga practices diverge from their pre-modern precursors. The first

one is the 'privatization of religion', whereby one's religion is not any longer determined and

controlled 'by birth and by socio-institutional conventions', but rather becomes a matter of
individual choice (2008: 24). The second area of departure is the 'commodification of yoga'

(ibid.) and its makeover into what ethnographer Sarah Strauss calls a 'transnational cultural

product' (2005: 9). The third area is medicalization, which designates the health and well-being

agenda that defines current yoga practices (De Michelis, 2008: 25).

Based on the above developments, De Michelis (2004) calls current forms of the discipline
'Modern Yoga' (hereafter MY) and she further identifies the following typology: Modern

27
Psychosomatic Yoga, Modern Meditational Yoga, and Modern Postural Yoga (hereafter MPY).

She, nevertheless, hastens to stress that the term 'Modern Yoga' is 'technical' (2004: 2) and its

purpose heuristic, since it is employed in order to enable the examination of a field and not its

actual description. Indeed, these terms are not encountered in common parlance; contemporary

practitioners and teachers either refer to their practice as simply 'yoga' or specify it according to

the particular name of the school or style they attend, i.e. Bikram Yoga, Shadow Yoga, Power

Yoga and the like. Although the above schools are in fact manifestations of MY and 'practicing

yoga' is more than often equated with a session of MPY (De Michelis, 2004: 8), the term
'modern' is not being used by its practitioners in order to distinguish their practices from pre-

modern forms (in the way for example that 'modern dance' refers to a group of distinct styles

and techniques and is being used as such by dancers, teachers and the wider public).
Highlighting the provisional nature of these terms, Mark Singleton proposes the adjectives

'anglophone' and 'transnational', since they signify two of the most prominent characteristics of

the discipline, i.e. its development, practice and dissemination in English language and its non-

ethnic, globalized character. In order to uncover further the ideological currents that underlie MY

practices, I will next outline the historical developments that gave rise to recent forms. I will
begin with a detailed exposition of 'classical yoga', which is seen as a product of modern

ramifications (Singleton, 2008: 78), rather than a pre- existing authority. I will then continue with
the formation of MY, drawing primarily from the work of Elizabeth De Michelis and Mark

Singleton.

Classical Yoga and the Resurrection of Patanjali

The term 'classical yoga' refers to pre-modern forms of practice which are often considered to

form a single, unified tradition. In Western circles of MY, classical is usually identified with a

Sanskrit text, the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. The Sutras (sutra meaning thread, but often

translated as aphorism) consists of 195 verses, whose style is simple and distilled in a language

succinct and sometimes technical (Miller, 1998: 22). There is speculation regarding the date of

the text, but the predominant view holds the time of its composition to be around the third

century AD (ibid.: 6). The text is not regarded as the expression of a distinct yoga tradition, but
is thought to be a compilation of various traditions and ideas on yoga which were furthermore

coupled with the Samkhya philosophy. In an article titled 'Patanjali and Constructive
Orientalism' Mark Singleton voices the 'possibility that the text was neither authoritative for most

yoga systems nor a functional practice tradition as such' (2008: 83).

28
 The authority that the Yoga Sutras lacked in pre-modern systems of yoga was granted by

orientalist scholars and MY practitioners during the nineteenth and twentieth century. At the
heyday of oriental scholarship, the Yoga Sutras was translated by William Judge (1851-1896), a

co-founder of the Theosophical Society, and in the 1930s Mircea Eliade hailed the significance

of Patanjali's contribution. Eliade particularly observes that Patanjali transformed yoga from a

'mystical tradition' into a'system of philosophy', by compiling a'practical manual of very ancient

techniques' (1973: 8). Eliade's view comes into sharp contrast with Singleton's thesis, which

supports that, although Patanjali's text may be seen as a philosophical treatise, it 'was

assimilated... into an explicitly ideological project within nineteenth century colonialism' (ibid.:
93). In particular, Singleton identifies two reasons for the popularity that the Yoga Sutras

enjoyed from the turn of the nineteenth century onwards. The first reason is the desire of
'European Orientalists and anglisized Indian Pandits' to downplay and downgrade the practical

orientation that yoga was beginning to take (2008: 87). The term and concept of 'Classical' -let

us not forget that classical is after all a western category- 'was used as a foundation, alibi and

authority for those seeking to establish a clear identity, and a sense of dignity, for India's cultural

productions' (ibid.). The second reason identified by Singleton is the growing appetite of
Western nineteenth-century audiences for practices that could render spiritual attainment within

their reach (ibid.: 83). The programmatic character of the book as well as its newly acquired

classical pedigree chimed with Theosophical and New Thought proclamations, which greeted
India as the land of universal spirituality. As Singleton observes, the creation of a classical yoga

as well as the endorsement of the Yoga Sutras as its quintessential text has created 'a closed,

circular and self-authorizing system' (2008: 92), from which MY practices draw their validation.

Indeed, the text continues to enjoy a canonical status and quite possibly for the reasons

outlined by Singleton. Most MY gurus display their own translation of the Sutras and
furthermore use them as the philosophical base of their systems. On these grounds, I will

proceed with a brief exposition of the text, based on a recent translation by Sanskrit scholar
Barbara Stoler Miller, as well as the commentary of Mircea Elffade.

Patanjali's Text

The text is divided in four sections, which is probably a division that has been brought on by

later commentators (Miller, 1998: 111). The first part offers a definition of yoga as 'the cessation

of the turnings of thought [where] the spirit stands in its true identity as observer to the world'
(ibid: 18). The text continues by introducing the two basic ideas of yoga philosophy, namely the

cultivation of detachment and the dedication to Lord (Isvara) (ibid.). It is important here to clarify
how Patanjali presents 'Lord'. Instead of identifying 'Lord' with a deity from the Hinduist

29
pantheon, as is the case in Bhagavad Gita, where instruction on yoga comes from the

omnipotent god Krishna, Patanjali does not offer any details, allowing the image of god to

emerge from the general content of the text. In this way 'Lord' can be assumed to refer to any
deity of the Indian pantheon or -and this will be the option preferred by modern elaborations- an

'eternal, archetypal yogi, an object of concentration for the practitioner who seeks spiritual calm'

(ibid.: 11). Indeed, Eliade calls the notion of Isvara a'perfectly useless element' (1973: 74), and

hypothesizes that it acquired significance by later commentators. Patanjali's choice to introduce

Isvara in an otherwise atheistic system, Eliade argues, had to do with the fact that as the

collector and 'archivist' of yogic techniques, Patanjali 'could not neglect a whole series of

experiences that had been made possible by the single process on concentration on Isvara'
(1973: 75).

In the second part, Patanjali exposes the mechanics of his system, the practice of which will

allow the adept to reap the fruits of spiritual advancement. He firstly exposes the obstacles that

cause suffering and stand in the way of one's spiritual freedom, namely ignorance, egoism,

passion, hatred and attachment to life. The most important of all is the first one, because it is

through ignorance that the spirit is misidentified with the material world, leading to the

'egotistical belief of a unified self' (Miller, 1998: 19). This leads human nature to seek

permanence in an impermanent world and thus is subjected to suffering? Patanjali then

introduces the eight limbs of yoga (ashtanga yoga) which comprise the means by which

humans can be saved from this suffering;

" moral principles(yama),

" ethical observances(niyama),

" physicalpostures(asana),

" breath control (pranayama),

" withdrawalof the senses (pratyahara),

" concentration(dharana),

" meditation(dhyana),

" pure contemplation or eternal bliss (samadhi) (ibid. 52).

9 The notions ignorance

of and suff ering are central to Buddhist thought, where they appear accordingly as
dukha and nirodha. Miller argues that Patanjali was familiar with Buddhist Ideas and possibly incorporated
them into his system (1998: 9).

30
 The first two limbs, yama and niyama, consist of a further set of components; the yamas stand

for a set of universal ethical commands and include non-violence, truthfulness, non-stealing,

celibacy, and absence of greed, whereas the niyamas comprise the code of individual
behaviour and include bodily purification, contentment, austerity, study and dedication to the

Lord (Isvara) (ibid.: 52-54).

Patanjali mentions the asanas briefly and does not single them out or favour them in relation to

the other seven limbs. He defines them as 'steady' and 'easy', (2.46) 'realised by relaxing one's

effort' (2.47). Eliade argues that Patanjali opted for a short reference to the physical postures,
because they are meant to be taught by a guru and not learned through descriptions (1973: 53).

The aforementioned practices of asana and pranayama are followed by the fifth limb of yoga,

pratyahara. The latter teaches the adept how to become invulnerable to the exterior messages,
delivered by the senses, and the interior ones, generated by one's subconscious (ibid.: 69).

Sustained practice of the first five limbs of yoga will allow the practitioner to continue with the

final three.

The first four limbs constitute what Patanjali calls external practice, whereas the last three are

the internal aspects of yoga (samyana) and the subject of attention in the third section of the

Yoga Sutras (Miller, 1998: 61). The practice of concentration, meditation and pure

contemplation are so inextricably linked that the practitioner who attempts one of them 'could

easily slip into the other' (Eliade, 1973: 70). They allow the practitioner to transcend the state of
ignorance and 'discriminate between material nature and observing spirit' (Miller, 1998: 20).

Furthermore, the realization that the spirit is not of the material world, allows the adept to

transcend it and thus acquire supernatural powers, such as knowledge of past and future, ability

to become invisible, understanding of different languages, including those of animals and birds

(ibid.). Nevertheless, the goal of yoga practice is not the attainment of such powers per se, but

'to eliminate the control that material nature exerts over the human spirit' (ibid.: 1). Therefore,

Patanjali warns his readers that such powers are not the end of one's journey and their

mindless use could actually enslave even the most advanced practitioner (ibid.: 73).

The last part of the aphorismsdeals with the nature of spiritual liberation or the eighth limb of

ashtangayoga, samadhi. The notion of liberation is something that Patanjali has referred to in

other parts of the text and it is also connected to the system of Samkhya, which Patanjali

assumesis known by his reader (ibid.: 72). Although an expositionof Samkhyaphilosophy,and

to is
consequentlythe way spirit relates matter, not offered by Patanjali, I will briefly draw from

31
the explanations offered by Eliade and Miller, in order to shed light on the kind of freedom

Patanjali talks about. As explained by Miller, Samkhya is one of the six philosophical systems

(Darsana) of classical Hinduism, another one being yoga, and covers the theoretical analysis of

the cosmic evolution. 10Although it has its own textual tradition, yoga as exposed in Patanjali's

system is considered to be the practical complement to the theoretical cosmogony of Samkhya

(ibid.: 13)." In this sense, whereas Samkhya holds metaphysical knowledge as the only way to

salvation, yoga prescribes techniques of practice and meditation (Eliade, 1973: 7). Apart from

their complementary relationship, a common thread that runs through both systems is the idea

that the structure of the universe is based on two primal principles: spirit (purusa) and matter

(prakrti). Both principles are abstractions with unique characteristics. Spirit is deemed as

eternally inactive in a sort of a cosmic equilibrium; when this equilibrium is disturbed, matter

occurs from 'within itself into the entire world of creation and destruction' (Miller, 1998: 13.).

The way spirit is drawn and attached to the world is through the faculties of thought and

memory and the relation between them is central to Patanjali's system. In a vicious circle,
thought, by virtue of its incessant fluctuation, leaves 'subliminal impressions' or 'memory traces',

which in turn have the potential to generate more thoughts, which are stored as memories,

which induce thoughts and so on (ibid.: 15). A similar scheme can be identified in the notion of
karma, where action, similarly to thought, creates memory, memory feeds mental processes,

mental processes turn into memories and accompany the individual through many rebirths
(ibid.: 17). It is precisely the cessation of these causal relations that comprises the individual's

liberation.

An understanding of the relation described above between spirit and matter, and the

subsequent absolution from it, is hard to be conceived, because the very faculties of cognition

are material. Those faculties are: thought (citta), mind (manas), intelligence (buddhi), ego
(ahamkara). These activities lead man to 'confuse two wholly autonomous and opposed

realities, between which there is no real connection, but only an illusory relation, for

psychomental experience does not belong to spirit, it belongs to nature (prakrti)' (Elffade, 1973:

15). Thus, mental states are viewed as the 'refined products' of the material substance and are

differentiated from the rest of the living beings by degree, whereas the difference between them

10The 6 darsanasare: Yoga,Samkhya,Mimamsa,Vedanta,Vaisesika,Nyaya(Alter, 2005: 46).

" In opposition to this is Georg Feuerstein, who argues that viewing yoga as a complementary part to
Samkhya philosophy, is 'one of the plethora of misinterpretations of Patanjali's darsana' (1996: 109). For
more information, see Feuerstein, 1996: 109-20.

32
 and spirit is that of an ontological order (ibid. ). It is man's ignorance of the spirit's true state that

wrongly identifies it with these psychomental activities. However, Patanjali attributes to thought

a specific characteristic and thus offers a way out both of this self-perpetuating system that
binds spirit to matter, and of man's ignorance. On one hand there is thought that arises out of

egoism. Egoism, as mentioned above, is one of the obstacles that the practitioner encounters

on the path of yoga. Miller defines egoism as the state 'in which everything is identified with

oneself [and it] derives from the false identification of the spirit with the matter' (1998: 76).
Thoughts deriving from such a state are therefore bound to produce other thoughts in return. On

the other hand, there is a different, more refined kind of thought -buddhi or intelligence- which

can reflect the spirit, so that the practitioner can come to know it (Elffade, 1973: 26). Hence
buddhi, in its most illuminated state, can 'aid the process of deliverance, by serving as a

preliminary stage of revelation' (ibid.: 30).

A similar model applies to the nature of action. Actions are classified as black and white, with

black marking 'evil deeds' and white corresponding to acts of religious nature that bring no

harm. The action of a layman encompasses both ends of the spectrum, whereas the action of

the accomplished yogi is neither black nor white, because he has renounced the fruits of his

actions and the identity of a doer. 12In this way the distinction between the act and the actor is

obliterated, the causal relationship between the doer and the deed is invalidated and the
individual is freed from the chain of causality (Miller, 1998: 77). Hence, 'one's spirit achieve[s] its

true identity as an observer to the world- a witness rather than a suffering participant' (ibid.: 83).

An overview of Patanjali's text reveals its cyclical nature both in terms of form as well as

content. As it has been mentioned, in the first part of the Sutras Patanjali introduces his reader
to two basic notions: the definition of yoga as the 'cessation of the turnings of thought' and the

importance of 'the cultivation of dispassion'. Throughout the text Patanjali revisits his initial

definition, by explaining why such a cessation is essential and also by revealing a systematized

method for attaining it. It could, therefore, be argued that in Patanjali's system, yoga comprises
both the desired state of spiritual emancipation as well as the means to achieve it. However,

this identification between means and aim conceals a paradox; whereas the undertaking of

yoga is driven by the desire to absolve the spirit from its affinity with the material world, its

practice should be ridden of any such aim, because the acquisition of an aim immediately ties

12As argued by anthropologistSarah Strauss pre-modern forms of yoga were practices undertaken
predominantlyby male, individuals,hence I am using only the male pronounwhen referringto an assumed
classicalyoga practitioner(2005:xix).

33
the practitioner to the reality of matter (Miller, 1998: 4). Consequently, it becomes apparent the

significancethat the second idea carries; yoga should be practiced with dispassion and one
should be detached from the potential outcomes of one's own practice.

An additional ideological layer that underlies the Sutras is the relationship between what Stuart

Ray Sarbacker calls the 'cessative' and the 'numinous' (2008: 162). As I have already

discussed, the practice and state of yoga is identified with the cessation of the turnings of

thoughts and the subsequent delivery of the practitioner from pain and ignorance. Patanjali,

however, clearly states that practice of yoga can lead to supernatural powers and thus fully

acknowledges the 'numinous' aspect of the practice. Although such aspect, according to
Patanjali should be treated with caution, it nevertheless comprises a significant part of the

discipline. The appropriation of the Sutras by orientalist scholars, however, and their

subsequent placement in a classical framework, led to a marginalization of the numinous, which

could not fit classical ideals, and an exaltation of the cessative. As I will discuss later, this
disregard for the numinous became further accentuated, and particularly evident in an approach

that viewed physical yoga practices as a commercialization and degeneration of 'pure' yoga

(Sarbacker, 2008: 178). Furthermore, Sarbacker, rightly regards Eliade's scholarship as a

significant factor in foregrounding the cessative element of yoga (ibid. ). Quite characteristically,
Eliade identifies in all yogic techniques the shared attribute of being 'anti-social' and 'anti-

human' (ibid.: 95):

The worldly man is 'possessed' by his own life; the yogin refuses to 'let himself
live'; to continual movement he opposes his static posture, the immobility of
asana; to agitated, unrhythmical, changing respiration, he opposes
pranayama... to the chaotic flux of psychomental life, he replies by 'fixing thought
on a single point'... All of the yogic techniques invite to one and the same gesture-
to do exactly the opposite of what human nature forces one to do (1973: 96).

An attemptto adumbratethe philosophyof classicalyoga, has inevitablyled to an accountof its

historicityas well as an expositionof its interpretationaccordingto various agendas and filters.
The subjectionof Patanjali'stext to historicaland interpretativeframeworksforeshadowssimilar
developmentsthat gave rise to MY forms. The next section exposes these developmentsin
further detail.

A Brief History of Modern Yoga

As I have already mentioned, according to De Michelis, MY emerged from the encounter

between modernisedforms of Hinduism and Western esotericism,and the latter's subsequent

34
 development into occultism (2004: 19). I will begin by giving a brief description of the

developments that took place both in the East and the West. The list and brief explanation of

the practices and ideologies mentioned below is in no way exhaustive, as the aim of their

exposition is to highlight their points of contact and their subsequent combination in MY

ideology.

The Rise of Neo-Hinduism

India came into contact with modernity through the presence of British Orientalists (1773-1837),

who not only propagated the ideas of Enlightenment, post-Enlightenment and Unitarian
Christianity but were also interested in the Vedic literature and the medieval period of Indian

culture (De Michelis, 2004: 42). 13 The impact of modernity in India resulted in two different

versions of orthodox Hinduism: Neo-Hindu and Modern Hindu Traditionalist. Of the two, the first

one is of particular importance to this study, as it is the one whose elaborations gave rise to MY.
Neo-Hinduism was characterized by a'much more receptive attitude to Western influences and

models' while at the same time it sought to return to tradition, in order to find the appropriate

power and context for its response to the West (De Michelis, 2004: 39). The gradual formation

of Neo-Hinduism, however, resulted in 'rupture and discontinuity' with classical Hinduism as the
latter'was shaken by the radical otherness of many of the new ideas' while at the same time a

lot of the old ideas were being reshaped (ibid.: 39-40). One of the old systems of thought that

underwent reconstruction was that of Vedanta, one of the six philosophical schools of orthodox
Hinduism (darsana) which - due to the 'egalitarian, tolerant and universalistic spirit of the

Enlightenment' (ibid.: 42) -acquired a humanistic outlook aiming at 'social reforms and ethical

ideas' (ibid.: 46).

Brahmo Samaj

Neo-Vedanta and Neo-Hinduism were further elaborated and disseminated by Brahmo Samaj,

a Bengali association founded in 1843 consisting primarily of educated members of the middle

class who aimed at assimilating the foreign Influences of British Orientalism into their culture.
Although Brahmo was 'a tiny minority among India's millions, it was this same group that

eventually led India to the republican era' (De Michelis, 2004: 30). Brahmo Samaj went through

a number of permutationsand leaderships, each one of which introduceda new aspect that
would subsequentlydefine Neo-Vedanticideology and MY. One of the first developmentsthat

13There Is a variety different dates that accordingto different scholars mark the beginningof Western
of
influenceson Hinduism.For more detailssee De Michelis,2004:38.

35
took place within the Brahmo community was the notion of the 'householding spiritual seeker'

(De Michelis, 2004: 48), according to which spirituality is not anymore regarded as the privilege

of the renunciant but can be granted to the householder. A further ideological elaboration

occurred a few years later and addressed what De Michelis calls the 'inescapable problem of

modernity': the harmonization of science and religion. Hence, a 'universal natural' or 'scientific

religion' (ibid.: 59) was formulated where God is obtained 'not through blind faith, but by the light

of knowledge' (Tagore. D., 1909: 9 as quoted in De Michelis 2004: 58). This 'knowledge'
became further homologized with the individual's 'primary revelation' or 'intuition', while the

authority of the sacred texts of classical Hinduism was questioned. In accordance, a new form

of initiation was established, which was different from the ones practiced in classical Hinduism
(ibid.: 64). As a result, 'the religious authority from "outer sources" (metaphysical, but socially

upheld and validated)' was relocated in '"inner" ones (individually ones and validated)'.
Furthermore, an elaboration of different practices of religiosity -according to each individual's

inclination- was considered to be the most reliable means to achieve spiritual knowledge (ibid.:

83-4). 14Finally, the Hindus emerged as not only proficient in these practices, which gradually

came to be identified with yoga techniques, but 'almost genetically' endowed with an 'inbuilt
"yoga faculty"' (ibid.: 89).

Neo-Hatha Yoga and Muscular Christianity

In addition to the radical reformulations that gradually took place within orthodox Hinduism,

another element of Hindu practices and ideas that became subject to dramatic change was
Hatha Yoga. Hatha Yoga has its roots in Tantric practices, and came into fruition between the

tenth and twelfth century CE. It was permeated by a number of Hindu and non Hindu currents,

including 'Buddhism, Saivism, Vaisnavism, with even Islamic influence and non-Hindu tribal

asceticism' (Liberman, 2008: 104). The basic exponents of Hatha Yoga were the Naths and
Kanpathas groups, and are described as 'iconoclasts, who rejected the mores of society,

including the notion of caste, grew their hair and nails, and occasionally smoked ganja' (ibid.).

Practice of yoga in a Hatha Yoga context aimed at the awakening of Kundalini energy and the

attainment of supernatural powers, such as 'human flight, alchemical abilities, and escaping
death' (White, 2003: 221 as quoted in Liberman, 2008: 100). The above description makes clear

'The four types

of religiosity distinguished in Brahmo Samaj were: jnana, the yoga of knowledge or study
of the scriptures, bhakti the yoga of devotion, karma the yoga of action and raja the yoga of
transcendence. As I have already mentioned, the above practices are longstanding ideas within orthodox
Hinduism, but from the Brahmo Samaj onwards they gradually turned into distinct conceptual categories
and practices (Strauss, 2005: 10).

36
 that Hatha Yoga practices were aligned with the numinous aspect of the discipline discussed

above, but as the cessative gained ground, the Hatha yogins became demonized and

associated with arcane mysticism and obscure practices. Furthermore, during the British Raj,
Singleton affirms that Hatha yogins had grown so powerful that they managed to control trade

routes of the East Indian Company (2010: 39). The disruption they caused to commercial and

financial interests led to their prosecution by the British and their gradual geographical, social

and economical isolation. Devoid of their means of sustenance, Hatha yogins turned to

showmanship and itinerary performance of physical and acrobatic feats (ibid.: 40). For the

aforementioned reasons, Hatha Yoga was seen as the very manifestation of what was wrong in
India and, as a result, was treated with disdain by their compatriots and a mixture of disgust and

fascination by their occupiers.

From the end of the nineteenth century onwards, however, Hatha Yoga is revisited and indeed

begins to appear as the Indian answer to the Western concept of Muscular Christianity. As

Joseph Alter explains, muscular Christianity comprises a 'socioreligious movement focused on

masculine ideas of courage, selfless service and moral character development' which was
furthermore 'integral to the project of empire building and the development of colonial rule'

(2007: 21). The same movement also ensued in viewing and criticizing the colonized as

effeminate and lazy. The Neo-Hindu agenda, therefore, duly incorporated a call for physical

strength which, despite being rooted in an imperialistic narrative, was seen as an imperative for
the nation's independence and emancipation. Hindu men started practicing with fervor the

gymnastic traditions imported by the British, but also turned to Hatha Yoga, which was now

approached as a means towards physical (see national) self-government. In this manner, Hatha
Yoga came to symbolize at the same time and for the same people the obscurity of an arcane

past, which India had to shed, and the promise of a bright future, which the country had to

embrace. The above concepts eventually comprised a significant part of the syncretic ideology

that came to define MY. However, an account of the latter would remain incomplete without an

exposition of its Western half.

The Western Cultic Milieu: Western Esotericism- Occultism

As mentioned above, MY evolved out of the interaction between Neo-Hinduismand Western

Esotericism.One of the main quandariesthat permeatedWestern esotericism(and as we have

already seen also troubled the leaders of Brahmo Samaj) was the synthesis of religion and
science, so that the 'deep seated human unease vis-ä-vis the deep epistemologicalsplit
broughtabout by the rise of modernity'could be addressed(De Michelis,2004: 21). The tide of

37
modernity was brought on by a post-Enlightenment worldview that was informed by 'laws of

causality', the modern study of religions, and the subsequent belief in the discovery of a

universal core of all religions, as well as the theory of evolution and its incongruence with the
biblical version of genesis (De Michelis 2004: 26-7, Bevir, 1994: 752). '5 The gradual

secularization of the worldview of the post-Enlightenment man had a similar effect on

esotericism, which eventually turned into occultism.

Occultism, 'an etic category in the study of religions', is seen as one of the more 'characteristic

expressions of the "secularization of esotericism"' and is described as, 'all attempts [made] by

esotericists to come to terms with a disenchanted world or, alternatively, by people in general to

make sense of esotericism from the perspective of a disenchanted secular world' (Haneegraff,
1996: 422 as quoted in De Michelis, 2004: 26). The attempts of the occultists to make sense of

a universe that was now seen 'as a huge piece of machinery, the workings of which are

explainable (or will at some point be) on the basis of natural laws' (De Michelis, 2004: 26) soon

acquired an 'eastward orientation', that had already been prepared by the Romantics. This
turning to the East became geographically more specific and India emerged as 'the source of

ancient wisdom' (Bevir, 1994: 747,756). In this way, Hinduism as expressed in the Western

cultic milieu, acquired an overwhelmingly spiritual and mystical overtone, whereas contents that

were incongruous with a Western agenda were overlooked or ignored (De Michelis, 2004: 73). 16

American Transcendentalism

Another important movement that took place in the West and needs to be mentioned is that of

American Transcendentalism. American Transcendentalists highlighted the importance of

'intuition' and 'true reason' and the movement's leading figure, Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-

1882), echoing the members of Brahmo Samaj, attributed 'a direct point of access to the

metaphysical in each individual's psyche' (ibid.: 81). In addition to the above, the
Transcendentalists regarded Hinduism as the most admirable non- Christian religion. A

documented token of their flirtation with Hinduism is the case of Transcendentalist Henry David

Thoreau (1817-1862), who in 1849 stated that 'to some extent, and at rare intervals, even I am

15The 'Laws of Causality'was the worldviewthrough which post-Enlightenmentthought came to interpret

the universeand In a way substitutethe former worldviewbased on 'correspondences'.Accordingto It, the
universewas no longer governed by mysteriousforces, beyond human understanding,but by mechanic
laws whichthe humanintellectcould or would explain (De Michelis,2004: 26)
18A similar approach towards Hinduism was also propagated by Madame Blavatsky (1831-1891), a co-
founder of The Theosophical Society (see Bevir, 1994).

38
 a yogi'." What is importantin Thoreau's statement,and led De Michelisto mark the date of this
statementas the beginningpoint of MY, is the fact that in Thoreau'sview yoga is not anymore
seen as an exotic 'other' but as discipline with which Westernerscan become directly involved
(ibid.: 3).

Harmonial Religion

Finally, an exposition of the ideological currents and beliefs that ran during the nineteenth and

early twentieth century and are particularly related to MY would be wanting without reference to
the 'strong presence of "Harmonial Religion"' (De Michelis, 2004: 114). The main feature of

Harmonial Religion is a psychologically based approach to the cosmos; 'health and harmony on

the level of human existence is achieved by replicating in one's own mind the harmonious

perfection of the cosmic whole' (De Michelis, 2004: 115). The prevalent ideology therefore,
based on Swedenborgian teachings, assumed that there was a correspondence between

physical and metaphysical reality 'as a lawful occurrence' (ibid. ) The implication of this belief

was that communication with the divine was not attempted anymore by prayer or worship but by
inner adjustments (ibid.). A more tangible aspect of this concept was materialized through the

development of osteopathic and chiropractic practices (De Michelis, 2004: 115), as well as

'Harmonial Gymnastics' (Singleton, 2010: 143) which equated physical skeleton-muscular

alignment with the balanced distribution and flow of 'life-force'. As the above exposition makes

clear, during the turn of nineteenth century Occidental and Eastern thinkers shared a number of

preoccupations and were equally willing to turn their gaze away from their countries and

towards the other hemisphere. The aforementioned concepts and developments came together

in the teaching of Swami Vivekananda, which proved instrumental not only in combining these

elements but in further promoting them as'yoga'.

Swami Vivekananda

Swami Vivekananda(1863-1902)arrived for the first time in the United States in July 1893, in

order to speak at the Chicago Parliament of Religions (De Michelis, 2004: 110). Born

NarendranathDatta, he was the son of a lawyer, educated in Europeanstyle, and steeped in

the ideologyof Brahmo Samaj. As a result, Vivekanandahad a good commandof Englishand

the ability to be equally at ease in a South Asian rural village as well as in cosmopolitancities

such as New York and London (Strauss, 2005: 34). His appearanceat Chicago's World Fair

"Thoreau as quoted in Christy(1932: 185,201) as quoted in De Michelis(2004:3).

39
turned Vivekananda into a 'media celebrity' which proves not only his charisma, but also the

receptiveness of American audiences to Oriental teachers, independently of the latter's

credentials (De Michelis, 2004: 111). The establishment of a supportive circle of followers gave
Vivekananda the opportunity not only to disseminate his message, but actually adjust it in order

to fit the needs of his audience. In this manner, by the time he returned to India in 1897,

Vivekananda's initial aim to raise awareness on Hinduism, was transformed into the

propagation of a modernised version of Vedanta as 'the exemplary form of "Universal Religion"

capable of catering for all religious needs through different types of yoga' (ibid.: 123). The

proposition Vivekananda offered seemed simple and fair: the spiritual wealth of India, best

exemplified through the discipline of yoga, could be exchanged for the material wealth that the
West afforded to offer (Strauss, 2005: 3). Confirming the original beliefs of his followers,

Vivekananda presented the desire for spiritual advancement and the possibility of attaining it as

everyman's birthright. In this manner, the importance of personal experience and direct

perception became a central feature of his teaching and was further shaped into the notion of
Realization. The term, which was frequently used by Vivekananda, derives from two basic

concepts of orthodox Hinduism, which were taken out of their original context and were thus
freely translated. 1eIn this way 'realization' became what De Michelis calls a 'buzzword', a vague

term that could fit and thus propagate different ideologies (2004: 130).

The idea that direct experience and realization were feasible further implied the existence of

practices that could make them available. As I have already mentioned, Western audiences

were thirsty for practices and Vivekananda's ability to impart a set of them was the crucial

element that differentiated him from other movements of occultism, for example the

Theosophical and Hermetic Societies (ibid.: 118).19The way Vivekananda met the demand was

by presenting 'yoga as a science based on "natural laws" or "spiritual technology"' (ibid.: 143)

and by propagating his message through a book, Raja Yoga, that ensured open access to

anyone interested.

18The original words are brahmajnana,knowing the brahmaor Supreme Being and atmajnana,knowing
the atman or IndividualSelf. In orthodox Hinduismseeing or knowing god equals the realizationof one's
self and Self-realizationhas thus a religiousand devotionalsignificance.
19 In the Theosophical society in particular 'the powers of the practical adept seemed to be limited to
Madame Blavatsky' (Godwin, 1994: 346 as quoted In De Michelis, 2004: 118).

40
 Raja Yoga

Vivekananda finished Raja Yoga before leaving the United States in December 1896,
and the
book remains in print. Raja Yoga was preceded by another book with the same title,
written by
Indian Theosophist Dvivedi in 1885 (Singleton, 2008: 83). Dvivedi
called the philosophical
system of Vedanta Raja Yoga, i.e. royal yoga, and further equated Vedanta with Patanjali's
Yoga Sutras. Vivekananda's claim, therefore, that his book, Raja Yoga,
was a presentation of
Patanjali's text sounded valid and acceptable, and it further endowed his volume
with a similar
authority and status. As De Michelis demonstrates however, Vivekananda brought significant

changes to the system outlined by Patanjali. She particularly views Raja Yoga as a

characteristic example of the Eastern-Western synthesis achieved by Vivekananda, since it

combines a selection of Neo-Vedantic elements, as developed in the Brahmo Samaj, with a

variety of Western ideas of science and philosophy as well as influences from Western
Occultism (De Michelis, 2004: 150). Vivekananda's divergence from Patanjali's text becomes

particularly evident in the following two concepts.

First of all, Vivekananda attributes great importance to the element of prana, which in the Sutras

appears as equally important as the other limbs. With Vivekananda, however, prana becomes

the 'vital force' and the 'fluid of life', a sort of primordial element with which the practitioner can

connect through the practice of breathing (pranayama). As we have seen, the 'vital fluid' was a

central concept in harmonial and mesmeric beliefs, which Vivekananda assimilated in his

teaching by equating it to prana (De Michelis, 2004: 161-4). The suggestion that a connection to

'vital force' is something that the practitioner can practice during one's daily life turned prana

into a 'material, perceivable substance' (De Michelis, 2004: 164) or as Alter puts it into a

'medicine' (2005: 62). Prana by virtue of its 'accumulation' or 'concentration' can act as an agent

of healing and liberation and it actually has the potential to 'speed up the adepts on their

evolutionary path towards the ultimate goal' (De Michelis, 2004: 151). In this way, prana is

presented as the 'scientific exegesis' for yoga's transcendence, with the further aim to show that
India had already acquired knowledge of concepts, with which the physical sciences in Europe

had just started to catch up (ibid.: 161).

Another importantway in which Vivekananda'steaching is differentfrom the classicaltradition is

his interpretationof samadhi.As we have seen, samadhiis the last stage in Patanjali'ssystem,

signifyinga state of eternal bliss where the spirit is not any more related to matter. In Raja Yoga
samadhi becomes the 'access to higher or "superconscious"states' where the 'individualmind
becomes part of the universal mind' (ibid.: 153). The identification of samadhi with the

41
'superconscious' derived from Vivekananda's influence from William James, as superconscious

was the name given by Functionalist psychologists to Anton Mesmer's experiments with
hypnotism (De Michelis, 2004: 172-5). The wider implication of Vivekananda's interpretation is

that whereas in the Sutras the ultimate stage of yoga practice is seen as 'an ahistorical process

of purification and involution towards a state of radically transcendental liberation', in Raja Yoga

'it is described in terms of evolutive realization of human potential' (ibid.: 168). Despite the

cosmology of Samkhya, which, as we have seen, views spirit and nature as different ontological

realities, Vivekananda presents spiritual attainment as the natural conclusion of human nature
(De Michelis, 2004: 175). The cosmos is thus 'psychologized' and yoga becomes the technique

which can allow the practitioner to attune oneself to it and realize one's own nature, which is

essentially spiritual (ibid.: 171,181).

Raja Yoga versus Hatha Yoga

Perhaps the most pervasive of all the changes imparted by Vivekananda is the dichotomy

between Raja and Hatha Yoga, and the opposition between meditational (Raja Yoga) and

physical (Hatha Yoga) practices. I have already referred to the denigration of Hatha Yoga in
India and its association with debauchery. I have also exposed the way in which Raja Yoga

became identical with the Yoga Sutras and the manner in which the latter acquired a canonical

status. Similarly to Vivekananda's message, influential figures such as Madame Blavatsky

proclaimed Raja Yoga by far more important, whereas Hatha Yoga was seen as a'lower' and,
in any case, not respectable or desirable activity for a Westerner (Albanese, 2007: 351).

Accounts of Hatha yogins 'hanging head downwards over fires or in other excruciating poses'

(ibid.: 350) further reinforced such an aversion. In relation to the above developments, it also

has to be taken into account that, as Catherine Albanese demonstrates, esoteric circles in the

States showed a considerable preference towards the mind, which was understood as including

a set of abilities such as intuition, clairvoyance and telepathy (2007: 13). In this climate,
Vivekananda assured his followers that 'we have nothing to do with it [Hatha Yoga] here,

because its practices are very difficult and cannot be learned in a day, and after all do not lead

to much spiritual growth' (Albanese, 2007: 357)2.0 It was the mind, therefore, that yoga had to

address and it was the mind's faculties that yoga was expected to train. As a result, when

nineteenth-century audiences, expressed an interest in or knowledge of yoga, by definition they

20Albanesedoes not offer a referencefor the quotation.

42
 meant the practice of meditational techniques and/or other spiritualist practices that were

popularin New Thoughtcircles and were often identifiedas'yoga'.

To sum up, it could be said that Vivekananda's message proved so successful with a Western,

white, middle-class cultural milieu because of its spiritual character, its non-exclusive nature, its

'scientific' undertone (it is testable through personal practice) and its seemingly universal

foundation (Strauss, 2005: 13). The success of Vivekananda's ideas is further proven by their

duration through time; '[his] teachings', as De Michelis informs us, 'still form the conceptual

foundations of MY, even though they have been developed in a number of different ways and

directions from the beginning of the twentieth century onward' (2004: 153).

Hatha Yoga and Modern Postural Yoga

The developments that followed Vivekananda's work have been classified by De Michelis in two

categories, which have already been mentioned: MPY and Modern Meditational Yoga (2004:
188). From the two, MPY is by far the most popular and widespread form encompassing the

majority of yoga classes that take place in the West today. In order to get a clearer picture of the
ideologies that underlie current yoga practices it would be instructive to look more closely at the

ways in which they developed. Although De Michelis gives an extended account of nineteenth-

century events and twentieth-century practices, there is a period between 1890 and 1940 which
is left unexamined. Such period is indeed quite significant, because this is precisely the time

when the physical aspect of the discipline acquired a new status and became the primary focus

of yoga practices. It is important, therefore, to examine the factors that contributed to this shift,

and determined the current character of MPY.

I have already drawn attention to the developments that took place in pre-independence India,

and the re-fashioning of Hatha Yoga as a possibility for emancipation and strength. Mark

Singleton in his book Yoga Body (2010) gives a detailed account of the way Indian practitioners

appropriated Western systems of gymnastics, ventured in a scientific or quasi-scientific

examination of the physiology and effects of medieval Hatha Yoga practices, and merged the

two in a new product, which they further identified as the 'ancient' technique of yoga, and clearly

distinguished from 'mere Western gymnastics'. Nevertheless, as Singleton demonstrates the

practice of Western gymnastics was often elaborated within a religious and/or moralistic
framework. As suggested by Albanese in fin-de-siecle North America 'physical training assumed

new ascendency as part of moral education' and physical culture came to the foreground (2007:

361). As in the case of 'muscular Christianity' physical exercise was viewed as a holistic activity

43
that was expected to restore the balance of the body-mind-spirit trinity and build character. The

female counterpart of physical culture was the Harmonial Gymnastics, which, as I have already

mentioned, was seen as a 'practical religion applied to the body' (Singleton, 2010: 143). As a

result, the idea of spiritual development through physical activity permeated Western physical

culture, and can by no means be considered a monopoly of Indian or yogic practices.

Western forms of gymnastics as propagated in India, Europe, and the States not only formed

the ideological basis on which MPY developed, but also equipped current MPY practices with a

movement vocabulary. In a book entitled Eighty-Four Asanas in Yoga: A Survey of Traditions,

Gudrun Buehneman claims that 'the asana practice of the many modern yoga schools in India

and the West is not directly based on or otherwise connected with any known textual tradition'

(2007a: 22). She further states that 'there is no evidence that such a tradition ever existed' (ibid.

144). Buehneman's assertion makes Singleton's study all the more convincing. Bringing forth a

considerable amount of printed material of Western forms of gymnastics that were circulated in

the Subcontinent during the nineteenth century, Singleton draws links between the exercises

and postures that feature in these publications and the subsequent publication and/or accounts

of demonstrations of similar 'yoga poses'. Singleton, for example, reproduces a 'fold out

exercise chart' (2010: 119), seen in Figure 152, from J. P. Mueller's My System, which was

published in Danish in 1904 (ibid.: 217) and became 'phenomenally popular' (ibid.: 98). 2' The

poses demonstrated in the chart appear significantly closer to postures practiced in MPY today,

than any of the postures that, for example, Buehnemann discovered in eighteenth-and-

nineteenth-century yoga manuscripts.

In particular relation to standing asanas, which form a big part of current MPY practices, both

Singleton and Norman Sjoman point out their `descriptive names', and their contrast to the

names of other asanas that draw from and/or symbolically represent 'objects, animals, sages

and deities' (2010: 201). Singleton also includes a number of photographs of Mollie Bagot Stack
(seen in Figures 3 and 4), a practitioner of Harmonial Gymnastics, who founded in Britain one

of the most far-reaching and influential of women's gymnastic organization' (2010: 150).

2 It is also interesting to note that Rose Whyman claims that Muller's book My System, found the way into
the library of another practitioner who was in deep search of a system, namely K. Stanislavsky (2007:
116). 1will discuss this in the next chapter.

44
 Chart 117ustra(Ing the 2x16
Exercises In

J. P. Müller'a
"MY SYSTEM"
JOn1. Dora1

r. b.. llrrt,. Vcx N. i

ll.
ýgIo. bnhA PrºIi, Nq Co..
UI 11rýýý. W, C.
Nº. tý.... u., n. bk...
m

4...... 0. I. Iw M M1. u1.

I..

Figure 15, Chart from My System, reproduced from Mark Singleton, 2010: 119

Figure 16, Mollie Bagot Stack in 'Seal', reproduced from Singleton, Figure 17, Mollie Bagot Stack in
2010: 151 'Legs in Air', reproduced from
Singleton, 2010: 150

Stack learned some asanas in a trip to India in 1912, and she later incorporated these elements

in her teaching. However, she never referred to these poses as yoga. Her approach rather

45
featured 'a combined concern for body aesthetics, health, and embodied spiritual growth'

(Singleton, 2010: 151). Nevertheless, Stack's work has been instrumental in cultivating

receptivity among the British female population towards the fully fledged forms of MPY that

arrived after the 1950s. It becomes clear, therefore, that a number of physical disciplines were

widely practiced in the West long before the advent of yoga, as it is known today. It is

furthermore evident that there was a great amount of cross-fertilization between the movement

and postural vocabulary of the Western disciplines and the newly developed postural yoga.

Moreover, even if we accept that the similarities between yoga asanas and Western gymnastics

were because of human anatomy and the shapes it dictates, and/or even if we hypothesize that

a tradition of the yoga asanas cannot be corroborated due to such a tradition being oral, and

perhaps kept secret from the British, there are important differences between medieval Hatha

Yoga forms and colonial and post-colonial elaborations.

According to Singleton 'the most prominent departure is the primacy accorded to asanas as a

system of health, fitness and well-being, and the relegation or elimination of other key aspects'

of Hatha Yoga (2010: 29). 'Hatha Yoga' was thus 'appropriated from the yogin, and one of the

ways this occurred was through appeals to modern science and medicine' (ibid.: 49). Singleton

uses the chakras as an example to further demonstrate his point. Whereas in tantric practises

the chakras `are simply not observable phenomena but inscribed ritual processes' (ibid.: 51) in

MY discourse they are identified with the endocrinal system (see Figure 18). As a result `the

conceptual, ritual ... body of tantric yoga' turned into the 'perceptual and naturalistic body of

scientific modern anglophone yoga' (Singleton, 2010: 167). The claims, therefore, of MY

exponents that their practice derives from an ancient Indian tradition is highly questionable. On

one hand, their allusions to medieval Hatha Yoga tradition are fraught with distinct points of

departure and discontinuity. On the other hand, their appeal to Yoga Sutras as the philosophical

basis of their practices, endorses a text which not only had little to do with medieval Hatha Yoga

(Buehnemann, 2007a: 15), but has been to a large extent a product of colonialism. 22
practices

22 1have already to the tendency MY to their own version of the Yoga Sutras.
referred of exponents publish
Examples include lyengar's Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (1993), Desikachar's translation of the
text in The Heart of Yoga (1995), and Swami Satchidananda's The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (1990).

46
 PlW Gland
ýLItU9

jp ýS B81

Sadalntuss
5bSea1

Gland

Figure 18, Chakras and Seals, in Carjoran Ali, 1928, reproduced from Singleton, 2010: 149

Modern Yoga and Modernity23

MPY has thus found its place in modern, urban societies. De Michelis identifies a similar three-

stage development process in most of the longer-established schools of MPY. The

`popularization period' spans from the 1950s to the mid 1970s and sees the proliferation of

schools and teachers as well as the subsequent attention of the media. This growing interest is

followed by the 'consolidation period' from the mid- 1970s to the late 1980s. The schools are

expanding and some of them become institutionalized and establish teacher training courses.
As each school grows, there is a proportionately rising level of elaboration in the style of

teaching and the degree of specialization. In addition, the application of yoga for health and

other purposes is explored in more depth. Finally, the 'acculturation period' spans from the late

1980s to the present date, where some schools have accepted recognition by official bodies,

practice of MPY is considered to be a complementary form both of alternative as well as

becomes 24 The
conventional medicine and its teaching more and more professionalized.

23 Modernity here is
regarded as an 'attitude, a society's way of relating to the world' as opposed to the
view of modernity as a 'monolithic force' (Strauss, 2005: 12)
24 For example British Wheel Yoga has been by Sports Council as the British ruling
of officially recognised
body for yoga, a position for which it competed with lyengar Yoga (De Michelis, 2004: 205-6)

47
emphasis of MPY, as the name suggests, is on the orthoperformative side of the student's

practice, whereas the philosophical and religious aspects are limited to 'very basic and

polyvalent suggestions' (ibid.: 187). Accordingly, the evaluation and accreditation of teachers no

longer depends on spiritual or religious criteria, but on one's technical expertise and level of

professionalism (De Michelis, 2004: 191).

The secularization and professionalization that characterizes MY practices comes into sharp

contrast with Eliade's view of yoga as 'anti-human' and 'anti-social'. It also becomes apparent

that the contemporary yoga practitioner is closer to the numinous aspect of the practice, which

is expressed 'through mastery of increasingly more complex, challenging postures' (Sarbacker,

2008: 176). Accordingly, Sarah Strauss relates the popularity of yoga to 'two specific values of

the modern world: health and freedom' (2005: 6). Yoga practice is seen as a way to promote

health and fitness and it is also seen as a form of (alternative) medicine; it acts as prevention for

a range of diseases, it offers specific benefits to various conditions, it operates as a de-stressing

mechanism, and it promotes a feeling of well-being. In addition to the facilitation of good health,

'yoga [becomes] an individual or personal strategy for living under conditions of modernity [and]

supports the concept of "unlimited freedom" as self-realization' (Strauss, 2005: 19).

Closely related to the aforementioned purposes, the practice of MY seems to have an additional

dimension. De Michelis draws parallels between the structure of a MPY session and Van

Gennep's theory of 'rites of passage'. Most sessions of MPY start with a 'quietening down' time

where the students are given the opportunity to disengage from daily life, and in this way De

Michelis connects the beginning of a yoga class to the 'separation or proliminal phase' of a

ritual. The main body of the class is accordingly seen as the transition or liminal state, because

the students shed (to a degree) part of their public identity and authority, as they all partake in

the same activity regardless of their social status. They are encouraged to draw their attention

on the practice as the repetitive execution of the asanas is considered 'not only to control, but

also to create experience' (2004: 255). Finally, the class is concluded by the practice of

Savasana (corpse pose), which De Michelis connects to the last, incorporative or post-liminal

stage of a ritual. The students are thus given a brief time to assimilate the class and smoothly

return to the 'normal' world (De Michelis, 2004: 252-9). The important point that De Michelis

highlights, by drawing our attention to the similarities between a session of MPY and ritual

practices, is that 'MPY has been adopted and acculturated in developed societies as a healing

ritual of secular religion' (ibid.: 260). Thus, argues De Michelis, the designation of a specific

space and time for a public or personal session of MPY functions as the ritual substitute of a

48
 secularized world; it strengthens body and mind, while at the same time it is impregnated with

the possibility of God- or Self-realization, which can be adopted or discarded according to the

practitioner's choice (ibid. ). Bearing the above in mind, Strauss's definition of yoga as 'spiritual

capital' appears more than appropriate; 'a specific kind of cultural capital that serves much the

same function as standard economic understandings of capital to support a good life however

defined' (Baritz, 1989 as quoted in Strauss, 2005: 9). Having covered the conceptual and

ideological foundation of MY and MPY, I will now look at the school of lyengar Yoga that

developed within and exemplifies further the aforementioned developments.

Iyengar Yoga
My choice to examine the Iyengar school is on one hand based on specific characteristics of

Iyengar Yoga that can further illuminate the general character and orientation of MPY; De

Michelis, calls Iyengar Yoga 'arguably the most influential and widespread school of MPY

worldwide' (2004: 194). On another level, lyengar Yoga is the discipline I have been practicing

for the last eight years and the one which has informed the practical side of this research.

lyengar Yoga was named after the man who developed and disseminated this particular form of

practice. lyengar was born in 1918 in a Vaisnava Brahmin family in Bellur, South India. He

came into contact with yoga through the man who had married one of his sisters, S. T.

Krishnamacharya (1888-1989), a renowned scholar and a prolific writer. Apart from his study of

many Hindu texts and languages, Krishnamacharya claimed to have spent seven years at the

base of the Himalayas, where he received training in yoga. When he returned to South India he

was affiliated with the Mysore princely family, which played an important part in the

nationalization movement and the respective interest towards yoga practices. Krishnamacharya

was asked to offer yoga instruction to the princes and thus the Yogasala (hall for yoga) was

created (De Michelis, 2004: 195-6). According to Singleton, 'Krishnamacharya's teaching seems

to have been based on certain of the predominant popular styles of children's physical

education in 1930s India, with significant personal innovations and synthesis' (2010: 183). This

is where Iyengar received his first yoga tuition.

As part of his role as the royal 'yoga teacher', Krishnamacharya was asked in 1934 to visit the

Kaivalyadhama centre in Lonavla. Kaivalyadhama and its founder Kuvalyananda (1883-1966) is

perhaps this period's most prominent example of the process of physicalization and scientific

exploration of yoga, which has been exposed in the previous section. The particular centre was,

and still is, approaching yoga from a scientific point of view, designing experiments and

attempting to find 'scientific explanations for yogic powers' (Alter, 2005: 82). The exposition of

49
Krishnamacharya -and thus lyengar- to the approach established in Kaivalyadhama was of

particular importance; not only did it pave the way towards the integration 'of Western physical
fitness and training techniques in [Krishnamacharya's] practice and teaching' (De Michelis,

2004: 197) but most importantly the work at Kaivalyadhama made possible the invention of a

kind of yoga that subsequently turned into a 'transnational phenomenon' (Alter, 2005: 77). More

specifically, Kuvalyananda's approach was determined by three distinct elements: he sought to

understand and scientifically explain the physiological effects of the asanas; he experimented

with the duration that each asana should be 'held'; he tried out different ways of sequencing the

asanas according to the effect he wished to impart (Alter, 2007: 24). Furthermore,
Kuvalyananda grouped the asanas in three categories: the 'meditative', 'therapeutic' and

'cultural' (as in physical culture) (ibid.: 25). Although there was never any direct contact between

Iyengar and Kuvalyananda, as we will see, certain aspects of lyengar's system bear a strong

resemblance to Kuvalyananda's work.

Iyengar left Krishnamacharya's household and moved to Pune in 1934 with the aim to teach

yoga as a profession, while remaining a worldly man himself. His initial efforts were not met with

success and for the first ten years he encountered intense financial hardships (De Michelis,
2004: 198). However, his determination to teach yoga in conjunction with the opposition he

faced highlighted the importance of his own practice and the development of his own

understanding. lyengar immersed himself in daily hours-long practice of physical postures,

which was informed by the developments that were taking place in other yoga institutes in India
(De Michelis, 2004: 197). Additionally, he was also interested in Swami Sivananda (1887-1963),

a prolific writer of many books on yoga, whose ideas have exerted great influence on MY circles
(ibid. ).25 Based on the above, De Michelis argues that 'Iyengar combined within himself

influences from all the main early formulations of MPY' (ibid.). After a prolonged period of effort,

Iyengar succeeded in establishing his position as a yoga teacher. During the 1950s his

proficiency in yoga brought him into contact with distinguished personalities, such as teacher J.
Krishnamurti (1895-1986) and violinist Yehudi Menuhin (1916-1999). The former proved

particularly influential in shaping Iyengar's intellectual and philosophical outlook and his talks

comprised a source of inspiration for the language that Iyengar gradually developed and

employed in his teaching (De Michelis, 2004: 204). The ongoing contact between the two men

possibly led to Iyengar's gradual change of mentality from 'a mixture of traditionalism and Neo-

25 The work of Sivananda and the ashram of Divine Life Society he set up have been researched
ethnographicallyby Sarah Straussand discussedin her book PositioningYoga(2005).

50
 Hindu ideas to more detraditionalized, cultic milieu style theories and elaborations' (ibid.).

Although the above interaction can only be assumed, it could possibly be the factor that

facilitated Iyengar's relationship with Western culture and his subsequent success with Western

students (ibid.). One of them, as previously mentioned, was Yehudi Menuhin, who played a

pivotal role in introducing Iyengar to Western audiences. After receiving lessons from him in
Bombay, Menuhin invited Iyengar to Europe and the US. After the first visits, lyengar started

travelling worldwide and giving demonstrations and tuition to a growing number of students. A

circle of lyengar practitioners developed in Britain in the 1960s, and a few years later the
Iyengar Yoga classes and teacher training courses received the official endorsement of the

Inner London Education Authorities, 'provided that instruction is confined to "asanas" and

"pranayamas" and does not extend to philosophy of yoga as a whole' (ILEA Further and Higher

Education Sub-committee papers, October -December 1969, Report, no 11. London

Metropolitan Archives, ILEA/CUPRE/16124 as quoted in Newcombe, 2007: 42)

In 1966, lyengar published his first book Light on Yoga (with an introduction by Yehudi

Menuhin). De Michelis calls the book 'an instant best-seller' and a 'standard reference work on

asana practice in MY circles all over the world' (ibid.). The success of the book was based on a
'step-by-step' instruction that followed each pose, a feature that made possible the 'home-

practice' of the poses. Additionally the poses were presented by photographs of lyengar
himself, which proclaimed the author's adeptness (ibid.). The book also contained a week by

week practice programme and information on the physical and therapeutic aspects of the

asanas. Certain health conditions received particular attention and a specified sequence of

asanas was recommended as potential treatment. The aforementioned elements of the book

turned it into what De Michelis calls a 'milestone not only for the growth of lyengar school but

also for the development of MPY at large' (ibid.: 199). The practice of asanas, which has been
the most prominent aspect of MPY, is standardised and demystified (ibid.: 211), while their

presentation in an unprecedented proficient way raised the standards of the discipline and

endowed it with an exceptional status.

In 1976, Iyengar established in Pune his own purpose-built yoga studio, the Ramamani Iyengar

Memorial Yoga Institute. Apart from the numerous students who have since sought tuition in

Pune, the Iyengar style has been further developed and promoted by numerous books that

followed Light on Yoga, variably written by Iyengar himself, his children and his numerous

students. Accordingly, associations that fall in line with the institute in Pune have been set up in

most parts of the developed world (in Britain alone there are currently twenty-nine affiliated

UNIVERSITY OF
)
51 rip i1=73
 lyengar Yoga Institutes) and the training of teachers is still authorized by the institute in Pune. 26

Iyengar's decision to copyright his approach further makes clear that his teaching is
institutionalized, permeated by a certain ethos and hierarchy,
and subject to the 'unquestioned

authority of a charismatic leader' (ibid.: 202).

In order to demonstrate the way in which Iyengar developed the

practice of asanas it would be
instructive to compare two photographs of the same pose, as practised by Iyengar's teacher,

Krishnamacharya, and as demonstrated by Iyengar in Light on Yoga. In Figures 6 and 7 both

Krishnamacharya and Iyengar practise Trikonasana (Triangle Pose).

ýs

.! '

yy

ý:'
.. x a+A' K;
x':; :.

wä

Figure 19, Krishnamacharya in Trikonasana, Figure 20, B. K. S. lyengar in Trikonasana, reproduced

reproduced from Desikachar, 1995: 86 from lyengar, 1991: 42

It is clearly noticeable that in Iyengar's case the feet are precisely placed, both legs are straight,

the feet, knees and hips are in the same line, the shoulder-girdle is aligned with the
ankles,
the torso is and the neck rotated. Due to the above elements, lyengar's pose
pelvis, elongated,

demonstrates considerable attention to placement, alignment, and detail as well as an equal

distribution of weight and a balanced muscular effort exerted by different body parts.

Furthermore, lyengar's pose appears dynamic, as his body is clearly extended upwards and

26 The number of the lyengar Yoga centres in Britain is based on the official website of the lyengar Yoga
Association, UK (htto: //www ivenoarvoaa org uk/about-iva-uk/uk-institutes-and-affiliates, accessed on 18`n
of May, 2010).

52
 sideways. By contrast Krishnamacharya's placement seems asymmetrical, and his effort

unequal especially in relation to the legs (the front leg is bent and the back straight) and the

upper body (the upper side of the torso is extended whereas the lower side is shrinking). As a

result, his weight seems to be 'dropping' to the floor. Based on these observations, I would

argue that the two pictures do not simply demonstrate the practitioners' level of ability and/or

personal style, but make clear distinct approaches to asana practice; lyengar's approach
betrays a preoccupation with and emphasis on skeleton-muscular characteristics which is less

pronounced in Krishnamacharya's case.

A further comparison between two photographs of Iyengar and Krishnamacharya respectively

executing the pose Parvritta Trikonasana (Twisted Triangle Pose) would also reveal an affinity

with position number four of Mueller's My System Figure 8,9 and 10). In particular, it is
Krishnamacharya's pose that bears a closer resemblance to Mueller's position, as in both cases
the feet are facing the front and the lower side of the torso extends down. Iyengar, on the other

hand, turns the feet to the side and extends the torso laterally. Finally, it should be noted that

both Trikonasana and Parvrltta Trikonasana are names descriptive of a shape and do not allude

to an animal, object, or deity. Based on an examination of the three variations of Parvritta

Trikonasana, and taking into account Singleton's argument about the influence of Western

gymnastics, especially on standing poses, one could trace the gradual modification of the initial

position from Mueller via Krishnamacharya to Iyengar.

10
ab.

4 `,
R.

i.

Sý

Figure 21, detail from My Figure 22, Krishnamacharya in Figure 23, B. K. S. Iyengar in
System reproduced from Parvritta Trikonasana, reproduced Parvritta Trikonasana, reproduced
Mark Singleton, 2010: 119. from Desikachar, 1995: 86. from Iyengar, 1991: 43.

53
In addition to the development of the poses, lyengar also evolved a pedagogy and vocabulary

which rendered his own expertise transmissible, accessible, and, one would dare say,
democratic. De Michelis identifies the following characteristics in lyengar Yoga teaching:

the proliferation of anatomical detail and of 'adjustments'...; the ingenious and

pervasive use of props to improve postural performance and alignment; the
imaginative anatomico-dynamic teaching vocabulary...; the clever subdivision of

postures by type of movement and corresponding psychosomatic effect; the

training and fitness principles used to devise postural sequencing... (De Michelis,
2004: 234).

The above characteristics comprise a structured and comprehensive teaching method, and

further offer the possibility of different variations, so that the student's age, physical condition,

mental state, as well as specific problems can be effectively taken into account and/or

addressed. In this respect, Iyengar managed to combine a practice that is non-exclusive while

at the same time remains challenging and permeated by the possibility of improvement; one can

gradually attempt more complex poses and/or monitor the progression of simpler ones in terms

of awareness, alignment, flexibility, and balance. Last but not least, the ability of senior Iyengar

Yoga teachers to offer teacher training programmes means that the dissemination of his method

is decentralised, and hence possible to be mastered without direct contact with and/or teaching

by Iyengar. The copyright, on the other hand, ensures that his method is advertised and taught

by qualified teachers only.

Central Themes In Iyengar Yoga

In general, it could be said that the ideological profile of lyengar yoga is quite similar to the MY

one. De Michelis argues that the same themes permeate both MY and Iyengar Yoga, and she
identifies these themes as: Neo-Vedantic teachings, harmonial beliefs, and a spiritual and/or

religious layer, the presence and intensity of which depends upon each teacher (De Michelis,
2004: 208). Neo-Vedantic influences become clear with the notion of 'householder seeker'

which Iyengar applied in his own life by combining a longstanding commitment to yoga with a

parallel responsibility towards his family. Accordingly, his teachings propagate a kind of yoga
that is aimed at becoming part of the practitioner's life and not the path of a recluse. In this

sense, as the aims and objectives statement of Ramamani Institute mentions, yoga should be

practiced as a way of improving the practitioner's life (ibid.: 219).

54
 Furthermore, the same statement claims that the Ramamani Institute seeks to 'promote yogic

education and impart yogic instruction for the development of and integration of human

personality in all its aspects, physical, mental and spiritual... '(BKSIYTA 1992: 19 as quoted in
De Michelis, 2004: 201). In the above definition, De Michelis identifies two fundamental aspects

of New Age thought, namely healing ('integration') and personal growth ('development') (ibid.).

However, the notions of personal growth and self-development that lyengar Yoga supports are

not framed within a specific philosophical or ideological agenda, but similarly to other somatic

practices like osteopathy and Rolfing, self-development is expected to result from

orthopertormative practice. 27The causational relationship between practice of asanas and self -
development can thus be seen as a manifestation of harmonial beliefs, which identify in inner

adjustments the potential to influence external factors. As such, accurate and attentive practice

of the asanas is not only expected to contribute into attaining or preserving health, but

potentially becomes a way in which the practitioner can start to 'develop oneself' and affect

changes psychologically. In this manner, asanas and sets of sequences are also 'prescribed' for

mental-health purposes, for example to alleviate stress or cope with conditions like depression,

anorexia and mental fatigue. 21 'In such a way', De Michelis observes, 'MPY emerges as the

ultimate system of self help. Yoga can then be seen as a comprehensive tool for self-
improvement and healing, potentially suitable for self- ministration in total autonomy from

institutional and societal control, purely on the basis of individual choice, taste or need' (2004:

211).

The aforementioned approach towards the practice of asanas also provides the framework for

the religious and spiritual character of Iyengar Yoga. lyengar himself has a strong theistic and

devotional outlook. According to De Michelis, lyengar's religious beliefs became particularly

apparent in his third book, Light on the Yoga Sutras, published in 1993 (2004: 209-10).
However, a modern distrust towards religion as well as the variety of religious backgrounds from

which lyengar's students derive have led religious elements to fade away. Newcombe, for

example, stresses the fact that it was the Inner London Education Authorities and not Iyengar
himself who insisted on limiting the curriculum of Iyengar Yoga classes to the practice of

postures and breathing exercises only (2007: 42). The dissemination of Iyengar Yoga in the

West, therefore, although it may not have changed the founder's personal beliefs, has certainly

27 De Michelis argues that the self-developmentelement becomes particularly evident In the fact that
Iyengartranslatesthe Sanskritterm svadhyana,literally meaning'one's own study' Into 'study of the Self
12004:221)
e Particularly oriented in this Is book published by Iyengar In 2001, Yoga: The Path to Holistic
way another
Health.

55
influencedthe outlook and content of his teaching. De Michelis acknowledgesthat lyengar's

religious convictions are rooted in a South Asian theistic background, but argues that his
teaching has eventually encompasseda New Age vague attitude towards God, which can be

nature,the 'living or divine spirit' (2004:224).

As lyengar's religiosity becomes constricted to the realm of personal conviction, the presence of

spiritual elements, non specific to any religion and quite open to many interpretations, gain

ground in his teaching. The spiritual character of lyengar Yoga is, quite significantly, particularly

connected to the practice of the asanas. The triad of internal practice (dharana, dhyana,

samadhi) found in the Yoga Sutras, for example, is presented by lyengar as an automatic by-

product of the physical practice, which, however, should not be a particular concern for the

practitioner (De Michelis, 2004: 244). The rendering of the asanas in a spiritual light can on one
hand be seen as lyengar's attempt to reconcile the long divorced practices of Vivekananda's

Raja (meditational) and Hatha (physical) yoga. Furthermore, it allows him to formulate an

approach that potentially appeals to both yoga practitioners that are indifferent to or even

uncomfortable with a spiritual orientation as well as the ones that view yoga as a spiritual

practice. By claiming that a spiritual and/or meditational experience is a by-product of the

practice of the asanas, hence a matter of personal understanding and experience, lyengar

manages to circumvent the need for a more specific definition without losing his authority.

On the other hand, lyengar's emphasis on the asanas and their presentation as a meditational

activity can also be deemed as an attempt to clearly distance his teaching from New Age

practices of meditation, especially the ones that have been marred in scandals. lyengar for

example claims that 'the asanas bring the mind closer to the self without losing the contact with

the external world, whereas in meditation people get completely lost (ILW: 228 as quoted in De

Michelis, 2004: 243). Alongside the same lines, Silvia Prescott, a senior lyengar Yoga teacher

and a student of lyengar himself, further elaborates: 'if you give a "spiritual" teaching, people

can delude themselves and almost hypnotize themselves into thinking they are having a

spiritual experience. Whereas, if you leave it undefined, they 'II find something real for

themselves. They won't put it in terms somebody else has given to them' (Maimaris, 2006: 28).

The insistence on a strict orthoperformative framework coupled with a reluctance to provide a

more definite spiritual message could thus be seen as lyengar's safety net in his attempt to
keep his followers down to earth (De Michelis, 2004: 243).

56
 lyengar's endeavor to afford a meditational character to the practice of asanas, has also been

viewed as an attempt to entertain voices of disapproval, especially within Iyengar's native

country, that regard physically oriented practices of yoga as a diversion from meditational, i.e.

traditional, forms (Buehnemann, 2007a: 22). Buehnemann specifically draws attention to

lyengar's formulation, explicitly expressed in his book The Tree of Yoga, whereby all limbs of

Patanjali's yoga are explained and expected to materialize through the practice of asanas. A

similar statement by lyengar's daughter, Geeta lyengar, also appears as an attempt to disguise

distinct lyengar Yoga practices under the cloak of tradition. Discussing the use of ropes, Geeta

lyengar claims:

Though this book is not available Guruji [i.e. B.K.S. lyengar] has seen a
handwritten book with his own Guruji, Shri Krishnamacharya, in Mysore, a book
called Yoga Kurunta. Kuranti in Sanskrit means puppet... Yoga Kurunta means
yoga puppet show. The text book says in the olden days when the yogis were
living in the forests they would put ropes on the branches of the trees and perform
different sorts of movements or positions. All the details are not available as to
what they were doing, but still this clue was enough. We can perform certain
things with the ropes (lyengar, G. n.d. as quoted in Benjamin Smith, 2008: 157).

Whether the practice of the ropes derives from Hatha yogins, Krishnamacharya's yogasala, or

lyengar's innovations, is at the end of the day, of little importance. 29What becomes clear is that

lyengar continues the MPY narrative and its allusion to ancient origins. It can be claimed,

therefore, that with Iyengar Yoga the performative, medicalized, democratic, and pragmatic

approach towards yoga that began in nineteenth-century India has reached its apogee in terms

of ideological consummation, technical elaboration, as well as geographical expansion. Like a

number of South Asian men before him, Iyengar shed 'light on yoga' by drastically modernising

a disputable form of practice, while he continued to uphold claims of continuity.

Iyengar Yoga, Religion, and Indian Arts

As we have seen so far, De Michelis mounts a convincing argument about the MY and New

Age characteristicsthat permeate lyengar Yoga, and Buehnemannand Singletonpoint out the

questionable nature of the authenticity claims posed by lyengar and other MPY exponents.

Nevertheless,my impressionis that the focused attentionof the aforementionedscholarson the

2' It also has to be noted that Yoga Kurunta has been frequently evoked by Krishnamacharayaand his
descendentsas a further proof of the ancient roots of his system. The book is said to be lost and, apart
from Krishnamacharya'saccount, no evidenceexists that such a book has ever existed. For more details,
see Singleton,2010: 184.

57
historical and ideological premises of MY practices misses an important element that relates to

the original religious and cultural background of MY practitioners. In their attempt to trace and

highlight the presence of elements of Western ideologies and practices, these scholars have

overlooked the important fact that Indian thought and religions view the body in a very different

way from Western thought and Christianity. As John M. Koller indicates, despite the various

configurations advocated by different religious and philosophical systems, Indian thought

features a 'shared core of understanding across traditions and time' (1993: 45). He specifically

argues that 'the human body is viewed as a living process that integrates a complex variety of

mental and physical processes. That is, the human body is really a body-mind, rather than a

mere body or a body to which a mind is somehow attached' (ibid. ). The question whether such

an understanding of the body has been preserved, modified or eroded through India's

encounter with modernity would require a separate study, but it is important to note here that
Koller's account offers an additional dimension which current examinations of yoga do not seem

to have utilized. In view of Koller's thesis it would be instructive, therefore, to look more closely

at Iyengar's original background.

As I have mentioned, Iyengar derives from a Srivaisnava Brahmin lineage, and as De Michelis

has supported, he continues to uphold the devotional and theistic character of his religion.

Vaisnavism (or Srivaisnavim) is a branch of orthodox Hinduism, practiced in South India and

devoted to Lord Vishnu and his entourage (sri). Vaisnavism has its roots in pre-medieval

practices and is pertained by the dogma of visista-advaita, i.e. the doctrine of qualified non
dualism according to which self and Brahman (i.e. the Supreme Being in Indian metaphysical

thought) are the same, but Brahman is more than the self 30 A key role in the movement's

development has been played by Ramanuja (1017-1137) a teacher and innovator of the

Vaisnava religious tradition. In what seems like yet another attempt to furnish lyengar Yoga with

a traditional and religious pedigree, an article on Ramanuja's life has recently appeared in the

magazine published by the UK lyengar Yoga Association (lyengar Yoga News, 2009). 3' Leaving

aside the article's obvious attempt to paint a hagiographical portrait of Ramanuja, and by default
lyengar (who has after all gone past his ninetieth year of age), it is worth noting a particular

element that occupies the centre of Ramanuja's teaching.

30 The philosophical
school of Vedanta has evolved three branches which respectively view the
relationship to Brahman in a: non dualistic manner (Advaita), qualified non dualistic manner (visista-
advaita),and dualisticmanner(dvaita) (De Michelis,2004: 131-2).
31The content and tone the article, written by senior lyengar Yoga teacher, Richard Agar Ward, is
of
significantlydifferentto the overall orientationof the magazine,which is -or was up till now- secular.

58
 In a book entitled The Body Divine scholar of religious studies, Anne Hunt Overzee,

comparatively examines the concept of body as expressed in Ramanuja's thinking and in the

work of French Jesuit priest, Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955). As I have mentioned, Ramanuja
introduced a number of innovations in Srivaisnava dogma and practices, one of them being his

claim that 'non-vedic texts support and elucidate the vedic tradition' (ibid.: 2). As a result
Ramanuja developed 'an inclusive methodology' (ibid. ), which combined elements from the

Vedas, the Upanisads and the Bhagavad Gita. Ramanuja's innovation was based on the

widespread perception that the material world, including human beings, is part of the body of
Brahman. Such a notion, which rendered the world in a distinct theological light, is evident in the

anthropomorphic metaphors that abound in sacred texts of Hinduism, which describe Brahman

as a body, albeit exceptionally beautiful and somewhat supernatural; in the Bhagavad Gita for

example Brahman has 'countless stomachs, faces and eyes' (1992: 128). Ramanuja, however,
'wanted a definition of the body which accommodated both the earth and all beings associated

with matter and the Lord's divine form and descent forms [the forms by which the Lord makes
himself manifest to his devotees]' (ibid.: 82). 'This definition' continues Overzee 'enables him to

integrate a divine-world unity with Brahman's transcendence (ibid. ).

...

In this manner, the concept of the divine body becomes, in Ramanuja's case, more than a

metaphor; it rather develops into a model on which he bases his theological thought. More

specifically, Ramanuja identifies a specific relationship between body and self that permeates
human experience. According to this relationship, the human body is the 'field of

consciousness', since it 'enables the senses to function, and pleasure, pain or even the final
bliss to be experienced' (1992: 71). By contrast, the human self is 'uncircumscribed, infinite and

undivided. It supports the body, yet is independent of it' (ibid.). The way body and self are

related is analogous to the way the world is related to Brahman; 'the question of the world's
"control" and "support" by Brahman is linked to that of the body's "control" and "support" by a
...
self (ibid.). In the manner that the self is identical to the body but also something more than the
body, Brahman is identical to the world, but also more than the world. As such, Ramanuja's

model offers, according to Overzee, 'a theological picture of the world known intimately by
Brahman in the same way that each of us knows his or her body (ibid. ). More importantly,

Overzee argues that 'the body-self doctrine... provides a model for spiritual practice leading to

knowledge of Brahman through coming to know the nature of one's self and the world' (ibid.:

83).

59
In such a manner, Ramanuja's formulation allowed him to render spiritual experience as a 'self-

validating' attainment, gained through 'inner knowledge and perception' (ibid.: 91). As Overzee

notes, Ramanuja's doctrine quite clearly aims at altered states of consciousness, where 'the
limited ego or self-centred worldview is opened out into a universal, infinite perspective, the

focus of this new realm being the Lord, who is experienced as one's true "Self" or "Centre" of

consciousness' (ibid.: 130). Self-realization, therefore, is attained by the aspirant's realization of

his/her nature as part of the Lord's divine body. Despite the transcendental element, it has to be

stressed that Ramanuja's doctrine was restricted to devotional and meditational practices,

where the devotee would concentrate on the visualization of the Lord. Nevertheless, as Indian

arts scholar, Kapila Vatsyayan, demonstrates the concept of the divine body permeated the

practice and philosophy of Indian traditional arts.

It would not be an exaggeration to describe Vatsyayan's volume The Square and the Circle of

the Indian Arts (1983) as a tour-de-force, in which the scholar connects the basic tenets of

Indian religious practices and metaphysical thought to the traditional art forms that have

developed in the Subcontinent, namely forms of dance, music, sculpture, architecture, and

Bharata's treatise on theatre, the Natyasastra. More specifically, Vatsyayan argues that not only

the body and the senses play an instrumental role in Indian metaphysical thought and

soteriology, but that they also 'give rise to a cohesive and integrated vision of artistic creation'
(1983: 7). Echoing Overzee's analysis, Vatsyayan draws attention to the fact that a great part of

the Hindu sacred texts (i.e. the Vedas, the Upanisads and the Brahmanas) abound in 'imagery

and similitudes [that] exhibit an awareness of the human form in an unparalleled and sustained

manner' (1983: 11). The attention given to the human body and the senses derives from a belief
in their mastery and control as 'the very channel for transcending the multiplicity of form to the

"formless" and "beyond form"' (ibid.: 11). Based on the pervasiveness of such an understanding

and imagery, Vatsyayan argues that the 'Man-Body' is a principle that underlies Indian artistic

production. First of all according to Vatsyayan, the Indian artist approaches the creation of form,

whether such form Is chiselled on stone, produced by the dancer's movement, or expressed in

rhythm, as an act of devotion; as we have seen the rendition of Brahman in the form of the
human body places matter and spirit in the same continuum; the world is Brahman, but

Brahman is more than the world. Because, however, the world is the only means for

experiencing Brahman, the artistic action is imbued with the possibility of transcendence, and
'the total organism of the Physical Man is explored [through the arts] to discover its endless

psychic potential' (1983: 18). The above notions had an instrumental effect not only on the

philosophy that underpins traditional art forms, but also on Indian aesthetics and artistic

60
 techniques. As Vatsyayan supports, all Indian arts are permeated by a 'complex and rich
techniqueof measureand proportionof the basic figure of Man (ibid.: 112 emphasisadded).

It becomes clear therefore, both through Vatsyayan's argument as well as Overzee's work, that

human physicality played an important factor in religious and soteriological concepts of

Hinduism. Furthermore, traditional arts do not only exhibit a devotional character and a shared

focus on human form, but, the exploration of the human form through these arts is seen as a

spiritual practice. As a result, human form has determined the technical elements of these arts
in terms of measurement (both of space and time) and proportion. Although the concept of Self-

Realization in Ramanuja's doctrine was based on devotional and meditational practices only,

one could furthermore suggest that the transcendental nature of Indian arts extended the range

of spiritual and devotional practices beyond meditation into techniques of dancing, singing, and

sculpting. For example, Vatsyayan, contends 'that the image-maker, the text tell us, goes into a

state of yoga before he can even think of planning an image' (1983: 106).

Vatsyayan's and Overzee's studies offer yet another filter through which Iyengar's work can be

examined. Indeed, De Michelis identifies the influence of Ramanuja in lyengar's interpretation of

the Yoga Sutras, which, according to the historian, comprises lyengar's boldest expression in

terms of his religious sentiment. De Michelis argues that the 'devotional dedication and

concentration on one's orthoperformative practice substitutes the samadhi [i.e. transcendental] -

oriented sitting meditation' (2004: 244). Based on lyengar's overall treatment of the Yoga Sutras

and his 'devotionalization' of yoga, De Michelis identifies an intertwining of neo-Hatha practices

with neo-vaisnavite ideas. 32 It is not clear, however, why De Michelis is willing to acknowledge
lyengar's religious predisposition in his conservative treatment of meditation and enlightenment,

but not in his treatment of the asanas. Why should we assume that lyengar's approach to the

postures is solely based on the ideologies formulated in a MY milieu and not take into account
his own religious background, especially when this comes to the fore in other aspects of his

thinking? Based on Overzee's work, one could for example argue that Iyengar's indoctrination in

a religion that was permeated by the concept of the divine body conditioned his approach to the

32 Iyengar's decision to
align his practice with Patanjali's formulation Is not entirely consistent with his
original religious background. As I have demonstrated, the Yoga Sutras are underpinned by the Samkhya
philosophy, which views spirit and matter as distinct ontological entities. Srivaisnavism, on the other hand
is a variation of Vedanta philosophy which views the self as part of the body of the Brahman (for more
information on the differences between Samkhya and Vedanta see Koller, 1993: 49-55). De Michelis does
not comment on the theological differences between the two systems. Nevertheless, lyengar's translation
is an additional proof of the canonical status of the Sutras, and their function as the link between MY
practitioners and their 'classical' ancestors.

61
body long before he came into contact with Krishnamacharya's regime. It can thus be assumed

that the zeal with which Iyengar practiced the poses was underpinned by a religious sensitivity

and devotional outlook. Furthermore, as Overzee contends, the concept of light was an
important element of Ramanuja's understanding of and allusion to the divine (1992: 128-9). The

title, therefore, that Iyengar gave to his best-seller book might perhaps have religious

connotations apart from scientific ones. Equally, Vatsyayan's argument about the importance of
human physicality and its permutations in traditional Indian arts, also suggests that detail in form

has a long tradition in India which might have affected Iyengar's approach to the asanas.

lyengar has often referred to yoga as an art form and claimed that his practice has been

informed by his observation of sculptures in the temples, where 'the Indian sculptor' through his

'complex and rich technique of measure and proportion of the basic figure of Man' and 'without

erring against the fundamental laws of anatomy and the joints of the human skeleton' could give

expression to 'states of being' (Vatsyayan, 1983: 112).33 Vatsyayan's account of the strict

adherence to compositional rules and anatomical characteristics that underpinned Indian plastic

arts bears significant resemblance to lyengar's emphasis on orthoperformance. His approach to

the asanas as well as the spiritual emphasis he places on their practice might, therefore, be a

direct result of his original religious and cultural background, and not only the product of modern

influences.

Conclusion

Although the aforementioned line of thinking can at this stage remain only hypothetical, it

certainly points at the complexities that underlie an attempt to untangle the historical and
ideological web of MY. Indeed, as a number of studies point out, current yoga practices are

inextricably connected with the exchange that took place between East and West at the turn of

the nineteenth century, and as a result, contemporary forms of yoga cannot be unquestioningly

treated as a direct descendant of pre-modern South Asian traditions. This chapter has drawn

attention to the main differences between modern and pre-modern forms of the discipline; i.e.

modern forms of yoga have been commercialized as well as medicalized and they have also
lost the definite religious and devotional character that defined pre-modern forms (De Michelis,

2008: ). Moreover, the notion and authority of classical yoga is also questionable, since it

appears to be the product of orientalist discourse rather than the outcome of an ongoing

tradition. As a result, MY practices cannot lay claim to an ancient, classical pedigree. It is rather

331should thank Dorinda Hulton who drew

my attention to this aspect of Iyengar's work.

62
 more likely that they derive from recent developments,such as the rise of Neo-Hinduismin India
and the movement of Transcendentalismand Harmonial Religion in the West. Finally, the
physical and postural orientation of many yoga practices today appears to stem from an
engagementwith physical culture that grew in India and the West at the end of the nineteenth
century and the consequent combination of different systems of physical exercises in the
developmentof yoga posturesand syllabi.

However, it has also to be mentioned that recent studies on MY seem to favour an analysis that

foregrounds the modern characteristics of contemporary yoga practices, turning such an

analysis into another kind of meta-narrative. It has to be stressed, therefore, that as De Michelis

acknowledges, MY has yet to be examined also through the lens of indigenous, religious
Sanskrit texts (2008: 26), and until such an examination materializes, the 'MY account' has to

remain provisional. In other words, one has to watch that historical perspective and post-

modern sensitivity do not override and erase the religious and cultural background of current

practitioners, otherwise a scholarly standpoint risks repeating the error that is committed by

many yoga advocates. In the same way that many practitioners sacrifice historical accuracy for

an account of traditional continuity and authenticity, scholars run the risk of overlooking religious

and cultural idiosyncrasies for the sake of a neat analysis. The fact that claims of authenticity

and tradition form part of a peoples' religious agenda and national identity, should lead an

analysis of yoga to take these claims seriously, even if they do not stand to historical scrutiny.
As put by Alter 'all claims to both originality and orthopraxy [must] be scrutinized so as to

understand why the claims are made rather than whether they are true (2008: 47, emphasis

added). In particular regard to Iyengar Yoga, I would argue that it forms a characteristic

example of the way historical developments rub shoulders with religious ideology. It would be

misleading, therefore, to examine Iyengar Yoga only through a MY scholarly lens, and it would
be equally erroneous to unquestioningly accept lyengar's claim of a traditional pedigree. Based

on the above, this thesis will side with Filozat's definition of yoga as 'any discipline that makes

us capable of some mastery' (1991: 377 as quoted in De Michelis, 2008: 28) and it will also

stress De Michelis' point that '"discipline" should be understood here not only as "effort" but In a

more general sense of "training" and of systematization, transmission, and ordered application

of knowledge' (ibid.). As an epilogue to this chapter, I offer a short account of my own

engagement with and experience of MPY practices. The aim is to provide an example of the

way MPY practices are taking place today as well as a background of my own understanding.

63
Personal Practice

My first encounter with yoga took place in 1999 at the Drama department of Aristotle University

of Thessaloniki. A module on movement for the actor predominantly based on yoga poses was

taught by a member of staff, who, I believe, had been practising yoga for some time and had a

casual interest. My relocation in Britain in 2000 has allowed me to pursue my interest in yoga
further, and during my first year in the UK I began attending a Hatha Yoga class at a yoga

studio in East London. Up to 2003 my attendance of yoga classes has been periodical and

peripheral to the practice of other disciplines. A more committed approach towards yoga has
been fuelled by my introduction to Silvia Prescott. As I have already mentioned, Prescott (1922-

) is a senior teacher of Iyengar Yoga who has been taught by lyengar as well as by Silva Mehta,

the woman who was in charge of the teacher training courses approved by ILEA. As such,

Prescott belongs to the first generation of teachers and practitioners of lyengar Yoga in Britain.

However, it is important to note that Prescott had also been trained in and taught a 'German

system of keep-fit' (Maimaris, 2006: 26), which, as she has claimed, informed her approach to

asanas. In fact, and this seems to comprise a living proof of Singleton's argument, Prescott

observed that the keep-fit system was already 'pretty yoga-like' and a 'good lead' into the
discipline (ibid.).

Although I had been practicing Iyengar Yoga for a few months before I met Prescott, my

participation in her classes has been instrumental in focusing my general interest in yoga on the
lyengar school in particular, and turning a casual engagement into a daily and, later,

professional activity. I studied with Prescott from 2003 until her retirement in 2009. I used to

attend two or three classes on asanas per week as well as one class on pranayama, and also
developed my own daily practice. In 2005 I joined the teacher training course and in 2007

received the Junior Teaching Qualification. During the first years of my apprenticeship, Prescott

was teaching classes in her house in North London and as a result my initial exposition to
Iyengar Yoga has been through her teaching. It would not be an exaggeration to say that for

these first few years, yoga for me was lyengar Yoga and specifically lyengar Yoga 'with Silvia'.

The teacher training course as well as Prescott's retirement brought me into contact with

another teacher, Penny Chaplin, as well as the wider Iyengar Yoga milieu. Despite both Chaplin

and Prescott being students of Iyengar, their teachings have exposed me to different elements

of the style, and they have also alerted me to the way the teaching of the same method is

affected by the teacher's personality. In this section, I review my participation in Prescott's

classes only, because, until the beginning of this PhD project, Prescott was my main teacher.

64
 Prescott's teaching immediately brought to the fore the basic elements of the school; the class

included the practice of asanas only, and not other yoga practices such as chanting or seated

meditation; the emphasis was on the orthoperformative practice of the poses; and the teaching

was imparted mainly by verbal instructions which were expressed in a clear and focused

vocabulary, and less frequently by physical adjustments and partner work. In addition,
Prescott's teaching also featured the following distinct characteristics: an explicit emphasis on

the student's development of observation of one's body and movement, often expressed in the

regular instruction to 'find out'; repeated recommendations to develop one's own practice; a

constant reminder that yoga was a way to 'realize one's potential'; a call to the students to
become aware and undo their habits, which were regarded as being remnants of past needs

and not any longer useful and/or a result of the student's eagerness to comply with social norms

and expectations, i.e. what Prescott often called 'the good girl syndrome'. It becomes clear from

the above that, Prescott's teaching did not have an explicit spiritual orientation. As I have

mentioned in the previous section, Prescott was reluctant to put her teaching in spiritual terms

and her sparse use of the term 'spiritual' in relation to asana practice was often accompanied by

a proclamation that she did not know 'what the word means'. Nevertheless, her classes clearly

cast yoga as a tool for self-realization, albeit in terms of self and life improvement and not in a

transcendental manner. The attention that Prescott placed on developing proprioception and

reflexivity was thus presented side-by-side with the conviction that skeleton-muscular changes

could trigger emotional and mental ones. However, emotions were never directly discussed or

even alluded to. My impression is that Prescott's stance towards emotions was related to her

mandate to 'observe [our practice] as an impartial witness'. Reflecting a Patanjalian approach to

yoga as an activity that should remain dispassionate, Prescott possibly believed that an

engagement with emotions during one's practice could cloud the practitioner's observation.

As I gradually began to encounter the teaching of other teachers as well as the environment of

the Iyengar Yoga Institute in North West London, I became aware that Prescott's teaching was

an exception rather than the norm. As far as I am aware, Iyengar Yoga classes are restricted to
instructions relating to the poses and do not include any of the aforementioned points. ` In a

way therefore, my encounter with Prescott formed simultaneously a typical as well as an

atypical example of Iyengar Yoga practice. On one hand, Prescott's pedagogy and charismatic

personality allowed her to incorporate a number of ideas in her classes that are absent from the

34Nevertheless,certain teachers, especially the ones that visit from India, often relate aspects of the
practiceto Patanjali'sSutras,and tend to highlightthe 'ancientorigins' of yoga poses.

65
majority of Iyengar Yoga sessions. On the other hand, I believe Prescott's teaching brought to

the foreground the new age ideologies and expectations that underlie yoga classes in general

and lyengar Yoga in particular. More specifically, Prescott's approach (and of course Iyengar's
for that matter) could be seen as a rendition in distinct anatomical and physiological terms of

Krishnamurti's call for an end to automatic and conditioned responses, the shedding off of

habits, and the ability to stay in the present (1991: 2-3). Equally, her emphasis on the practice of

the asanas as a means to realize one's potential, echoes strongly with Paul Heelas' concept of

humanistic expressivism, i.e. an emphasis on self-development coupled with a strong belief in

the possibility of 'do[ing] something about the quality of one's own life', in this case yoga (1996:

116).35Finally, I would argue that the divergence of Prescott's teaching from a 'typical' Iyengar

Yoga session also gave rise to a qualitative difference. In his discussion of Zeami's work, Yuasa

Yasuo indicates that the Noh master claimed that'what distinguishes the merely skilled from the

masterly is whether one attends to the body's technical aspect or the mind's fullness' (1987:
107). Indeed, Prescott's teaching appeared to be rooted in her belief that 'in the process [of

learning to understand how the body works] you learn quite a lot about how the mind works'

(Maimaris, 2006: 29). According to my experience of her classes, I believe that the

aforementioned understanding has rendered her teaching significantly richer than other classes

of lyengar Yoga, as it endowed the practice of asanas with additional layers and pointed at the

possibility of integrating body and mind. I will return to certain points of Prescott's teaching in

relation to specific aspects of the practical projects in the second part of this thesis. It will suffice

to stress here that my own understanding and experience of yoga has been largely influenced

by my contact with Prescott, which also alerted me to the possibilities of an applied yoga

practice and, as such, formed the background of the practical side of this study. First, however, I

will look at the use of yoga by other theatre practitioners.

35A connection between

practice of yoga and humanistic expressivism is also drawn by De Michelis, 2004:
236.

66
 Chapter II: The Use of Yoga in Twentieth Century Western
Theatre

Introduction

The aim of this chapter is to examine the use of yoga by key practitioners of twentieth century

theatre; their sources of yoga, the reasons they were drawn to the discipline, the way they used

it, and finally the problems that arise in an attempt to explore this aspect of their work. As the

chief intention of this PhD project is to practically explore ways in which the practice of yoga can
be applied in a theatrical environment, an examination of the use of yoga by a number of

theatre practitioners can offer important knowledge and information. As I will discuss in the

second part of this thesis, earlier approaches towards yoga have either offered me exercises

which I have adjusted and incorporated in my own practical exploration (Chapter 3) or they have

provided me with a wider context wherein I can place and discuss the exercises I devised

myself (Introduction to Practical Projects). My choice to examine the work of Western

practitioners only has been determined by the following reasons.

As I have mentioned in the previous chapter, Kapila Vatsyayan identifies the presence of key

religious and metaphysical ideas that comprise yoga philosophy in the Natyasastra, a Sanskrit
text attributed to Bharata and written between the second century BCE and the second century

AD that lays down the aesthetics and methodology of Indian Classical performative arts and

architecture. Vatsyayan regards Bharata's treatise as yet another manifestation of the 'Man
Body', and she specifically states that 'the ritual and speculative thought was the ready source

material for Bharata to both formulate a theory of aesthetics and develop an infrastructure for a
form called theatre' (1983: 39). Vatsyayan further speculates that Bharata was aware of the

Yoga Sutras and she states that 'the concept of yoga in the world of theatre assumes

significance when seen within the framework of a worldview where equilibrium, balance and
harmony of the physical, sensuous, emotive, intellectual and spiritual levels is considered

essential' (1996: 56). According to Vatsyayan, therefore, yoga and theatre emerged from the

same religious and cultural milieu, whereby an understanding of yoga, as a form of discipline,

meditation, and unification, has underpinned the aesthetic appreciation and technical

elaboration of indigenous theatrical forms.

Accordingto the above, it would make sense to begin an examinationof the presenceof yoga
in theatre from the Natyasastraand the respectiveclassical Indian theatrical forms. Such an

endeavour,however,is fraught with considerabledifficulties.First of all, as I have made clear in

67
the previous chapter, yoga has changed radically over the past one hundred years and an

attempt to compare or establish lines of continuity between current forms of yoga practice and

pre-modern ones poses significant challenges. 3' Second, classical Indian theatre has also

changed, and Mark Singleton specifically argues that certain dance forms, such as
Bharatanatyam, have been subjected to the same process of modernization as yoga (2010:

168-169). An attempt, therefore, to examine the presence of yoga in these forms would entail

not only a constant revision of what yoga is but also a continuous consideration of the historical

and cultural development that these forms have undergone. Moreover, and more importantly,

my limited experience of and lack of training in any of these forms would mean that an attempt

to examine them in relation to yoga would have to be limited to bibliographical sources. Due to

the above, this study will examine the presence of MY forms in western theatre only, while

emphasizing the necessity for future research in the relationship between yoga -in its modern as

well as pre-modern manifestation- and Indian theatre.

The choice of the practitioners examined in this section has been primarily determined by the

extent to which they used yoga as well as the manner in which they approached the discipline.
As I will demonstrate in this chapter, every practitioner under examination came into contact

with a different facet of the discipline and approached it in a unique manner. Indeed it would not
be an exaggeration to claim that an overview of the presence of yoga in Western theatre

reflects the historical developments, geographical expansion as well as ideological currents that

characterize modern forms of the discipline. Finally, the work of the practitioners examined in

this chapter spans the whole twentieth century and demonstrates not only different ways in

which yoga has been employed but also the use of the discipline in relation to different theatrical
forms and genres.

This chapter will begin with an exposition of the use of yoga by Konstantin Stanislavsky, it will

continue with the yoga applications developed by Jerzy Grotowksi, and it will move on to
discuss the interest in yoga and Grotowski's applications expressed by the American

practitioners of the 1960s avant-garde scene. The chapter will conclude with recent applications

of yoga as developed and propagated by Dorinda Hulton. Based on the findings produced by
the existing bibliography each section will not only aim to discuss the use of yoga by each of the

36It has to be noted that Vatsyayansupportsthat 'the

connectionbetween Bharata'ssystem of exercise
and what we today recognizeas Hatha Yogaon the one hand, and martial arts on the other, is more than
obvious' (1996: 67). I believe that Vatsyayan'scomment proves further the orthoperformativeelement of
Indian arts, and raises questions about the Insistenceof certain scholars to recognize in current yoga
forms moderninfluencesonly.

68
 aforementioned practitioners but it will also have a slightly different focus. In Stanislavsky's

case, for instance, considerable attention will be paid not only on the way he used yoga, but

also on the way his use of the discipline has been so far presented and examined. The focus,

therefore, will be both on Stanislavsky's application as well as the manner in which current

scholars have approached and discussed it, and I will specifically argue that the problematic

nature of yoga's relationship to tradition has clouded the analysis of the scholars that examine

this particular aspect of Stanislavsky's work. In Grotowski's case, my main aim is to shed light

on the way Grotowski used the discipline and examine the caution he voiced in regard to yoga's
incompatibility with acting. The examination of the use of yoga by avant garde theatre

practitioners intends to produce material on a theme that has been so far little examined.
Equally, a discussion of the work of Dorinda Hulton is based on her extensive engagement with

the discipline and geared towards making known an aspect of her artistic and pedagogic activity

that has not been so far published.

An examination of prominent theatre practitioners according to the way they used yoga would

also reveal a number of underlying connective webs; Grotowski, Richard Schechner and
Dorinda Hulton, for example, apart from sharing a number of ideas in regard to theatre practice,

also belong to the MPY lineage started by Krishnamacharya and developed by lyengar. In a

similar manner the use of yoga by Grotowski and avant-garde theatre companies, such as The
Living Theatre, The Open Theatre, and The Performance Group, is inextricably connected to

the counterculture movement and New Age ideologies. Finally, it would be interesting to note

that apart from Dorinda Hulton and the Living Theatre, all the aforementioned practitioners

approached yoga as a form of actor training and the use of yoga was constricted to pre

performative purposes. Julian Beck and Judith Malina as well as Dorinda Hulton on the other
hand explored the performative value of the discipline, albeit in very different ways. Keeping in

mind these preliminary observations, I will proceed with an examination of Stanislavsky's work.

Stanislavsky, his System and Yoga

Stanislavsky (1863-1938) and his legacy have been instrumental in shaping our ideas about

acting and consequently the methods of training actors. One part of his multi-faceted work is the

influence of yoga and the adaptation of various yogic concepts in the exercises he developed.

In this section, I will firstly attempt to place Stanislavsky's interest in yoga within the overall

character of his artistic endeavour and I will then present and critically discuss the scholarly

texts that pinpoint yogic influences in his thinking and argue the importance of yoga in his work.

69
Basedon these texts, I will engagewith the primary sources of Stanislavsky'scontact with yoga

and establishfurther connectionsbetweenthese sources and Stanislavsky'sown writings.

Before embarking on my examination, I would like to point out certain difficulties that have been

identified in the studying of his work. Stanislavsky's ideas and writings have been subjected to

translation, abridgment, censorship and an ever-developing lore. These resulted in the vitiation

of his ideas, the particular meaning of certain terms as well as the nature of specific exercises.
Thus an ongoing debate has been spurred, which lends to his overall work a multiplicity of

layers and (mis)interpretations. Consequently, although my examination is going to concentrate

on a particular strand of Stanislavsky's work, it is not immune to certain problems that arise in
the effort to recapture and analyze his thinking. Furthermore, in particular relation to yoga there

are still a few points that remain unclear. When and where did Stanislavsky come into contact

with yoga for the first time? Did Stanislavsky actually practise yoga or did he only read about it?
For how long and to what extent was Stanislavsky interested in yoga? The fact that these

questions are still open has conditioned the current study, since the arguments that follow
derive from an inevitably incomplete image of Stanislavsky's relation to the discipline.

Stanislavsky's Interest In Yoga

When Stanislavsky came across yoga, he was deeply dissatisfied with his artistic endeavor and

its results (Benedetti, 1982: 23). In addition to this, the lack of any kind of structured teaching

method of acting as well as an established vocabulary had been tantalizing him since his early

attempts as a young actor (My Life in Art, 1980: 166-8). In this state he did not hesitate to
borrow and develop elements from different systems of thought and tailor them to his own

purposes (Benedetti in Stanislavsky, 2008: xviii). From an artist's point of view, Stanislavsky

found in yoga a repository of techniques, exercises and theories. He discovered a language that

could help him address some of the most fundamental acting issues: creativity on stage,

concentration, communication, relaxation. At the same time the philosophy of yoga fell in line

with Stanislavsky's spiritual approach towards art. As Benedetti mentions, during his period of
Realism (and prior to the use of yoga) Stanislavsky was convinced that the theatre should offer

a spiritual uplift and an ennoblement of the mind (1982: 11). Being influenced by Tolstoy and
Gogol, Stanislavsky believed in a theatre that transmits and does not represent and he sought

to create a system that would allow his actors to 'experience' and not to portray (Carnicke,

70
 1998: 110) 37 More specifically, Stanislavsky divided acting into three distinct categories: acting

as craft, as representation, and as art (Carnicke, 1998: 110-12). He aligned his quest with the
latter category and identified this kind of acting with 'the life of the human spirit of the role'

(Carnicke, 1998: 116). Yoga offered Stanislavsky on one hand a set of concepts which were In

line with the spiritual nature he identified in art and on the other hand it provided him with a

discipline that allowed him to develop a practical approach for the kind of acting he envisaged.

Scholarly Studies on Stanislavsky's Use of Yoga

The first title that consistently examines the presence of yoga in Stanislavsky's work is William

H. Wegner's The Creative Circle: Stanislavski and Yoga- published in 1976 (Zarrilli, 2009:

220). 38Wegner highlights the connection between certain exercises that Stanislavsky devised

and what he refers to as 'Tantric Yoga'. However, because subsequent scholarship has

rendered his argument obsolete, I will begin with an exposition of more recent findings. The next

study that follows Wegner's article and places considerable attention on the presence of yoga is
Stanislavsky in Focus by Sharon Marie Carnicke. In her seminal book, Carnicke offers valuable

information on the gradual modification to which the System has been subjected. She,

specifically, traces the story of different elements of the System that have been obscured, such

as those deriving from yoga, symbolism, and formalism, and sets out to expose them (1998:
10). The author dedicates a whole section to the use of yoga, where she details how yogic

concepts served Stanislavsky's purposes. In the second edition of the same book (2009), this

particular section has been revised by the author (and turned into a chapter), in order to include

information that has been procured by Andrew White in his article 'Stanislavsky and

Ramacharaka: The influence of Yoga and turn-of-the-century occultism on the System',

published in 2006. For this reason, I will review Carnicke's chapter in the revised edition and
White's article together.

In their respective studies, Carnicke and White offer a detailed exposition of the yoga elements

from which Stanislavsky drew and mount a compelling argument about the pervasive influence

of these elements on the System. Both scholars argue that Stanislavsky found in yoga not only

exercises for the actor's process, but most importantly he understood such process through the

lens of yoga and articulated it in a distinctively yogic vocabulary. Carnicke and White both trace

the major components of the system -- communication, concentration, imagination- to yoga

37For an extensivediscussionon the notion and term of 'experiencing'see Carnicke1998: 107-121.

38When I refer to other sourcesI follow the given spellingof the name.

71
philosophy and specifically mention the eight limbs of Patanjali's formulation, that has been

exposed in the previous chapter. Communication between partners is related to the exchange

of 'rays' and thus to the practice of breathing, the fourth limb of classical yoga, pranayama
(regulation of breath) (Carnicke, 2009: 222) and (White, 2006: 83-4). The development of

concentration and the subsequent activation of imagination, to the sixth and seventh limbs of

classical yoga: dharana (concentration) and dhyana (meditation) (Carnicke, 2009: 181) and
(White, 2006: 85-6).

Furthermore, White, and subsequently Carnicke based on White's article, traces Stanislavsky's

references of yoga to the books of Yogi Ramacharaka 39 Yogi Ramacharaka was the pen name

of Chicago-based lawyer William Walker Atkinson (1862-1932), who wrote a number of books

under a number of pseudonyms. In specific relation to yoga, Atkinson as Yogi Ramacharaka

authored, between 1903 and 1907, twelve books with titles like: Hatha Yoga or The Yogi
Philosophy of Physical Well Being, Raja Yoga or Mental Development (2006: 82). Although

Stanislavsky knew about the discipline before Ramacharaka's books were published in Russia

around 1910, White and Carnicke demonstrate the latter's influence and point out significant
links between the System and Ramacharaka's books. The two scholars pay attention to prana

and the manner in which this notion informed Stanislavsky's work as well as the way it has been
deleted from various typescripts. Through the exposition of passages found in Ramacharaka's

book Hatha Yoga and Stanislavsky's writings, White proves that Stanislavsky's theoretical and

practical understanding of the term, as well as the interrelation between breathing and

concentration that featured in the exercises he developed, derives from Ramacharaka (White,
2006: 83,85). In the same manner, the term superconscious is also to be found in

Ramacharaka's terminology, and both Carnicke and White explain Stanislavsky's division

between sub- and superconscious (White, 2006: 86 and Carnicke, 2009: 179). Carnicke, in

particular, points out the significance that Stanislavsky placed on superconscious which 'most of

all must be valued in our art' (Stanislavsky 1988-1995 as quoted in Carnicke, 2009: 180).
Relevant to the sub-conscious aspect of one's personality, is also the process of 'sub-

consciousing'. The term, found in Ramacharaka's Raja Yoga, means 'an individual's transfer of

the work of the conscious mind to the subconscious for processing' (White, 2006: 86). Again

White and Carnicke, quoting from Stanislavsky's notes, show the presence of the

aforementioned technique in Stanislavsky's work (White, 2006: 86 and Carnicke, 2009: 177).
Finally, the state of 'I am', which in the System's jargon means 'the unified state of actor and

39Referencesto Ramacharakado not appear in the first

editionof Carnicke'sbook (1998).

72
 role' is also a stage of the mental developmentprescribedby Ramacharaka(White, 2006: 87-
8).

White places Ramacharaka within the 'spiritualist movements' (2006: 81) that sprang up in

nineteenth-century North America, and as a result he is led to acknowledge certain aspects of

Ramacharaka's thought which are incompatible with the pre-modern philosophy of the

discipline; Atkinson drew from yogic philosophies and techniques in general, did not comply with

any school of yoga in particular, and his approach was based on a distinctly Western viewpoint
(2006: 82). It would derive from the above that White would be forced to examine Stanislavsky's

contact with yoga within nineteenth-century developments. Indeed, in his introduction White

appears keen on investigating 'from exactly what Yogic disciplines did he [Stanislavsky] borrow

and how does his brand of Yoga differ from classical Yoga' (ibid.: 73). However, even though
White seems alert to the differences between the yoga that Stanislavsky encountered and pre-

modern versions of the discipline, his analysis does not take such differences into account.
Equally, White does not mention the obvious similarities between Ramacharaka's books and

Vivekananda's homonymous volume, although he does mention Vivekananda's talk at the

Chicago Parliament of Religion in 1893 (ibid.: 82). As we have seen in Chapter 1, Vivekananda

published his Raja Yoga in 1896, in which prana is successfully refashioned into the concept of
'vital fluid' and samadhi into the notion of 'superconscious'. White does not mention any such

developments and he merely concludes that Stanislavsky's contact with yoga was vitiated (ibid.:

83). As a result, White exhibits a somewhat ambiguous attitude towards Ramacharaka's work;

on one hand he acknowledges the latter's spiritualistic influences, but on the other repeats
Ramacharaka's suppositions. For example, White calls Ramacharaka a 'distinctly American

Yogi' (ibid.: 81) but also refers to prana as 'the Hindu concept of vital energy' (ibid.: 79). The

confusion that permeates White's thesis, however, has to be seen in relation to the overarching

aim of his article. As he declares in his introduction, White intends to examine Stanislavsky's

System 'through the spiritual rather than the more familiar "psychological"' and 'counteract the

common and widespread assumption that Stanislavsky's theories are bound entirely to

psychological realism and, consequently, to a Western ideology that separates the mind from

the body' (ibid.: 74). Such an intention undoubtedly compels him to maintain the assumption

that yoga is a technique that promotes bodymind unity. However, as I am going to discuss

further down, bodymind unity was not on Atkinson's agenda.

In a similar manner, Carnicke acknowledgesthe Westernisedversion of yoga propagated by

Atkinson, and also considers the 'bastardized' impression it may convey 'to true disciples of

73
yoga' (2009: 175). Nevertheless,she does not examinethe context in which Atkinsonwrote his
books and as a result her analysis is permeated by confusion in regard to pre-modern and

moderncharacteristicsof the discipline.Such a shortcomingbecomes particularlyevidentin the

definitionof yoga that she gives in the glossarysection of her book:

Yoga

Spiritual disciplines in Eastern Religions of Hinduism and Buddhism, that are

directed toward higher consciousness ('superconscious'). Two disciplines that
most influenced Stanislavsky are Hatha Yoga and Raja Yoga. The first calms and
relaxes the body by means of physical work on postures and balance (asana) and
control of breath (pranayama). Raja ('royal') Yoga works on mental control
through concentration (dharana), visualization, observation and meditation (ibid.:
227).

It becomes clear from the above that Carnicke does not place yoga within a historical context

and she thus treats characteristics that yoga acquired during the nineteenth century as innate.
As I have already discussed, the split between Hatha and Raja Yoga, as well as the

incorporation of the concept of the superconscious, were the result of an attempt to repackage

yoga for nineteenth-century audiences. Moreover, in opposition to Carnicke's equation of Hatha

Yoga with relaxation, Mark Singleton examines the development of relaxation techniques during

the nineteenth century and demonstrates that 'there is a strong current in early therapeutic

techniques that identifies individualistic proprioceptive relaxation with accession to divine

knowledge and grace. This current has also passed into the discourse of modern yoga,

beginning with Vivekananda and continuing to this day' (2005: 297). An understanding of Hatha

Yoga as a relaxation practice is, therefore, a relatively recent development, which is furthermore

incompatible with the notions of control and discipline that accompany Hatha Yoga in medieval

Sanskrit texts.

In such a manner, Carnicke blurs the ideological boundaries between pre- modern and MY and

downplays Atkinson's original background. Furthermore, she accredits Ramacharaka's version

with a certain advantage; 'the practice that Ramacharaka books encourage is easier to follow

that would be the stricter planes of true yoga' (2009: 175). Apart from the historical inaccuracy

that becomes evident in her definition of yoga, the above statement also burdens Carnicke's

analysis with an essentialist character. As the scholar does not draw any distinction between

the pre-modern and modern version of the discipline, one is left to wonder what exactly 'true'

yoga is and what could count as criteria for its authenticity. Similarly to White, therefore, it
becomes evident that Carnicke's thesis presupposes yoga's 'physiospiritual unity' (ibid.: 182).

74
 As a result her analysis does not lead to an evaluation of the position of yoga in Stanislavsky's

work, but it is instead founded on and driven by the preconceived assertion that 'Eastern

thought offered him [Stanislavsky] more satisfying models for the mind/body relationship' (ibid.:

175).

Ramacharaka and Modern Yoga

An exposition of nineteenth-century developments, however, makes clear that Atkinson's yoga

cannot be so easily dismissed, since his volumes reflect the very process that was taking place
during his time and are inextricably linked to the rise of MY. Apart from the glaring similarities to

Vivekananda's ideas, in true nineteenth-century fashion Atkinson promotes yoga as a technique

to train the mind, distinguishes between Raja and Hatha Yoga, and regards the former as

definitely more important. Therefore, Atkinson's choice to include in his books on yoga 'a wide

range of topics including life after death, clairvoyance, psychic healing, Christian mysticism,

general introductions to yogic philosophy plus translations of and commentaries on the

Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads' (White, 2006: 82), I identify a reflection of the very process

that was taking place during his time and subsequently gave rise to MY, i.e. the blending of a

variety of neo-vedantic esoteric traditions and avant-garde American occultist elements (De
Michelis, 2004: 110) and (Albanese, 2007: 360). Consequently, it can be argued, that as

Atkinson's titles found their way into Stanislavsky's library, Stanislavsky via Ramacharaka drew

from a yoga that was modulated at the same time as the formulation of his System. When he

applies exercises from Raja Yoga and when he writes in his notebooks about prana and the

superconscious, Stanislavsky is not drawing from Eastern Spirituality, a glimpse of which he

gained, according to White, through Ramacharaka's books (2006: 81), but from an immediate

Western present. Furthermore, I would argue that nineteenth-century Western ideologies have

not only determined the way Stanislavsky understood and applied yoga, but become evident in

two more concepts that loom largely in both Stanislavsky's work and Ramacharaka's writings.

As I have already mentioned In the previous chapter an important current of nineteenth-century

thought has been the presence of Harmonial Religion, and a belief in an interconnection

between outer and inner realm, which were thought to be permeated by the same set of laws.

The ability, therefore, to control one's inner nature was equated with one's domination and

subjugation of the world. In particular relation to yoga, the adept's control of his nature acquired

an important place within the ideology of Brahmo Samaj (De Michelis, 2004: 87), and was

further elaborated by Vivekananda. The full title of Vivekananda's book Raja Yoga: Conquering

the Inner Nature hit an important nerve with nineteenth-century audiences and left no doubt

75
about yoga's function. The yogi, proclaimedVivekanandain his book, will be the 'master of the
whole nature, internal and external' (CW 1: 132-33 as quoted In De Michelis, 2004: 157).
Reflecting Vivekananda'sassertions, Ramacharakaalso clarifies that 'by mastery, we mean

masteryover your own lower nature,as well as over outside nature,of course' (1906: 272).

Despite the different approaches to acting that he developed, Stanislavsky continued to view

nature as an infallible model for the actor and its undisputed existence remained a constant

point of reference throughout his career. His books and notes abound in references to nature,

which is conceptualized in a way that bears considerable resemblance with American

nineteenth-century occult thought in general and Ramacharaka's writings in particular. For

example, according to Stanislavsky acting was founded on the 'organic laws of nature' (2008:
21), since the latter offers a prototype for acting and 'will help if she is convinced of the

biological truth of what you are doing' (2008: 595). Similarly, Ramacharaka in his chapter on

'the yogi practice of character building' observes that 'the best way is to imitate nature' (1906:

250). Furthermore, it is noticeable that in the writings of both men nature is personified, and

indeed the 'laws' that permeate her are treated by Stanislavsky as a kind of criterion according

to which his acting choices gain validity. It is quite telling that any objections voiced by Tortsov's

students in regard to their training are rebuffed by the latter's invocation to natural laws, which

should be observed in rehearsal and performance. Stanislavsky's reliance on nature in

conceiving and particularly in advocating his artistic approach was indeed so complete that he

states that 'there is no "system". There is nature' (2008: 612). His book, he reminds us, is

written in defence of her laws (2008: xxviii).

Another relevant concept to the above discussion is Stanislavsky's idea of a 'second nature',

which the actor was supposed to develop through intensive training. Rose Whyman in an article

entitled 'Second Nature: Stanislavski and William James', examines Stanislavsky's

understanding of the concept, which she traces to William James's work on habit. As quoted by
Whyman, Stanislavsky became convinced that 'in our business everything should be done

through habit, which turns what is new into something that is my own, organic, into second

nature' (Stanislavsky, 1954-61: 310-11 as quoted in Whyman, 2007: 117). The possible
influence of James on Stanislavsky's understanding of and emphasis on a second nature

makes imperative to note that James also exerted important influence on the circles that
Vivekananda frequented, as well as Vivekananda himself. It is no wonder, therefore, that we

find the idea of second nature in Ramacharaka's Raja Yoga. In a formulation that echoes

Stanislavsky's insight, Ramacharaka refers to the "'Habit Mind" [which] contains only that which

76
 has been placed there by the person himself and which he has acquiredby experience,habit,

and observation,repeated so often until the mind knows it so well that it is carried below the
field of consciousness and becomes "second nature"' (1906: 209).

Finally, it has to be noted that according to Ramacharaka both the ability to conquer one's

nature as well as the capacity to develop a second one were considered to be dependent on the
individual's will. Indeed, the concept of Will has such an important place in Ramacharaka's

overall work, that, as he succinctly puts it 'the power of the Will... underlies the entire teachings

of "Raja Yoga"' (1906: v). The Will' of the individual can thus 'be used to manipulate, guide,

govern and direct the mind of its owner as well as the physical world' (1906: 79). In light of the

above, it is quite significant that Will has an equally significant place in Stanislavsky's System
both in terms of the actor's resources as well as the role's constituent parts. Alongside Mind and

Creative Feeling, Stanislavsky identifies Will as one of the psychological inner drives (2008:

277). As such, the actor is expected to activate his will in order to experience the role as well as

understand the Will of the character, in relation to the latter's aims and desires. Also both men

acknowledge the importance of the Will for the exercise of concentration, with Ramacharaka

claiming that 'attention lies at the base of Will Power' (1906: 97) and Stanislavsky observing that
'work on concentration demands enormous efforts and the Will to do it' (2008: 114).`0

Quite interestingly, the concept of Will continues to be significant in certain actor training

methods. David Krasner, for example, claims that 'Method acting, particularly Strasberg's

version of it, is rooted in ideas of free will' (2000: 18). Indeed, in a statement, which significantly

resembles Stanislavsky's idea of Will, Lee Strasberg contends that the will 'enters every phase

of training from the beginning. Nothing is allowed to happen without the actor's will being

thereby strengthened' (Strasberg in SS 153 as quoted in Krasner, 2000: 18). Nevertheless, it

has also to be stressed that in Strasberg's case, and partially in Stanislavsky's early

formulation, the actor is predominantly viewed as an interpreter and less as a collaborator.

'Method actors', Krasner argues, 'must impose their "stamp" upon their role' (2000: 18). As such,

an actor's interpretation of a particular role is 'an assertion of the will' (ibid.) However, as
devising and collaborative forms of theatre began to emerge from the 1960s onwards, attention

40 A further
connection between Stanislavsky's concept of Will and yoga is offered by Carnicke, who,
based on one of Stanislavsky's infamous sketches, mentions that 'Stanislavsky's psychic initiators ("Mind",
"Will", "Feeling") become the actor's chakras' (2009: Figure 18). Carnicke does not seem to be aware of
the convoluted way in which the chakras came to become a part of MY formulations (see chapter 1),
neither does she trace the concept of Will to Ramacharaka. Nevertheless, she Identifies a connection
between Stanislavsky's concept and yoga.

77
was removed from the individual actor and placed onto the group. In this respect, the

strengthening of the actor's will, as explicated in Stanislavsky's writings and reinforced by

Strasberg's teachings, can be seen as being inimical to the egalitarian and collaborative

working methods advocated by devising theatre companies. As I will discuss in a later section of

this chapter, theatre groups of the 1960s avant-garde scene were primarily interested in the

theatre's role as a vehicle of social change and subsequently favoured the actor's personal

development over one's interpretative skills. Consequently, yoga was seen less as a method to

train the individual's will and more as a path of change and transformation. I would finally argue

that the variable attention placed on the concept of Will exemplifies a general tendency that

underlies the application of yoga. The elements of yoga that gain salience in the work of
different practitioners depend on the way each practitioner understands and approaches acting.

With regard to Stanislavsky's case, it becomes clear that Ramacharaka not only comprises the

source of Stanislavsky's understanding of yoga, but also shares with him certain key concepts,

which pertain both to yoga and acting. Apart from such conceptual and ideological similarities,

as I will demonstrate in the next section, Atkinson's influence on the System is also evident in

the way Stanislavsky organised his copious material.

Resemblances to Ramacharaka's Books In terms of Form

As I have already discussed, White and Carnicke make a convincing case about the connection

between Ramacharaka's ideas and the terms and notions that comprise an important part of the

System. In addition to this, Carnicke identifies that Ramacharaka's books 'provided Stanislavsky

with a structural model' (2009: 173, emphasis added) and cites specific examples in which
Atkinson's format was used by Stanislavsky. " The implications, however, that an adaptation of

Ramacharaka's model ensued are not touched upon by Carnicke. Nonetheless, as I will argue,

an understanding of the way Stanislavsky organized his psychotechnique, and subsequently

became the structure of the System itself, would highlight the way yoga-related dualisms

infiltrated his work.

Yogi Ramacharakaoffered Stanislavskynot only instructionin yoga techniquesand theory, but

also the 'know how' to provide this kind of instruction.First of all it is importantto bear in mind
that Stanislavskyhad trouble in both expressinghimself as well as finding a satisfactoryway to

41Camicke Identifiesthe movementfrom outer to inner that characterizesthe work of both men and she
also draws attentionto the drills that accompaniedRamacharaka'syogic practiceas well as Stanislavsky's
training (2009: 173-4).

78
 organize his material. 42On the other hand, a brief look at Atkinson's books reveals that he was

quite a prolific, if not charismatic, writer with copious amounts of publications under his name or
his various pseudonyms, the ones on yoga being still in print. When, therefore, Stanislavsky

came across a manual that provided a well-articulated theory as well as explicit directions, drills,

and exercises for one's mental and physical development, it was only a short step for him to

compile a similar manual for the actor's mental and physical development. And taking into

account that such an acting manual did not pre-exist, let alone an appropriate vocabulary

(Stanislavsky, 2008: xvii), it is not surprising that Stanislavsky's writings resemble

Ramacharaka's volumes not only in terms of content but also noted by Carnicke- in terms of
-as
form and style.

In line with the separation between mental and physical faculties that characterized American

occult thought, as well as the prominence attributed to the mind, Atkinson placed mental and

physical development in two distinct books, entitled Raja Yoga and Hatha Yoga respectively.
Atkinson, however, did not simply copy Vivekananda's title and ideas, but he added an

important twist. Drawing from the widespread notion that spirituality can be attained through

practice, Atkinson presented his material in lessons. Ramacharaka's Raja Yoga, therefore is not

simply a book but a compilation of DIY sessions on spiritual development. Echoing

Ramacharaka, Stanislavsky framed his ideas within the context of a fictive actor training course.

Accordingly, although he insisted on the publication of the two-year course in the same volume,

he did divide the material in two sections: the 'inner' work or Experiencing that was to take place

in the first year and the 'outer' work or Physical Embodiment that was to begin in the second. A

similar categorization of the curriculum can be found in 'a number of sketches which', according

to Jean Benedetti, 'Stanislavski made in an attempt to present the System in a diagrammatic

form' (2004 [1982]: 82). Indeed, Benedetti presents one of these diagrams in which we can

clearly see a list on the left hand side on 'Internal Theatrical state' that includes 'imagination,

attention and objects' amongst others, and a column on the right hand side, entitled 'External
Theatrical States' and lists 'relaxation, external tempo rhythm... physical expressiveness' (ibid.:

83). It should be also noted that Stanislavsky not only made a clear distinction between inner

and outer but advocated a sequential progression from the inner to the outer, which can also be
traced to Atkinson's book; Yogi Ramacharaka confidently claims that 'the internal world must be

conquered first before the outer world is attacked' (1906: 31). The causational relationship

42Fora detaileddescriptionof Stanislavsky'snumerousattemptsto achievea comprehensivearrangement

of his manuscriptssee Carnicke,2009: 72-3, and Benedettiin Stanislavsky,2008: xvi-xvii).

79
between inner and outer that is evident in the work of both men can also be seen as a

manifestation of Harmonial Religion and the belief that Inner work can affect outer
circumstances.

Another resemblance between the works of the two men can be found in the way they treated

the practical exercises. In Atkinson's book Raja Yoga, each chapter discusses a particular

aspect or stage of one's mental development and at the end of each chapter a set of drills is

given for the aspirant to master. 'You will notice that in these series' writes Atkinson in Raja
Yoga, 'we first tell you something about the theory, and then proceed to give you "something to

do". This is the true Yogi method as followed and practiced by their best teachers' (1906: 82).

Stanislavsky's book follows a similar trajectory. In the English edition each chapter deals with a

particular aspect of the actor's psychotechnique, and we are informed that each of these

aspects is reinforced by separate classes on drills led by Rakhmanov, Tortsov's assistant.

Descriptions of these exercises did not accompany the English publications. Also the fact that

even An Actor's Work, arguably the most reliable English rendition of the System, includes a

variety of exercises that correspond to different chapters at the end of the main book, makes

clear that Stanislavsky considered these practical exercises to be a separate, additional

element to the work outlined in the main corpus (Stanislavsky, 2008: 641-74). Therefore, if
Stanislavsky was indeed influenced by Atkinson in the way he structured his material, this

influence could also explain the mixed messages that Stanislavsky is giving in regard to the

relationship between body and mind. On one hand Stanislavsky is striving to make clear the
interconnection between the two, but on the other he chooses to train body and mind with

separate exercises and in different years. The question that arises is why someone, who

apparently has a profound belief in the oneness of the physical and mental planes, writes a
book that treats them as distinct entities. Would it be too far fetched to assume that such

inconsistency is due to the model that the writer used for the arrangement of his book? Based

on the above, I would like to point out another peculiarity in Stanislavsky's book, which could

also be attributed to his influence by Raja Yoga.

After the students have explored concentrationand attention -both aspects of the actor's inner

work- the first year of the is

course abruptly disrupted by Kostya's 43
accident. Stanislavsky's
distraught hero notes in his diary:

43The accidentis includedin both the Englishand Russianedition.

80
 It appears that my sorry accident has had its repercussionson our studies. They
have had to jump ahead and work on the body. Tortsov said: 'We shall have to
interrupt the strict, systematic,theoretical sequence of our programmeand talk,
earlier than we had intended, about one of the most important elements in our
work, the process of muscularrelease' (2008: 120).

Stanislavsky's choice to interrupt the course of a fictional training with a fictional

accident
appears indeed quite peculiar both in terms of structure as well as content. According to his

plan, physical relaxation should be dealt with at the second year. It is very clear, however, that
Stanislavsky wants to talk about the actor's relaxation in the first year, and thus creates a

device, such as the aforementioned accident, that allows him to disrupt the course of the

original curriculum and insert the subject of relaxation. Tortsov provides the following rationale:

The proper place to deal with this question [physical relaxation] would be when we
talk about external technique, that is about work on the body.44 But the facts
[Kostya's accident] indicate with some urgency, that it would be more appropriate
to address the question now, early in the programme, when we are talking about
our psychotechnique (2008: 120).

Apart from providing a fictional accident as the reason behind his choice, Stanislavsky does not

explain why he considers relaxation to be so important and why he insists on teaching it in the
first year. Quite interestingly, in Ramacharaka's Raja Yoga there is a chapter on mental control

and concentration, in which Atkinson advises his reader: 'It is well to accompany the above

exercises with a comfortable and easy attitude, and then relax every muscle, and take the
tension from every nerve, until a perfect sense of ease, comfort and relaxation is obtained'

(1906: 86). It seems, therefore, that through the invention of an accident Stanislavsky managed

to both maintain the dichotomy between physical and psychological training as well as follow

Atkinson's guidelines on relaxation.

In relation to the above episode, it is also interestingto note that Carnickenotices the accident
in questionand treats it as an exampleof Stanislavsky'stendencyto separatebody and mind:

While any point may theoreticallyprovide an entree into the System,Stanislavsky

begins with the mind, and hence gives internal work apparent primacy. However,
when one of Tortsov's students seriously injures himself due to overzealous

44As I have mentioned, in the list that features in Benedetti's text,

relaxation is placed under the heading of
'External Theatrical State'.

81
 concentrationon inner techniques,Tortsov responds by interruptinghis planned
curriculumand jumping aheadto exerciseson physicalrelaxation(2009: 181).

However, as I have already argued, Carnicke's assumptions about yoga prevents her from

seeing that Ramacharaka's version could well be a source for the dichotomy that manifests in

the System and is particularly reflected in this incident. Indeed, Atkinson's words leave no doubt

about his view of the body: 'In the First Lesson [of Raja Yoga] you gained the perception of the

"I" as independent from the body, the latter merely being an instrument for use' (1906: 130).

Based on the striking similarities between Ramacharaka's terms and Stanislavsky's vocabulary,

discussed by Carnicke and White, as well as the stylistic resemblances between the work of the

two men noted here, one could support that Stanislavsky found in Atkinson's books a prototype

of work on one's self and he used it as a matrix to lay his own system. The presence, however,

of Atkinson's work as an underlying layer to the System made Stanislavsky particularly

susceptible to dualistic models of thought that permeate not only Atkinson's books but American

occult thought in general. The polarization between inner and outer, mind and body, theory and

practice, is evident in the book that Stanislavsky wrote but also in the books that he chose to

use as a guide. As a result, the influence that yoga had on Stanislavsky, not only fails to

mitigate the traits of body-mind dualism that appear in the System, but could, in fact, be their

source. This becomes more apparent, if one bears in mind the fact that Stanislavsky in his

struggle to understand and pin down the actor's creative process arrived eventually at very
different results, which were not compatible with the yoga proposed by Atkinson 45 Nonetheless,

as argued by White 'although Stanislavsky's most detailed study of Yoga occurred in the first

quarter of the twentieth century ... he apparently continued to find it useful' (2006: 80). More

specifically, White uses a reference to prana, found in a typescript that Stanislavsky sent to
Hapgood in 1935 as a proof of yoga's continuous influence throughout Stanislavsky's life (ibid).

However, my impression is that references to prana do not so much prove a lasting interest in

yoga, but point more towards another hypothesis.

The System and Occultism

Stanislavsky embraced the concept of prana, which constitutes not only one of his most
frequent allusions to yoga, but, as White informs us, also one of the last recorded references

as am here referring to Stanislavsky'slater work known as the Method of Physical Actions and Active
Analysis. Unlike his earlier efforts, in this approach the actor's body is involved directly and from the
beginningof the rehearsalprocess.For more details see Merlin,2001.

82
 relating to the discipline. However, the concept of prana with which Stanislavsky came into

contact had already been removed from its original religious and cultural context and it had
been appropriated and considerably remodelled by nineteenth-century occultism. Prana, as I

have already mentioned, acquired an important position within the 'laws of causality' and

became equivalent with the flow of energy that connects higher with lower realm. In this context,

prana is closer to Blavatsky's Great Breath, Mesmer's fluid, and notions of subtle electricity,

rather than to orthodox Hinduism.4e In the same manner, as White demonstrates, in

Stanislavsky's work the concept of prana, or energy -as substituted by some of the Soviet

censors- equals the 'Vital Force', the 'inner connection between the actor's mind and heart', the
link between the actor and his/her colleague (2006: 81). I would also argue that Stanislavsky's

invocation of prana has to be seen in relation to the similarities that Stanislavsky and

Ramacharaka share in their respective understanding of nature, second nature, and Will.

Unlike, therefore, Carnicke and White who identify in Stanislavsky's invocation to prana an in-

depth understanding of yoga, my impression is that Stanislavsky's references to prana and its

prominent role within the System, exhibit significant relations to occult thought that permeate but

are not restricted to early MY ideology and practices.

Taking into account the sources of Stanislavsky's encounter with yoga, the milieu in which these

sources have been developed, as well as Stanislavsky's interest in and influence by other

systems of thought, it would be more accurate to support that what underlies the System and

gives it its 'spiritual' character, is its grounding -through yoga- in nineteenth-century occultism.
If, indeed, such thesis holds some truth value, then it also ensues that attempts to examine

Stanislavsky's work according to Eastern-Western and psychological-spiritual dichotomies are

no longer productive. As I have already discussed, the blend that comprises the kind of yoga

that Stanislavsky encountered make it impossible to isolate the Western from the Eastern

features of the discipline. Furthermore, it is also important to keep in mind that 'from very early

on, yoga tends to be categorized as a type of psychology'. (Singleton, 2005: 296). The complex
developments that underlie MY make clear, therefore, that attempts to approach Stanislavsky's

work from the psychological or the spiritual, the Eastern or the Western, impose a set of
distinctions which do not reflect the social and cultural context in which the System was

developed.

46 For a wider discussion on the notion of prana and popular nineteenth-century concepts see Albanese,
2007: 357.

83
Conclusion

An examination of Stanislavsky's primary sources as well as an analysis of the similarities

between these sources and Stanislavsky's writings confirms the conclusion reached by other

scholars that yoga played an important role in the formation of the System. Unlike common

assumptions, however, it is evident from this study that the aspect of the discipline which
Stanislavsky used has aggravated, or even induced, rather than alleviated the System's

dualistic characteristics. Indeed, certain aspects of yoga have been so instrumental in the

formulation of the System's content and form, that the dualism that pervaded them has

inevitably permeated the System. Moreover, Stanislavsky's use of yoga comprises a very

interesting case, not only because yoga undermined the bodymind integration that Stanislavsky

wanted to achieve in the actor's artistic process, but also because it exposes the biases which

underlie current treatments of the discipline. A historically informed and an essentialism-free

attitude towards yoga offers a new lens through which the System can be re-evaluated and it

also locates its dualist traits against a previously un-examined background. Finally, the historical

and cultural context which informed Ramacharaka's formulation makes it imperative to further

examine Stanislavsky's use of yoga and his influence by psychology in relation to one another

and in view of the overall developments of late nineteenth century.

Grotowski and the Use of Yoga"

Since the 1960s, Polish director, Jerzy Grotowski (1933-1999), has captivated the interest of

scholars and theatre practitioners worldwide, and accounts of his theatrical productions make

clear the stir they had caused as well as the high standard of the technique of his actors.
Equally, the exercises he developed to train his performers are still employed, and his approach

to theatre and acting continue to provide stimuli and inspiration. Grotowski had a life long

interest in Hinduism and he used the practice of yoga positions in his work with actors. A

research, therefore, that concentrates on the use of yoga in theatre would be replete without an

examination of the way he employed the discipline. Nevertheless, this aspect of Grotowski's

work has received little critical attention. Such a task could perhaps prove formidable as
Grotowski's work extended to a number of practices, and it inevitably bears the mark of more

than one technique. Moreover, as Schechner supports 'no one doing scholarship on Grotowski

(in English) has gone deeply enough into these various theatrical, mystical and intellectual

sources, linking them to each other and to Grotowski' (1997: 471). The same author, though,

47Elementsof this section have appearedIn Kapsali, M., 2010. '"1don't attack it, but it is not for actors":
The Use of Yoga by Jerzy Grotowski', Theatre,Danceand PerformanceTrainingVol 1(2), pp. 185-198.

84
 also remarks that this is no easy task, as 'Grotowskiis not someonewhose "sources"can be

pinned down to a simple from this comes that"' (ibid.: 486).

Nonetheless, Grotowski's case is quite significant not only because of his prominence within the

legacy of twentieth-century actor training, but also due to certain peculiarities that his application

of yoga presents. First of all, unlike many directors who approached yoga because of its

potential use in actor training, Grotowski was interested in, one dare say fascinated by, the
discipline, prior to and independently of, any theatrical application. Second, despite the

influence that yoga exerted on his artistic vision and the training of the Theatre Laboratory, the

Polish director, in a statement published in Towards A Poor Theatre, declared yoga as

inappropriate for actors:

[W]e began by doing yoga directed toward absolute concentration. Is it true, we

asked, that yoga can give actors the power of concentration? We observed that
despite all our hope the opposite happened. There was a certain concentration,
but it was introverted. This concentration destroys all expression; it's an internal
sleep, an inexpressive equilibrium: a great rest which ends all actions ... I don't
attack it, but it is not for actors. (1991, [1968]: 208).

It would not be an exaggeration to claim that the above statement has affected both the way

yoga is viewed in Grotowski's work as well as the manner in which yoga is often approached in

theatre training. Dymphna Gallery, for example, states that 'yoga certainly promotes suppleness

and flexibility, but if done exclusively can inhibit rather than release. actors' (2001: 27).
Grotowski's comment is cited as a proof of her thesis (ibid.). Equally, Robert Benedetti's

caution, in a volume on actor training published in 1972, bears strong resemblance to

Grotowski's position. The author instructs actors to '[b]eware of yoga which in its passivity
...
and self-relatedness may lead one away from theatre'. He adds, nevertheless, that 'Hatha Yoga

as a purely physical discipline is valuable' (1972: 88).

However, as I will demonstrate, a critical examination of the way Grotowski used yoga not only

reveals a life-long interest, but also exposes certain attitudes towards the discipline that underlie

this statement. This section has two complementary aims; the first is to discuss the director's

primary sources of yoga through the lens of current scholarship on the subject of MY. The

second aim is to closely and critically examine Grotowski's attitude towards yoga in relation to

the sources of his original contact with the discipline as well as the way yoga positions were

used in the training of the Theatre Laboratory. I will draw from currently available material as

well as interviews I conducted in 2009 with two of Grotowski's close collaborators; Ludwig

85
Flaszen (1930-), co-founder and literary director of the Theatre of Thirteen Rows (later The
LaboratoryTheatre), and Rena Mirecka (1934-) one of the first actors who joined the company
in 1959 and remained until its disbandment.

The Presence of Yoga

As I have already suggested, yoga played a considerable role both in Grotowski's life and work.

His first encounter with yoga at a young age, his early wish to study Sanskrit, his repeated trips

to India, and his request to be cremated and have his ashes conveyed to the subcontinent mark

a life and artistic journey that was significantly influenced by the discipline. "' In particular relation
to his theatrical work the presence of yoga can be traced from the beginning of his career.

Barba in his book Land of Ashes and Diamonds offers a detailed documentation of his

apprenticeship with Grotowski in Opole (1962-1964) and stresses the importance of Hindu

thought both for Grotowski as well as for the relationship between the two men; India, writes

Barba 'established between us a bond of thought and a common language' (1999: 9). During

the same period, Grotowski also referred to his theatre company as an ashram, and indeed

Barba notes that Grotowski 'speaks of theatre as a kind of yoga' (1999: 120). Barba also

demonstrates the links between aspects of yoga philosophy and the concepts that underpinned

the training and productions of the Theatre Laboratory. In fact, Barba was convinced that

Grotowski 'was only interested in one thing, India or rather Hinduism', a belief which was

confirmed by Grotowski as late as 1992 (1999: 54).

Based on the above, one could suggest that the way Grotowski employed yoga in his theatrical

practice was influenced by his understanding of the discipline and the position the latter held in
his worldview. It is important, therefore, to note that the presence of yoga not only can be traced

in the training regime of the Theatre Laboratory, but it can and should be assessed in relation to

Grotowski's overall preoccupation with the discipline. Furthermore, it is important to bear in mind

that, as discussed in the previous chapter, yoga, during the last one hundred years, has gone

through developments that drastically changed both the profile of the discipline's propagators

and practitioners as well the way(s) in which the discipline is viewed, disseminated and

practiced. For these reasons, it is of great importance to re-examine where Grotowski found out

about yoga and ask which kind of yoga he used. The next section will consider two books on

ae References to Grotowski's
contact with the discipline can be found in Slowiac and Cuesta, 2007 as well
as the autobiographical documentary With Jerzy Grotowskl. Zbigniew Osinski (2008) also examines
Grotowski's contact with India, but the volume is written in Polish.

86
 yoga that Grotowski read at a young age as well as his contact with the practicalaspect of the
discipline.

A Search in Secret India

According to Grotowski's own account, his 'secret vocation' for India was spurred by his mother

Emilia who was a 'Hinduist', and by a book she gave to him (Barba, 1999: 54). A Search in

Secret India by Paul Brunton was an autobiographical memoir of the author's journey to the

subcontinent published in 1934. As Grotowski relates in his essay 'Theatre of Sources', he

acquired the book when he was nine years old and living in a small Polish village during the
Nazi occupation (in Wolford and Schechner, 1997: 251-3). To say that the book made a strong

impression on Grotowski would be an understatement, since his 'first reaction... [to] the report

of Brunton was a fever' (ibid.: 252).

Paul Brunton (1898-1981), a British journalist, frustrated by modern life and deeply worried for

the future of humanity set out to India to seek answers for his philosophical questions and

existential angst, which as he testified were not satisfied by the answers provided by Western
thought (1970[1934]: 142). During his trip he encountered Ramana Maharishi (1879-1950), who

is the most emphatic subject of Brunton's account. According to the author, Ramana, following

a strong spiritual experience at the age of sixteen, decided to live the secular world behind and

retreated in a South Indian Tamil district near the hill of Arunachala. After spending a few years
in complete silence and reclusion, a group of followers started gathering around the by-then-

considered holy man. Ramana started speaking again but he never relied on verbal language to

transmit his teachings. Indeed there was no message or teaching as such; since he never

followed any particular school of thought, he did not attempt to indoctrinate or catechize his

followers (ibid.: 281-90). Brunton's personal account of the Maharishi speaks of the power of the

latter's silence which emerged as his most prominent form of teaching and, according to

Brunton, it had the power to still the mind of the people in his vicinity. At Brunton's persistent

questions regarding the road that one should follow in order to develop spiritually, Maharishi

pointed out the importance of one's self-penetration and self-knowledge. By pondering on the

question of 'Who am 1', by investigating the nature of one's self and letting go of the elements
that are superfluous to one's core, the adept can identify with the True Self and reach

happiness (ibid.: 145-6).

Notwithstandingthe impressionthat the book made on Grotowski,it should be pointed out that
A Search in Secret India is not without problems. The title of the book, as well as its

87
introduction, make clear the India in which Brunton was interested; '[t]hat the West has little to

learn from present-day India, I shall not trouble to deny, but that we have much to learn from

Indian sages of the past and from the few who live to-day, I unhesitatingly assert' (ibid.: 17). As

it becomes obvious, Brunton was concerned with this 'other' India and quite indifferent to the

socio-political developments of the time. And indeed Ramana Maharishi did not present a
typical example of such developments. As I have already mentioned in Chapter 1, outside the

latter's hermitage, social and political conditions placed yoga at the service of the struggle for

independence, and the discipline was now seen as a method to produce politically, financially,

mentally and physically emancipated householders rather than isolated ascetics.

Despite its shortcomings though, it seems that Brunton's book had a residual impact on

Grotowski; the book is mentioned in several cases, and most significantly Grotowski refers to it

in the 1980 autobiographical film, With Jerzy Grotowski. 49It should also be noted that Grotowski

not only travelled to Ramana's hermitage in Arunachala but requested to have his ashes

scattered there. Furthermore, it can be argued that the book fuelled Grotowski's fascination with
Hinduism. Apart from seriously considering dedicating himself to Sanskrit studies, during his

time as a drama student Grotowski must have read extensively both volumes of classical Indian

scholarship as well as contemporaneous books on the 50

subject. According to Barba's account
from his years in Opole, Grotowski appears well versed in a number of subjects on classical

Hinduism, such as the various darsanas and Patanjali's text on yoga (1999: 49). Barba also

refers to a 'nucleus of writers', such as Jung, Durkheim, and Eliade (1999: 50) as well as
Romain Rolland's The Life of Ramakrishna, a book which Grotowski read in 1956 while a

student in Moscow (1999: 123).

The Life of Ramakrishna

Romain Rolland's The Life of Ramakrishna comprises a biographical account of Ramakrishna

(1836-1886), an Indian mystic who became particularly popular with the Bengali Intelligentsia

during the nineteenth century. In his introduction Rolland betrays an attitude similar to

Brunton's, regarding the land of India as 'sacred' (2000 [1934]: xvii) and invoking the 'thousand

years' experience of thought' possessed by the 'men of Asia' (ibid.: xiii). Furthermore, the book

reflects popular tendencies to mask Hinduist dogma under a Christian cloak, and as a result,

49 Brunton's book and its influence on Grotowski is mentioned in several books and articles; see for
example Barba, 1999 and Slowiac and Cuesta,2007. Flaszen (2009) also referredto the same book as
one of Grotowski'sdecisiveinfluences.
50Grotowskihad also organizeda series of talks on Indian philosophythat took place In KrakowIn 1957.

88
 Ramakrishna's life is relayed in an overtly biblical manner. 5' The first chapter is titled 'The

Gospel of Childhood', and claims that Ramakrishna's birth was preceded by a vision that visited

both his mother and father, and that his conception was immaculate (ibid.: 6). Ramakrishna's

spiritual sensitivity became apparent from the first years of his life, when at the age of six he

was first 'seized in ecstasy' (ibid.). Similar experiences accompanied Ramakrishna throughout
his life and Rolland promptly advises his audience to refrain from 'disrespectful thoughts'

regarding Ramakrishna's ecstatic states, since they were of a rare religious and spiritual nature
(ibid.: 32). In a similar tone Rolland recounts the relationship between Ramakrishna and one of

his students Swami Vivekananda, who is referred to as part of 'the great army of the Spirit'

(ibid.: xiv).

A more sober account of Ramakrishna's life is offered by De Michelis, who supports that

Ramakrishna 'was virtually untouched by modern influences' (2004: 100) and his teachings

were deeply rooted in theistic Sanskrit texts (ibid.: 129). More specifically, Ramakrishna's

worldview was fundamentally based on Advaita Vedanta, the monistic branch of Vedanta,

according to which Brahman and Self are one.52 Furthermore, according to De Michelis,
Ramakrishna discouraged 'those who identify themselves with the body' to pursue a

transcendental experience through yoga, and advised them to practice the more devotional

forms of the discipline (2004: 142).53 Despite's his ascetic outlook, Ramakrishna acquired a

prominent place in the Indian pantheon, due to Vivekananda and the latter's -already

mentioned- leading role in shaping and disseminating MY. Ramakrishna was portrayed as
Vivekananda's spiritual master, although Vivekananda greatly distorted the latter's teaching and

their relationship was far from the straightforward guru-disciple connection to which

Vivekananda alluded (ibid.: 50) and Rolland confirms (2000[1934]: 114).

It is not possible to know Grotowski's reaction to the book and whether he had a more critical

perspective on Rolland's comments, but Ramakrishna's personality must have made a lasting

impression on him, as Grotowski visited Ramakrishna's shrine during one of his trips to India. It

is also quite indicative that the assumed relationship between Ramakrishna and Vivekananda

51See De Michelis, 2004: 100.

52As I have mentioned in the previous chapter the philosophicalschool of Vedanta has evolved three
brancheswhich respectivelyview the relationshipto Brahmanin: non dualisticmanner(Advaita),qualified
non dualistic (visista-advaita)
and dualistic manner (dvaita)(De Michelis,2004: 131-2).
manner
53This is a point where Rolland'sportrait of Ramakrishnaagrees with recent studies.He actuallycites an
incidentwhere Ramakrishnaseverelyscolded Vivekanandawhen the latter asked for Instructionsin order
to achieve samadhi, the final stage of yoga where an altered state of consciousness is thought to be
attained.

89
was duplicated in Grotowski's friendship with Barba; in their private correspondence, part of

which is included in Land of Ashes and Diamonds, Barba called Grotowski 'Ramakrishna', and

accordingly Grotowski referred to Barba as 'Vivekananda' (Barba, 1999).

Before I proceed to examine Grotowski's contact with the practical aspect of the discipline, it is

also important to discuss the impact that both Ramana and Ramakrishna had on Grotowski's

artistic vision. As it is well known, Grotowksi considered the actor to be 'holy', and he viewed

acting as a process of self-penetration. In a manner, that appears very similar to the one

advocated by Ramana Maharishi, the performer is asked to strip away one's social mask and

reveal in front of the spectator what was considered to be a more truthful, inner self. Thus, the

actor becomes 'a human phenomenon' that according to Grotowski has transcended the state

of his division and duality' (cited in Osinski, 1986: 86 as cited in Slowiac & Cuesta, 2007: 21).
Indeed, the above statement betrays an understanding of acting as a kind of yoga', and it

particularly shows an alignment with Ramakrishna's monistic thought of Advaita Vedanta. It is

also worth noting that the same philosophy has been identified in the activities that Grotowski

pursued after he decided to quit the 'theatre of the productions'. In the last phase of Grotowski's

work, Art as Vehicle (1986-1999), Schechner argues that Grotowski's 'conviction that the

essential patterns brought forward in time by oral traditions will converge with materials

uncovered within individual performers by means of a rigorous inner process, relates to the
Hindu belief in the identification of Brahman (the ultimate universal Self) with Atman (the

individual Self)' (1997: 465). Barba's characterization of Grotowski's work as sadhana (spiritual

quest through practice of yoga) (1999: 55) appears, therefore, particularly apt, since Grotowski's
theatrical as well as paratheatrical engagements seem to be permeated by specific elements of

yoga philosophy.

Grotowski's Sources of Yoga: Practice of Yoga Postures

An account of Grotowski's yoga-related influences would be wanting without a reference to

Tokarz Francis (1897- 1973), a Catholic priest who according to Flaszen 'searched for practices

outside his own spiritual tradition' (2009). Grotowski met Tokarz in Krakow in 1950 and Flaszen

attests that Tokarz showed Grotowski the practice of asanas (2009). As Grotowski was

struggling with a kidney disease, he started to practice yoga on a daily basis (ibid. ). The source

and nature of Tokarz' knowledge though can only be guessed at. Apart from the medieval text

of Hatha Yoga Pradipika that gives a 'rather vague and cryptic' account of some yoga poses
(Alter, 2005: 25), as I have extensively discussed in the first chapter, there is no line of written

classical tradition for the practice of the asanas (Sjoman, 1999: 35) and (Buehneman, 2007a:

90
 22). Equally, during the 1950s Western scholarship, still carrying a strong orientalist legacy, was

preoccupied with yoga as a system of thought. As a result, the phenomenon of MPY, at least in

the West, was still nascent. 54 Taking the above into account, it would be safe to assume that

Tokarz' and subsequently Grotowski's knowledge of yoga was predominantly based on books

that were available in Communist Poland and their scant information on the practice of

asanas. 55

Yoga Training in the Theatre Laboratory

Based on the above, it can also be assumed that the Theatre Laboratory's initial contact with

the poses was through Grotowski's own knowledge and the scattered references in the

available bibliography. Yoga poses must have been practiced since the inception of the group,

as a couple of them are clearly evident in the performance of Sakuntala in 1960. In Figure 24,

for example, Mirecka, as seen at the left hand side of the frame, is standing in yoga pose

Vriksasana (Tree Pose).

Figure 24, Sakuntala, 1960, author's photo taken in Theatre and Beyond Exhibition, University of Kent,
May 2009.

54 As Singleton (2010) has shown at the beginning of the century in India there was a proliferation of
pamphlets and books that offered instruction in yoga asanas. However, these publications were not
disseminated in the West and there is no evidence suggesting that Grotowski came into contact with them.
55During his trips to India, there is no evidence to suggest that Grotowski received training in the asanas
from a yoga teacher.

91
Practice of or interest in yoga must have continued through the 1960s, and according to Rena

Mirecka, Grotowski gave to Cieslak a book by B. K. S. Iyengar, and asked him to study the

asanas and teach them to the rest of the group (2009). As I have already mentioned in the

previous chapter, lyengar's approach was marked by an unprecedented virtuosity in the

execution of the asanas and was followed by a comprehensive training system which became

worldwide disseminated through the publication of Light on Yoga (1966). In relation to the

training regime of the Polish troupe as well as the likely absence of a yoga trainer, it is important

to stress that the content and form of the book features what De Michelis calls 'a DIY' character

(2004: 198) and thus offers clear and systematic guidance for the practice of the postures 'in the

comfort of one's own home' (ibid.: 217).

Apart from Mirecka's testimony, the influence of Iyengar Yoga on the training of the Theatre

Laboratory can be also traced within a session recorded on film in 1972 in Wroclaw, which

features Ryszard Cieslak instructing and training with two actors of the Odin Theatre. In the

second part of the video we are introduced to Physical Exercises, some of which, the

commentator informs us, 'are based on Hatha Yoga' (1972,0: 49: 46). Cieslak demonstrates a

set of yoga poses, predominantly inversions and balances, which bear an unmistakable

resemblance to the photographs that feature in lyengar's book. The way Cieslak goes in and

out of headstand as well as the variations of the positions of the arms can all be seen in Light

on Yoga [the arms by the side of the head with the elbows bent (1991 [1966], p. 153) and

(1972,0: 51: 0-9), see Figure 12 and 13]; the arms stretched in the direction of the nose [(1991

[1966], p. 157) and (1972,0: 54: 0-9) see Figure 14 and 15]; the fingers interlocked and the head

placed in the cup of the hands (1991 [1966], p. 143-7) and (1972,0: 59: 30). 56 Equally, the

execution of shoulderstand and the variation of the position of the legs can be traced in the

same book (from shoulderstand taking the legs onto the floor and over the head in the plough

position (1991 [1966], p. 167-9), from the plough position opening the legs wide (1991 [1966], p.

179), and finally returning to shoulderstand and taking the legs on the floor away from the head

[(1991 [1966]: 185) and (1972,0: 54: 21-51) see Figure 16 and 17]. Apart from the inversions,

ss A
comparative examination of the inverted poses of the two men also reveals significant differences in
terms of placement and alignment. In both variations of headstand lyengar rests on the crown of the head
and engages the legs in a strong upward lift. This enables him to keep the neck extended and the
shoulder-girdle in line with the pelvis. Cieslak on the other hand rests on the front part of the head and as a
result his chest is pushed forwards. This further entails that his pelvis and legs cannot remain in line with
the upper body. Particularly in Figure 14, it is obvious that he does not use his legs and as a result his
pose appears less stable. Nevertheless, one has to bear in mind that Cieslak was an autodidact and his
contact with Iyengar Yoga was not mediated by a teacher. Furthermore, it also has to be noted that
Cieslak's interest in these poses was inextricably related to the training regime he and Grotowski were
developing at the time. Although Cieslak may not have reached the virtuosity exhibited by lyengar, the rest
of the video shows that he managed to 'own' the poses and make them part of his training.

92
 Cieslak also demonstrates a balance which features in Light on Yoga, where the arms are

placed on the floor with the elbows bent, the pelvis is lifted and the legs are perched over the

right elbow [(1991 [1966]: 275) and (1972,0: 58: 50-8) see Figure 18 and 19], as well as a

backward bend where from a kneeling position the upper body and thighs move back until the

head touches the floor (1991 [1966], p. 94-5) and (1972,0: 53: 30).

-
v'1

to
"Ml- r
No"- 44 ýMwnmft

---"A
ti

Figure 25, Cieslak in
Headstand I, Odin
Theatre, 1972,0: 51: 0-9
Figure 27, lyengar in
Headstand I, lyengar,
1991[19661: 153.
*ýý:
ý-i,
Figure 28, Cieslak in Figure 26, lyengar in
Headstand II Odin Headstand II, lyengar, 1991
Theatre, 1972,0: 54: 0-9. [1966]: 157.

Figure 29, Cieslak in Chatush Padasana, Figure 30, Iyengar in Chatush Padasana,
Odin Theatre, 1972,0: 54: 21-51. lyengar, 1991 [1966]: 185.

93
 i

11

Figure 31, Cieslak in Dwi Pada Koundinyasana, Figure 32, Iyengar in Dwi Pada Koundinyasana,
Odin Theatre 1972,0: 58: 50-8. lyengar, 1991 [1966]: 275.

Apart from the similarities between the training session and lyengar's book in terms of form, it is

also worth noting that there are similarities in terms of the teaching method. In his effort to teach

the poses to the two participants, Cieslak initially demonstrates the pose, and then indicates the

body part which is viewed as the 'correct' point from which the movement in and out the position

should originate. In positions that have a greater degree of difficulty he breaks the pose down in

steps, which feature one action at a time. In the same manner, the poses in Light on Yoga are

first pictured in photographs and then are followed by a set of instructions that divides the pose

in different stages and indicates the way the pose should be done. 57 It appears, therefore, that

apart from using material from lyengar's book, Cieslak also adopted an analytical and

orthoperformative approach towards the practice and teaching of the asanas. Taking into

account that prior to the publication of Light on Yoga, there was neither an illustrated and

annotated book on asanas nor a published pedagogical approach towards their practice, it can

be concluded that Light on Yoga offered significant amount as well as type of information

according to which yoga was practiced in the Theatre Laboratory. Furthermore, I would argue

that Iyengar's work not only provided a source of training material but it comprised the base on

which such material could be adapted and modified towards theatrical purposes.

As Grotowski relates in his 1968 statement, he did not simply use yoga postures in the training,

but 'changed the currents' with the aim to 'transform the physical elements [of the yoga practice]

into elements of human contact' (1991 [1968]: 208). The developments that were incurred by

Grotowski and his actors to the practice of the asanas can be seen in the 1972-session. First of

all, apart from the poses and the aforementioned variations that can be traced directly to Light

51It is also worth noting that the same pedagogy is followed in current classes on Iyengar Yoga.

94
 on Yoga, Cieslak executes and teaches additional variations on the two inversions. After

headstand and shoulderstand are demonstrated and practiced, Cieslak executes the same

poses but places the head, the arms or the legs slightly different. As a result the way he goes in

and out of the pose also changes. It is clear however, that these variations are grafted onto the

shape of the main asanas, and they are taught after the demonstration and practice of each
'classical' pose. Moreover, it is worth mentioning that the asanas, as presented in Light on

Yoga, already feature a number of variations and thus make possible further experimentation. 58

Finally, as the last part of the training session shows, the most important aspect of Cieslak's

modifications, is that they made easier the transition from one pose to the next and thus

enabled continuous movement between the poses.

After teaching the poses and their variations to the two Odin actors, Cieslak demonstrates an

improvisation, where he moves from one pose to the next in uninterrupted movement and

without a predetermined order. He then asks the actors to go through the poses in the same

manner, and develop an organic flow form one pose to the next without premeditation. After this

initial improvisation, Cieslak asks them to work in a pair and go through the poses while relating

to one another in different ways, such as 'against' each other (1972,1: 14: 20 - 1: 15: 00), 'for'

each other (1972,1: 17: 13 - 1: 19: 10) and finally 'as two small cats who play together' (1972,1:

19: 15 - 1: 22: 15). The training session as well as Grotowski's remark make clear that the

nature of the yoga practice was changed in a manner that deemphasized one's attention on the

execution of the poses, and instead placed it on the surrounding space and the rest of the

group. As Flaszen remarks 'Grotowski with his actors practiced yoga which was directed

outwards. This was the crux of his discovery. [... ] They practiced with a partner, with the sound,

with the wall, the contact with the environment, a very precise uninterrupted contact' (2009).

Most importantly, it has to be mentioned that the very same positions that appear in the

Wroclaw sessions have remained in use and comprise what is nowadays regarded as

'Grotowski training'. I have already referred to Stephen Wangh's volume An Acrobat of the

Heart in the introductory section of this thesis. The book, which aims to present different

aspects of Grotowski's work, includes a series of drawings that depict the positions that Cieslak

practices in the aforementioned video (2000: 43-74). Additionally, Lisa Wolford, in her account

of training with Grotowski in the Objective Drama programme (1989-1992), gives a similar

description to the 1972-sesssion:

58 It is also important to that Iyengar Yoga, as it is currently practiced, features a number of

mention
variations that developed after the book's publication and as such do not appear in Light on Yoga.
were

95
 Initially,we worked with each of the headstandsand shoulderstandsin a technical
way, learning to execute the positions correctly. Once we were able to find the
positions,we were encouraged to play with displacingbalance... As a further step
in the process.. we were encouragedto create sequences of improvised, non-
.
verbal 'dialogue'with other participants(2000: 201).

Equally she identifies the same exercises in a training session she observed in Pontenderain
1992 (ibid.: 202).

Grotowski's Repudiation of Yoga

As it is clear from the above exposition, yoga exerted significant influence on Grotowski's

thinking and it also comprised an important part of his actor training. As a result, Grotowski's

repudiation of yoga as inappropriate for theatrical purposes raises questions. In particular,

Grotowksi's argument was that yoga was an introverted form of practice that posed a significant

obstacle to the actor's expressivity. Nevertheless, as I have demonstrated in the previous

section, MPY offered Grotowski the flexibility to develop an application of the discipline, which

remains an integral part of his training method. What were, therefore, the reasons for declaring

yoga as incompatible with acting?

First of all, it has to be taken into account that Grotowski's contact with the discipline during his

young adult life was through written works either of pre-modern scholarship, which inevitably

placed yoga in a pre-modern context, or modern scholarship which were oblivious to or even
dismissive towards contemporaneous developments. A critical review of Rolland's and

Brunton's books has shown that they were both permeated by an a-historical attitude towards

the discipline, betrayed a deeply embedded orientalist worldview that identified India as the land

of universal spirituality, and made no reference to the developments that yoga was undergoing

at the very time these books were written. If one thus bears in mind Maharishi's reclusion and

silence, and Rolland's hagiographic account of Ramakrishna, it is hardly surprising that

Grotowski reached the conclusion that yoga is not fit for actors. Indeed, in the 1968-statement,

Grotowski regards the result of 'an introverted concentration that kills all expression' produced

by yoga as typical of the discipline since 'the goal of yoga is to stop three processes: thought,

breathing and ejaculation' (1991 [1968]: 208). Grotowski's description gives the impression of

an ascetic, highly internalized discipline, which interestingly enough echoes the writings of

96
 Mircea Eliade. 89As I have already mentioned, in Yoga, Immortality and Freedom, Eliade makes

clear that 'the method of yoga comprises a number of different techniques, which all have one

characteristic in common: they are antisocial and antihuman' (1973 [1936]: 95). The above

perspective would perhaps settle the matter and offer a simple enough narrative. Grotowski's

sources during the 1950s - early 1960s were inspirational but historically inaccurate and

misleading. Alternative accounts were unavailable not only because of the regime in communist
Poland, but also because a challenge to such books had not yet appeared. Grotowski,

therefore, came into contact with a concept of the discipline that did not do justice to its modern

characteristics and its refashioned character, and as a result his application was doomed to

reproduce a commonly held essentialist attitude. Things, however, are a bit more complicated,

since Grotowski's use of yoga has an additional facet and his statement in Towards a Poor
Theatre a second part; 'we also observed that certain yoga positions help very much the natural

reactions of the spinal column; they lead to a sureness of one's body, a natural adaptation to

space. So why get rid of them? Just change all their currents' (1991 [968]: 208).

Indeed, as I have already discussed the practice of and adaptation of yoga poses was an

integral part of the Theatre Laboratory's training regime. One however, has to bear in mind that

the poses that Grotowski used and modified derived from MY developments and had very little

in common with Ramana's and Ramakrishna's teachings. In particular relation to the

modifications that Grotowski introduced, i.e. the 'change of the currents' and the focus of one's

attention outwards, it should be noted that an external orientation is to a degree inherent in the

practice of asanas as materialized in Iyengar Yoga. Since the emphasis is on the execution of

the postures, and this execution is necessarily situated in and subjected to the contingencies of

space and gravity, the body is constantly related to space and the space is thematized by the
body. As a result, even without 'changing the currents' the character of the asana practice is

consequently more outward-facing than breathing or meditational techniques. Apart from this, it

should also be taken into account that both MY and MPY were based on and derived from a
desire to use yoga as a means to satisfy this-worldly concerns rather than other-worldly

transcendence. As I have discussed, MY was designed to serve the individual in one's social

environment. As a result, the historical contingencies as well as the physical orientation of the

59Barba attests that Grotowskiread Eliade, but he does not mentionany specificvolumes.Based on the
publishingdates of Eliade's books as well as Grotowski'sknowledgeof French,the latter must have read
Yoga: Essai sur I'origine de la mystique Indienne, published in 1933, and later translated as Yoga,
Immortalityand Freedom.Quite characteristically,Alter calls the book 'a work of definitive,late-orientalist
scholarship'(Alter,2005: 7).

97
practiceoffered intrinsic structuresthat made the applicationof the disciplinepossible.The way,
however, Grotowski talks about the group's initial experimentation with yoga, conceals

tendenciesthat are embeddedin the practiceand enabled his applicationin the first place.

It becomes apparent, therefore, that Grotowski's repudiation of yoga draws from two distinct

discourses, i.e. the orientalist discourse in which yoga was viewed as an ancient technique of

spiritual transcendence and the MY discourse in which yoga is viewed as method for health-

enhancement and self-development. It would be quite accurate, therefore, to support that the

yoga denounced by Grotowski in relation to the actor's craft was the yoga of the 'secret India',

since not only it was introverted, as Grotowski correctly observes, but also did not offer any

model that could be practically explored and applied. Ramana had no teaching as such,

whereas Ramakrishna encouraged only the forms of devotional yoga for those associated with

the body. By contrast the yoga that Grotowski did use and render relevant to the performer was

the yoga of 'Modern' India. Nonetheless, Grotowski's statement smoothes out any distinction

between the two discourses and, in fact, it seems that he considers the use of the poses as

developed in a modern context to be a non-legitimate form of yoga.

In his statement, Grotowski first declares yoga to be inappropriate for actors and then he refers

to the use of the yoga positions. When, therefore, he explicitly states that yoga is not for actors,

and then he mentions the use of the yoga positions, it ensues that the practice of yoga positions
is not 'yoga'. Moreover, his reference to the yoga poses has a casual character and their

practice is justified due to their physiological benefits (flexibility in the spine, space awareness).
The employment of MY therefore, although it formed a significant part of the training, is

presented as 'yoga positions with changed currents', and as such is not regarded as part of the

discipline. As a result, Grotowski's statement seems to rest on a preconception in regard to

what does and what does not count as yoga. Furthermore, it points at a disjunction between the
foundations that formed Grotowski's attraction to and understanding of the spiritual concept of

yoga and the source that influenced his practical application of the discipline. It is not simply that
Grotowski came into contact with a number of yoga practitioners each resulting in various

degrees and kinds of influence. Quite troublingly, it seems that Grotowski was fascinated by a

kind of yoga he could not apply and applied a kind of yoga that did not fascinate him.

98
 Grotowski's attraction to a 'pure' and 'primordial' form of practice is also supported by the profile

of the yoga practitioners that Grotowski sought in his journeys to India. During his trips there"
Grotowski visited Ramakrishna's shrine, Maharishi's place of hermitage, and Aurobindo's

ashrams' Furthermore, during his first trip in 1969, Grotowski came into contact with the

practice of Bauls, a Bengali devotional form of singing, which was maintained and led to the

participation of a Baul singer in the last gathering of the Theatre of the Sources. Bearing in mind
Grotowski's attitude towards yoga, it is not surprising that all of the aforementioned figures

display a significant ascetic orientation, and their outlook and lifestyle bear resemblances to the

image of the archetypal yogi.

A similar tendency has been identified by Milling and Ley in relation to Grotowski's interest in

other disciplines and their practitioners. 62They particularly refer to an 'ideology that in the very

choice of participants constructs these traditions of ritual as closer to the "origin" and the primal'
(2000: 137, emphasis added). They further identify a 'fetishization of the work of these

practitioners as "pure"' and support that Grotowski was reluctant to view them in relation to their
'own history and the contingencies of cultural development' (ibid.). In the same vein, Schechner

points out that Grotowski 'assumes that the ancient practices are superior to the modern', and

most poignantly he continues 'this formation does not satisfy me. I cannot recognize wisdom
that exists before or behind cultures and genres, in the "original" times, in the "old practices".

Why for Grotowski, does old equal good? ' (1997: 490-1). Schechner's point appears to

encapsulate Grotowski's understanding of, as well as his statement on, yoga. Indeed, it seems

that according to Grotowski's worldview the practice of MY paled in front of the archetypal yogi

and the 'new' form of practice was condemned to be inferior to the 'old'. 63

Conclusion

An examinationof the use of yoga by Jerzy Grotowskireveals a lifelong interestin the discipline

and its considerable influence on his artistic thinking and choices. It also points out the

inconsistenciesthat pervade the way he talked about it. A close reading of Grotowski's key

60 It is worth mentioning that Grotowski's trips to India, all after 1966, do not feature any -recorded- visit to
Ib,
'engar's base in Pune (Mirecka for example sought tuition there in the late seventies, Mirecka, 2009).
It is also quite telling that Grotowski in a letter to Barba in 1965 likens the residence of the Theatre of the
13 Rows In Opole to Ramana's hermitage in Arunachala, whereas he draws parallels between the
Theatre Laboratory to Wroclaw (a bigger Aurobindo's ashram in
subsequent relocation of the city) with
Pondicherry, which is a bustling urban centre (Barba, 1999: 136).
sZGrotowski's interest In and influence by a number of practices is well-knownand discussed;for more
informationsee I Wyan Lendrain Wolford & Schechner1997:310.
63This disjuncture is also apparentin both Callery's as well as Benedetti'spreviouslycited opinion, who
although they againstthe discipline,acknowledgethe potentialof the poses for the actor's work.
caution

99
primary sources as well as a critical analysis of his statement make clear that Grotowski's use

and subsequent renunciation of the discipline for theatrical purposes was permeated by a

number of assumptions as to what the discipline is and the results it should produce. An

uncritical repetition of Grotowski's 'verdict' is first of all inaccurate, since Grotowski did use

yoga, albeit not the yoga he had in mind. Indeed, an appreciation of the role that yoga played in
Grotowski's life would be more constructive if, instead of concentrating on the fact that

Grotowski denounced the discipline, one pays attention to Grotowski's decision to leave the

theatre in order to pursue the spiritual quest spurred by Ramana Maharishi. As Richard

Schechner supports, theatre was for Grotowski a means to an end and not an end in it self; 'the

goal was not political as with Brecht; not artistic as with Stanislavsky; nor revolutionary as with
Artaud. Grotowski's goal was spiritual; the search for and education of each performer's soul'

(1997: 473). If anything therefore, an examination of Grotowski's contact with yoga should be

mindful of the centrality that the discipline holds in his thinking, the various aspects of the
discipline that he encountered as well as his own preference to certain aspects than others. In

fact, it might be, more relevant to employ Mark Singleton's neologism and talk about the use of

yogas by Jerzy Grotowski.

The Use of Yoga in the Work of The Living Theatre, The Performance Group, and

The Open Theatre.

This section will explore the practice of yoga by members of the alternative theatre scene that

emerged in the United States during the 1960s and 1970s. In particular, I am going to look at
the work of the Living Theatre, J. Chaikin and the Open Theatre, as well as Richard Schechner

and The Performance Group. The choice of the aforementioned artists is based on their

prominence within the avant-garde scene as well as the different ways in which they used yoga.
Although all three companies derive from the same artistic and cultural milieu and came into

contact with similar aspects of the discipline, each used yoga in a different way and to a
different extent. My intention Is to present the yoga practice of these companies and explore the

relationship between yoga and their ideological concerns and artistic process. The study of

these practitioners is characterized by the same limitations I encountered in my attempt to trace

the practice of yoga in the work of Stanislavsky and Grotowski. Although most of the

practitioners under examination have written about their work, there is little information

regarding the use of yoga. In a 1972-volume called Actor Training 1, prominent figures of the

experimental theatre scene provide a personal account of their views on and experiences of

training actors. The editor of the book, Richard Brown gives a clear description regarding the

obscurity that enveloped training sessions:

100
 There is great mystery surroundingwhat really goes on in our acting workshops,
almost a mystique. We hear of particular uses that teachers are making of
Alexander,T'ai Chi Ch'uan, Yoga, the work of Slater, Horney, Berne, Laing, May,
Lowen, Rogers, Reich, Levi-Strauss...But little of this work and the ideas,
experiences,goals and philosophy which lie behind it is open to us for sharing.
Mostly,there is silence (1972: viii).

What becomes clear from the above as well as the rest of Brown's essay is that in the case
-as
of Grotowski and Stanislavsky- there was a wide range of disciplines being used in training

sessions but their description was rarely articulated and/or consolidated in written word. Brown

continues by listing a variety of reasons that could explain the lack of written resources and

expresses his wish to create an open space where a broader and more public exchange of
information and ideas could start taking place (1972: x). Almost as an answer to Brown's

request, Richard Schechner published one year later his volume Environmental Theatre, which

offers a unique insight into his work with the New Orleans Group and The Performance Group
(hereafter TPG). However, even Schechner's book, which I will discuss later on, does not offer

extensive information on the use of yoga, although yoga was used. The same is true for the rest

of the available literature on the work of the theatre companies in the 1960s. As a result there

are certain questions which cannot be answered by bibliographical sources: what kind of yoga

was taught and by whom, how consistent was the practice of yoga either by individuals or

groups, what was the position of yoga within the overall artistic inquiry. In an attempt to shed

more light on the above issues I conducted interviews with some of the aforementioned

practitioners. More specifically, I held telephone conversations with Living Theatre's Gary
Brackett and Mary Krapf as well as Richard Schechner. But before I examine each practitioner

separately, it is important to offer an overview of the dominant ideologies that underpinned

1960s avant-garde theatre and their attraction to yoga.

Avant Garde Theatre to the 1960s and yoga

Despite the various facets of the 1960s avant garde scene, it can be argued that experimental

theatrical inquiry and practice was greatly influenced by the cultural and ideological orientation

of the time. In his book The Art of the Actor Jean Benedetti characterizes the 1960s as the 'age

of the drop out, the commune, the beginnings' (2005: 221). Distrust towards institutional forms

of social organization and a belief in an 'inner self which needed to be liberated from the corrupt

trappings of society' led young people to different forms of experimentation which aimed at the

expansion of one's consciousness (2005: 221). The desire to discover and actualize one's inner

self in combination with the assertion of spiritual against material values resulted in growing

101
interests in particular areas, two of which are relevant to this thesis: the body and Eastern forms

of spirituality, including yoga (2005: 221). Benedetti makes clear that during this time, language
had started to be understood as a product of social construction and thus as a means of

oppression, whereas the body was thought of as incapable of 'telling lies' and so it was deemed

as more likely to reveal the truth (2005: 222). Furthermore, access to one's body was also
linked to the ideological and spiritual aspirations of the age. As Christopher Innes supports in

Theatre of the Avant Garde'personal liberation came to be conceived psychologically or even

spiritually, rather than as an external condition, although the route to its achievement was
frequently physical (1993: 6, emphasis added).

In addition to the above, Innes identifies particular tendencies which, he argues, bring certain

homogeneity to the avant garde scene and are also pertinent to this discussion. According to

Innes, an inherent characteristic of the avant garde movement is its 'unremitting hostility to

contemporary civilization' (1993: 6) as well as a shared conviction in an 'implied utopian

alternative to the status quo' (1993: 6). Subsequently, as the formation of theatre groups began

to be seen as homologous to a 'utopian commune', elements of the avant garde ideology

started being transcribed and explored in theatrical terms (ibid.). As supported by Innes, one

characteristic of this transcription, was primitivism and a 'quasi religious focus on myth and

magic, which... leads to experiments with ritual and the ritualistic patterning of performance'
(1993: 3). The theatrical event was thus seen as a possible place for the creation of a

communion among equal participants and the breaking down of barriers between performance

and reality. This latter objective was often translated literally, as in the cases where the

audience was expected or asked to get directly involved in the action. The aspirations for social

and spiritual transcendence that avant garde performances demonstrated lead us to the second

characteristic element of the period: the emphasis is on the process and not on the product.
This notion not only affected the aesthetics of performances but derived from a deeper drive to

substitute 'set rules that prescribed behaviour (being)' with 'a fluid sense of individual fulfillment
(becoming)' (Innes, 1993: 6). The distinct character that the avant garde theatrical scene started

to acquire found its expression in workshops. The term 'workshop', Argelander writes in 1978 'is

one of the most frequently encountered words in the avant garde theatre community' and
'clearly is now a popular phenomenon rather than the exclusive domain of a select few' (1978:

3-4). Furthermore, the writer argues that 'individual workshop reflects the creative process of

experimental theatre and it has provided an alternative to both the training system and

production process of commercial theatre' (1978: 4).

102
 The main features, therefore, of 1960s-experimental theatre activity could be summed up in: an

emphasis on the individual's spiritual development and self fulfillment, an attempt to structure
the theatrical event in a way that reflects and induces social change, the shifting of focus from

product to process, and the exploration of this process in a workshop situation. As a result of

the above characteristics the theatrical activity was centered on the actor, as s/he was both the

locus of personal transformation as well as the agent of potential social change. And to be more

specific it was the actor's body that would mediate both personal and social processes, since,

according to R. Benedetti, the 'kinetic experience is capable of generating a profound impact on

the personality of both [actor and spectator]'. Therefore, the same author argues that 'it seems

an inescapable conclusion that movement training in the broadest sense ... is the most
important single aspect of the young actor's development' (1972: 77).

Based on the above, it could be argued that circumstances in North American culture and

theatre offered a fertile ground for the dissemination of yoga in the studios of the experimental

theatre companies. The discipline, even though it had not yet developed a fully fledged postural

practice, both ticked the Eastern Spirituality box and offered a form of physical engagement. It is

also worth mentioning that the 1960s were marked by a period of 'guru exportation' from the
Indian subcontinent to the developed countries. The enterprise proved particularly successful,

as a number of gurus and swamis, primarily disciples of Rishikesh-based Swami Sivananda,

became popular in the States, where they taught and founded ashrams, some of which are still

in operation today (Strauss, 2005: 96). At the same time there was a wave of young people,

among them some of the artists I discuss in this section, visiting India and seeking yoga
instruction there. In particular regard to theatre, we should also bear in mind Grotowski's visit to

the States and the subsequent dissemination of the yoga-based exercises I discussed in the

previous section. It has to be stressed, therefore, that the use of yoga by theatre companies in

the 1960s is part and parcel of the overall ideology of the counterculture, with yoga being a

basic ingredient of such a culture. I will now turn to each company individually and discuss the

presence of yoga in their work.

The Living Theatre

Documented elements of yoga in the work of the Living Theatre (1947- date) can be found in

their 1964-piece Mysteries, where at the end of the first part of the piece, 'the performers sat

cross-legged in a line across the stage facing the audience. Passing a roll of toilet paper among

themselves, they blew their noses to clear the breathing passages and began a yoga chant'

(Aronson, 2000: 71). The second piece where elements of yoga are documented is Paradise

103
Now (1968), the overall structure of which correspondedto Van Gennep's theory of rites of

passage. The performance consisted of separate 'rungs', each of which was marked by a
specific 'rite' (Innes, 1993: 187). The journey through each rung would lead to 'permanent

revolution'(ibid.). The developmentalnature of the journey that ParadiseNow aimed to achieve

is evident by the programmenotes, where a humanfigure is clearly markedwith the chakras of
the tantric tradition (Figure'33). As in popular representations, each chakra is accompanied by

the colour and the lotus shape that is attributedto it and is locatedat the appointedpoint on the
human body. In addition, each chakra is connected to individual 'rungs', starting with the rung of

'good and evil' situated at the bottom of the figure's feet and culminatingwith the rung of 'God

and Man' locatedat the figure's forehead.

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Figure33, ParadiseNow, reproducedfrom Innes, 1993: 187.

Apart from confirming the presence of yoga elements, the above descriptions cannot offer any

other information regarding the use of yoga within the Living Theatre during that time. For this

reason I talked to Mary Krapf, who joined the group in 1965 and remained until 1979. In a
phone interview (2008), Krapf, a self-taught yoga practitioner,gave an overall picture of the
presenceof yoga in the group. Accordingto her, yoga was never an official technique used by
the Living Theatre, as its founders 'practiced a bit', but not in a sustained manner. However,

other members of the group who joined at different points and stayed for a varied amount of
time either practicedyoga or were interestedin being taught by those who were alreadyfamiliar

with it. As a result, Krapf started teaching yoga to the new members.Yoga was seen as a tool

104
 that could be employed to assist the performers with their flexibility, their stamina, and the

control of their breath. In this way, elements of yoga became part of the members' routine and
found their way into the productions. Mysteries for example, which was intended as a form of

payment for the hospitality that the American Institute in Paris offered to the group, was a

compilation of scenes without a story line or characters, in the beginning without even a title. As

members of the group were practicing yoga at the time, the raga-chanting and the fire-breath
became part of the performance. 4 As Aronson states, 'the Living Theatre saw the raga [used in

Mysteries] as something pleasurable for the eyes and the ears as well as an attempt to create

an integral community of actors and audience through the peaceful and meditative sounds'
(2000: 71).

Apart from Mary Krapf, I also contacted current members of the Living Theatre, specifically Tom

Walker, Lois Kagan Mingus, Jerry Goralnick, and Joanie Hieger Zosike, asking them about the

presence of yoga. All the aforementioned artists suggested I should speak with Gary Brackett,

and I thus arranged a telephone interview with him (2008). Brackett, echoing Krapf's account,
told me that he came into contact with yoga when he joined the Living Theatre in 1980, through

members of the group who were already practicing. Brackett pursued yoga training outside the

enclave of the group and he studied the Jivamukti style, which is a blend of different styles of

yoga (Ashtanga, Iyengar, Vinyasa). 65 Drawing a full circle Brackett incorporated elements of

yoga practice in the workshops that he leads on behalf of the Living Theatre.

As the main productions that feature elements of yoga, Brackett identified Mysteries and

Paradise Now. His account of the first performance is very similar to the one given by Krapf, but

with regard to the second Brackett offered an insight into the working process. According to him,
during the creation of Paradise Now each actor took up a 'rite of study', whereby everyone

started from a meditation position and went on to explore their 66

own mudras. Additionally, the

actors using the practice of mantras shared a repetitive English phrase -'to be free is to be
free'- which featured in the production. Based on Brackett's description, it appears therefore,

64The breath of fire or agni-prasanais a pranayama(breathing)technique,which is believedto activate

the practitioner'snervoussystem.
65The Jivamukti style of yoga was created by David Life and Sharon Gannon in 1984 in New York. It is
informed by different styles of yoga that Life and Gannon had practicedbefore and it places a particular
emphasis on informing the students about the philosophical aspects of yoga
http://www.jivamuktiyoga.co.uk/about.html, accessedon 25th of May, 2010).
6 Mudra or seal Includes a variety of gestures with aesthetic, devotional and emotional significances.
There Is a variety of mudras,the executionof which includesdifferentbody parts, such as the hands,the
chin, and the eyes.

105
that in ParadiseNow distinct elementsof yoga practicewere directly appropriatedby the actors

and used in their workingprocess.

Taking the aforementioned productions into account, I asked Brackett to place the practice of

yoga within the artistic and political context of the Living Theatre. Brackett primarily drew links
between aspects of yoga and the pacifist-anarchist mentality of the group, for example the

importance that yoga places on offering service to others (kriya yoga) and the group's explicit

political stance. In this respect his point of view echoes Christopher Innes, who indicates that
the overall practice of the Living Theatre was underpinned by the assumption that 'individual

spiritual change is the precondition for meaningful exterior political change' (1993: 182). The

convergence between the group's political views and the practice of yoga manifests amply in

another production by the Living Theatre, which Brackett discussed at length. The piece is the
Seven Meditations on Political Sadomasochism, a 1972- production which Brackett recreated

both for stage in the 1980s and for camera in 2006 with the title SMOPSM re-mix. The theatre

piece, called by Brackett a 'complete ceremonial ritual', features a prolonged scene where the

performers sit cross-legged in a circle and chant, while they pass around a piece of chain.
According to Brackett, the intention behind the performers' 'ritualized formality and precision'

was to put the audience 'in a critical position, as a voyeur'. The aim of the whole mise en scene

was to arouse the spectator's kinaesthetic awareness in terms of posture and breathing and

remind them of their presence in the theatre. Jules Aaron, a reviewer of a 1974-performance of

the piece calls it 'a visceral experience for both actors and spectators -almost too excruciating

to watch and too compelling to avoid' (1974: 531-2). Indeed, both Aaron's description, as well

as the video created later by Brackett, make evident the provoking nature of the piece as well

as its 67
explicit political orientation. Nevertheless, it needs to be stressed that, despite the links

between yoga and the group's anarchist-pacifist outlook, primary and secondary sources as

well as Mary Krapf's account show that, at least during the period which concerns this section,

yoga was not 'institutionalized' and did not gain officialdom in the practice of the Living Theatre.

From the above it could be concludedthat the use and presenceof yoga in the Living Theatre
had an idiosyncraticcharacter and derived from the various inputs that individuals had in the

group. Based on Mary Krapf's accountand the yoga activities performedin Mysteries,it can be
supportedthat forms of yoga were practiced both individuallyand collectively.Like many other

67The video piece by Brackettcan be viewed on www.videoweekiv.bloasr)ot.com, accessedon the 25thof

May, 2010.

106
 actors, the Living Theatre members sought in yoga ways to enhance their abilities as

performers and to cope with an often demanding schedule. However, as neither Beck nor
Malina put particular emphasis on the training of the actors they worked with, it would be wrong

to view yoga as part of a training programme. Accordingly, Brackett supported that the staging

of the productions was not'too much influenced by yoga'. Based on the above, it would be safer
to attribute the elements of yoga that were incorporated in the group's productions (the crossed

legs, the chanting, the breathing) to the congeniality between aspects of the discipline, as

propagated within 1960s counterculture, and the woridview of the Living Theatre members.

Richard Schechner and The Performance Group

Part of the same artistic milieu was The Performance Group (1967-1980) which shared many

the characteristics of the avant garde discussed above. However, unlike the Living Theatre,

yoga was used by TPG as part of its ongoing training. It is important to note here that the
training which the members of TPG underwent had a different significance, structure and

objectives from what would at the time be deemed as conventional training for actors. Innes

supports that in TPG 'there was a deliberate avoidance of professional acting techniques that

might set the performers apart from the man in the street' (1993: 175).68 Accordingly, the

account offered by a longstanding member of the group, Joan Macintosh, reinforces the idea
that training in TPG could be characterized as idiosyncratic, and peculiar to the ensemble and

its leader. Exercises used by the group at its inception are described by Macintosh as 'violent

and concerned primarily with body movement. They were based on Grotowski's adaptations of
Kathakali, filtered through Schechner's personality, and translated by the mood of the late

1960s' (Aronson, 1976: 33). A more detailed account of the Group's training is given by

Schechner in Environmental Theatre, first published in 1973.

In the same way that TPG practices featured open rehearsals, naked performers, and direct

interaction with the audience, Schechner 'opens the door' of the garage, which served as the

base of the group, and lays in full sight what went on inside. Environmental Theatre can thus be

seen as a fulfilment of the 'prime theatrical purpose' of 'letting the secrets out and demystifying

theatre' (Schechner, 1994[1973]: 199). Schechner also views the book as 'a performer training

manual outlining practices and the theories underlying them that I developed in my work with

TPG' (1994[1973]: xi). 'These methods of training', continues the writer, were 'based on whole

68Concernsregardingthe lack of skills of TPG actors were also expressedby RichardGillmanin a 1971-
reviewof the Commune(1971:325-9).

107
body work, yogic breathing, sound making, and the release of feelings' (ibid.). He also

acknowledgesthat the activities of TPG were informed by Grotowski's work as well as by 'a
convergence of ideas in Western psychotherapy, Zen and yoga' (ibid.: 195). 69

Interestingly enough, further references to yoga are to be found in the chapter on therapy. In

this section, Schechner locates the interest in and use of yoga, as well as other therapeutic or

therapy-oriented disciplines, within the overall 'yearnings felt by many individuals in

industrialised societies' (1994[1973]: 196). He classifies these yearnings as: 'wholeness' on

personal, social, political and artistic level; "'process" and organic growth'; 'concreteness' in

terms of immediate action and engagement with practices versus 'theories' and 'abstraction';

and 'religious, transcendental experience' (ibid.: 196-7). In relation to the work of the performer,
Schechner places yoga alongside other systems that can offer one 'body knowledge' (ibid.:

221). According to Schechner a 'body-knowledgeable' performer is one who identifies with the

action being executed, and transcends 'the bonds of single-bodiedness' (ibid. ); a performer that
is secure in one's centre and can thus be present and responsive. The above descriptions paint

a relatively clear picture of the relation between yoga and the training of the actors, as well as
the expectations that underpinned such training. As it becomes evident in Environmental

Theatre, Schechner's vision was centred on the actualization of the self in a modern urban

environment, and was preoccupied with structuring a developmental process that one could

undergo through the practice of certain techniques. Yoga was considered to be one such

technique. However, despite the revelatory nature of the book, the more pragmatic side of the

use of yoga is not exposed. When and how yoga was being practiced, who led the sessions and

where the knowledge of yoga came from are not dealt with in Environmental Theatre. Equally,

such information is not offered by any other primary or secondary source. As a result, in the

interview I held with Richard Schechner, my main concern was to clarify these points.

Schechner studied yoga in Madras (now Chennai) in the last months of 1971 with T.

Krishnamacharya. As explained in the first chapter, Krishnamacharya played an instrumental

role in the modernization and propagation of the discipline. During his lifetime, the teaching of

the asanas and pranayamas came to the foreground with overt influences from Western

gymnastics and yoga became a product destined for global dissemination and consumption.

69The presence of elements of Zen and yoga are attributed by Schechner to an American tendency
towards Asian Influences. He further notes that the 'Pacific facing [of the continent] may prove more
important than our Atlantic past' (1994[1973]: 195). According to this statement, Schechner seems
unaware of the influence of Western ideologieson the developmentof yoga, and treats the latter as a
productof Asian culture.

108
 Schechner'saccount of Krishnamacharyapaints the picture of a man in a very good physical

condition; as Schechner said the eighty-threeyear old Krishnamacharya'showed me things I

could not do' (2008). Schechner described his teaching as 'passionate' and 'down to earth',
consisting of verbal instructions and demonstration(ibid.). Schechnerwas taught a series of
asanas and towards the end of his stay, some techniques of pranayama, which altogether
lasted forty-five to sixty minutes. The sessionstook place on a daily basis for an hour-an hour

and a half, and Schechner kept detailed notes. Krishnamacharyaalso gave to Schechnera
personal mantra, which consisted of certain words specific to his personality,disposition,and
constitution.

This intense period of apprenticeship and practice, combined with Krishnamacharya's

suggestion to him to do a teacher training course, equipped Schechner with enough confidence

to transmit his freshly acquired knowledge to TPG. On his return to the States, Schechner

taught the group 'almost everything' that Krishnamacharya taught him and the new material

enjoyed a warm reception (2008). Yoga became thus a consistent part of the group's training,

and it was practiced on a daily basis as a regular 'pre-warm up' routine until 1977. Schechner's

sessions bore the influence of his master's teaching, and his approach betrayed a distinct

concern with the precise execution of the asanas. His sessions would thus feature instructions

such as 'straighten your back', 'keep your knees together', 'suck in your gut when you exhale',
'make sure you follow the one-two-two ratio in breathing'. Schechner's austere teaching

approach is echoed in an essay published in Actor Training 1,which appeared one year after his

trip to India. His tone in this essay, especially the part which deals with direct instructions of

physical exercises, appears assertive and pragmatic; the physical postures -which do not bear

any Sanskrit names- are followed by explicit instructions that aim at precise and correct

execution. In a step-by-step description of a 'kneeling back bend' we thus read: '[L]ift

maintaining the arch in the back. The energy center is the small of the back, as if you are gently

pushed up. Use the muscles in the back and stomach, not in the thighs and shoulders' (1972:
27). What becomes clear from the above is a direct concern with the 'orthoperformance' of the

exercise, which apparently continued to inform Schechner's approach; as he attested in the

interview 'there is a right and wrong way to do an asana'. Another aspect that emerges from the

1972-essay is that Schechner sees these exercises as a pathway for the artistic objectives he

sought to address and he makes clear in the introduction that 'the exercises described here are

meant to suggest a whole approach to performing' (1972: 4 emphasis added). Finally, it should
be noted that Schechner incorporated additional exercises in the original material he learned

from Krishnamacharya. The pranayamas were thus combined with forms of panting and

109
chanting he learned from Kristin Linklatter, which he found very similar to the breathing

exercises he encountered in South India. Schechner described his combination of the two as a
'kind of yoga for performers' (2008).

According to Schechner, the benefits of yoga relate to the need of American actors to 'calm

down' and 'get the noise out of their minds' (2008). He further identified, as the most important

product of yoga practice, the creation of 'psychophysical wholeness' and the realization that 'the
body and the mind are the same thing, extensions of each other' (2008). Schechner's

understanding of the bodymind relationship is also evident in Environmental Theatre, where he

proposes a'process of integrating mind and body by concentrating on physicalizing experience'

(1994[1973]: 221). Schechner's description of his contact with yoga as well as an overview of

the published material on his work with TPG, betrays an understanding of and involvement with

the discipline in a distinct modern postural framework. As I have discussed in the previous

chapter MPY is characterized by emphasis on orthoperformance, self-development, and

healing. Accordingly, Schechner's approach to yoga demonstrates attention to and a vocabulary

of anatomical characteristics, comprises part of a wider pursuit for self-development, and is

therapeutically oriented. The use of yoga with the TPG as well as the combination of breathing

with voice exercises further makes evident that Schechner identified in yoga potential for its use
in actor training. It can be argued, therefore, that the presence of yoga in TPG displays distinct

traits of MPY practice as well as an applied character; yoga is a composite of a wider

methodology which was intended not only to cultivate the actor's resources, but also address

the whole person. 7° Nevertheless, it has to be stressed that apart from the voice exercises

which Schechner developed by combining yogic techniques of breathing with elements of

Linklater's work, the practice of yoga was restricted to a 'pre-warm up' activity, i.e. an activity

external and supplementary to the main session.

70 A fundamental aspect of the performer's development was considered to be the gut and

spine system and it is worth mentioning that Schechner continued with the exploration of these

systems and the relationship between them. Although this aspect of Schechner's work is

outside the remit of this essay, it is worth saying that both the theory and practice of
Rasaesthetics are indirectly connected to yoga.

110
 The Open Theatre

If TPG viewed actor training in quite contradictory terms (develop a technique but also do not

set the performers apart 'from the man on the street'), the emphasis put on actor training by the
Open Theatre (1963-1973) is quite unmistakable. The gathering of the group was considered to

be an opportunity for exploration and with no direct intention to stage performances, whereas its

founder, Joe Chaikin, 'was interested not only in the possibilities of collaborative creation with

actors.. .but also in ways of generating a new language of performance' (Hulton, D., 2000: 159).
His interest lay in finding ways to express 'the forbidden, forgotten, hidden areas of what it

means to be human' and as a result he developed exercises which could potentially articulate

and communicate this '"untranslatable" inner territory' (ibid.). The members of the Open Group,
therefore, were exposed to a variety of disciplines and teachers, and underwent vigorous

training that addressed different aspects of performing.

In A Book on the Open Theatre, Robert Pasolli identifies in the period between 1966 and 1967

the intention to 'lay a foundation of technical expertise' (1970: 97). In regard to yoga,

Grotowski's visit in 1967 led to the incorporation of the 'cat' exercise into their training

vocabulary as well as the rest of the yoga-based exercises developed by the Laboratory
Theatre. Additionally, two members of the Open Group (which are not identified by Pasolli) were

already familiar with this regime, as they had worked the previous summer with Cieslak In

training sessions held by the Odin Theatre in Denmark (1970: 101). The next year (1967-1968)

a grant allowed Chaikin to expand the horizons of his actors, as he employed a variety of

experts to lead the training sessions. The Open Theatre members were thus instructed in voice

and speech, dance and movement, acting, singing and yoga (Pasolli, 1970: 110). The latter was

taught by the newly arrived Swami Satchidananda (1918-2002), who was one of the disciples

Sivananda sent in- and outside India to preach the word of the Divine Life Society (Strauss,

2005: 96). Unfortunately, Pasolli does not offer any more details regarding the duration and

frequency of these yoga classes, but we can assume that they did not last very long, as

Satchidananda left New York soon afterwards in order to found an ashram in Virginia (ibid.: 97).

Satchidananda's departure marks the last trace this study has managed to procure regarding

yoga elements in the activities of the Open Theatre. Apart from the cat exercise that kept being

used as 'a basis for vocal and movement improvisation' (Hutton, D., 2000: 164), I have not

managed to identify whether or not yoga comprised a frequently used component in the training

and rehearsal sessions of the Open Theatre, until the latter's disbandment in 1973.

111
It proved equally difficult to trace any concrete information regarding the yoga tuition that

Satchidananda offered to the group. Strauss' ethnographic study of the Divine Life Society, the

ashram Sivananda founded in Rishikesh in 1934, can shed some light, although the exact

content and character of the Open Theatre yoga sessions remains inevitably incomplete without
direct accounts of the participants. According to Strauss' study Satchidananda's arrival in New

York in 1967 could be seen as part of Sivananda's 'near missionary zeal in sending young yoga

teachers out from Rishikesh to colonize the West' (2005: 95). It is quite likely therefore that

Satchidanda's teaching would reflect and possibly attempt to transmit the overall philosophy of

Sivananda's approach. According to Strauss, Sivananada's argument had a personal

orientation in the sense that it 'focused first on personal health and then on freedom generated
by self-realization' (2005: 44), prompting, however at the same time, the practitioners to be

considerate and compassionate towards other people (ibid. ). Sivananda's message, therefore,

must have appeared quite pertinent to the prevailing concerns of the time and the inauguration

of the Woodstock festival in 1968 by non other than Satchidananda makes clear that the latter

proved very popular with the counterculture. It is dubious, however, whether his teaching was

relevant to the Open Theatre interests and which aspects of his teaching -if any- influenced the

working methods of the group.

Going back to the 'cat' and the other yoga-based sequences developed by the Theatre

Laboratory and disseminated in the Open Theatre, Pasolli informs us that the aim was for the

'physical task to become automatic', so that the sequence is not interrupted by periods of rest

and the actor is 'alone with one self' without being concerned with the external appearance of
his/her work (1970: 100-1). Attention on the precision and detail in the execution of the

exercises was reinforced by Grotowski during his second visit to the States in 1969, when he

also made clear that the aim was not just physical mastery; during one's training, the

practitioner should stay in touch with one's private, physical and emotional, territory so that 'the

physical action exteriorizes his intimate, personal self' (Pasolli, 1970: 114). In this respect, as
Peter Feldman, a close collaborator of the Open Theatre, relates, the exercises were treated 'as

frameworks, as a form to be filled by what the actor is doing' (EDA, 1977-8: 7). As a result of the

way the yoga-based exercises were approached, their practice seeped into the creative process

and served not only technique-related training but also the generation of material. Dorinda
Hulton offers a description of the course of development; 'moments uncovered within non-verbal

exercises such as the 'cat'... were then selected, pared down and rhythmically scored,
juxtaposed in relation to pieces of found texts and often further developed, edited and shaped

by a writer, or dramaturge with Chaikin as director' (2000: 164).

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 An integral part of the execution of these exercises, and the element that rendered them

suitable for theatre making, was the use of images. In an interview with P. Hulton, Peter
Feldman talks about the importance of the actor 'being able to locate the image in one's body'

and to allow the internal image to come through the form of an exercise (EDA, 1977-8: 25). The
interaction between the physical activity exercised by the actor at any given point and the

simultaneous use of image is further elaborated by P. Hulton, who indicates that 'the image

exists not primarily as representation, symbol or sign, but as a reality occurring within a person's

project upon the world, as concretion of the dimensions and dynamics of the person in the

mode of action... '(EDA, 1977: 9). In this manner, Hulton continues, 'the image is the possibility

rendered present' and 'theatre is a skilful and felt act of rendering possibilities present, both
interactionally and/or presentationally' (ibid.: 10).

As a conclusion it is important to highlight the fact that yoga was not only used by Open Theatre

as a means to awaken the body of the actor, but it was actually incorporated in the process of

exploring and crafting performance material. Unlike the Living Theatre, where elements of yoga

are explicit, and TPG where yoga was part of the actor's overall training, the Open Theatre
developed frameworks that extended the use of yoga-based exercises in order to facilitate the

process of the actor/devisor. However, we should bear in mind that the exercises were yoga-
based, vivified and separated by degree from the original yoga postures. " In this respect, it can

be said that the yoga used was already a yoga altered to fit the purposes of the group.

Dorinda Hulton

The final section of this chapter will examine the work of Dorinda Hutton. The presence of yoga

is particularly prominent in her artistic as well as pedagogic activities, and Hutton has used the

discipline in a number of ways and in relation to different aspects of training and performance.

Furthermore, Hutton, being a practitioner and teacher of lyengar Yoga, uses this particular

approach both with students and performers. As a result, Hulton's work is of particular
importance to this thesis not only due to its scope but also because we both draw from the

same style of yoga. This section is primarily based on three interviews I conducted with Hutton
during 2009, one interview I held with Hulton's collaborator, Cathy Turner also in 2009, as well

as audiovisual material I have procured from the Exeter Digital Archive.

" As I have argued in the first the use of the adjective 'original' to define yoga postures is highly
chapter,
contestable. In this I
context use the term to distinguish the practice of yoga postures from the practice of
I
yoga-based exercises and am not alluding to any particular school or kind of yoga as being more original
than others.

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Hutton originally trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama and apart from studying

the Litz Pisk method there, she came into contact with a number of movement and voice

training disciplines, including Tai Chi and Shinto. Her artistic as well as teaching activities have

also been informed by four principles she encountered in her work with Gail Andrews, a voice
teacher of the Roy Hart method. These principles, which Hutton further developed and applied

in her own work are: clear order, where the mind is very clear about what it asks the body to do;

presence, where the actor is able to be in the present; reduction, where the actor is looking for
the essential; and relaxation, where there is an absence of tension (Hutton, 1998: 25-8).

Hulton's use of yoga in a theatrical context is multifaceted and spans more than three decades.

When I expressed interest in her work, Hulton provisionally organized her involvement with

yoga in distinct parts, and attempted to address each part separately. She specifically made the
following divisions:

" yoga as a centring discipline;

" yoga and voice;

" yoga and imagination, part of which is the cat exercise;

" yoga and creative writing and performance;

" yoga and space.

Based on Hulton's classification and the material that we eventually managed to cover, I will

examine her work by organizing it in similar groups, which have a distinct point of focus but also

a considerable amount of overlap. I will begin by examining Hulton's contact with the discipline,
I will then present the way she used the cat exercise, and I will continue with the use of yoga as

a centring discipline, the use of yoga and imagination, and the use of yoga in theatre making

and performance.

Contact with yoga

Hulton's initial contact with yoga took place in a theatrical environment, where she was taught

the cat exercise by Freehold Theatre Company. Freehold was a fringe theatre company based

in London and led by Nancy Merkel. Merkel had worked with the Le Mama in New York and she

was evidently familiar with the practices of the experimental theatre scene. Hulton's second

contact with yoga was through Rose Hall, an lyengar Yoga teacher, who was employed by the
drama department of Exeter University. Hulton was at the time teaching at the department and

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 joined the yoga classes for a period of a few months. As Hutton claimed, her participation in

Hall's classes and her initial encounter with Iyengar's approach made her 'aware of something

that was much, much more thoroughly investigated for its own sake, rather than an applied

method which is what I had been working with' (2009). Medical reasons led Hutton to visit
lyengar's Institute in Pune in 1974 and she was taught by him for three months. According to

Hulton, her time in Pune fuelled subsequent explorations in the application of the principles of

lyengar's work on 'artistic questions' (2009). Hulton experienced lyengar Yoga as being 'very,

very helpful to the whole person', because it addressed the 'depth and strength within the

person, and all kinds of other qualities to affect the whole person, and also the whole person's
interface with other people'. In this way, Hutton identified in lyengar Yoga 'a route', and although

she had been trained in other disciplines, she regarded lyengar Yoga as something she 'was

going to return to, whereas the others [methods] became phases'. Apart from using yoga in
...
her work, Hutton has also developed her own yoga practice, which she does on a daily basis.

After teaching Hutton directly and through postal correspondence, lyengar gave her the

permission to teach Iyengar Yoga.

The Cat

Hulton started to teach the cat exercise in her work with students at the drama department, in

her role as a voice coach in teacher training courses in Exeter, as well as in her participation as

a performer and movement trainer in the Freehold. A participant's injury during a voice class of

the teacher training course as well as Iyengar's approach alerted her to the dangers that the

sequence could possibly entail for people that were not trained. As a result, she revised the cat

sequence, which 'became gradually simpler and simpler, and shorter and shorter and the route

to each posture was approached quite methodically through a system of lyengar postures, and

then placed within the much smaller sequence' (2009). The cat sequence lasted for about ten

minutes and particular attention was placed on the flow of the movement and the shifting of
balance. While executing the sequence the participants would work with an image as well as

sound, particularly vowels and words. In Freehold particularly, the emphasis was on the

creation and expression of imagery, and as a result Hulton incorporated in the sequence a

relatively slow walk forward and backward, which gave the actors a bit more freedom to work

with the image. The cat sequence finished with Savargasana (shoulderstand) and Halasana
(the plough), in order for the practitioners to quieten down. At the end of the process, the

participants were asked to choose three images, which they would later craft and/or

choreograph. At the same time, Hulton started exploring the production of voice within the
different asanas and the different resonances that resulted in different positions. The cat,

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therefore,became a kind of frameworkwithin which the actors could explore different sounds

and images.As such, Hulton continuedto employthe cat in a way similar to the Open Theatre,
although her approach to the poses that constitutedthe sequence was informed by lyengar's
teaching.

The Use of Yoga as a Centering Discipline

The cat was also used by Hufton in her work with drama students at Exeter University.

However, changes in the structure of the degree forced Hutton to abandon the exercise,

because she deemed that the new timetable did not allow enough time for the students to get a

proper understanding of the poses. As a result the three elements that comprised the
framework of the cat, i.e. practice of yoga asanas, work with image, and exploration of sound,

became separate. A three-hour session would thus incorporate a short yoga practice instructed

by Hutton, work on the voice, and finally exercises on developing the actor's imagination and

creativity.

The practice of yoga as a distinct activity within an academic actor training environment is

viewed by Hutton as part of what she terms 'centering disciplines'. According to her, theatrical

activity often forces actors to work away from their centre, that is to transform, engage their

resources in order to meet the demands of a text, and embody a certain character. The above

reasons coupled with the inherent stressful nature of the profession led Hutton to uphold the
importance of 'find[ing] space and time to develop the whole person of the performer' (2009).

The use of centering disciplines, such as Tai Chi and yoga, are seen by Hutton as fulfilling this

role.

Furthermore, Hulton also emphasized that in her work with students she found that the practice

of standing poses were really beneficial in developing 'the illusive qualities that make up for

good ensemble work... in a way that other methods do not' (2009). More specifically, she

observed that the nature of the standing poses, which are 'so unfussy, they are not dramatic,

they are not things you can show off with' ground the performer, and develop strength and

discipline. As a result certain attitudes that can be counterproductive in a creative environment

become less pronounced. Nevertheless, in her teaching Hulton does not make any explicit

connections between the practice of asanas and the work of the performer. In her opinion, such

a connection would be detrimental, as it could potentially lead students into believing that yoga
is all one needs to become an actor. In that case, Hulton argued, a silent and personal form of

practice such as yoga could alienate them from the use of their voice as well as from their

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 interactionwith other actors. For this reason, Hulton introducedpair work from the beginningof

the yoga sessions, whereby one student gives the verbal instructionsand the other student

executes the pose. Apart from allowing the students to work with each other, pair work also
reinforces the principle of clear order, since both partners gain a better understandingof the
verbal instructions as well as the way these instructionstranslate into physical action. In this
respect,the practice of standingposes can enable the studentsto developa skill for clarity and
subsequentlytransfer this skill in their creativeprocess.

Yoga and Imagination

As I have mentioned in the introduction the use of yoga in Hulton's work is inextricably linked

with her understanding of imagination. According to Hutton, imagination is such an important

aspect of the performer's resources, that what lies at the heart of good acting is, in her opinion,

the performer's 'facility to connect internally with imagery' (2009) and the ability to sustain such

a connection. Furthermore, in Hulton's opinion, imagination is not something restricted to the

mind, but it should engage the rest of the actor's senses and body. In relation to cat, for

example, Hulton describes a process whereby the actor is imagining with her whole body and
the image is taking place through the actor's movement and voice. Another way in which Hulton

approached the development and use of imagination is through the employment of the pose
Savasana. Savasana (corpse pose) typically concludes Iyengar Yoga sessions and its practice

involves lying on the floor in a supine position with the eyes and mouth closed. Hulton has

consistently employed this position as a method for generating written material. A detailed way
in which Hulton uses Savasana is clearly outlined in a workshop she delivered in the Changing

Body Symposium that took place at the University of Exeter in 2006.

Hulton first instructed the participants into the pose in a typical lyengar manner, emphasizing

their alignment and correct placement on the floor. She then mentioned the position of the head,

neck and nose, ears and eyes. According to lyengar, the inward direction of the focus and the

consequent relaxation induced by the pose is closely linked to the receding of the eyes and

ears, and Hulton made an explicit reference to these points. Once she gave detailed

instructions for the whole body and face, Hulton brought the participants' attention to their

breathing and asked them to lengthen the exhalation. Finally, Hulton asked them to form in the

place below the breastbone an image that to them signified relaxation. This last part signaled

the end of the exercise, as shortly afterwards the participants were asked to come out of the

pose and relate their experience to a partner. After teaching the pose in detail, Hulton asked the

participants to perform Savasana again, but this time she gave them stimuli for visualization

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instead of instructions. The pose was culminated with speed writing and the process of going

though Savasana- visualization- speed writing was repeated three times. The first time the

participants, led by Hulton's promptings, imagined a character and 'saw' the character from the

outside furnishing him/her/it with details. Then they recorded their image using the third person

and the past tense. The second time Hulton invited them to come up with a memory that the

character had, which was subsequently noted down in the first person in the present tense. The

third time the participants were asked to imagine a moment that was at the centre of the

character's memory. This time the writing was associative, putting into language the
impressions, feelings, sensations that 'were at the heart of that moment' (2009). According to

Hulton the choice of tense and pronoun that was used in each text reflected the process of the

pose itself which progresses from the 'outward placing of the body in space into an inward

attention' (2009).

In relation to the activation of imagination in Savasana, Hulton further clarified that she does

not approach the aforementioned activity as a form of visualization, but that similarly to the cat,

she is working with 'the idea of placing the imagery or the imagination-further down the body'

(2009). She specifically drew links between her aim to place the actor's imagination 'on the

breastbone' rather than the head and the significance of the same body part in Iyengar's

approach to Savasana. The way Hulton used the cat exercise as well as the corpse pose, make

clear the connections she identifies between the practice of yoga positions and the activation of

the actor's imagination, which is considered a 'whole body' activity. These connections have

also informed the creation of a performance piece which Hulton devised with scholar and writer,
Cathy Turner.

Yoga and Performance

Air was part of a larger project that Turner undertook in order to explore the relationship

between writing and performing. Air particularly focused on examining 'yoga both as a source

for writing for performance, and also as a resource within the process of performing itself'

(Hutton, Air programme notes). More specifically, Hutton taught Turner yoga for a period of

three months with a particular focus on Tadasana (mountain pose), Virasana (warrior pose),

and Savasana (corpse pose)72. The poses were approached from an anatomical and

physiological perspective, respectively in terms of the position of the skeleton and the function

72 Virasana is
usually called the hero pose, but Hulton calls it the warrior.

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 of the vital organs (Air, Programme Notes). The poses were also explored in relation to the
imagery 'inherent in each posture, for example steadiness in the mountain, endurance in the

warrior and surrender in the corpse' (ibid. ). As Hulton relayed in one of the interviews, 'the

actual names of the postures have inherent within them that connection back to their source, as
being embodiment, imaginative enactment of not just animals, but monumental images, such as

the mountain. And each image that the pose represents, has within it qualities. So that the
...
mountain has within it stillness, stability (2009). Furthermore, in the three poses that formed the
basis of the process and the performance, Hutton identified the same movement from outwards

to inward that takes place in the aforementioned exercise on Savasana and speed writing.

The inward movement of the poses was also reflected in the writing that emerged through the

process as well as in the final script. As Cathy Turner observed, the text produced from
Tadasana was often 'a simple reflection on the moods and physical sensation that occurred

through the practice' (Air, programme notes). The writing that was generated from Virasana was

'fragmentary, allusive and subjective', whereas the practice of Savasana 'seemed to lead

towards silence' (ibid. ) Quite interestingly, the poses also comprised the physical score of the

final piece. The performance featured Turner standing in Tadasana, then sitting in Virasana and

finally lying in Savasana, in each pose reciting a different piece of text. Both Hutton and Turner

described the generation of the text in terms of an archaeological excavation, whereby 'these

texts were dug out of the physical postures' (Air, programme notes). In this respect, Turner

viewed the performance as an event during which an audience would 'watch me bury them [the

texts] back inside myself' (ibid. ). As a result, Turner resisted the 'temptation to entertain' but at

the same time remained attentive to keeping the audience included in the process (ibid).

In Air one could identify a number of the different strands that comprise Hulton's engagement

with yoga; the final piece emerged from an explicit exploration of the relationship between yoga

and creative writing, it was founded on an orthoperformative practice of the asanas, and it

featured a direct link between yoga and imagination. It is possibly one of the few pieces that the

practice of yoga poses did not remain backstage but formed an integral part of the physical

score. Furthermore, my impression is that the on-stage execution of the yoga poses was not
treated as choreographing material for the composition of the score, in the way for example that

Grotowksi used yoga positions in Sakuntala, neither were the yoga poses used as a metonymy

of the practice of yoga and the concepts that such practice signify to current audiences. My

assumption is that both Hutton and Turner approached the yoga poses as a locus of

experience, as shapes that would place the body in a particular position and at the same time

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affect the psychophysical state of the performer. Such a state, I would further argue, did not

only inform the production of the written material, but it was the very source from which this

material was performed. Although the decision to use the asanas in the actual performance was
determined by Hulton, Turner attested that she 'would not be able to think of the piece in

another way' (2009).

Conclusion

Hulton's use of yoga features a remarkable scope of application, since the discipline has

informed her work both as an actor trainer as well as theatre maker. It should be furthermore

noted that Hulton's use of the discipline is rooted in her own personal practice and particularly in
her involvement with the Iyengar school. According to Hulton, Iyengar Yoga offered her a wide

range of possibilities and my impression is that her long practice in this particular method has

given her the ability to make conscious decisions regarding the extent to and the way in which

she is employing her lyengar background. In the workshop that she gave in the Changing Body
Symposium for example, it is clear that Hulton had the ability to both teach Savasana in an

unmistakable Iyengar manner, as well as use the pose in order to address specific elements of
the performer's craft (in this case imagination and creative writing). In this manner, Hulton

manages to start with a yoga posture (Savasana) and transform it into a framework (imagery in
Savasana) and thus she addresses both the pre-expressive skills that a performer ought to

have as well as the resources from which the performer is asked to create.

Finally, it is interesting to note that in Hulton's opinion the potential of yoga poses to fuel the

artist's imagination relates to their names and 'the connection back to their source'. As I have
indicated in the first chapter, however, not all the poses have such a connection. The standing

poses in particular quite probably derive from a Western Gymnastic tradition, and feature
descriptive names. Hulton could not have been aware of the historical premises of these poses,

since her work predates the scholarship that revealed these premises. It is worth noting,
therefore, that the poses she has found useful 'are not the postures that Iyengar puts first, which

are the standing postures' (2009). More specifically, Hulton distinguished between the standing

postures, which she found 'very useful for centring the actor' and Savasana which she

employed 'for work on the imagination' (2009). It could be said, therefore, that Hulton's use of

the discipline has been methodically systematized and developed in two distinct strands, with

each strand utilizing different poses of the lyengar syllabus and applying it to different

performative and pre-performative demands.

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 A Comparative Examination of the Different Uses of Yoga

The practitioners presented in this chapter employed yoga in ways that bear a number of

similarities as well as distinct differences. First of all, it is obvious that all practitioners did not

simply import elements of yoga practice in their studios, but developed yoga-based exercises

which aimed to address specific concerns that related to each individual's artistic vision and
theatrical practice. With the possible exemption of Grotowski, their focus, in other words, was

not on the ways yoga can be used in theatre, but rather yoga appeared as a promising starting

or entry point for the actor's work. As such, in all cases the use of yoga has been accompanied
by interest in and use of other disciplines.

Furthermore, it is clear that each practitioner's contact with yoga was conditioned by the space

and time in which they lived and worked as well as the developments that yoga was undergoing
during this time. As a result, each of the aforementioned practitioners came into contact with a

different aspect of the discipline, and more importantly with a different form of dissemination.

Stanislavsky encountered yoga when the latter was still being shaped according to neo-vedantic

and occult elements, and propagated through books and talks. Grotowksi came into contact

with both orientalist accounts of the discipline as well as the newly hatched forms of MPY, but
his information was still based on written sources. Richard Schechner on the other hand

received yoga tuition directly from a teacher and was mainly interested in the postural aspect of

the discipline, whereas, by his own admission, philosophical underpinnings left him indifferent

(2008). Dorinda Hulton, finally, had a sustained contact with the discipline, and embraced both

postural as well as ideological elements of the practice.

Moreover, there seems to be a correlation between the aspects of yoga that attracted the

attention of different practitioners and the artistic and social milieu in which these practitioners

operated. For example, as I have argued in the section on Stanislavsky, the notion of Will that

appears in Ramacharaka's account and gained importance in Stanislavsky's work was also

relevant to the function of the actor as an interpreter of the text and hence his/her importance in

the overall creative process. By contrast in the 1960s, when acting was seen as part of a larger

process of self-development and social transformation, yoga was regarded as a therapeutic tool

and not as a means to strengthen the actor's individual will. It could be argued, therefore, that

the yoga applications developed by each practitioner have a particularly contingent character.

They have been affected by the nature and degree of each individual's interest in yoga, the

in
ways which yoga was disseminated, and the wider artistic and social environment that framed

their endeavour.

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As such, their work not only mirrors the acculturation and dissemination process that yoga has

undergone in the last hundred years, but also makes evident the variety and plethora of

applications that can arise from the discipline. Stanislavsky for example used the meditational

aspect of the discipline, the Living Theatre and Richard Schechner employed the chanting

practices, whereas all the practitioners apart from Stanislavsky drew primarily from the

repertoire of yoga postures. It also becomes clear that the deployment of yoga postures can

take a number of formats. Grotowski and his actors synthesized different poses together,

created a sequence of yoga poses, such as the cat that could flow into each other, and also

combined work with images and voice. Schechner on the other hand kept the practice of the

postures as a separate activity that preceded the group's rehearsal. Dorinda Hulton and Cathy
Turner isolated specific postures and used their practice both as a trigger for generating

material for performance as well as an integral part of the final production. The ways in which

yoga has been employed further points out the fact that yoga can be used, applied, and

adapted. As a result, there are occasions where practice of yoga poses is simply employed,
instances where practice of yoga or yoga poses are specifically applied towards certain aims,

and cases where the practice is adapted and combined with other exercises.

The examination of the work of the aforementioned practitioners enabled me, therefore, to

identify the different ways in which yoga can be employed and the position that yoga practice

can have within a creative and/or training process. I became for example aware that yoga can
be used as a pre-performative tool (Schechner) and as well as a means of performance

devising (Hulton, Turner). I also realized that yoga elements can be used directly in the creative

and/or training process (Schechner, Hulton) and also that aspects of yoga can be combined

with other exercises and tailored to specific needs (Grotowksi). Although the practical part of

this study did not attempt to reconstruct, develop, or continue any of the yoga applications

presented in this chapter, the terrain that has been mapped so far will form the foundation for

the second part of this thesis, which exposes and discusses the way I attempted to apply the

lyengar Yoga practice. In the final section of this chapter, I will expose the connections between

the work of the practitioners examined here and the aims and questions of the practical

research.

The Use of Yoga by 20thCentury Western Practitioners and the Practical

Projects.

The investigationof Stanislavsky'swork did not affect the practical projects directly, primarily
because Stanislavskydrew from exercises and concepts of yoga which are not present in the

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 style of yoga I employed in the projects. The most important difference between the two is, of

course, the absence of the practice of yoga postures in Stanislavsky's case and the prevalent

position that yoga poses occupy in Iyengar's method. However, the examination of
Stanislavsky's work informed this thesis in two important ways. First of all, White's and

Carnicke's approach, arguably Stanislavsky's as well, seems to be underpinned by the

assumption that the practice of yoga strengthens the relationship between body and mind.
Nonetheless, as I have demonstrated, Ramacharaka's version of yoga featured a number of

body-mind dualisms, which are linked to the wider ideological and cultural trends of the time.

Despite the specificity of Ramacharaka's case, the problems it possibly caused in Stanislavsky's

attempt to create a holistic training system, led me to question the assumption that current
forms of yoga promote a body-mind integration. In the introduction to the practical projects I will

thus ask whether yoga promotes the relationship between body and mind and if so on what

grounds/in what way is such a relationship developed. Is the achievement of body-mind unity

simply an assumption that has been attached to yoga practices or does such an assumption
have a phenomenological basis?

In addition to the above, Stanislavsky's use of yoga informed the first practical project of this

thesis, albeit in an implicit fashion. As I mention in the relevant section, Stanislavsky in the last

part of his career developed a new approach that became known as the Method of Physical
Actions or Active Analysis. It is not known whether the former yoga based exercises, i.e. the

circles of attention, the exchange of rays etc were used during this period. It is possible that
Stanislavsky continued to use these exercises but refrain from referring to them in order to

avoid censorship. It is also possible to assume that Stanislavsky stopped using them altogether

also for censorship reasons. It is finally valid to hypothesize that Stanislavsky no longer made

use of these exercises, because his work began to develop in a new direction. It is worth being

reminded that Ramacharaka's volumes are restricted to yogic baths and stretches, and do not

offer any systematic approach towards physical training. It is plausible, therefore, to argue that

as Stanislavsky's interest now lay in finding ways to directly involve the actor's body in the

creative process the forms of yoga he encountered did not offer him any relevant tools.

Although it is not possible to support a definitive argument about the use of yoga in

Stanislavsky's later work, his overall contact with the discipline enabled me to formulate the

question that the first practical project addresses. Can the practice of yoga facilitate the actor's

embodiment of character? In other words, if we cast the actor's work In the terms that
Stanislavsky proposed, i.e. building the character and developing a clear line of physical

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actions, can MPY offer tools that are consistent with Stanislavsky's endeavour? In such a

manner, the aforementioned questions acted as a starting point for the practical research. The
first practical project does not attempt to review or reconstruct Stanislavsky's Method of

Physical Actions. My choice, however, to begin the practical research with a piece of naturalistic

dramaturgy as well as the emphasis I placed on character embodiment have been significantly

inspired by Stanislavsky's late work and the ambivalence that surrounds the use of yoga at the

end of his career.

In relation to Grotowski, an examination of his work allowed me to identify important aspects of

the actor's work and their interface with yoga. I was particularly drawn by the way Grotowski

'changed the currents' and addressed two aspects of yoga, which, as I will discuss later, I have

found to be incompatible with actor training. In the introduction to the first practical projects, as

well as in more detail in Chapters 3 and 4, I will examine the individualistic nature of the

practice, i.e. that yoga is practiced independently even when practiced in groups as well as the

stationary nature of the poses, i.e. the postures are practiced on the spot. Grotowski managed

to use yoga positions in continuous motion and enable the actors to relate to one another.

However, for reasons I explicate in the fourth chapter, the practical projects did not use

Grotowksi's structure. Nonetheless, they did address the possibility of the asanas to facilitate

the actors' movement in the space as well as their performative relationship to other actors.

Grotowski's development of the cat exercise as well as its use by the theatre practitioners

reviewed in this chapter also brought to my attention the importance of the actor's imagination.
The cat in Grotowski's work as well as in the practice of The Performance Group, The Open

Theatre, and Dorinda Hulton was supposed to enable not only the performer's movement but

also one's ability to generate and sustain images. In the practical projects of this thesis I did not

use the cat as such nor did I develop an exercise similar to it. However, the combination of yoga

with the use of imagination attempted by all aforementioned practitioners highlighted an area of

research worth examining. It furthermore, allowed me to gain a better understanding of the

pedagogical principles that underlie the style of yoga I chose to apply and as such enabled me

to develop the associations exercise, which I discuss in the introduction to the practical projects.

The work of Dorinda Hulton and the Living Theatre further made me aware of the possibilityof

using yoga postures directly on stage. Although I did not undertake a similar experiment,
Hulton'swork in particular highlightedfor me the fact that the practice of yoga, even when it is

restricted in the pre-performativedomain, affects the performer as a person. As such, my

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intention to use the participants' experience of the practice as a base for the creation of an

autobiographical piece of theatre has similarities with the way the practice of yoga 'infiltrated'
Mysteries and facilitated Turner's writing. The working methods I employed in the third practical

project are very different to the ones employed by Hulton and Turner, but in some ways the

rationale is the same: yoga is a psychophysical practice that has both direct and indirect
implications. I will return to this idea in the following chapters and I will expound it further by

using a model of selfhood by psychologist Ulric Neisser. Finally, it should be noted that in the
first practical project I borrowed directly an exercise developed by Hulton, which I adapted for

the purposes of the project.

The work of the practitioners examined in this chapter informed the practical research in direct

as well as indirect ways. To sum up, the distinct points of contact betweenthe way I employed
IyengarYoga in this researchand the work of these practitionersare:

" The use of visualization exercises, which was heavily based on Hulton's work (Chapter

3).

" The relationship I attempted to foster between the practice of yoga poses and
movement improvisation, which was informed by the development of the cat by
Grotowskiand Cieslak and the subsequentmodificationof the same exerciseby Hulton
(Chapter4).

" The relationship I intended to cultivate between yoga and imagination, which was
inspired by the way Grotowski and Schechner used associations (Introduction to

PracticalProjects).

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Part II

Introduction

The aim of this section is to introduce the practical aspect of this thesis, i.e. state the aims and

questions that a practical application of the discipline attempts to address, give an overview of

the projects and a justification of certain methodological and artistic choices, and present the

main assumptions and ideas that have underpinned the conception, realization and analysis of
these practical projects. Apart from the aforementioned elements, the aim of this introduction is

also to re-engage with the question of what yoga is, this time through a sociological and

phenomenological lens and also examine, through the aforementioned perspectives, how yoga
'works'. My decision to open the discussion of the practical projects with a theoretical analysis is

based on the following reasons.

First of all, my impression is that an understanding and analysis of the practical research would

be greatly enriched by a contextualization of the practice of yoga in terms of its socio-cultural as

well as experiential dimension. As I hope the two previous chapters have made clear, the

practice of yoga in general and the application of yoga in the theatre in particular are socially

and historically specific events. A failure to recognize the subjection of the practice to historical
forces and ideological discourses have led not only to erroneous and essentialist attitudes

towards yoga, but also to applications of the discipline that undermine a holistic approach to

acting. Furthermore, I would argue that pre-modern as well as modern practices and

understandings of yoga are inextricably linked to geographically situated and culturally specific

conceptualizations and theorizations of the body and the self. As a result, the application of

yoga to a theatrical context is by no means free from the body/self related discourses that

underpin current manifestations of the discipline. In fact, as I will demonstrate in the chapter on
the third practical project, these discourses are operative in the use of yoga by and for actors.

Furthermore, a research that rests on the preconception that yoga is beneficial to actors and is

driven by the aim to expand the horizons of such benefits needs to discuss how such benefits

take place. In other words, it is important to delineate how yoga 'works' and the manner in which

I attempted to impart such an understanding to the participants of the projects. In addition to the

above, as I have already mentioned, the yoga applications that developed in the course of this

research made use of specific theories and concepts which derive from the field of

phenomenology and cognitive science. It is important, therefore, to present these theories and

place them within a wider context, before I specifically discuss the way they were employed in
 each project. Before I begin the exposition of the aforementioned themes, it should be also

noted that my engagement with the available bibliography on yoga leads me to believe that

sociological and phenomenological accounts of the discipline are sparse and limited (see

classification of yoga bibliography in the main introduction). The field of MY is newly carved and
its main emphasis has been so far historical. As such, the current examination embarks on

uncharted territories, wherein I will attempt to combine prevalent theories of the body,

embodiment, and the self with the available historical information as well as my own experience

of the practice.

My choice to organize an examination of yoga in terms of its social character on the one hand

and its phenomenological dimension on the other has been informed by similar distinctions I
have encountered in the literature on the body. More specifically, I found particularly useful the

classification put forward by Elizabeth Grosz (1994), who arranges and examines different

approaches to the body according to an Inside - Outside model. According to Grosz 'whereas

psychoanalysis and phenomenology focus on the body as it is experienced, rendered

meaningful, enmeshed in systems of significations, Nietzsche, Foucault, Deleuze, Lingis and

others. .. focus on the body as a social object, as a text to be marked, traced, written upon by

various regimes of institutional (discursive and nondiscursive) power... ' (1994: 116). The

manner in which Grosz organizes the most predominant movements and thinkers of recent
Western thought brings to the foreground two important points. Firstly, the body has been

approached as 'the subject's corporeal exterior... psychically represented and lived by the

subject' (ibid.: xii). This constitutes 'the inside out' category delineated by Grosz and includes

psychoanalytic, neurological, and phenomenological accounts (ibid. ) Second, the body has
been viewed as 'the site of the subject's social production, as the site of the proliferation of the

will to power (in Nietzsche), of docility and resistance (in Foucault), of becoming and
transformation (in Deleuze and Guattari)' (ibid.: xiii). This comprises 'the outside in' approach in

Grosz's model and has been mainly utilized by social scientists.

Apart from highlighting the various foci of different theoreticians, Grosz's classification also

points out the shortcomings of their approaches. Wimal Dissanayake in his essay 'Body in

Social Theory' claims that 'mainstream social theory' is permeated by a Cartesian

understanding of a dualistic relationship between body and mind, and that 'modern social

theorists favor the study of the relationshipbetween the human body and the social context in

which it functions in a compartmentalizedrather than holistic way' (1993: 32). Even Foucault's

approach, which placed the body at the centre of social inquiry, suffers from reluctance to

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acknowledge the body's agentic quality; Foucault viewed the body solely as a site of the
inscriptions of power but not as a locus of the production of agency and power (ibid.). On the

other hand, as social theorist Bryan Turner points out, phenomenology, despite offering an

alternative to the Cartesian body-mind impasse, is predominantly focused on the individual and,

consequently, does not account for the individual's position in and interaction with larger social

and political contexts. Turner, for example, remarks that phenomenology identified that'persons
have direct government over their body' (1996: 81), but failed to systematically address the

government of the body by social systems, such as 'slavery' and 'patriarchy' (ibid. ).

It goes without saying that there is a great degree of cross-fertilization between these two

approaches; Dissanayake reviews the work of 'phenomenologically oriented social theorists'

(1993: 31,33), whereas I will later refer more extensively to the work of anthropologist David

Howes who proposed a replacement of poststructuralist models of inquiry for a direct

engagement with the body and the senses. The aim of this brief review, however, is not to

exhaust current approaches in social science and phenomenology, but to indicate that yoga's

character as a social phenomenon as well as the current preponderance of the physical aspect

of the discipline renders the theories advocated by the aforementioned schools and thinkers

particularly useful and effective in the ways in which yoga could be viewed, theorized and

applied. Although a discussion of modern practices of yoga through the lens of all the different
theories mentioned above is outside the remit of this thesis, I would argue that an application of

yoga in theatre needs to take into account both the social dimension of the human body and

yoga as well as the phenomenological experience of the practice.

Yoga as a Social Practice

in the first chapter (section Yoga and Modernity) I have briefly outlined the manner in which

historian Elizabeth De Michelis and ethnographer Sarah Strauss position yoga within modern,

capitalist societies. Strauss (2005) in particular has viewed the practice of yoga as part and

parcel of the 'health and freedom' values that she identifies as currently dominant. Strauss'

argument can be significantly augmented by an examination of the position and role of the
body. Bryan Turner observes that in late capitalist societies the body has become an 'indicator

of cultural capital', whereas the maintenance or production of youthfulness, fitness and beauty
has been met by a significant degree of personal and financial investment (1996: 3). The

emphasis placed on the body is also related to what sociologists term 'the self project', 'within

which individuals express their own personal emotional needs through constructing their own
bodies' (ibid.: 5). The body, therefore, is seen as 'a changeable form of existence which can be

128
 shaped and which is malleableto individual needs and desires' (ibid.). The popularityof yoga,
therefore, and indeed the widespread practice of MPY, can be seen to belong in this wider

nexus whereby the body is molded, regulated and governed accordingto specific values and
aims. It is importantto be remindedthat in modernconfigurationsyoga has acquiredan explicit
health and fitness orientation,whereas practices of yoga today fall under the sport and leisure
domain. At the same time yoga has been cast as a form of physical/spiritual/holistictherapy,

advocatedboth by mainstreamdoctorsas well as practitionersof alternativemedicine.

In an article that examines the disciplinary nature of alternative therapies, cultural theorist Ruth

Barcan employs Foucault's argument and claims that 'the vigilance of external bodies is

supplemented to a greater or lesser degree by self-monitoring, self-"management", self-

surveillance' (2008: 15). Alternative therapies, and among these Barcan explicitly includes yoga,

are precisely manifestations of internalised forms of self- government. Contrary to popular

beliefs, therefore, it could be argued that practice of postural yoga, while supposedly ridding the

body of the tensions and toxins of urban environments, at the same time renders the body

useful, efficient and docile in the processes of labour production and goods consumption.
According to this view, yoga not only fails to liberate the practitioner but makes one further

complicit in maintaining the status quo.

The social function of modern forms of yoga seems, therefore, to be underpinned by certain

ambivalence. On one hand it could be said that the practice of yoga offers an alternative to the

power mechanisms that control contemporary society. On the other hand it could be equally

argued that yoga by alleviating the pressure exerted by these mechanisms ensures their

permanence. This aspect of yoga is exemplified by the practice of the discipline by female

practitioners. The popularity that yoga gained in the UK during the 1960s was particularly
fostered by the female population. Suzanne Newcombe indicates that during this period women

'made seventy to ninety percent of the student base of most classes' (2007: 45) and 'yoga was

often described as a cure for women's specific problems' (ibid.: 49). Furthermore, during that

time yoga regimes, and particularly lyengar Yoga, acknowledged biological differences between

the two sexes and developed forms of practice specifically for the female physiology. The

biological body is a contested issue amongst feminists, and it is outside the remit of this thesis

to examine MPY and/or lyengar Yoga through this lens. 73However, it is interesting to note that

73Grosz classifiesfeministapproachesto the body in the followingthree

categories:'egalitarianfeminism'
that views the female body and its reproductivefunctions as an obstacle that has to be overcome;the

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Newcombe attributes the popularity that yoga enjoyed during the 1960s 'to the way it

simultaneously supported women's traditional identities of wife and mother, as well as a more
independent identity promoted by second-wave feminism' (ibid.: 37). De Michelis' observation,

therefore, that yoga is practiced 'in total autonomy from institutional and societal control' (2004:

211) acquires an ironic twist. If practice of yoga comprises a distinct form of self-regulation and

body management, through a Foucauldian lens it can also be construed as a practice that

supports institutional and societal control. In the 1960s for example the practice of yoga

supported women by addressing gynecological functions and by providing an outlet for creativity

and self-expression. In this manner, yoga both reinforced the traditional role of women and

pointed towards alternative models.

Based on the above, the implications of using yoga to train actors are, indeed, both serious and

far reaching. The practice can be seen to surreptitiously re-inscribe onto the actor values and

ideologies that modern theatre often aims to challenge. As I will discuss in the last chapter, for

example, a great number of autobiographical and feminist oriented performance, employs the
body strategically in order to highlight the social powers and cultural norms that cast people into

certain roles and construct identities. Yoga, according to a Foucauldian reading however, can
be seen to be reinforcing such cultural norms. As a result, the use of yoga in an

autobiographical and/or devising context could perhaps undermine the integrity of the

performer's endeavor.

In addition to the above, it has to be stressed that the 'self project' or the 'body project', which

according to the aforementioned argument is seen to encompass and determine yoga practices,

is the 'principal legacy of individualism' (Turner, 1996: 20). In other words, yoga addresses the

individual and is practiced by individuals who have been progressively disconnected from larger

religious, political and traditional structures. In this respect, I would argue that Grotowski's

observation that yoga is an introverted form of practice has a certain validity which does not,
however, derive from an assumed inward stream of attention. I would particularly support that

yoga's inward focus manifests in the individualistic way in which yoga is viewed and performed;

yoga is practiced to further the individual's needs and desires and apart from the arguable
dictum that a 'balanced individual makes a better human being', yoga in its current

approach of 'social constructionism', which identified a distinction between the biological body and its
representation by/in a patriarchal society; the 'sexual difference' approach that recognizes the sexual
difference between male and female bodies without however presupposing a biological body outside of
and prior to socio-cultural influences. For more information see Grosz, 1994: 13-9.

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 manifestations does not have an overt social or political dimension." In this view, yoga
contributeslittle to the actor's ability to relate to and work as part of a largergroup.

An examination of yoga through a social prism uncovers aspects of the discipline that have

been so far little acknowledged both by MY historians as well as by actor trainers. The few

available accounts on the use of the discipline In a training environment concentrate on the

psychophysical experience that yoga generates and they are thus framed within a

phenomenological context (see for example Zarrilli, 2009 and 2004 as well as Aronson, 1999).
Nevertheless, my impression is that the social aspect of the discipline as well as the relationship

between practices of yoga and the body social directly relate to the use of the discipline in a

training environment. I will return to this point later in this section, and I will also examine the

relationship between yoga and identity in the last chapter as well as the possible use of yoga to
foster the actor's performative relationship to fellow actors in the fourth chapter. It also bears

noting that a sociopolitical account of yoga paints only a partial picture, since it leaves out the

experience of the people who practice it. Quite poignantly, Ruth Barcan claims that 'I have not

seen.. .any cultural study of alternative therapies that takes them seriously as spiritual practices

or as practices that could open up possibilities for new models and experiences of the body and

subjectivity' (2008: 24). In the next section, I will thus investigate the experience that practice of

yoga generates and the implications that such an experience can have for the use of the
discipline in theatre.

Yoga as Psychophysical Experience

The few accounts that examine yoga as experience are firmly rooted in a phenomenological

framework and draw from the work of eminent phenomenologists. For example, Klas Nevrin

(2008), in an article I examine below, explores the practice of yoga in relation to Sheets-

Johnstone's conceptualization of the body. Equally, Sarukkai Sundar (2002) offers a

comparative examination of the practice of yoga and Merleau-Ponty's concept of dimensionality.

In a nutshell,phenomenologyforegroundedthe role of the body in the productionof meaningas

well as the importance of the body as a locus of experience; our embodiment is not some kind

74It has to be noted that yoga during its initial stage of modernizationhad been presentedalongsidethe
undertakingof charitableactivities,possibly the result of the assimilation of the 'Victorian concept of 'good
work"' (De Michelis, 2004: 87). Equally, Swami Sivananda and the Divine Life Society have an explicit
ethical orientation,with the DLS instructingits members to 'do charity one tenth of your Income' (Strauss,
2005: 90). Iyengarhas also set up charitabletrusts, to which practitionersof IyengarYoga may contribute,
and founded schools and hospitalsIn his native country. This aspect, however,Is not a characteristicand
determiningfeature of MPY practices.

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of accruement to an omnipotent mind, it is the absolute prerequisite for being in and interacting

with the world. Particularly Merleau-Ponty has argued for the 'lived body', the body that is

present and involved in the constitution of one's sense of self and identity. At the same time,

though, in an edited volume on body and embodiment, social scientists Dennis Waskul and

Phillip Vannini, highlight that phenomenological thought also features an additional view of the

body, which is somewhat contradictory with Merleau-Ponty's emphasis on presence. They

particularly refer to the work of Drew Leder (1990) who convincingly argued that the body is also

absent (2006: 9). According to Leder, the body is the 'from', the starting point of our

engagement with the world, and as a result our enmeshment in the world renders the body

obsolete. In normal quotidian activity, therefore, the body recedes in our awareness, precisely
because our attention is directed from the body to something else (ibid. ). In view of this short

account of the basic tenets of phenomenology, it is interesting to examine the way Klas Nevrin,

a PhD candidate in the field of comparative religion, accounts for the experience produced in

and through the practice of yoga.

In an essay published in an edited volume on MY, Nevrin examines MPY practices in relation to

the practitioner's 'lived experience' and in terms of one's attention to movement, 'heightened

sensitivity' and 'emotion' (2008: 123). Nevrin particularly suggests that practice of MPY allows

the practitioner to focus on one's body, since the practice of yoga poses does not carry an

outwards oriented intention; the execution of a movement aims at the execution of this particular

movement and nothing more. In this manner, one affords to become more aware of physical as

well as habitual patterns and also develop a 'heightened attention to feeling movement' (ibid.:
125). Such an engagement, Nevrin supports 'will typically alter the practitioner's sense of self

and body' and he further contends that 'these changes' might be experienced by novices as

'highly positive' (ibid. ). An alteration in the mode of one's attention has also an emotional

dimension, although, as Nevrin argues, emotion is never addressed in a MPY context (ibid.:

128).75Nevertheless, Nevrin identifies 'in bodily actions... structures of experience that invite for

[sic] affective and imaginative elaboration in certain directions' (ibid.: 129). Furthermore, the

manner in which MPY practices direct attention to and pay attention with the body, can be for

Nevrin 'existentially empower[ing]', since they can 'counteract detached and inflexible modes of

experiencing' (ibid.: 130).

's Nevrin's observationagrees with my experience in Iyengar Yoga classes (see Chapter 1, section on
personalpractice).

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 Although not analytically exhaustive, Nevrin's account points at important dimensions of the

practice of yoga. First of all, Nevrin seems to suggest that yoga allows the 'absent body' to
become present. By directing attention to the body, the body is thematized and thus physical

and kinaesthetic awareness is foregrounded. Second, such awareness is Inextricably connected

to affective, mental and behavioural aspects of the individual and Nevrin explicitly mentions the

possibility of empowerment. A better understanding of what Nevrin means by empowerment

can be gained by looking at the concept of appropriation. In his introduction to the work of
Japanese philosopher Yasuo Yuasa, Thomas Kasulis argues that Asian thought approaches

the relationship between body and mind from a different angle. He specifically argues that 'in

the West, where such unity is envisioned, it has typically been thought to occur via an essential,

substantial, unchanging link... not by the evolution of the body-mind system' (1987: 2). As a

result, 'Eastern philosophies generally treat the mind-body unity as an achievement', which can
be cultivated through specific practices (1987: 1).

In line with Kasulis' point of view is Eliot Deutch's analysis that regards the body as an

'achievement concept' (1993: 5). According to Deutch, 'persons have bodies to the degree to

which they appropriate the physical conditions of their individuality and become

integrated psychophysical beings' (ibid.). Body-appropriation, therefore, comprises 'the

...
bringing of the physical conditions of one's individual being into the matrix of one's personal

identity and self-image' (ibid.). Deutch understands body appropriation in a developmental

sense and he specifically cites the physical growth and change that mark childhood. In this

respect, body appropriation is not seen as a final product, but a constant process. As Deutch

states 'at every stage a person has a kind of unfinished completeness. A unified "I" stands forth,

a unique personality is announced- subject to change, alteration, development' (ibid.: 10). In

view of Deutch's and Kasulis' argument, one could support that yoga is one such technique that

can enable the individual to gain a better understanding and/or more heightened experience of
her physicality. The incorporation of such a practical and kinaesthetic understanding would be

an act of body appropriation and by default result in empowerment. However, implicit in such a
hypothesis and indeed in Kasulis' thesis (Deutch does not mention yoga), is the assumption that

yoga promotes body-mind unity. Kasulis specifically refers to Indian yoga as 'a system of

practical, technical methods for training the mind and body and maintaining health' (1987: 26). It
is not clear whether Kasulis refers to pre-modern forms of the discipline or, indeed, if he is at all

aware of such a distinction. In either case, an assumption that yoga promotes an integration of

body and mind simply because it derives from India or because it comprises a form of physical

activity would be, through and through, a reiteration of the essentialist and misinformed attitude

133
I outline in Chapter 2. I, therefore, stumble upon the thorny question of whether yoga cultivates

the relationship between body and mind in the first place, and if it does, in what way. Drawing

from Nevrin's and Deutch's observations I thus ask: how does yoga involve 'bodily actions [that]

entail structures of experience that invite for affective and imaginative elaboration' (Nevrin,
2008: 129), and how does practice of yoga foster a process of 'body appropriation' (Deutch,

1993). In order to approach these questions, I will use as analytical tools the concept of body

schema and body image, as well as the theory of the image schemata. Before I proceed, there

are two points that bear mentioning. First, the aforementioned questions are relevant not only to

a discussion of yoga, but they also pertain to topics I attempted to address in the practical

research; i.e. how the practice of yoga can activate/engage the actor's imagination and how the

practice of yoga can inform the actor's movement. I will discuss these questions in detail in the

chapters that deal with the practical projects, but here I will offer a wider context in which more
detailed discussions can be situated. Second, it is important to clarify that I came across both

concepts (image schemata and body image-body schema) after I had started the practical

exploration, and particularly in my attempt to analyze certain exercises and processes that

arose during the first and second practical project. Therefore, although the presentation of these
theories in this chapter precedes the exposition of the projects, their employment derives from

and does not precede the practical exploration.

Body Image and Body Schema

The terms 'body image' and 'body schema' comprise an important part of philosophical and

scientific vocabulary, the former featuring predominantly in the work of social scientists,

whereas the latter is encountered in phenomenological writings. However, the fact that the

terms have often been employed interchangeably as well as the translation of Merleau-Ponty's

scheme corporel as 'body image' has resulted in conceptual confusion. Phenomenologist

Shaun Gallagher has greatly contributed in delineating each term in its own right and

convincingly demonstrated why both terms are needed and the definite differences between
them. According to Gallagher a body schema is the 'body's non-conscious appropriation of

habitual postures and movements [and] its incorporation of various significant parts of the

environment' (1995: 226). The body image on the other hand is 'a conscious representation of

the body or a set of beliefs about the body' (Ibid.: 228). If, for example, we encounter the low

branch of a tree while walking, we bow under it without any conscious or predetermined

engagement. By contrast, at the end of a performance we bow in front of an audience in a

conscious and purposeful manner.

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 Taking the above into account, Gallagher connects both concepts to the notion of intentionality.

'The body image has an intentional status' whereas 'body schema involves an extraintentional

operation carried out prior to or outside of intentional consciousness' (ibid.: 228). So, if we
imagine a continuum of intentionality 'on one side the body can be the object or content of

intentional consciousness and this is usually termed body image' (ibid.: 226). On the other side

the body 'functions to make perception possible and to constrain intentional consciousness in

various ways' (ibid). This is the domain of the body schema. Based on the above, one could

argue that body image and body schema represent two quite distinct ways of experiencing the

world and both illustrate a different kind of somatic engagement. Nonetheless, body image and
body schema are in constant relation and affect each other. The body schema can be seen as a

network of pre-reflective physical patterns and physiological functions being constantly in

dialogue with the environment and as such affecting one's conscious performance in the world.

The image schema, on the other hand, can provoke changes in the body schema by bringing

conscious attention to the workings of the body, especially through the practice of physical
disciplines that condition it, such as dance, sports etc. Specifically, Gallagher attests that

'through the body image the body is made to move by conscious choice rather than habit'

(1986: 551).

Based on Gallagher's distinction, one could say that yoga practice, and indeed a number of

somatic disciplines,are based on and operate accordingto a constant interplay betweenthese

two concepts.As I have exposed in the section on my own yoga practice, IyengarYoga aims to

make the practitioner conscious of the habitual patterns that underlie one's posture and
movementand foster new ways and experiencesof movementthat are characterizedby better
alignment, increased flexibility in the muscles, 'space' in the joints, and an 'intelligent' and
economicway to stand and move. Nevertheless,the manner in which the practitionerengages
with such a process is often characterizedby significant effort and intention.The practitioner,
under the guidance of preciseverbal instructions,is asked to deliberatelymove specific parts of
the body according to specific direction, speed, and degree of tension, while one is also

encouragedto become conscious of and minimize habitual ways of moving. Additionally,even

though yoga aims to develop an understandingof one's body from the 'inside',the practitioneris

often asked to look at his/her body and gauge or even evaluateits positionaccordingto the flat
surface of the wall, or the straight line of the mat. Either through the gaze of the student or the
instructionsand adjustmentsof the teacher,the body is up to a considerabledegreeobjectified.
In view of the above, one could argue that an engagementwith the discipline, at least at an

135
initial stage, is primarily based on the operation of the body image, since engagementwith the
body is conscious,intentional,and objectified.

This mode of engagement, however, is regarded as a transient phase in one's practice that

aims to develop new patterns and ways of movement while undoing non-conscious and habitual

ones. In an unpublished PhD thesis on the practice of yoga and meditation as self-transforming

techniques, Aspasia Leledaki, drawing from the work of Shigenori Nagatomo (1992), identifies a

similar trajectory. According to Leledaki 'the practitioner progressively moves from a tensional

somatic modality, in which s/he attends to the body in a dualistic, cognitive, self-conscious

manner to an achieved somatic modality of non-tensionality, in which s/he is aware of the body

self unconsciously' (2007: 162). Indeed, as a beginner the practitioner has to become familiar

with a number of asanas which are often physically demanding, and is asked to move in often

unusual or new ways. However, as one progresses the physical effort has to be gradually

substituted by 'intelligence' and the asanas should be practiced in a way that has been
described by Iyengar as 'effortless effort'. 76This process though takes place through continuous

practice and in the case of a beginner the emphasis is inevitably on 'a tensional somatic

modality' (so that one acquires a degree of efficiency in the poses) which potentially will become
'de-tensed' or 'un-tensed', as one progresses. Based on the above, it could be argued that the

engagement of the body-image mode, through the precise form and practice of the asanas,

makes possible changes in the body schema. However, it is important to bear in mind that the
body schema is by definition the pre-reflective dimension of being in the world. It would be,

therefore, misleading to equate an awareness of habits with an ability to access directly the

body schema domain. Nevertheless, as potential undoing of habitual physical patterns provides

the practitioner with agency and choice in a previously inaccessible area, it could be said that

through yoga, aspects of the body schema rise to consciousness and become part of/modify the

body image. It is also interesting to note that the crossing from a forceful mode of practice into

an effortless one is regarded by Leledaki as an achievement. As such, it could be argued that

the practice of asanas comprise an act of body-appropriation, since one extends the scope of

one's movement abilities, learns a new 'language', and enters a relationship with a form of

practice that cast one's body in a new light.

76Developing'effortlesseffort' in the poses Is an instructionI frequentlyheard in Prescott'sclasses,which

she has heardfrom Iyengar.

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 The Theory of Image Schemata

Although the theory of the image schemata has been developed and publicized by philosopher

Mark Johnson, it is part of a wider argument that Johnson has advanced in collaboration with

cognitive linguist George Lakoff. According to the two scholars (1999), our capacity for

reasoning, drawing inferences, and expressing abstract concepts is primarily an embodied

activity. More specifically, Johnson, based on the motor programs that underlie physical skills,

claims that 'those programs involve image schemata... that recur over and over again in various

related skilled performance' (1987: 186). As such, Johnson understands image schemata as

pre-linguistic configurations, which however, 'do not merely form a background against which

meaning emerges; rather they are themselves meaning structures' (ibid.: 48). Image schemata

are thus neither physical objects we can grasp, nor images that we form in our mind, but rather
'a means of structuring particular experiences schematically, so as to give order and

connectedness to our perceptions and conceptions' (ibid.: 75).

Johnson identifies a number of image schemata, such as Verticality, Balance, Force, Container

and Path as well as orientational image schemata such as In-Out, Front-Back, Up-Down and
the like. Johnson demonstrates the way the aforementioned structures underlie our embodied

experience in daily activities and he further examines their presence in relation to the use of
language and metaphorical thinking. Johnson gives the example of the Verticality schema,

which emerges through the employment of Up and Down orientation. According to Johnson,

such a pattern is deeply ingrained due to our vertical posture and the of
pull gravity (1987: xiv)

and as a result 'we grasp the structure of verticality repeatedly in thousands of activities we

experience every day' (ibid). The same structure further gives rise to linguistic constructions and

metaphors. For instance, Johnson claims that our empirical experience that any increase in

height entails an increase in volume or quantity becomes metaphorically extended and is

encountered in colloquial language such as 'the vegetable prices went up this year'. Equally,

Johnson contends that the same schema informs more abstract patterns of thinking. As such,

the physical experience of 'More is Up' and 'Less is Down' extends to emotional states and

gives rise to the metaphor Happy is Up, and Unhappy is Down. In this manner, we may

conceive and express the state of a relationship according to a metaphorical vertical structure;
'there are a lot of ups and downs in our relationship'. In view of the above, Johnson supports

that language and reason are embodied activities, and are structured and operating according

to the way we move with/in/through our body and experience space. Image schemata,

therefore, Johnson maintains, not only underpin but are absolutely crucial in promoting and

structuring physical, mental and psychological functions.

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Taking as a starting point Johnson's definition of image schemata, I would argue that yoga

asanas offer clear-cut shapes in which these schemata operate. For example in balancing

standing pose Vrksasana (Tree Pose Figure, 21) the basic UP - DOWN schema exposed above

can be traced in the vertical lift of the arms as well as in the balancing action on one leg.
Furthermore, it is evoked in the name of the pose. However, maintaining that image schemata

are operative within yoga postures constitutes far from a novel claim. Johnson's own insistence
that such structures emerge out of our physical experience and because of the mere fact that

we have/are a body logically entails that such schemata are to be found in yoga postures, as
they are to be found in any other movement or position of the human body.

Figure 34, Vrksasana

Unlike other disciplines, however, I would claim that certain image schemata are particularly

explicit in the practice of Iyengar Yoga and present in the strong emphasis on directionality that

characterize the practice as well as the vocabulary that comprises the verbal instructions. As

practiced within an Iyengar Yoga framework, for example, the aforementioned pose, does not

only feature two arms that extend up and one foot that presses down, it is realized through
instructions, such as 'lift the arms up' and 'press the foot down', that direct the practitioner not

only to assume the shape of the pose but actively engage with these actions. Furthermore, the
interplay between up and down also features in additional instructions that address smaller

parts of the body, for example 'draw the kneecap up', and 'lift the sides of the torso up', 'keep
the shoulders down'. In a yoga position, therefore, that is practiced or taught in the lyengar

manner, image schemata do not only inform the relationship between the pose and the

surrounding space, but they strongly underlie the micro-movements that provide each pose with
its distinctive shape and character.

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 Furthermore, I would argue that image schemata, as exemplified in yoga poses, comprise the

very interface between body schema and body image. Image schemata, it could be claimed,
belong to the body schema domain, i.e. they are underlying patterns that organize our physical,

mental, and linguistic experience. The pull of gravity, for example, is not something that we can

choose to activate or even think about in a conscious, deliberate way. It is a constant given that
frames, underscores, and dictates our experience and expression (both verbal and physical). In

other words, barring the possibility of outer space journeys, it is impossible to stop being

subjected to gravity or even fathom such an experience. The Up-Down Image Schema, on the

other hand, can be thematized and deliberately employed. As such, even though we are

constantly enveloped in verticality, the experience of Up and Down can be localized, verbalized,

activated and qualitatively felt a kneecap is drawn up or down, the arms extend towards the

ceiling or towards the floor, the ribcage is lifted or not. In such a manner, image schemata both

underlie our experience and can come to the forefront of our awareness, if we wish. In this

respect, image schemata can be precisely the 'structures' that according to Nevrin underlie
'bodily actions' and 'invite for affective and imaginative elaboration' (Nevrin, 2008: 129). On the

basis, therefore, of the clear links between movement, imagination and language that image

schemata offer as well as their explicit presence in yoga positions and thematization by yoga
instructions, I would argue that image schemata can render a theatrical application of yoga

effective and methodical, and specifically enable a yoga based training to address character

embodiment, the activation of the imagination, and work with text. In the next chapter I will

argue that image schemata played an important role in the participants' attempt to embody their

character. Accordingly in chapter 4I will outline the way Johnson's theory was used in exercises

that aimed to develop the actor's imagination and in chapter 5 the way the image schemata

informed the generation of written autobiographical material.

In this context it is also worth mentioning that the image schemata theory has attracted the

attention of theatre practitioners and scholars. Approaches on the subject stem from a position
that favours cognitive science and its paradigms as a foundation for theatre theory and praxis.

An exponent of such a thesis, Bruce McConachie, has employed the theory of image schemata

as a tool for theatre historiography. Based on the degree of the physical homogeneity that the
image schemata seem to affirm, McConachie draws parallels between popular methods of actor

training/acting and the kinaesthetic, social and historical conditions in which they flourished. He

claims, for example, that 'early in the twentieth century, Meyerhold and the Futurists used the
force schemata and its metaphorical extension, the machine, to constitute the bodily movement

of workers and actors' (1993: 95). In relation to Brando's performance in A Streetcar Named

139
Desire, he further supports that Method Acting was underpinned by the container schema,

according to which the body was deemed to enclose passions, emotions, and memories. More

specifically, McConachie contends that such an implicit understanding not only affected the way
Brando was taught (to approach) acting, but it comprised the main factor that rendered his

performance resonant for the respective audience.

In line with McConachie's argument is an essay by Tobin Nellhaus, which supports the

importance of the image schemata in 'acting, performance space, dramatic narrative, and

audience response' (2006: 76). Echoing McConachie, Nellhous claims that 'the shifts that

theatre undergoes over history are not merely changes in style. Far from being arbitrary, these

transformations are motivated -they embody in performance the image schemas [sic] that

emerge from communication practices' (ibid.: 92). Finally, in addition to theatre historians, image

schemata have also appealed to dance makers. Dancer and choreographer, Jeff Friedman is

aware of Lakoff and Johnson's work and cites them in an essay on a dance piece he created
based on oral history. Drawing on the connection between movement patterns and language

advocated by the two theorists, Friedman claims that 'dance-trained people may produce oral

narratives of breath-taking sophistication based on their refined experience' (2002: 173).

Quite interestingly, although the aforementioned scholars acknowledge the possibilities that the

theory of the image schemata offer, they do not discuss the prospect of employing image

schemata in current training methods. Even Friedman, whose essay comprises the most

practically orientated of the three, uses the image schemata, in order to provide his project on

collecting and 'dancing' oral histories with a theoretical basis. His studio work on the other hand

was informed by Laban's techniques, and he specifically notes that 'Laban-based method of

movement analysis expand the options' of 'a rich but largely untapped domain of image

schemas [sic]' (2002: 170). My impression, however, is that the aforementioned arguments

open up new areas of consideration in the field of actor training; if, for example, as McConachie

claims, acting approaches do operate for actors and audiences alike on the basis of a

predominant image schema could such a schema be utilized directly in training? Could for

example a physical engagement with the container schema allow an actor to gain a better

understanding of Method acting? Although these questions fall outside the remit of this study,
the use of the image schemata in this research can be seen as part of the wider attention that

image schemata have so far attracted, as well as an attempt to complement the existing

theoretical interest with a practical investigation.

140
 A Critique of the Image Schemata and the Body Schema-Body Image Concept.

An exposition of these concepts would be one sided, if it failed to present the criticisms they

have received. Such a presentation, apart from producing a more rounded and better informed

picture, also aims at elucidating further the usefulness and relevance of these concepts for this

thesis. The chief exponent of such a critique is interdisciplinary philosopher, dancer and

choreographer Maxine Sheets-Johnstone. Sheets-Johnstone argues against both concepts on

the basis that they are precisely that, i.e. concepts. In relation to image schemata, Sheets-

Johnstone argues that 'they are thoroughly hypothetical entities.. .and not empirically
demonstrable' (2009: 220). As a result, they 'need to be specifically packaged corporeally, to be

embodied in order not to remain embedded in a purely mental sphere' (ibid. ).

Indeed, it seems that the theoretical nature of the image schemata have conditioned Johnson's

approach and language, and somewhat undermine his overall argument about the relationship
between body and mind. Note, for example, that the way Johnson refers to verticality, i.e. 'we

grasp the structure of verticality repeatedly in thousands of perceptions and activities we

experience every day' (1987: emphasis added), casts verticality as a mental concept which we

understand (grasp) and not as an experience that conditions our life and understanding through

and through. Sheets-Johnstone claims that such misgivings emerge 'because the starting point
for descriptive analysis of embodied image schemata is verbal language' (2009: 224). As a

result 'bodily experience enters only after linguistic fact, and then primarily only as it exemplifies
linguistic metaphoric practices' (ibid.). She thus proposes the term 'archetypal corporeal-kinetic

forms and relations' (ibid.: 220), arguing that such a term presupposes and foregrounds both

the body and its movement. In a similar vein, Sheets-Johnstone insists that body image and

body schema are terms conceived in advance, hypothetical and inadequate. " 'To begin with'

she notes 'a body schema has no basis in experience. It is at best an explanatory convenience,

a hypothetical entity in the brain (or central nervous system as a whole) that is conjured to do

the work of putting movement together' (2009: 269). Equally, body image 'begin[s] with a

construct instead of experience' (ibid.: 270). She thus proposes to substitute body image for

'corporeal kinetic intentionality' and body schema for 'corporeal kinetic patterning' (ibid.: 344).

" It is worth noting that Waskul and Vannini also raise objections to the body Image-bodyschema
concepts. The two sociologists,specificallyclaim that 'body image smacks of Cartesian dualism' (2006:
189), since it conveys an attitudeaccordingto whichthe existenceof the body is dependenton the thought
that one has body. As an alternativeto these concepts,they propose 'the ecstatic body'. For
about one's
more informationsee Waskul and Vannini,2006: 183-200.

141
The problems that Sheets-Johnstone identifies with the image schemata and the body schema-

body image theories is not limited to terminology, but permeated by her attempt to restore in

theory and language the primacy that movement has in experience. She specifically draws from

the work of neuropsychologist Alexander Luria (1902-1977) and uses his term 'kinetic melody.

According to Sheets-Johnstone, kinetic melodies are "'integral kinesthetic structures"', 'dynamic

patterns of movement', and 'constitute that basic, vast, and potentially ever-expandable

repertoire of "I cans" permeating human life' (ibid.: 255). Most importantly, kinetic melodies,

argues Sheets-Johnstone are 'not a thing in the brain (or the central nervous system) but a

particular neurological and experiential dynamic' (ibid.: 270). 'Unlike a body schema' she

continues 'they describe inherently dynamic patterns that are at once neurological and

experiential' (ibid. ). Kinetic melodies underscore the way we come into contact with and act

upon the world; they are, in other words, our integrated competencies, such as walking, riding a
bike and brushing our teeth. 'Models and schema' are thus dismissed by Sheets-Johnstone as

'cognitive offshoots or conceptual derivatives of corporeal kinetic realities' (ibid.: 246).

It seems that Sheets-Johnstone's thesis leaves little with which to argue, since it is based on

extensive research and displays an insightful understanding of both phenomenology and

cognitive science. Furthermore, her achievement lies also in her ability to eschew a pre-given
language and put her arguments in her own terms. 78However, there are specific reasons that

this study draws from Gallagher's and Johnson's work instead of Sheets-Johnstone's

terminology. First of all, in her discussion of kinetic melody, it seems that Sheets-Johnstone has

in mind movement that is effortless, integrated and fluid. Although she identifies the possibility

for movement to become objectified, and she specifically evokes a training situation when she

talks about 'concentrating on learning or perfecting a particular movement' (2009: 366), kinetic

melody does not capture the cacophony that underlies the beginner's initial encounter with a
training method. In relation to yoga, for example, we do not effortlessly and immediately do the

poses, in the same way that we do not effortlessly and immediately begin to walk. As I have

mentioned earlier, sustained practice of yoga does or aims to produce a kinetic melody, but the
term cannot account for the initial aspects of one's training, which are not melodious at all.

Similarly, although her terms 'corporeal kinetic intentionality' and 'corporeal kinetic patterning'

capture the intentional nature of the body image and the underlying character of the body

schema, they do not embrace all the dimensions that Gallagher has identified in these

78 In this respect, Sheets-Johnstonealso mounts an attack on the term 'embodiment' and its widely
accepteduse, see 2009: 337.

142
 concepts. Corporeal kinetic intentionality, in particular, does not include the concepts that one
has of and about one's body in the same way that body image does.

In a similar manner, 'archetypal corporeal-kinetic forms and relationships' seems like an

accurate rendition of the image schemata, but unlike Johnson, Sheets-Johnstone does not
identify which corporeal forms underlie language and in what way. It may be true that Johnson

starts from language and then moves on to the body, and it is also evident that his aim is to

support a linguistic and philosophical thesis about metaphor and not a phenomenological

argument about the body. It is precisely for this reason, however, that image schemata relate to
two particular aspects of the current study in a way that 'archetypal corporeal-kinetic forms and

relations' does not.

First of all, the role that language plays in Iyengar Yoga pedagogy cannot be overemphasized.

Verbal instructions are, of course, a regular part of many somatic disciplines, and play an

important role even in the teaching of those disciplines that rest on an experiential rather than

technical basis, such as Body Mind Centering and Feldenkrais Method.79However, whereas,

verbal instructions in other disciplines are used as a guide for and framework of the exercises,
in lyengar Yoga the level, competency, and experience of the student is largely based on one's

ability to comprehend and implement verbal instructions. In a beginner's class, for example, the

aim is to introduce the parts of the body and movements thereof that are particularly involved in

any one pose. An advanced class, on the other hand, although it might feature poses from the
beginners' syllabus, is characterized by a language that addresses smaller parts of the body

and movements that fall outside a quotidian repertoire. In the pose Trikonasana (Figure 22), for

example, a beginner will be instructed to 'turn the back foot in' and 'the front leg out'. A

practitioner at a general level will be asked to 'turn the back foot in' as well as 'press the outer
heel down' and 'lift the inner ankle'. The practitioner's level, therefore, in lyengar Yoga is not

characterized by one's ability to perform the pose but by one's capacity to follow instructions

that progressively become so detailed, that it would not be an exaggeration to talk of an 'lyengar

jargon' lyengar Yoga is thus curiously logocentric and, as I will demonstrate in the following
.
chapters, image schemata offer the possibility to link the actor's body- one of the
-through

79My argument
about BMC and Feldenkrais is not that these disciplines lack rigour or a skeleton-muscular
understanding of the body, but that the change they aim to induce derives from the participants' immersion
in and awareness of one's experience rather than the sizing up of one's abilities in relation to an external
technique. It also has to be made clear that such an understanding derives from my personal engagement
with these (I Feldenkrais classes with Richard Cave for one year in 2000-2001 and
methods attended
BMC for two years, with Jean Johnson-Jones in 2000-2001 and Linda Hartley in 2001-2002).

143
style's predominant features with one of the actor's main responsibilities, i.e. the text. As I will

demonstrate in the following chapters, image schemata can be used as a bridge between the

practice of yoga and theatrical texts (Chapter 4) as well as creative writing (Chapter 5).

'
cWet

'i:
ý

'-ý"ýý -k. ý.ý

Figure 35, B. K. S. lyengar in Trikonasana, reproduced from lyengar, 1991: 42.

In sum, it could be said that Sheets-Johnstone's work opens up a vista of possibilities that -to

my knowledge- have not yet been fully explored by actors and actor trainers. It also highlights

the problems that underlie Gallagher's and Johnson's theories. Nevertheless, for the reasons

exposed above, the current study will employ these theories, being at the same time attentive to

their drawbacks. Having examined the practice of yoga from a sociological and

phenomenological perspective, we can now return to the question I posed at the beginning of

this review: can the practice of yoga have a social dimension?

Yoga and Self

In the previously cited essay on alternative therapies as disciplinary practices, Ruth Barcan
highlights the shortcomings of a Foucault-based examination of alternative therapies and

proposes that an investigation of alternative therapies should be complemented by a

'phenomenologically inspired' approach in order to 'explore not just how these practices are

understood, but what actually happens to those who engage in them' (2008: 23). However, as

the phenomenological examination of yoga attempted here has shown, phenomenology can go

a long way in accounting for the practitioner's experience, but such an account remains situated

within the sphere of the individual. My impression is that an attempt to examine the way yoga

could or is socially relevant should be furnished by an investigation of the relationship between

the practice and the person that undertakes it; in other words, an account of the way the

144
 practice of yoga involves, affects, and influences one's self. Furthermore, I would argue that this

account should move away from the phenomenological argument that we are primarily and

predominantly embodied, because such an avenue would simply lead us back to the individual

and his or her experience. I propose, therefore, to use a different model to first examine the way
body and self are related and then, based on this same model, indicate the way yoga and self

interact.

In his highly influential essay 'Five Kinds of Self Knowledge', psychologist Ulric Neisser

identifies five different but interrelated modes in which the self can be understood:

" `The ecological self, the self as perceived with respect to the physical environment; 'I'

am the person here in this place, engaged in this particular activity' (1998: 36).

" The interpersonal self, the self as perceived in relation to others; 'I am the person who
is engaged here, in this particular human interchange' (ibid.).

" The extended self, which contains memory and awareness of the past and forms the
impression of a continuous identity; 'I am the person who had certain specific

experiences, who regularly engages in certain specific and familiar routines' (ibid. )

" The private self, which comprises the realization that we are the locus of thoughts,
feelings and experiences that are not shared by someone else; 'I am in principle the

only person that can feel this unique and particular pain' (ibid. )

" The conceptual self, which designates the concept we have about our self and 'draws
its meaning from the network of assumptions and theories in which it is embedded';
'social roles', 'hypothetical internal entities', 'socially significant dimensions of difference
(wealth, intelligence, attractiveness)' (ibid. ).

Neisser's model seems to offer a comprehensive picture of the self, placing equal emphasis on

the corporeal, linguistic and interpersonal aspect. The only prioritization introduced by Neisser is

a chronological one, whereby the first two modes are present from infancy, and the next three
develop during childhood. All five modes are present in adulthood, with separate modes being

more salient than others according to the activities we find ourselves engaged in; 'they are all

experienced, though perhaps not all with the same quality of consciousness' (ibid.). Based on
Neisser's work, it could be argued, therefore, that formation of selfhood begins with the body

and its engagement with the surrounding environment and other people, continues with the

acquisition of language, and becomes fully forged through our realization of a private stream of

consciousness, our capacity for memory and our involvement in habitual practices, and the
deliberate or not accruement of concepts. In the following section I will discuss the relationship

145
betweenpracticeof lyengarYoga and Neisser'smodel with the aim to demonstratethe way the

self is understoodand assumedto be involvedin current lyengarYoga practice.

Unlike nineteenth-century yoga, the ecological self is the first medium through which a beginner

will gain information and engage with the practice. As I have already discussed, the physical
body becomes involved in physical activities (or activities that to a beginner appear only

physical) and thematized in relation to the space. The interpersonal self comes into play as the

yoga practitioner engages with other members and particularly when one enters into a

relationship with the instructor. Indeed, my experience is that such relationship can prove
instrumental in the practitioner's further development and it is worth keeping in mind that the

teacher-student relationship carries particular significance within the pre-modern philosophy of

the discipline (Whicher, 1998: 34-5). As the practitioner engages with the practice further the

repository of one's former experiences gains importance; not only yoga is supposed to leave
'imprints' on one's body, but habits related to one's upbringing, profession, and lifestyle are

often addressed. The practitioner is quite likely, therefore, to reconsider lifestyle choices,

physical patterns and activities, and in this manner the extended self becomes fully involved in

the practice. Although lyengar Yoga never attends to the private self directly (according to my

own experience as well as Nevrin's account, yoga classes are structured in such a way that

private thoughts and feelings are not given expression), the latter does comprise an important

aspect of the discipline. Not only the physical practice influences emotional states, but the

practitioner is expected sooner or later to be able to control the mind's tendency to wander.
Bearing in mind that the overall goal of MY is often cast in the Patanjalian terms of 'the

cessation of the fluctuations of thought', the private self becomes eventually the terrain which is

supposed to bear the strongest and most pervading influence of the practice. The conceptual

self, finally, is quite ubiquitous. Someone wanting to try yoga has more than likely some idea of

what the practice entails and quite possibly has particular reasons for joining a yoga class.
Involvement with the practice might also cause the practitioner's reevaluation of concepts about

his/her self. Concepts around one's physicality and body image might change, for example the

degree of one's flexibility, but even concepts relating to moral issues might be reconsidered, for

instance ideas about what comprises an ethical life and how one should lead it.

An examination of yoga through Neisser's model confirms the individualistic nature of the

practice, but also adumbrates its interpersonal character. Through the practice of yoga the
practitionerenters a relationshipnot only with a particulardiscipline, but also with other people.
Such a relationshipcan, furthermore, result in the creation of what Strauss calls 'transnational

146
 communities' (2005: 87-114). Practice of yoga can thus create social enclaves and bring people
from different ethnic and social backgrounds together. Also, through the engagement of the

extended self, practice of yoga can potentially thematize the participant's involvement with

people and activities outside the yoga studio. In such a way the practice of yoga could perhaps
influence aspects of the participant's life which are not directly related to yoga. In the same

manner, as elements of yoga practice feed into the practitioner's self image, they could also

affect one's ideology and worldview. Indeed, Leledaki, although she does not draw from
Neisser's work, based on in-depth interviews she conducted with long term practitioners of yoga

and meditation, concludes that yoga promotes the cultivation of 'an ethical lifestyle' (2007: 354)

and offers a somatic pedagogy which 'can potentially provide significant alternatives to the
dominant instrumental pedagogics... that emphasize rationalization, secularization, and

objectification (ibid.: 359-60). Neisser's model, therefore, although it does not unveil an explicit

social dimension of the practice, does correct a view of yoga as solipsistic and incompatible with

a social agenda.

To sum up, this introductory review has examined the practice of yoga from a social and

phenomenological perspective as well as through Neisser's model of self. I have also presented

the basic concepts that are going to be employed in the practical projects: the concepts of body

image and body schema, the theory of the image schemata and Ulric Neisser's theory. Specific

references have been made to Iyengar Yoga, in an attempt to expose the basic features of the

practice as well as the way this form of yoga imparts and embodies knowledge. In a nutshell it

can be argued that lyengar Yoga fosters the growth of a unified relationship between body and

mind by developing kinaesthetic awareness, expanding one's movement possibilities, and

highlighting the way mind and body interact (the mind's ability to remain focused on the practice

or lack thereof, the influence of mental and emotional states on one's physical performance and

vice versa). By employing Neisser's model I further demonstrated that the practice of lyengar
Yoga engages the participant's different registers of selfhood and not simply one's physical

body. I also supported that although lyengar Yoga relies heavily on verbal language, the aim of

such intricate vocabulary is to enable the participants to deepen their psychophysical

understanding of the poses. It can thus be argued that lyengar Yoga comprises a technique of
body appropriation, since it allows the participant to acquire new competencies and transcend

ingrained psychophysical habits. I will now expose the general aims and questions that

underpinned the projects, and the overall structure according to which they were planned and
delivered.

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Practical projects

As I mention in the introduction to this thesis, my research has been fuelled by a desire to

extend the use of yoga beyond its pre-performative function as a warm up and
develop/explore/devise new forms of application that address the performative as well as pre-

performative aspects of the actor's work. Consequently, my aim with the three practical projects
has been to employ the discipline in relation to different dramaturgies and diverse aspects of

theatre making and performing. As such, the first practical project explores the practice of yoga

and the embodiment of character in a naturalistic dramaturgy; the second addresses the

practice of yoga in relation to movement improvisation and the development of yoga-based

exercises; the third project examines the practice of yoga and the performance of

autobiography. Furthermore, my aim was not only to explore different contexts within which

yoga could be applied but also develop such applications according to different frameworks. In

such a manner, the first practical project featured the performance of a text, and as such
involved a distinct period of rehearsal. The second project took place within a workshop format

and culminated in a presentation and a short showcase of the workshop material. The third

project ended with a devised performance, which was preceded by a period of generating and

crafting material. Below I offer a template (Figure 23) with the basic characteristics of each

project.

Practical Projects Format Aspects of actor's work Text

PPI Performance Characterembodiment naturalistic

Creationof Physicalscore
PPII Workshop use of improvisedmovement non-naturalistic
and imagination (engagementwith a
piece of text was a
secondaryand not a
central part of the
overall exploration).
PPIII Devised generation of autobiographical
Performance autobiographical material

Figure36, Profileof PracticalProjects.

By contrast to the different areas of theatrical endeavour that each of the projects explored in all

three projects I used the same method of yoga, i.e. Iyengar Yoga. In addition to a common

'yoga ground', the three projects also share specific concerns which have been addressed and

articulated in each project in a different way. For example a concern with the relationship
between the practice of yoga and the use of space as well as a preoccupation with the

connection between practice of yoga and the activation of the actor's imagination are threads

148
 that run through all three projects, albeit shaped each time in a different way. Moreover, findings

and hypotheses that have been articulated during the first project carry on to the second and
third. For example the use of the image schemata derived from an observation about the way

the participants chose certain asanas in relation to their character. The theory was then further

explored in the second practical project in developing structures for movement improvisation,

whereas in the last project, it was properly employed as a tool for generating and devising

performance material. Furthermore, all three projects have been underpinned by two basic

assumptions. The first one was that the participants had to become reasonably familiar with the

practice of Iyengar Yoga before embarking on any sort of application. As a result, all three

projects featured a preliminary phase during which attention was predominantly placed on the
teaching of the asanas. My second assumption was that the participants' experience was an

important aspect of both the process as well as the methodology of the exploration. In the next

sections, I give a detailed account of the first phase that launched each project, I review my

rationale behind attributing importance to the participants' experience, and I finally present an

exercise that acted as a transition between the practice of yoga and its application.

The Participants' Introduction to Yoga

During the first phase of the projects the participants were instructed in Iyengar Yoga once or

twice per week, and the poses we practiced were part of the Introductory Syllabus 80 The

sessions included standing poses, balances, sitting poses, forward bends, back bends, resting

poses, and one inversion (see Appendix I). The duration of the classes was an hour and a half.
The teaching tools I employed were verbal instructions, hands-on work, use of imagery,

demonstration on my own body, and use of props. "' The classes aimed to introduce the

participants to this style and acquaint them with aspects of the practice peculiar to Iyengar yoga,
i.e. the way of executing the poses, for example the standing poses are characterized by a

precise alignment of the feet; the language employed in the instructions and what I have earlier

called the 'lyengar jargon'; the use of props; and the sequence of the poses. Moreover, the

classes aimed to bring the participants' attention to the precision and accuracy that can be

gradually achieved in the execution of the asanas, to their physical habits and habitual patterns

of movement, to the different levels of intensity and engagement required in different body

80Duringthe third project introductionto yoga was coupledwith other activities,for reasonsthat had to do
with the nature of the project and I expose in the last chapter.Apart from this the aims and format of yoga
classeswere the same for all the three projects.
8' Iyengar Yoga is characterizedby a variety of props that have been designedand developedby B.K.S.
Iyengar.The props used in this projectwere mats, foam pads, bricks,belts, blankets,bolstersand chairs.

149
parts, and to the energetic quality that is generated in different asanas. As I will discuss later,
the distinct aspects that characterizethis form of practice have been directly used and, in fact,
have informedthe shape of the yoga applicationsthat evolved out of each project.

The Use of the Participants' Experience in Training and Rehearsal

The emphasis placed on the participants' experience of the yoga practice has been informed

both by personal considerations as well as theoretical issues. One of my first concerns, as I

embarked on this research, has been to develop a constructive working relationship with the

people that participated in my projects. My intention was driven by a desire to build a productive

and safe environment in the studio but also by a methodological issue; since my aim was to

explore ways in which the practice of yoga could facilitate someone else's artistic process, my

assumption was that the research should 'listen' and take into account the participants' voice(s).
Furthermore, I presupposed that enabling the participants to become aware of, articulate, and

share their experience was an essential step towards the subsequent phases of our work,

namely the application of aspects of yoga in relation to particular elements of theatre-making.

As actor trainer and scholar, Phillip Zarrilli notes 'the first thing to be accomplished [through

long-term body based training] is to acquire a certain type and quality of relationship between

the doer and the done (2002: 191). Based on the above, my hypothesis was that the extent of

and the way(s) in which an actor will make use of yoga -or any psychophysical discipline- are
directly linked to the development of one's relationship to the discipline.

As I have mentioned, attention to the participants' point of view did not derive from personal

conviction only, but was also influenced by theoretical considerations. In two articles that

appeared in the early 1990s, anthropologist David Howes argues against a tendency that
dominated a large part of ethnographical research and treated cultures as text (1990,1991). In

his opinion, such an approach disabled the researcher's senses and their contribution to one's

contact with and understanding of another culture. It further resulted, according to Howes, in a

reified representation of the culture under examination. Based on examples of his

predecessors, Howes 'proposes a way of escaping the tunnel-vision of contemporary (post-

modern) ethnography -namely by treating cultures as constituted by a particular interplay of the

senses which the ethnographer must simulate before making any attempt to describe or evoke

the culture under study' (1990: 55). Howes places, therefore, particular importance on the way

members of the culture under investigation experience the world and urges the ethnographer to

actively engage his/her senses in order to gain such an understanding. I was particularly drawn

to the attention that Howes places on the experience of the researcher as well as his/her

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 subjects of study, because this PhD project, althoughnot in the field of anthropology,involvesa
particular relationship between myself and the participants, whereby I stand outside and
observe their process. As such, much like the ethnographersthat Howes had in mind, there is
danger that this thesis may reify, ignore or -even worse- 'tweak' the participants'experiencein

order to fit desirable or preconceived results. I thus hypothesizedthat being attentive to the
participants' experience could both highlight my own vantage point/expectations/assumptions
during the processand also allow new areas of investigationto emerge.

In addition to David Howes, a tendency to overlook the body and its contribution in the way we

experience the world has also been pointed out in feminist studies, and is additionally present in
the way actor training is often theorized and disseminated. I have already referred to Volatile

Bodies (1994), in which Elizabeth Grosz offers a critical review of the way the body has been

conceptualized according to different philosophical schools. Apart from the concerns and

objections she raises in relation to various philosophical configurations, Grosz makes the

startling observation that, philosophical discourse, even when it places the body at the centre of
its enquiry, assumes and examines a generic body -in most cases a white male body- but never

someone's body. Her claim, therefore, that 'there is no body as such: there are only bodies'
(1994: 19) urges philosophical and social investigations to treat body in its specificity.

The point made by Grosz seems also valid in relation to actor training methods, especially when

the latter are drawing from already established philosophical and/or actor training discourses.

Both manuals as well as theoretical investigations on actor training refer to the actor and the

actor's body, but from few exceptions- the training or theory proposed is not discussed in
-apart
relation to someone's flesh-and-bones body but a body which we are all assumed to have in

common. Individual characteristics, connected to one's physical condition, gender and sexuality,
habitual traits, and socio-economic environment are often elided in favour of a neutral body that

will be inscribed by training.

An example of how recent forms of training often presuppose a generic body devoid of personal

elements can be found in Jill Dolan's account of her experience as an undergraduate. Dolan

attributes the difficulty she encountered in movement sessions to the training's underlying

assumption that the body in question was female gendered and heterosexual; I only knew that

inability to do in to my alienation from my own

my well movement classes was somehow related

151
body, which was somehow related to my thorough incompetence at the heterosexual role-play

the professors in Boston University's theater program were casting me to do' (1993: 99). 82

Dolan's vivid description drives home the importance of somatic -and subsequently personal-

characteristics, for actor training theory and practice. Her decision to quit the programme,
further accentuates the links between a programme's ability to deal with the specifics of

individual bodies and the programme's success. It becomes clear from the above that a number

of scholars coming from different fields identify a tendency in academic research to bypass the

role that the body plays in constituting experience and to divest it from its inextricably personal

character.

In view of the above, it could be argued that Iyengar Yoga aims to craft individual bodies

according to an ideal body, which is furthermore often identified with Iyengar's. Whereas other

psychophysical disciplines advocate that right and wrong in terms of posture and movement
depend on the constitution and abilities of each particular body, Iyengar Yoga operates

according to very strict and precise criteria that override individual characteristics. From this

point of view, it seems that lyengar Yoga stifles the expression of the individual body and its

physical idiosyncrasies. Nevertheless, it has to be stressed that the 'ideal' that lyengar Yoga

strives to achieve is not determined by a preconceived aesthetic model, as for example is the

case with various dance forms. The ideal is rather understood in terms of the body's optimal

skeleton-muscular condition, i.e. the alignment of the joints, the even extension of the muscles

and the equal distribution of the weight. lyengar's function as a role model is thus not arbitrary,
but rather based on his ability to perform the asanas in an anatomically correct fashion.

For example, the posture Trikonasana translates as Triangle pose (Figure 24), and it is clear

that lyengar embodies the geometry implied by the name of the pose. The accurate alignment

of the different body parts creates distinct triangles, which are indicated in the photograph
below. More importantly, the same configuration can be clearly seen in the pose executed by

longstanding lyengar Yoga practitioner Mira Mehta (Figure 25).

82 Elaine Aston's
essay 'Staging Selves' first alerted me to the issue of insensitivity towards gender and
sexual preference that theatre training programmes might exhibit. The same essay, also, refers to Dolan's
personal experience.

152
 Figure 24, B. K. S. Iyengar in Figure 25, Mihra Mehta in
Trikonasana, reproduced from Iyengar, Trikonasana, reproduced from Mehta,
1991: 42.1990: 22.

Mehta does not copy Iyengar's body as such, she rather places her body in the same accurate

manner. The similarities of the two positions derive, therefore, from the ability of the two

practitioners to realize in the posture the basic anatomic structure of the human body. In this

respect, it could be said that Iyengar Yoga diminishes idiosyncratic characteristics in an effort to

promote optimal anatomical function. This aspect of the practice relates to the presence of

habitual patterns and I will elaborate on this point in the following chapters.

However, it is also important to clarify that attention to orthoperformance is not at the cost of

personal idiosyncrasies. In fact, it could be said that emphasis on orthoperformance led to the

development of an intricate verbal and physical vocabulary, an abundance of variations in which

the poses can be taught, and innumerable ways in which poses can be combined. The

development and use of props, for example, which is one of the landmarks of the approach,

derived directly from the founder's desire to enable people with various degrees of physical

health and abilities to execute the poses. In the same manner, Iyengar has developed variations

of the classical poses, and sequences that aim to alleviate particular problems, such as high

blood pressure and hypothyroidism (2001). Equally, some of the verbal instructions have also

been developed in relation to the practitioners' culture and lifestyle. For example one of the

instructions that used to accompany the basic standing pose Tadasana was 'turn the upper

thighs from out to in'. The instruction caused quite a controversy among Iyengar Yoga teachers.

Apparently it evolved out of Iyengar's teaching to Indian participants, who due to a tendency to

sit on the floor with the legs crossed would stand with the legs turned out. The same instruction

153
was thus deemed inappropriate for Western audiences, who tend to spend long hours sitting in

chairs. Changes in Western as well as Indian lifestyle may no longer render these

characteristics applicable. However, the specific instruction offers a good example of the
interaction between the development of the method and the needs and idiosyncrasies of the

people who practice it.

Finally, it should be also stressed that, although Iyengar Yoga initially evolved out of and uses

as a model a male body, it demonstrates a significant degree of sensitivity towards the female
biological body. In the section on yoga as a social practice I mention that the popularization of

yoga in the UK was primarily achieved through female audiences. Iyengar's interaction with

predominantly female students as well as the interest of his own daughters and wife in the

practice may account for the development of sequences specifically addressed to women. For

example, lyengar Yoga features programmes of practice for pregnancy and its various stages
(Geeta lyengar, 1983). The menstrual cycle is also taken into account and during a class

women who are menstruating are informed about poses they should not do and are given an

alternative form of practice.83Apart from a therapeutic orientation, these modifications enable

the practitioners to adjust their practice to their lifestyle, and potentially use it in a way that is

compatible with their biorhythm, mood, and energy. In view of the different psychophysical

states that lyengar Yoga aims to address, I would argue that the latter managed to combine an

orthoperformative approach with attention towards personal characteristics. The wealth of

resources provided by lyengar Yoga has been also identified and utilized by Dorinda Hulton

who remarked:

Because lyengar has looked at so many different sequences that relate to so

many different problems, and he understands so clearly the way in which the
organic systems and the circulation and the energy in the body is affected
according to a sequence, his instruction, his methods, [are] so clearly adapted for
the different needs of different people, both physical and mental; health needs,
emotional needs, physical needs (2009).

As a result, in her work with drama students as well as with professional actors/artists Hulton,

drawing from lyengar Yoga, devised sequences for each individual that aimed to address 'the

whole person'.Althoughin this projectI did not devise separatesequencesfor each one of the

83 Poses that should be

avoided during menstruation are inverted postures that prevent the flow of the
menstrual blood downwards as well as the twisted positions that cause an intense stretch across the lower
abdomen. I did not find any medical studies that prove that the execution of these poses during
menstruation can be harmful, but their avoidance is common practice in Iyengar Yoga.

154
 participants, my approach was informed by Hulton's emphasis on taking into account each
participant'sunique idiosyncrasy.

Finally, I should also mention that the importance I placed on personal experience stemmed

from my own encounter with lyengar Yoga where I often felt that the body-work provoked

emotions, thoughts and memories. However, at the same time I became aware of, and at times
frustrated with the fact that the structure and content of the classes do not provide a framework

for these aspects to be addressed. I have already cited Nevrin who observed that the emotional

or mental reactions one might have during or after a class are discouraged from being
discussed with the teacher or even expressed, and I have mentioned Prescott's reserved

attitude (Chapter 1) towards expressing or dealing with emotions during a yoga class. As a

result, affective states often remain below conscious level, as at the end of the class the

practitioner becomes quickly enveloped in the buzz of daily life. There is more allowance in

communicating physical experience, since practitioners might alert the teacher about physical

ailments, injuries and pains. This communication though usually regards health conditions that
'the teacher needs to know about', whereas other aspects of one's physical experience remain

understated or concealed.

As a result, my choice to employ the lyengar style connoted the adoption of a certain class-

format, which automatically entailed certain restrictions in regard to the expression of

experience. My concern, thus, was to keep the classes as close to the style as possible but also

implement structures that both enabled and documented the participants' experience. The yoga

and rehearsal sessions were recorded and I tried as much as possible to document impromptu

discussions that took place inside and outside the studio. I also conducted interviews with most

of the participants individually at the end of each project. Finally, I asked them to keep a

logbook, where they made one entry before the class and one after. I did not specify what they

were supposed to I
write about, and also mentioned that they could keep parts of their diary

in they did to share specific information. My primary intention was for

private case not want

them to become aware of such information, whereas sharing it with me and/or the rest of the

group was deemed as secondary. As it happened though, all of them granted me access to

I
their notebooks, which collected at the 84
end of each session. The diary-keeping opened an

84The participants'consent to share the content of their notebookswith me might have placed a kind of
censorshipto what was finally written. I raised the issue with them at the beginningof each project and
they all ensured me that sharing their notes with me, or me using their notes in my writing did not pose a
problem.

155
additional channel of communication between myself and the participants, and allowed aspects

of their experience to emerge and become acknowledged. Sometimes the participants

addressed me directly in their notes and frequently asked for certain poses to be repeated or
further explained. Usually, they connected the yoga classes to their daily routine and their

overall physical, mental and emotional disposition. One participant for example, after we did a

session which is particularly designed for menstruation, made the following entry:

Before

Waking up early is always difficult. From 7.30 in the morning I was working and
now came down to Uni in order to attend yoga class.

Freezingcold...

After

Still in menstruation. All poses were lovely and I think that they are useful for
women having period. Most poses helped me to relax my pelvis and also were
easy to release my tension in tummy area. For me, lying down with blankets on
my back [Septa Badhokonasana on folded blankets] was the most comfortable
posture. Immediately, I felt like that my whole body is melting on the floor or
magical hands are touching my lower belly. It was so soft and warm' (December,
2008).

As the above entry exemplifies, keeping notes allowed the participants to place the yoga

session within their daily routine and connect it to other aspects of their lives. The fact that the

aforementioned elements were often communicated to me either verbally and/or through the

notebooks allowed me to make more informed choices about the planning of the classes. As a

result, during this first phase the yoga sessions both addressed the participants habitual
tendencies and were tailored to their needs, i.e. their physical condition, their energy levels and

their skeleton-muscular characteristics.

Transition Phase: from Yoga Practice to Yoga Application

The preparatory phase that marked the beginning of the practical projects also featured one

more exercise which aimed to act as a transition from straightforward practice towards the

application of the discipline. I developed the exercise during a practical project I delivered with
MFA student Lindsay Gear (see Appendix III). At the end of the yoga class, I asked Lindsay to

156
 come up with associations about the asanas we practiced in each session. The associations

exercise aimed to allow her to begin approaching the asanas in an imaginative way and thus

prepare her for using yoga postures in her work with the character of Medea, as portrayed in
Euripides' homonymous text. Since Lindsay found the exercise useful, I decided to use it in the

projects of this thesis.

Associations are, indeed, an important aspect of twentieth-century actor training, featuring in the

work of prominent theatre makers such as Grotowski and Schechner. It bears noting, therefore,
that the way I employed associations in the projects diverges from the work of the

aforementioned practitioners in a significant way. In Grotowski's practice, and later in

Schechner's work, the performers were asked to follow their associations during the execution

of different yoga poses and yoga inspired sequences. Schechner's emphasis that 'these are

association exercises, not gymnastics' (1972: 29) makes clear that they were approached as

psychophysical activities that aimed to involve the actor's body and imagination. In relation to a
training situation, however, my impression is that an ability to trace the images generated in and

through movement while executing specific forms belongs to the domain of mature and well-

trained performers. It bears noting, for example, that Dorinda Hulton abandoned the cat

exercise, when the training schedule did not allow her to first teach the form of the exercise in a
detailed manner. Equally, the underlying pedagogy of Iyengar Yoga leads me to believe that the

practice of this form of yoga and the simultaneous production of associations are mutually

exclusive. As I have discussed in the first chapter, the practice of yoga intends to produce a

state of active meditation, whereas the generation of associations demands by definition to

allow the to
consciousness roam freely.85The aim of the instructions in an Iyengar Yoga class,

therefore, is not physical virtuosity, but the development of the practitioner's focus and

concentration; as lyengar graphically explains 'if I ask people to stretch their legs in Sirsasana
[headstand], they cannot think whether they will be demoted or promoted at work or what they

will have for dinner'.

However, that does not mean that the practitioners of Iyengar Yoga are expected to become

oblivious to other aspects of their experience. In fact, a book by lyengar seems to endorse a

more 'liberal' approach and particularly exemplifies the interplay between physicality and
imagination. In The Art of Yoga, Iyengar casts the practice of yoga in artistic terms and employs

es I have noted in the first that lyengar identifies in the practice of asanas the possibility of
chapter
cultivating all the other limbs of Patanjali's formulation.

157
a language which comes into sharp distinction to the pragmatic, functional tone that

characterizes Light on Yoga. This becomes particularly evident in the associative character of

the comments that accompany the black and white photographs of a number of poses. For

example the pose Uttanasana (Figure 26), is likened to a 'close encounter' (1985: 42), whereas

Virabhadrasana I/ (Figure 27) is described as 'the scales of justice' (ibid: 34-35).

Figure 26, lyengar in Figure 27, lyengar in Virabhadrasana 11,reproduced from Iyengar,
Uttanasana, reproduced 1985: 35.
from lyengar, 1985: 42.

Nevertheless, it has to be stressed that the metaphors and images that emerge for lyengar in

these poses are not part of the training of and the instructions according to which the poses are

taught. Indeed, based on the style and nature of the training, I would argue that it is not possible

to maintain focus on the practice of and/or instructions that accompany the poses, and at the

same time follow one's train of thoughts. This is not to say that the physical practice does not

produce images, sensations, and thoughts; it is rather a matter of choosing which aspects of the

overall experience one concentrates on. Especially in the case of beginners, I would argue that

it is impossible to keep an alert and accurate observation of one's body and simultaneously

follow associations. Nonetheless, the production of associations can indeed be seen as a useful

and perhaps indispensable part of an artistic application of yoga, not only because it might

promote one's yoga practice, but also because it connects aspects of yoga to an artistic process

and the use of the actor's imagination.

158
 Unlike other yoga applications, therefore, in the first project the associations acted as a

transitional activity. The practitioners were not asked to follow associations during the yoga

class, but come up with associations after the class was over. The associations they came up

with derived from a variety of sources. One of them was the external form of the asanas which

triggered connections to shapes, images and objects. Another source for associations was

sensations the participants had during the yoga practice, in relation for example to their physical

state, body temperature, energy levels, and spatial orientation. For instance, Thor linked the

image of a bow in the process of stretching to shoot an arrow with the pose Parvatasana

(Figure 28). When I asked him about the relationship between the two, he connected the

resistance that a bow presents as it is drawn to a shooting position to the feeling he had in his

shoulders during the pose. Apart from such direct correlations, asanas were also linked to a

colour, a memory or image, and sometimes for reasons that the participants could not fully

explicate. Based on the above, it could be said that the association exercise operated as an

additional way to foreground experience, while it placed emphasis on the connection between

the immediate experience of the yoga practice and areas beyond it, such as images, memories,

and linguistic metaphors. An ability, therefore, to think and practice yoga in an associative way

is of primary importance for the application of the discipline in a training/rehearsal context.

Figure 37, Thor in Parvatasana

To sum up, the preparatory phase of all three projects aimed to introduce the participants to a

specific kind of yoga, establish a working relationship and vocabulary that could be used later in

the projects, render their experience accessible, and allow it to inform the content of the

classes. My aim was to make possible the growth of a relationship between each participant

159
and the on-offer training material as well as allow this relationship to influence the choice of the

material being offered. Thus, during this first phase I tried to activate a feedback loop, where the

participants were seen as active agents of the whole process. Keeping the above observations
in mind, I will now proceed with an exposition and discussion of the first practical project."

86The chapters that follow are accompanied by

audiovisual material which can be found in the DVDs at
the back of the thesis. A short note on the compilation of the DVDs can be found in Appendix II.

160
 Chapter III: Practical Project I

Introduction

The first practical project took place between October 2008 and February 2009. I worked with

two students from the MFA in Theatre Practice, Liz Pennington and Thor Aagaard, and one

alumnus student from the same programme, Kyoung-hee An. The number of the participants

and the gender consistency of the group were determined by the text, which I chose to stage as

part of the project. We worked with Tennessee Williams' one-act play The Lady of Larkspur
Lotion, and the three participants had been cast in their roles before the beginning of the

project. The aims of the project were:

" to apply the practice of yoga poses in order to facilitate the actors in creating their
characters;

" to devise yoga based exercises that could assist the actors in such a process;

" to examine the effect that an application of yoga would have on the overall production of
the play.

The project was inevitably focused on the deployment and application of yoga practice, but I

was also aware that a text and a performance have their own rules and internal logic; 'a

performance will be bad research if it is boring, no matter how much theoretical gloss is poured

over it' writes Martin Welton (2003: 349), and his words appeared to me as a sensible caution.
Taking the above into account my intention was double-faceted; to stage a performance for the

purposes of the project but not at the expense of the text.

The project was thus divided in two distinct phases; the first one lasted ten weeks and aimed at

familiarizing the participants with aspects of the style of yoga I chose to employ. The second

phase lasted seven weeks, but included longer and more frequent meetings. During this time

we explored the application of the elements of yoga that were highlighted in the first phase in
direct relation to Williams' text. The working method that I followed in the project was based on

a model of progressive accumulation. The participants were first introduced to the practice of

the asanas, then through the associations exercise they connected their experience of the yoga

training to their thoughts, memories or images, and finally they used the practice of the asanas

and the production of associations in the exploration of the role and the generation of material
for their physical score. I will begin with a brief discussion of Williams' text and certain choices I

made in relation to it. I will omit an exposition of the first phase (practice of yoga), as I have
discussed this part in the previous section and a clear description of it is given in Appendix I,
and I will straightaway continue with the second phase. I will particularly reflect on the

visualization exercises I borrowed from Dorinda Hulton, and activities I devised specifically for

this project; i.e. 'the use of an asana to create a character', 'the interplay between soft and hard

movement qualities', the 'accumulation exercise' and the employment of asanas in the work

with the text. I conclude this chapter with the aspects of performance that were not approached
by yoga as well as the questions that this project generated.

The Lady Of Larkspur Lotion

The Lady Of Larkspur Lotion was written in 1941 and is one of Williams' least known works. It

precedes the writing of his more popular plays, and the characters that feature in Larkspur
Lotion appear to have been developed further in subsequent scripts; the homonymous heroine,

for example, seems like an early, more sketchy and funny rendition of Blanche in A Streetcar

Named Desire. The action is set in a cheap bedsit in the American South and begins when the

Landlady of the establishment, Mrs Wire (Kyoung-Hee), enters the room of one of her tenants,

Mrs Hardwick-Moore (Liz) to collect her overdue rent. The fight that breaks out between the two

women brings in the Writer (Thor), who occupies another room. The play finishes with the Writer

sending the Landlady away, and slipping with Hardwick-Moore into a world of alcohol-fuelled
fantasy. 87The choice of the text was largely determined by my intention to explore the use of

yoga in relation to the creation and embodiment of character. It is of relevance to note here that

in the context of this project, I employ the term 'character' in a quite conventional manner, i.e.

'person in a play, novel etc' (Oxford Dictionary, 1973: 156). As a result of such an

understanding, my initial search for a text was concentrated on the genre of naturalism, since

the characters that feature in naturalistic plays are constructed to resemble persons. However, it

should also be noted that as a director, I found my self in line with Schechner who maintained

that 'a role is a theatrical entity, not a psychological being' (1972: 53). In this vein, he prompts

performers to think of their characters as 'dramatic personae, and not as 'people' (ibid. ). I thus

consider a character to be a construction based on the writer's original creation, embodied

through the actor's interpretation and staged by the director's mediation. Based on the above, I

was looking for a text that could serve a double purpose; offer well-developed characters, but at

the same time lend it self to a directorial treatment other than psychological realism.

87A full copy of the play can be found in AppendixIV.

162
 I was attracted to The Lady of Larkspur Lotion, because it featured characters that were

carefully constructed, and furnished with a language that managed to convey a lot of
information in very little space. Furthermore, the theme of the play, as well as Williams' style,

presented a level of idiosyncrasy which could support a less conventional acting approach. In

particular, I identified in Larkspur Lotion an interesting interplay between theme and genre,

which has also been noted by theatre scholar, Christopher Bigsby. The latter observes that
Williams"prototypical hero/heroine is precisely a fugitive trapped by the harsh pragmatics of the

modern world. And the effort to deny definitional force to that reality creates.. .on the level of

style a pressure which erodes the authority of naturalism' (1984: 28 emphasis added). It

appeared, therefore, that Williams' dramaturgy offered a combination of characters structured

within the naturalistic medium and stylistic and thematic choices which undermined this very

medium. Based on such an approach, I took a certain licence with the original script and its

characters.

First of all the production of the play featured a couple of changes to Williams' original stage

instructions. Williams sets the action in Hardwicke-Moore's room, and as such it can be

assumed that the Landlady and the Writer enter Hardwicke-Moore's room from backstage, and

do not remain on stage when they are not directly involved in the action. In the production I

staged, the rooms of all three characters were displayed, as opposed to the room of Hardwicke-

Moore. Also, all three characters remained on stage throughout the performance, by contrast to

the play's appointed exits and entrances. Finally, an extra scene was added at the beginning of

the play which displayed a score of physical actions that each actor executed in his/her space.

The aforementioned alterations aimed at placing additional emphasis on the project's main

i. the in the embodiment of a theatrical character. As a result,

question, e. use of yoga postures

these modifications allowed me to incorporate in the actual performance material which was

generated out of the exploration of the research question.

In addition to the above, my reading of Williams' play placed particular importance on the

tension between reality and fantasy, which permeates the dialogues as well as the details that

Williams offers about his characters. Indeed, The Lady of Larkspur Lotion can be viewed as a
'treatise' on the function of fantasy, dramatizing a debate about its role as a coping mechanism.

As Bigsby notes Williams' 'figures desperately reshape the world they inhabit, and it is the gulf

between this factitious world and the one that threatens to pull them into its coercive influence

his (1984: 18). Therefore, I treated the tension

which generates the anxious energy of work'
betweenfantasy-realitynot only as the thematic thread running through the script but also as a

163
device that could inform the performance of the play in terms of both acting and directing.

During rehearsals the actors explored the fantasies that are suggested in and/or can be

deduced by the text, and the 'fantasy' material they generated was finally incorporated in their

score. In sum, my choice of The Lady of Larkspur Lotion was determined by its thematic
interplay between fantasy and reality as well as by its dramaturgy, which was naturalistic but

nonetheless subversive.

Second Phase: The Application of Yoga

The second phase of the project was formulated according to the aspects of yoga that were

highlighted in the first phase, the performers' own relationship to the yoga training, my reading

of the text, and my approach towards it as a director. 88 It consisted of a number of exercises,

some of which were specifically devised for this project and others which I borrowed from the

work of other practitioners. We started the second part of our work with visualization exercises
that were based on the process developed by Dorinda Hulton as part of her exploration with

yoga and imagination. 89 I have already exposed this aspect of her work in the second chapter

(section on Dorinda Hulton) and here I will briefly recap on the framework that Hulton developed

based on the practice of Savasana.

In Hulton's exercise, the resting pose Savasana (corpse pose), which concludes every lyengar

Yoga session, is used as a way for generating material for performance. Participants are

instructed into the pose and then are taken through a guided visualization. Employing a speed-

writing activity afterwards, they note down whatever images produced during the exercise 90
This process is repeated three times; the first time the participants are asked to imagine a

character from the outside, and write down the character they imagined using the third pronoun.
Then they imagine a memory in this character's life, which they write down using the first

88From here onwardsthe 'participants'in this projects become 'performers'.The change of vocabulary I
employ, in order to refer to them, marks a shift in the roles and the working relationship.As we gradually
moved further in the rehearsal process, the relationship of the first phase of teacher-student turned into
that of actor-director. Although both relationships were operative at the same time, there was a marked
difference In the dynamic and the nature of our interaction in the second half of the project. Unlike the first
half, where I was granted undisputed authority because I was the 'yoga teacher', in the second half we
were much more on an even keel, in terms of theatrical/artistic knowledge and experience.
89It Is importantto note here that the use of Hulton'sexercisein this project predatedthe second interview
I conductedwith her, where she specificallyexplainedher understandingof the actor's use of imagination.
I thus treat her exercisehere as a visualizationactivity, although,as I found out later, Huttonopposedthis
term, since she regards imagination as a 'whole body activity' (2009). My approach towards these
exercisesas visualizationsproducedmixed results,which I will discusslater in the chapter.
90Although Hulton does not offer a definition of speed writing, the activity, as it appears in the actual
workshop seems to consist of writing quickly and without any pauses, so as to avoid any kind of
censorshipor alterationsthat the writer might imposeon the materialbeing produced.

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 pronoun in past tense. Finally, they are guided to imagine a particular moment within that
memory,which they note down using a more poetic and associativelanguage.

My aim was to start the rehearsal process with the same framework, because it seemed an

easy and at the same time effective way to generate material, as well as a prelude to the

exercises I had in mind for later use. However, I changed the aforementioned exercise in a

number of ways, in order to meet the particular demands of this project. First of all, I was
interested to try the visualization in other resting poses, with which the performers had been

already familiar. Secondly, the character that was going to feature in each person's visualization

was the character they acted in the play. Thirdly, I kept the structure of the visualization process
from outer character to inner memory, but I changed the object of each step. So initially I asked

them to visualize the character's room, then the character's fantasy and last the character's

body (which was done in a different session). Finally, each visualization was followed by a

different activity, and not speed writing.

Moreover, before we started work on visualization, I asked them to read the play once more and

do a preliminary exercise, which I learned in a workshop with theatre practitioner and actor

trainer, Lorna Marshall. The task is to read the text and note down the facts about one's

character, the things that other characters in the play say about one's character, and the

assumptions that can be deduced from the text about one's character. As I mention in the
introduction, despite the project's focus on character embodiment, one of my primary concerns

was to keep the text present throughout the rehearsal process. I thus asked the participants to
do this preparation, in order to allow them to refresh their memories before producing material.

Furthermore, as the visualizations were going to explore both the reality and fantasy of the

characters, an additional aim of the exercise was to alert the performers to the tensions that
feature in the script in regard to the characters' perception of imaginary and real events.

The Visualization of the Character's Room

Rehearsals started with the actors exploring the space and the character's room before

engaging with the character's body and physicality. Emphasis on the 'character's room' was
informed by my decision to stage all three rooms and have all three characters on stage

throughout the performance. Additionally, the importance I placed on space-awareness was

influenced by the view of theatre practitioner and scholar, Hollis Huston. As Huston claims, 'if

you do not create the space of your choice you are no actor. Anyone can be at the mercy of the

space. Only a performer can take responsibility of it' (1992: 68). However, she also makes clear

165
that control over the space is inextricably linked with awareness of one's body and specifically

states that 'the body is primal scenery. If I do not know where I am, I will fail to act out the

properties of this place and the stage will fall short of illusion' (ibid.: 67). My main intention,

therefore, with this exercise was to enable the performers to experiment with their body as well

as the space in relation to the 'given circumstances' provided by the text.

During 'the room visualization' I prompted the performers' imagination in a number of ways, by

giving them verbal stimuli, such as 'what do you see on the walls', 'is there any window', but

also by triggering the rest of the senses, for example 'what can you hear in the room', 'what is
the temperature', 'what do you smell' and the like. At the end of the visualization the participants

drew the room on large pieces of paper using coloured felt pens. After that I asked them to

recreate the room in the spaces' First I asked them to define the outline of their character's

room with their bodies, for example by employing big strides or the horizontal extension of the

arms. They then marked the room's outline and size, by using objects such as chairs, and
indeed yoga props. Then they started to 'fill up' the interior of the room, by marking with their

bodies the outline of pieces of furniture and gradually moving to smaller objects. They thus used

their whole body in a number of ways, in order to mark the shape of pieces of furniture, and by

miming actions, such as opening drawers, looking in the mirror, and handling smaller objects.
While they were marking the empty space with their bodies and handling thin air with their

hands, I encourage the actors through verbal instructions to notice the positions that their body

was taking, the routes they followed inside the room, the quality and rhythm of their movement.
In this way I wanted to promote the development of a relationship between the space and

themselves as actors, before they explored the space in character. However, as Liz remarks,

their engagement with the space and the responsibility to build the space of their character from

scratch, also influenced the character work. For example, in creating the room of Mrs Wire,
Kyoung-hee negotiated the size of her room with the other participants, took into account the

description of Mrs Wire that is provided in the text and she also engaged with specific lines. At

some point Hardwicke-Moore accuses Mrs Wire that she spies and listens at doors. Kyoung-
hee actively engaged with this line and incorporated it in the arrangement of the character's

room. (video: PIPI-+Visualization Activities-ºThe Character's Room) After the initial stage,

we stopped doing the visualization but we kept the last strand of the exercise; 'building the

91It is worth noting that the language I used during the exercise suggestedthat the actors were looking
into the character'sroom through their own eyes and not the character's.As a result, when they outlined
the room in the actual space of the studio, it was clear that they should move as themselvesand not as
their character.

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 character's room' was thus developedas an exercise in its own right and was also used as a
transitionalactivityfor the actors to 'drop into their character'.92

The Visualization of the Character's Fantasy

As in the visualization of the character's room, the participants were instructed in a yoga

position and were then prompted with questions to imagine the character's fantasy in relation to

the character's longings and dreams. In line with Hulton's progression from outer to inner

image, this time I asked the participants to view the fantasy scene through the character's eyes;

'where are you', 'what do you see around you' 'how do you behave' 'are you alone' and so on.

The participants came out of the visualization and started immediately to act out the contents of

the visualization in the space. Some of this initial material was developed further into physical

actions which were incorporated in the performance, whereas other aspects of this material

remained as part of the character's 'background'. Liz for example came up with the image of
Hardwick-Moore committing suicide, which was later used in the production, albeit in a comical

manner. Thor explored a fantasy in which the Writer enjoys power and authority. Although this

aspect did not inform the creation of his physical score, it was operative in the way he

approached the embodiment of the Writer.

The Visualization of the Character's Body

As in the previous activities, the participants settled into one of the resting poses and I guided

them through a visualization of the character's body. I first asked them to see their character

from the outside, starting from the character's feet and working their way up (the position of the

feet, the shape of the shoulders, the angle of the head). Gradually I prompted them with more

detailed questions towards the interiority of the character's physicality; the character's walk (the

length of the stride, the sway of the hips, the position of the arms, the sound of their steps), the

character's face (the gaze, the smile, the position of the mouth, ) the character's gestures (small

movements of the head, eyes, eyebrows, lips, particular holding of the hands/fingers). Then the

participants came out of the pose and they started physically exploring the elements they had

imagined. This exercise gave them an initial outline of the body of the character, which in the

case of Liz and Thor developed further, whereas in Kyoung-hee's case was soon abandoned.
(video: PPI-º Visualization Activities--a. The Character's Body)

92It bears noting that 'building the character's room' was one of the first exercisesthat Stanislavskydid
with his actors at the beginning of their rehearsals for Tartuffe. The exercise marks Stanislavsky's
departurefrom a psychologically-basedapproachand the beginningof the developmentof the method of
physicalactions (see Toporkov,1979: 165)

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Liz found the visualization exercises very useful, and indeed her character derived from this

work. However, exercises we did later, which also aimed at creating the character's body, raised

certain questions about the nature and, subsequently, the effectiveness of visualization

techniques in relation to character embodiment. The first two visualizations were about

something the actors saw 'out there', in the space. As such the outcome of the visualization

could be projected in the space, in the same way it had been projected in their imagination. The

visualization of the character's body, though, featured an inevitable gap -temporal and spatial-
in the actors' process; the conception of the image of the character's body took place before the

engagement of their own body. In fact, their body was immobile, set in a particular position,

whereas the imagination was prompted to wander under the guidance of verbal instructions. As

a result, when they got up and set the body in motion there was a preconceived image that their
body was asked to duplicate. This is not problematic in itself, and a preconceived internal

image, as Liz's case exemplifies, can act as a guideline for the performer. There is a danger,

however, that an image preconceived through visualization might not be compatible with the

performer's physicality and thus act as a 'straightjacket'. As I will discuss in the next section, for

example, Kyoung-hee imagined her character as being very fat and as a result, her initial efforts

concentrated on physicalizing this particular aspect rather than co-activating her body and
imagination in order to explore her character. 93

The Use of Asanas to Create the Character

As I have already mentioned, at the end of the first phase of the project I asked the performers

to note the associations that the practice of different poses generated, in order to enable them

to approach the asanas in a more imaginative way and prepare them for one of the main

activities of this project, i.e. to use the asanas as a pathway to create their character. After we
had explored the character's room and body through visualization, I invited them to choose one

or more postures from the syllabus we had been practising, which they felt were relevant to their

understanding of their character. They then executed the asana a number of times and finally

they extracted the elements of the asana they thought were particularly pertinent. I did not

specify what those elements were supposed to be and on which aspects of the asana they were

supposed to concentrate. Each participant used this exercise in various ways, and they made a

e3An interestingpoint to note here Is that visualization

exercisesdevelopedin the nineteenthcentury as
part of techniquesof proprioceptiverelaxationand were incorporatedduring this time into yoga practices,
see Singleton,2005. IyengarYoga does not feature any form of visualizationin its practicesand my choice
to combinethe practiceof the recuperativeposes with guided imagerywas an aberrationfrom the typical
lyengarformat.

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 number of connections between the postures and their character. However, I think each one
favoured a particular connection more than others, in a way that perhaps reflected pre-existing

working methods and personal dispositions. For example in Kyoung-hee's case, a particular
feature of a standing pose acted as the base on which she developed the whole character. Liz

experimented with the different resonators that certain poses made more accessible and the

way the different placements of the voice affected her relationship to the text. Thor connected
different asanas to his character's psychological, social and physical profile. Despite the above

variations, in all three cases the connections between character and asana derived from the

psychophysical state they experienced while being in the posture. As opposed to the

visualization exercise, using yoga postures in this manner facilitated a direct involvement of the
body. The asanas became a locus of exploration, a vessel in which the participants explored

possibilities around their character's physicality, voice and behaviour in an immediate way. In

order to discuss further the function of this exercise and its importance for a holistic approach to

character embodiment I wish to refer to the process of one of the participants.

Kyoung-hee An was cast in the role of Mrs Wire, the landlady, whom Williams describes as a

'heavy, slovenly woman of fifty' (1949: 67). The visualization of the 'character's room' and the

'character's fantasy' coupled with repeated readings of the text had already provided Kyoung-
hee with a number of details about her character: a love for money that concealed loneliness, a

safe-box where she kept this money, a secret room that no one knew about, and a tendency to

spy on other people. When Kyoung-hee did the visualization exercise on the character's

physicality, she came up with an image of a woman so overweight that could hardly bring her
feet together. The imagined layers of fat dictated the character's movement that Kyoung-hee

ventured to explore in the space. However, in a following session, when I asked Kyoung-hee to

choose an asana that she felt related to her character, Kyoung-hee chose the standing pose
Tadasana (Figure 29). As explained by lyengar 'Tada means a mountain. Tadasana therefore

implies a pose where one stands firm and erect as a mountain' (1991: 39). The pose is

characterized by an intense action of the legs, with the feet pressing firmly on the floor, the

kneecaps being strongly pulled up, and the whole leg becoming 'straight as a poker'. The94

arms remain by the sides of the body extending down from the shoulders to the fingertips. As a

result of the action of the legs and arms, the spine remains straight and lengthened. The pose

can thus generate a sense of physical stability and strength, the firmness of a mountain. Based

94Keepingthe legs 'straightas a poker' was one of the first instructionsI receivedas an lyengarYoga
studentby my first teacherGlennysShepherd.As the video clip demonstrates,Kyoung-heeexploredthis
notionquite literally,althoughshe neverheardsuchan Instruction.

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on the above, Kyoung-hee chose to work with Tadasana in order to explore the rigidity and

assertiveness that she perceived in Mrs Wire. However, unlike the visualization exercise, this

interpretation of the character of Mrs Wire stemmed from a set of very specific and precise

physical actions. The image of the 'fat lady' was thus abandoned and replaced by a

psychophysical exploration, which was not only closer to Kyoung-hee's original physicality, but

rooted in her own body. As Kyoung-hee explained later, her character was particularly in-formed

by the intense action of the legs and the vigorous lift of the knees that she experienced in the

pose.

t,

Figure 38, Kyoung-hee in Tadasana

In this manner, the pose did not act as a 'costume', an external form that Kyoung-hee decided

to put onto her body. On the contrary, Kyoung-hee's account gives a vivid description of the

tension between the pose as performed in a yoga practice and the pose as appropriated for

artistic purposes. For example in the post-performance interview she remarked that 'the upper

body was too stiff and in the beginning I did not know what to do with it' (March, 2009).

However, by doing the asana a number of times, and by experimenting with the original shape

in various ways, she managed to isolate those elements in Tadasana that she found useful for

Mrs Wire. Using the yoga poses in this manner, Kyoung-hee did not have to strive to actualize a

preconceived image, an idea of how the character should be. On the contrary, the asana

offered her a psychophysical form which she worked both against and with as well as access to

170
 a vocabulary of possibilities that could render the character present. 95The physical actions that

she performed in the asana functioned as a starting point for the creation of the character, and

offered her the base for developing further aspects and details. Moreover, the immediacy of the

action that she finally chose, i.e. lifting the knees, provided her with an entry point to her

character, which she could utilize both in rehearsal and performance. Finally, the tangible,

pragmatic and concrete quality of this physical action grounded her process in a reality that was

director. (video: PPI-, The Use of Asanas in

observable, not only to her but also to me as

Character Work-+ Mrs Wire)

In view of the above, Kyoung-hee's process could also be examined through the lens of the

body image-body schema concepts. In terms of her actual exploration, it is clear that Kyoung-

hee was working through the body image mode. In both the visualization exercise as well as the

'choose an asana to find your character' activity, Kyoung-hee made conscious decisions

according to which she engaged her body. In the first instance she deliberately attempted to

embody an overweight person, whereas in the second instance she deliberately employed

certain muscles in order to develop the character's psychophysical profile. Although in terms of
her own process Kyoung-hee apparently operated in a conscious and purposeful fashion, in

terms of the character it seems that Kyoung-Hee alternatively explored first the character's body

image and then the character's body schema. During her initial exploration Kyoung-Hee was

working from an image, derived from Williams' description and her own imagination. It
which
could be said therefore, that Kyoung-hee tried to embody a concept of the character. In other

words, if we hypothesize that Mrs Wire is a real person, then it could be said that Kyoung-hee
tried to embody the image that Mrs Wire has of herself and/or the image other people have of

Mrs Wire. Similarly, when Kyoung-hee began exploring the character through a direct

engagement with physical and kinaesthetic actions, she was working with the character's body

schema. In real life, for instance, Mrs Wire would not have been aware that she kept her knees

permanently tight and this characteristic would have been a prereflective aspect of her
bodymind. Since I came across these concepts after the completion of the first practical project,

they were not employed in character work. However, I believe that Kyoung-hee's process

exemplifies their usefulness. Body image can potentially enable the actor to look at the

character from the outside and explore how the character sees itself, as well as how the writer

and other characters view the character. Equally body schema can allow the actor to look at the

95'Rendering
possibilities present' is a phrase used by Peter Hulton in an essay on the use of image (see
Exeter Digital Archive, Theatre Papers 1977-1986) Although the phrase is used here outside its original
.
context, the way I articulate Kyoung-hee's process is influenced by Hulton's concept.

171
character from the inside and explore the presence of psychophysicaltraits of which the
character is not aware.

The way in which Kyoung-hee used the asanas also appears similar to Michael Chekhov's

Psychological Gesture (hereafter PG). In an interview with Peter Hulton, Deidre Hurst de Prey, a

student of Chekhov during his residence at Dartington College (1936-1939), described PG as

the 'one gesture which encompasses the particular things you are searching for, and when you

find it and explore it you will discover that by doing the gesture you will awaken the feelings for

the part, the scene, the play' (Theatre Papers, 1979-80: 3). In an essay by Franc Chamberlain,

there is an account of the working process developed by Chekhov. In the first stage the actors

read the play and 'not[e] down the visions which attract them most in words and images' (2000:
89). In the second stage 'a conscious elaboration on images' takes place and the cast begins

exploring the Psychological Gestures of their characters (ibid.). According to the above, one can
deduce that in Chekhov's process the PG emerged from the actor's encounter with the text, the

use of imagination, and the activation of one's physical and emotional sensitivity.

In this sense, the asanas were used in this project during more or less the same phase as in

Chekhov's rehearsal process (second stage), and also at a similar junction of text-imagination-

psychophysical state. However, unlike the PG, which has to be generated out of an infinite

spectrum of possibilities, the asanas provide the actor with a shape. In the introduction to the

practical projects I have examined the practice of lyengar Yoga through the concepts of body
image and body schema. I particularly argued that lyengar Yoga can enrich the scope and

potentialities of the practitioner's pre-reflective patterns by bringing attention to ingrained habits

and fostering new movements in a deliberate and conscious manner. In the beginning therefore,

the shape of the asanas as well as the actions that actualize it, appear to the actor both

unfamiliar and immediate. In relation to this project, lifting the knees up, for example, was an

action that I had to initially bring to the participants' attention and was not automatically

understood or actualized. However, once they managed to execute the action they had an
immediate and uniquely personal experience of what such an action 'feels like'. In this manner

the asanas generate a sense of alienation from one's body (the body is asked to move or act in

a new, often unusual way) but at the same time they enhance and enrich one's physical

experience (the body understands and assimilates these new movements/actions). As a result,

the use of asanas as a starting point for character creation immediately closes the spectrum of

possibilities, as the body is constrained within a very particular shape. At the same time though,

the actions that are necessary in order for such a shape to be actualized open up possibilities

172
 which might not have emerged otherwise. Schechner's observation that the
actors are 'single-
bodied' (1994 [1973]: 221) would entail that leaving the
spectrum of physical possibilities
completely open is the same as confining it to the limitations of each actor's particular body,

because the body will most likely seek the movements it already knows, it will perform its habits.

The practice of the asanas, though, precisely by bringing attention to one's habitual patterns

and by foregrounding movements outside the practitioner's regular repertoire can significantly
broaden the spectrum of one's psychophysical vocabulary. I will return to this aspect of asana

in the following but it will suffice to observe here that Kyoung-hee's discovery of
work chapters,
her to engage her body
the 'seed' of her character in Tadasana allowed not only simultaneously

and imagination, but also to use aspects of her body which otherwise might have remained

unavailable.

The Use of Asanas to Find the Character and the Image Schemata
My initial assumption was that the choice of certain asanas for certain characters depended to a

large extent on the actors' relationship to and experience of each pose. My engagement with

the theory of the image schemata led me to another hypothesis, which evolved after the

completion of the project. However, an examination of the 'choose an asana to create your

character' exercise through the lens of Johnson's theory can illuminate further the basis on

which this exercise operates. As I have exposed in the introduction of the second part, the

theory of image schemata stipulates that there are underlying structures that determine our

movement and consequently inform the use of language and the understanding of abstract

concepts. Image schemata are, precisely, the organizational principles that underlie

metaphorical thinking and allow the projection of certain structures from one domain to another.
Based on Johnson's argument, I have also pointed out that image schemata are present in

yoga poses and particularly explicit in Iyengar Yoga instructions.

According to an examination of the aforementioned exercise through Johnson's theory, it could

be said that the 'source domain' of the metaphor was the yoga asanas that the performers had

been practicing so far, and the 'target domain' was the roles outlined in Williams' text. It also

bears noting that Johnson stresses that image schemata 'are like channels in which something

can move with a certain limited, relative freedom. Some movements (inferences) are not

possible at all. They are ruled out by the image schemata and metaphors' (1987: 137). In view

of the above, I would argue that since yoga poses are permeated by image schemata, and

since the metaphorical projection of such schemata onto language and abstract thinking takes

place in a rule-abiding fashion, the allocation of yoga poses to specific characters should follow

173
the same rules as any other metaphorical projection. The choice of certain asanas, therefore, is

not (only) a matter of the actor's personal taste, disposition, and interpretation but is subjected

to the structure that the asana and the image schema within the asana dictate. As such, asanas

can act in the same constraining fashion as the image schemata, thus allowing the actor to

channel his or her process through limited and therefore in-formed choices. As a result the

choice of this asana for this role might not be as arbitrary and solely dependent on the individual

as it originally appears. Furthermore, Johnson emphasizes that he uses the term metaphor 'in a

metaphorically extended sense, not only as a propositional connection of two highly delineated,

already determinate domains of experience, but also as a projective structure be means of

which many experiential connections and relations are established in the first place" (1987: 104

emphasis added). Based on this, I would argue that the performers did not simply connect one

or more poses to a predetermined understanding of their character, but it was the precise

choice and subsequent practice of these poses that allowed them to further such an

understanding.

For example, as I have already mentioned, Thor connected the asanas he chose to the

psychological and social profile of his character. An asana that he kept returning to throughout

the rehearsals was the balancing pose Vrksasana (Figure 39). When I asked him why he chose

this asana he drew connections between certain characteristics of the pose and the way he

understood his character. The pose features standing on one leg and an intense lift of the arms.

The required balancing action can pose a problem to a beginner, since one may experience

different degrees and manifestations of imbalance such as swaying around the vertical axis,

staggering on the standing leg, hopping on the foot, and eventually bringing the other foot down.

In addition, the sensation of imbalance that is often generated in the lower part of the body is in

opposition to the action that should take place in the upper part, where the arms should

maintain a strong, upward lift. After Thor did the asana a few times during the session he told

me that he identified in the character of the Writer the presence of artistic and social aspirations

(arms stretching up) which were nevertheless undermined by an infirm basis (standing on one

leg).

174
 Figure 39, Thor in Vrksasana

I believe that Thor's case exemplifies a process whereby the shape and experience of a certain

physical activity can allow further insight into the character's psychological profile. As a result,

the shape of the asana offered Thor a tangible understanding of a more abstract experience,

whereas the practice of the asana allowed him to explore the nature/manifestation of a

psychological characteristic. In a section on balance schemata, Johnson writes that the

meaning of balance begins to emerge through our acts of balancing and through our experience

of systemic processes and states within our bodies' (1987: 75). It can be supported therefore

that, the choice and practice of Vrksasana in relation to the character of the Writer was

underpinned by an understanding of extending up in the pose as a metaphorical rendition of the

character's wish for social ascendance and an experience of wobbling in the pose as a

metaphor for the character's unbalanced psychological frame.

It is also quite significant that Thor chose this pose in order to explore the part of the text that

clearly states the Writer's aspirations. During the exploration certain actions that take place in

the pose and the meanings of certain words began to collapse onto each other. For instance,

Thor combined the part of the text which expresses the Writer's aspirations with a strong lift of

the arms. Once the Writer admits that these aspirations are 'fiction', the arms are gradually

lowered. A pictorial rendition of the text was not explored further, primarily because we worked

in a naturalistic genre. The particular example, however, makes it clear that although certain

actions and movements in yoga do not signify anything as such, their use in a rehearsal context

immediately impregnates theses movement

with meaning. As such, the practice of Vrksasana

175
allowed Thor to gain a psychophysical experience of the psychological and mental condition of
his character and, it also enabled him to work with certain parts of the text. (video: PPI--* The

Use of Asanas in CharacterWork--+The Writer)

In relation to the physical experience it is interesting to note that the body's effort to maintain its

equilibrium in Vrksasana is particularly felt on the standing foot and ankle, which undergo a

number of minute adjustments, as the weight constantly shifts. After an initial exploration, Thor

attempted to transfer the experience of his foot wobbling to the walk of the character. He tried,
therefore, to translate a physical aspect of the asana (which had psychological connotations) on

the movement and gait of the character. Thor explored different ways of walking and using the
feet, but the overall impression was that of an injured limb rather than an imbalanced person.

Thus this direct transfer was soon abandoned. However, in hindsight there are a couple of

observations that emerge in relation to the aforementioned application. First of all, I did not take
into consideration the fact that Thor, as he kept doing the asana in order to explore his

character, inevitably became better at it. As such the original experience of effort and frustration

was diluted and was replaced by confidence and aptitude. As Thor continued to work with the

posture, he thus tried to recreate an experience in the pose which was simply not there; his
body could now balance and there was no way to reverse to a previous inability and instability.

In retrospect I can see that my interception at this moment could have been instrumental, as I

could have helped Thor to maintain the experience of inability to balance by simply asking him
to do a more difficult posture. The element that escaped my attention at that point was the fact

that Thor did not simply choose an asana that featured an interplay between an infirm basis and

an extended torso, he chose an asana that initially challenged his balance. As his ability
improved, the asana continued to inform the psychological profile of his character and indeed

Thor's work with the text, but it was not possible to inform his physical score, in the way that

Kyoung-Hee used Tadasana. Based on the ways in which the participants used the poses, I

became aware of the numerous ways in which the poses can be employed. It also became

clear to me that an understanding of how the asana operated and what were the exact reasons
for its choice could have rendered its application more accurate and fruitful.

The Use of `Soft' and `Hard' Psychophysical Qualities

As I mentioned in the introduction to the practical projects, one of the areas of attention during

the yoga classes was the refinement of muscular engagement. As lyengar Yoga is

characterized by a physically demanding approach, the practitioner is called to understand and

control different degrees of engagement at different body parts. The instruction to 'lift the

176
 kneecaps up' for example features a very clear action (lift) of a precise part of the body (the

kneecaps) towards a definite direction (up). The intensity of the action is conveyed either by a

more compelling vocabulary, such as 'suck the kneecaps up' instead of the more neutral 'lift'

and/or by the use of the voice. The volume and inflection of the instructor's voice is actually
instrumental in communicating not only the specifics of any given action, but also its quality. The

practitioner thus learns to regulate muscular intensity in specific parts of the body and moreover

one becomes able to combine different levels of intensity in the same pose.

Barba and Savarese have identified the combination of the two opposing qualities of hard and

soft in a number of traditional training disciplines. The writers of A Dictionary of Theatre

Anthropology refer to Balinese dance that features an interplay between 'keras' and 'manis' in

the dancer's physical body (1991: 12). They also make further references to the concepts of

animus and anima in terms of the performer's energy; 'in Bali energy is defined using the term
bayu (wind)... in theatre anthropology one uses the terms animus anima. It is a wind which

animates the performer's actions. But how does one make this wind blow? By mastering precise
body positions which are based on a well-articulated distinction between soft and strong

tensions' (1991: 83). What is of interest here is that Barba and Savarese locate these qualities

within a particular set of bodily practices, which potentially enable the performer to access them
through specific techniques. As such the technique, and the vocabulary/means through which a

technique is conveyed, becomes the entry point through which a performer can access the

more elusive aspects of one's craft.

Based on the importance that Barba and Savarese attribute to the qualities of 'hard' and 'soft', I

approached the different muscular intensities that feature in the practice of asanas as an

In I
additional avenue of exploration. particular, employed the practice of forward bends in order

to familiarize the participants with different degrees of intensity. For example, when forward-
bend posture Paschimotanasana is practised with the head supported (Figure 31), the legs

need to remain active and strong -pulling the thigh muscles and knees up to the groin,

extending the heels away from the buttocks, opening the back of the legs- whereas the upper

body, especially the shoulders and neck, need to remain relaxed. As a result, the pose, when
hardness in the physical body
practised in this variation, features a combination of softness and

which is further linked with an overall 'quiet' mental attitude; not only should the action of the

legs be maintained throughout the pose, which can last from one to ten minutes, but it should

be kept 'disturbing the mind'. To put it simply, one should stay in the pose without
also without

177
fidgeting, tensing, holding the breath, becoming agitated despite a strong- pull in the
-possibly
hamstrings.

Figure 40, Kyoung-hee in Paschimotanasana with the head supported

Once the participants developed in the yoga practice an ability to engage different parts of their

body at different levels of intensity, I asked them to explore the qualities of soft and hard in

relation to the body, the touch, and space of their character in a similar way. The application of

a physical aspect of an asana on the physical characteristics of their character is of course quite

straightforward; it offered them yet another tool through which they could monitor, assess and

access the character they were creating. The intensity of one's touch is also quite direct, and it

aimed to bring attention to the relationship between the character's body and its surrounding

and immediate objects. How and what did the hands stroke, handle, grip, lift, and grasp? In Liz's

score, for example, the soft and hard qualities are set side by side. Hardwicke-Moore's

relationship to her bed is characterized by a soft touch, a relaxed gaze and a slow rhythm. Her

relationship to the watch and the window however is diametrically opposite. The movements

become sharper, the eyes acquire a hard focus, and the engagement of the muscles is more

intense. (video: PPI-> 'Soft' and `Hard' Qualities - Objects) Emphasis on the use of objects

was placed for the additional reason that the actors started incorporating in their score

interaction with real objects as well as imaginary. Initially this was due to the lack of a set but as

rehearsals continued, I decided to keep both real and fictional objects, in order to further

exemplify the thematic interplay of the script between reality and fantasy. In this manner, the

bottle of Hardwicke's alcoholic beverage was real, but the engagement ring on her finger was

not. And as 'illusion lives only amid imagined precisions' (Huston, 1992: 81), the way the actors
 handled real and imaginary objects was of crucial importance. As such, the degree of their

muscular involvement and their tactile sensitivity was a means both to convey their character as

well as to structure the space.

In terms of the latter, the interplay between soft and hard was applied in an additional, less

direct way. In the 'build your character's room' exercise I asked the participants to identify a set

of itineraries, which their character follows in the space they had prescribed, and their

respective intensity. Thor for example came up with two distinct routes, each of which featured

specific spatial, qualitative and psychological characteristics. As the floor plan shows (Figure
41), he discovered a route between the desk and the trunk which connected in a straight

diagonal line the place of the character's aspirations (desk) with the locus of the character's

unsuccessful attempts; the trunk where he kept his 'few, very few vain scribblings' (Williams,
1949: 71). As such, this vector was experienced as very hard and tense and involved a number

of psychological dispositions. Thor's sequence displays the character's struggle between these
two spots/situations and develops a clear narrative, which although is not present in the actual

text, it is an Important element of the subtext. Thor's movement between desk (work towards

achievement) and trunk (failure) culminates in a destruction of the Writer's typescript and its
final deposition in the trunk. The hard vector in the space therefore, exemplified one of the

primary tensions that underpinned the character and foreshadowed the Writer's monologue

towards the end of the play. (video: PPI-º 'Soft' and 'Hard' Qualities -º Space) The other

route, which crossed the first one, connected the window to the bed, at the side of which the
Writer kept his alcohol. This route was experienced as softer, since it led to less charged

activities (sleeping, looking out of the window, drinking).

IT WINDOW
R
U
N
K

BED

DESK

Figure41, The Writer's Room

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In this way the two vectors exemplified in the space the character's psychological struggle

between persevering and quitting, succeeding and failing. As Thor's case illustrates, the

application of aspects of yoga in conjunction with the information provided by the text affected
directly the management of the space and the staging of the text. In this manner the qualities of

'hard' and 'soft' informed not only the way the actors used their body in character creation, but

also the way they structured and experienced the space. The space became thus alive, a

network of vectors that carried psychophysical characteristics.

The Accumulation Exercise

As the rehearsals continued, my concern shifted from developing a physical score to enabling

the performers to penetrate and master their score in further detail. In a presentation given at

Exeter University in 2008, PhD candidate Duncan Jamieson referred to Richard Cieslak's work

on The Constant Prince. According to Jamieson, recordings of two different performances of the

same production display Cieslak executing his score in exactly the same manner. However,
Cieslak maintained that he knew his score by seventy-five percent only. Inspired by Cieslak's

momentum performance, I was intrigued by the idea of the performer delving deeper into a

structured, pre-learned arrangement and finding through repetition new elements. As I have

already mentioned, 'discovery through repetition' is one of the predominant features of lyengar
Yoga, as the practitioner not only proceeds gradually to more advanced poses, but also

continues with the basic ones. As such the practice of the same asanas is deemed as an

ongoing process with an infinite scope for refinement and improvement. Much like Cieslak's

score, the execution of yoga poses is deemed limitless, since one can go on discovering finer

actions, and engaging the body with an ever-growing sophistication and discernment. Based on

the above, I was wondering whether the use of yoga could enable the participants of this project

to develop their score in further detail. By the time we did the accumulation exercise they had

already been practicing yoga for four months and they had established their performance score
to a considerable extent. The accumulation exercise was thus intended to enable them to

elaborate further on pre-existing material.

After the yoga class I asked the participants to stand anywhere in the room in a 'neutral'
96
position. Once settled, I took them through a count-up process from one to ten, allowing a

" One can argue that neutral is one of those deceptivelysimple words. What is a neutral body and is it
possibleto have one? In this context by neutral I mean a conditionwhere they neither did yoga nor were
they in character.

180
 space of about fifteen seconds between each number. Starting from zero they were supposed

to use all ten counts to embody their character as fully as possible. During the first count I asked

them to identify the seed of their character; what was the first thing they did in order to get into

character? What did they engage and in what way? What was the difference between zero
(neutral state) and one (character)? What was the quintessential thing about their creation?

From then we proceeded onwards until number ten, which was supposed to be their character

in full. In every step they could either add a new element or modify a pre-existing one. Once

they reached number ten I asked them to reverse the process until they reached a neutral

position. At the end of the exercise I asked them to tell me the element they were working with

at each stage.

The first time we did the exercise the participants reported encountering difficulty in terms of

isolating the character's constituent elements as well as in terms of breaking up the process in

so many sections. They found that they could capture easier the numbers at both extremes (the
'seed' of the character at number one and the 'full-blown' character at number ten), whereas the

numbers in the middle lacked definition (for example the difference between six and seven).
However, after a few repetitions they became more aware of a progressive nature in the

embodiment of their character and they were able to discern detailed steps along the process.
My intention was to break down their initial creation in a way very similar to the one they were

accustomed to working in the yoga poses, so that they gained better control and more in-depth
knowledge of their own process. In this way, I probed them to become very specific and precise

of the actions that comprised their character. For example since the beginning of the rehearsal

period, Liz had employed in her characterization of Hardwick-Moore a round back and a

collapsed chest. In this exercise she was prompted to explore this particular feature even
further; when did the rounded shoulders appear in the counting process? What came before the

rounding of the back and what followed? How important was the rounding of the shoulders for
Hardwicke-Moore's profile? How accentuated was this characteristic and how did it relate to the

character's journey in the play? In this manner, Liz was able to isolate a particular aspect of the

character and explore it both in relation to the rest of her body as well as in conjunction to the

overall character-formation. (video: PPI-º The Accumulation Exercise)

The embodiment of a character was thus approached as a dynamic process, where the actors

had access to a number of interdependent elements that could be adjusted, accentuated or

downplayed at will. My intention was to enable each participant to develop an understanding not

only of their overall score but also of the nuances and details that shaped it. My assumption was

181
that such an approach could endow their performance with consistency as well as fluidity, so

that they could both repeat their score with a Cieslak-like clarity and precision, but also

accommodate in it the contingencies of the performing event. Practice of the asanas, and
developing a score were thus viewed as analogous processes, where the former acted as a

blueprint for the latter. An asana is not just an external shape that the body is trying to recreate;

it is a locus which the bodymind experiences and in which it is experienced each time a new. In

the same manner the performance of one's score entails much more than copying an external,

recognizable, and pre-determined shape. In an article on epistemologies of performance, Phillip

Zarrilli argues that'the relationship between the doer and the done hinges on an ever-enlivening

awareness of the doer's relationship to what is being done'. He also stresses that 'it should

never be enough to simply copy the external form of an exercise and unthinkingly neglect the

role that the perceiving consciousness, and/or reflexive awareness can play in this dialectical

process' (2001:42). The 'accumulation exercise' was thus based on an application of the way in

which lyengar Yoga pairs down the execution of the asanas in order to 'allow consciousness to

permeate every cell of the body'. 97 In this manner it intended to enhance the participants'

relationship to their score, and thus restrain them from performing it 'unthinkingly.

Work with the Text

A discussion of this project would remain incomplete without reference to the way we worked

with the text. As I have already mentioned, I tried to keep the text in the foreground even during

the rehearsal period when we were not directly engaged with it. One of the exercises I asked

the performers to do was to use different asanas, in order to explore different lines of the text. In

this exercise, the performers did not only experiment with the relationship between the position

of their body and the production of their voice/text, but also explored the way in which the

muscular intensity or lack thereof that each asana entails affected their engagement with the

text. Liz for example experimented with saying the same line in three different postures. In the

first instance a strong lift of the arms and a muscular engagement of the legs are followed by a

loud voice, a sharp and clear pronunciation of the words and an intense tone. In the second

pose the body gives into gravity and the phrase loses its intensity. Finally, in the third instance

the words are drawn out and spoken in a slightly exaggerated manner. Based on this

exploration, Liz remarked that the exercise allowed her to explore more possibilities, than

saying the lines in character would. (video: PPI-º Asanas and Text--+ Mrs Hardwicke-Moore)

97Phraseslike these are part of the oral transmissionof knowledgethat characterizeslyengarYoga. I first
heardthis phraseform my teacher Silvia Prescott,who heard it from B.K.S. lyengar.

182
 Thor on the other hand, who had the only monologuein the play, developeda whole sequence

of poses which corresponded directly to his lines.98However, working on the text through
asanas had a significantdrawback,becausethe lines were exploredindividuallyand as a result
were not connectedwith and fuelled by the interactionbetweenpartners.

For this reason, I asked Liz and Kyoung-hee to explore parts of their text while doing asanas in

dialogic scenes. In this version, the emphasis was not to experiment with different tones of the

voice and muscular/emotional engagement towards their lines, but to use the poses as physical

manifestation of the relationship between the characters. The play opens with the Landlady

entering the room of Hardwicke-Moore in order to collect the rent that the latter owns her. The

script exemplifies a quite explicit power struggle between the two women, with Hardwicke-
Moore steadily losing ground. My intention was thus to use yoga poses and the experience that

the participants had while doing them, in order to enable them to access the dynamic of the

scene. I thus asked Kyoung-hee to choose poses in which she felt very comfortable, and

accordingly Liz had to choose a pose which she had difficulty in executing and/or maintaining.
The two actors had to maintain their poses while speaking their lines and they could stop only

when Liz finally lost her balance and/or Kyoung-hee allowed her to come down. As the video

shows, Kyoung-hee goes through a series of resting poses, in which she is lying or sitting on
the floor, whereas Liz worked with balancing asanas Vrksasana (the Tree pose which features

standing on one leg, with one foot resting on the inner thigh of the standing one). Kyoung-hee's

physical position is reflected in the tone of her voice, the ease with which she speaks and the

regular tone of her breathing. By contrast as Liz's position becomes more demanding, her voice
becomes more strained and increases in pitch. After doing the exercise a few times, Liz

reported feeling frustrated at her lack of control and angry at Mrs Wire. Kyoung-hee on the other
hand recounted a calm but nevertheless powerful feeling that was generated in/by her position.

(video: PPI-i Asanas and Text --> Improvisation on Opening Scene) In this version of the

exercise the actors gained an immediate experience of the tensions that were in operation at

this point in the script, and by doing so they developed an additional relationship to their lines as

well as to each other. In this manner, the exercise acted as a preparatory mechanism that could

add extra layers to the scene. It was a way to explore the 'subtext' of the script and allow the

actors to experience it in a psychophysical way.

98An exampleof Thor's combinationof text and asanascan be seen in a previousvideo PPII -º The Use
of Asanas In Character Work-+ The Writer

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Aspects of the Performance that Were Not Addressed by Yoga

As this chapter aims to demonstrate the way elements of Iyengar Yoga were directly applied in

a performance setting, certain aspects of the project are inevitably more pronounced. However,

any theatre practitioner would know that staging a performance requires a number of additional

elements that do not feature in the current discussion. As I have mentioned at the beginning of
this chapter, staging a performance has its own peculiar requirements which cannot always be

addressed by the pursuit of the research question. In Lady Larkspur the production of the play

offered the arena in which the application of yoga could be explored in concrete and tangible

terms, but at the same time posed a number of demands which could not be addressed by

yoga, or at least by the particular areas that I wanted to explore through the application of yoga.
For example, voice work through the use of yoga has been explored by a number of

practitioners, including Dorinda Hulton. However, this project was not preoccupied with

addressing aspects of voice training through yoga. In this manner, a double horizon emerges.
On one hand there are the aspects of theatre making that were chosen as part of the research

question, marking a clear outline of the themes of the project, for example using yoga to

embody a character but not facilitate work on the voice. On the other hand there are aspects of

theatre making that were simply irrelevant to the research question and needed to be

addressed by other means, for example the lighting design was a completely different

component of the production and had nothing to do with the use of yoga. However, the
boundaries between these two areas -the one that could be addressed but was decided not to,

and the other that could not be addressed because of its distinct nature- are not always clear.

For example, some of the feedback I received after the performance pointed out a lack of

connection between the two female characters, who were seen as well-rounded and developed
in their own right but not in relation to each other. As I have mentioned, the relationship between

the characters developed later in the project and, although it was partly addressed by yoga,

through the exercise described above, it was mostly approached through improvisations.

However, the comments I received from the audience as well as my own observations as a

director gives rise to a certain question: is the relationship between actors and/or characters

something that yoga simply cannot address, especially if one bears in mind the overall
individualistic character of the practice? Or was the relationship between the two female

characters a shortcoming of this particular project only? Was the relationship between

characters something that perhaps could have been developed further had we, for example,
tried different/ additional improvisations or was it an inherent flaw in the way the characters

were created that made the development of relationship problematic?

184
 Conclusion

Through the realization of the project as well as a retrospective reflection, I attempted to explore

and draw attention to the possibilities that practice of MPY, In particular the Iyengar style, can

offer to the performer. As this project made clear, an acting approach based on yoga needs to

adapt certain elements of the practice and it also needs to be accompanied by additional

exercises. The practice of yoga was not approached as a potential acting method and it is
important to bear in mind that an application of yoga in theatre is influenced by a variety of

factors, such as the aspects of yoga that are chosen to be used, the particular demands of the

performance itself, as well as the personal idiosyncrasies and dispositions of the people
involved in the process. For example, the exact same visualization exercise was useful to Liz

but not to Kyoung-hee. The different reactions of the participants to the exercises allowed me to

develop different versions, and in this respect the applications that developed in this project are

inextricably connected to the way the participants responded to the material.

Furthermore,this project allowed me to explorethe applicationof both aspects of yoga practice

as well as elements of the IyengarYoga pedagogy.The 'use an asana to create your character'
activity for exampledrew specificallyfrom the practiceof the poses. The accumulationexercise
on the other hand, was based on the particular way in which Iyengar Yoga poses are
approachedand taught. In such a manner,it could be said that the exercisesthat developedin
this project have not only a performativebut also an educationaldimension.

I would also argue that the employment of yoga as a tool of character embodiment promoted

the engagement of different aspects of the participants' self, as outlined by Neisser's model. As

a reminder it bears noting that Neisser, by establishing five strands of self-knowledge

(ecological self, interpersonal self, extended self, private self, conceptual self), identifies in

selfhood a physical, social, linguistic, psychological and ideological dimension.

First of all, the use of asanas involved the participants' ecological self by directly and primarily

engaging their body. This, I would argue, is an important achievement, especially in a project

where the genre of the text could have easily led towards a psychological based approach. The
interpersonal self of the participants was also engaged, obviously due to the mere fact that we

were all involved in a theatre project. Nevertheless, the practice of yoga allowed us to develop

an additional teacher-student relationship. This relationship also informed the dynamics of the

actor-director partnership and my impression is that the yoga classes and my role as a yoga
instructor developed a sense of trust amongst myself and the participants. The classes also

185
informedmy role as a director, since I had a more detailed picture of the participants'physical

tendencies and competencies. Nonetheless, in this project the teacher-student relationship

remained an underlying layer. In the next chapter, though, I will specifically discuss its direct
deploymentin the creativeprocess.

During this project, the extended self of the participants was also brought to the foreground.

However, unlike the affective memory technique whereby the actor is asked to delve into one's

memories in order to gain a better understanding of the character, in this instance the extended

self was engaged directly in relation to the physical self. Through the association exercise the

participants were asked to connect with images, memories, and private feelings, which however

were not restricted to the emotional register dictated by the text and the character. They were

also informed by the shape and kinaesthetic experience of the asanas. The private self of the

participants was also quite clearly engaged in the overall process and it was furthermore

acknowledged and in way shared through the logbooks, open discussions and interviews.
However, it was not overthematized or treated as the sole source of artistic creation. In this

manner, the participants created their character by drawing on a number of sources, and not

only be relying on their emotional experiences and gamut.

Finally the participants'conceptualself was involved, since they had ideas and concepts about

the play, their character,and their own process as theatre makers. I believe the use of yoga in
this project enrichedthis aspect of their selves, since it informedthe way they viewed their body

and also provided them with new ways of working. Liz, for example, in the post performance
interview relayed that initially she found that the accumulationexercise did not fit with her own

artistic process. However, when a few days after the completion of this project, she began
working on a different role, she used the accumulationexerciseon her own accord.

This project also generated a number of observations and questions, which were explored

further in the subsequent projects. In the next chapter, I will particularly discuss the way I

employed yoga in order to promote the performative relationship between the participants, an

area which I felt was particularly lacking in this exploration, as well as the use of the image

schemata as structures for yoga based exercises. In the last chapter, I will also return to the
idea of 'alienation' between the practitioner and her body that practice of asanas often

generates and I will particularly examine the effect of such an alienation for the performance of
'self' in autobiographical performance. As an epilogue, I offer a table (Figure 42) that

summarizes the applications developed in this project.

186
 Aspects of lyengar Devised Yoga Example from the Application in actor's
Yoga Based Exercises rehearsals score and performance

Awareness of physical Use an asanato Kyoung-heeusing action of Direct application

habits and broadening find your her knees In Tadasanato
of one's scope of character developMrs Wire.
movement and Thor using Vrksasanato
imagination.
developthe writer.
Precision, accuracy and Accumulation Liz developingrounded Directapplication
repetition in the exercise shoulders.for Mrs.
execution of the asanas Hardwicke-Moore.
Different levels of Use of 'soft' and Thor establishinga'hard' Directapplication
intensity and 'hard' qualities and 'soft' route in the
engagement required in Writer's room.
different body parts

The affective quality Execute asanas Liz and Kyoung-hee Indirectapplication

that is generated in while working with exploring the dynamics of
different asanas. the text. the text and their
relationshipwhile
practicingdifferentposes.
Figure42, Applicationsof lyengarYoga in PracticalProjectI

187
Chapter IV: Practical Project II

Introduction

The second practical project took place between February and July 2009 and culminated in a

presentation where I exposed the themes of the project and some of the material that was

produced out of the overall exploration. I worked with four postgraduate students from the
Drama Department of Exeter University; Victoria Papamichail, Ha Tzu-Yun, Hui Chen-Yun

(Pung), Ma Ying-Ni. 99The question of the project was how I can develop exercises based on

lyengar Yoga that address the performer's movement in the space, imagination, and

relationship to other performers. Below I expose the reasons that led me to the choice of the

project's themes and format.

The practical exploration I had conducted so far had alerted me to the fact that an attempt to

apply yoga in a theatrical context is subject to certain limitations. The previous project as well as

my informal involvement in the work of other students at the Exeter Drama Department (see
Appendix III) foregrounded certain aspects of yoga that appeared incompatible with important

elements of the performer's work. I have already referred to the individualistic nature of the
discipline and the shortcomings of the first practical project in terms of the relationship between

the play's female characters. In the Introduction to the Practical Projects, I have also alluded to

the way the lyengar Yoga pedagogy does not promote the activation of imagination and

associative thinking. Finally, in a project I became involved as part of a student's MFA (see
Appendix III), I have also experienced difficulties in using yoga in relation to movement

improvisation. The limitations I have so far encountered have informed the subject matter of this

exploration.

Additionally, with this project I wanted to explore further an aspect of yoga practice that has

been present in the previous project, namely the practice of recuperative poses. In the previous

project, resting poses have been predominantly utilized as positions for visualization, an activity

which has produced mixed results in facilitating the process of the participants. For this reason,
I wanted to explore the practice of recuperative poses from an additional angle. More

specifically, I was interested in exploring the different modes of engagement that are employed

as Becausethe
project finished at the end of the academicyear, I did not have the opportunityto hold
interviewswith the participants.I emailedthem a questionnaire,which was completedonly by one person.
As a result, I do not have recordedmaterialfrom which I can draw informationabout their experiencein
and opinionaboutthe project.
 in standing and resting poses respectively. As I have already mentioned, during the practice of

standing poses, one makes conscious decisions about parts of the body and attempts to move
them in a deliberate way. The way the practitioner strives to achieve an asana gives rise to a

mode of engagement which is predominantly 'active'. On the other hand, in the practice of

resting positions, the practitioner is supported by a variety of props, exerts little or no physical

effort, and 'allows the pose to happen'. In this manner, one practices in a 'passive' way. Based

on the interplay between these two qualities, in the previous project I developed an application

where the participants explored the space and the physicality of their characters in terms of
'soft' and 'hard' qualities. My intention, therefore, was to explore the 'passive' aspect of Iyengar

Yoga further, specifically in relation to the participants' movement, and their engagement with

each other.

My aim, however, was not only to explore the aforementioned themes but address them in a

way that made use and developed further the exercises I had devised so far. Reflection on the

previous project raised the question of whether the choice of specific asanas for specific roles or

parts of text is subjected to an underlying logic that renders certain asanas more appropriate
than others. As the concept of the image schemata seems to affirm such a hypothesis, my

intention with this project was to examine the use of yoga in relation to Johnson's theory in a

more consistent manner. Moreover, the nature of image schemata as both physical as well as
linguistic patterns, made me wonder whether I could use them as a tool for approaching a piece

of text. More specifically, my hypothesis was that the image schemata could act as 'connective

tissue' between the practice of yoga poses and the structure and metaphors that underlie a

theatrical text and thus enable the application of the former in the exploration of the latter. For

this reason, I worked with S. Beckett's Rockaby. 10°As I will explain below, my aim was not to

create a performance of Beckett's text, but rather approach it as a 'site' of exploration, wherein

the exercises I had developed throughout the project could be examined in relation to a specific

dramaturgy.

My decision to frame this project in a workshop rather than a rehearsal-performancecontext

has been primarily based on my wish to plan a project that did not have to address the
demands of a final product. As I discussed in the previous chapter, a final product places its

own demands, and as a result a considerable amount of time in the previous project was

100Further examples of the use of the image schemata as a means to explore a piece of text can be found
in Appendix III.

189
allocated to activities that had little to do with the research question, for example improvisations

on scenes of the play, dress and technical rehearsals, costume fittings, exercises for the voice

and articulation. Moreover, as Clive Barker explains 'rehearsal is usually concerned with what
does and what "doesn't work" and how to put it right; teaching is largely concerned with why

things do or don't work' (1977: 7). My impression therefore is that, despite the fact that theatre

making is intrinsically related to performance, the value of practical research and training
irrespective of a performance event is also highly valued. Such a position, as I mention in the

second chapter, has led to the proliferation of various workshop formats, for instance
Stanislavsky's First Studio in 1912 and Joseph Chaikin's work with the Open Theatre in the

1960s. Furthermore, it bears noting that these workshops did not always lead to final products,

but nonetheless sought to develop the actor's resources. The goal of this project, therefore, was

to examine the use of yoga within a workshop situation, in order to address vital aspects of the

performer's work irrespective of the contingencies of a performance. Nevertheless, it is

important to stress that the exercises that were developed in this project have been used in

performance making in the third practical project, which I review in the next chapter. It is also

worth mentioning that, although performance making was not a direct aim of this project, it

underscored the activities and in two cases became more explicit, i.e. in the work with Rockaby

and in my attempt to use some of the movement frameworks as a choreographing exercise. In

summary, my aim with the second practical project was twofold; on one hand I wanted to work

on certain areas of acting that I either had not addressed through the use of yoga, or my

attempt to do so had not been fruitful. On the other hand, I was interested to develop a lexicon

of exercises and frameworks that could render the application of the discipline in a manner that

was structured but not determined by an end product.

In order to meet the aforementioned objectives, the project was divided in five phases and each

phase concentrated on a particular aspect of the work. The first phase consisted of eight yoga

classes, which aimed to introduce the group to Iyengar Yoga. The participants were taught the
basic yoga asanas in order to become familiar with the poses, the verbal instructions, and the

use of the props. The second phase of the project explored the use of yoga in movement
improvisation, the third phase of the project was concerned with the use of the imagination, the

fourth phase with the practice of resting poses. The final phase of the project explored Rockaby

through the frameworks developed in the previous three. The relationship between the

performers was a constant theme throughout the project, each time approached from a slightly
different angle. Below I present the frameworks and exercises that developed in each phase

and I discuss the way each framework addressed the research questions.

190
 Phase II: Movement Improvisation

My first concern in this project was to explore ways in which the practice of yoga could inform

the actor's movement in the space. As I will explain in more detail in the next section, one of my

first attempts to use yoga highlighted the fact that the practice of yoga postures takes place on

the same spot and as a result does not figure movement in the space. Other disciplines, such

as martial arts and Body Mind Centering, feature a form and/or exercises that allow movement

to extend into the space, but since this thesis is exclusively focused on yoga, my aim was to

examine how yoga could inform the actor's free movement in the space. For this reason, I

chose to examine the practice of yoga postures in relation to movement improvisation.

Movement improvisation has a number of facets and has been extensively used in both theatre

and dance. As dancer and dance scholar Kent De Spain explicates 'there are so many reasons
to improvise: warming up; creating specific movement for choreography, bonding groups of

people together, exploring new movement qualities, achieving a particular somatic state,

creating a performance, having fun' (2003: 27). Movement improvisation, therefore, can have

value both as a pre-performative as well as theatre making/dance activity and, as I will discuss
later, in some cases it has been treated as a performance genre In its own right.

In specific relation to theatre, movement improvisation has been structured in different ways and

used towards different aims. In the second chapter of this thesis I have discussed the manner in

which Grotowski and Cieslak 'changed the currents' of yoga poses and developed yoga-based

structures for movement improvisation. I have also referred to the way Dorinda Hulton used the

cat exercise, which consisted of yoga poses linked together in order to allow the performer to

move in the space and work with imagery and voice. In view of the work of the aforementioned

practitioners, it is also worth mentioning that movement improvisation can be structured in

different ways. In Hulton's work, for example, the improvisatory moments took place and were

contained within a movement sequence (the cat). In Grotowski's case the improvisation

comprised of both specific yoga poses as well as free movement and it was particularly centred

on the way the performers related to each other. It becomes clear, therefore, that in certain

cases movement improvisation has been coupled with yoga postures and it has also been used

to address the performer's work with images and relationship to other members of the group.

Based on the above, I assumed that movement improvisation could be fruitfully employed in this

project in to use the practice of yoga postures in order to address free movement in
an attempt
the space, imagination, and performative relationship. However, unlike the work of the

aforementioned practitioners, my aim was to develop a structure that could allow the yoga

postures to inform the actor's movement in the space, but without using the poses during the

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improvisation. The investigation of improvisation in this project as well as my decision to keep

the practice of the yoga poses separate from the improvisation structure has been particularly

conditioned by a former attempt to use improvisation in one of the MFA projects, in which I
became involved. I will first review this instance of practice and I will then proceed with the

exploration that developed in this project.

Improvisation in the Medea Project

During the Medea project (April-July 2008, see Appendix III), I experimented with using different

yoga poses as a base for improvisations, that aimed to explore the character of Medea, and

assist the performer in creating a physical score for a devised piece. My choice to use

movement improvisation not only as a ground of character exploration but also as a means to

create movement material for performance derived from a workshop I did with David Zinder in
May 2008, and particularly his work on the plastiques. 101According to my understanding of this

aspect of Zinder's work, a plastique is the crystallization of a movement or movement phrase at

which the performer arrives during improvisation. 'Actively looking for a plastique' writes Zinder
in Body Voice Imagination 'will hamper the freedom of movements and result in an endless

series of virtually "preplanned" plastiques. The side coaching makes it clear: "Don't look for a

plastique. Let it find yod" (2005: 142). The training and perf ormative value of the plastiques lies,

therefore, in their non-deliberate or involuntary character. Similarly, their strength and quality

depend on the performer's connection to his/her movement, both in terms of physicality -the

clarity and organicity of the physical structure- as well as in terms of imagination -the

performer's engagement with a particular image that renders the movement captivating both for

the doer and the spectator. In relation to Zinder's work, therefore, it would be more accurate to

say that a plastique emerges through the performer's psychophysical engagement, rather than

through one's attempt to copy a pre-given form or produce a pre-determined result.

One of the questions that underpinned the Medea project was, thus, how to use the practice of

yoga, which takes place through distinct pre-organized forms, i.e. the asanas, in order to
facilitate the performer to develop new spontaneous forms, i.e. plastiques. However, the

improvisations, and subsequently the material that was produced, during the Medea project did

not answer the aforementioned question in a satisfactorily manner, since all the movements that

101Zinder is a renownedpractitionerand teacherof the technique MichaelChekhov.Althoughthe use of

of
improvisationis intertwinedwith Zinder's approachto and teachingof Chekhov'smethod,my interesthere
lies exclusivelyon his work with improvisation.

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 developedin the improvisationswere considerablyinfluencedby the shape of the asanas.As a

result, the project was permeatedby an ambivalenceregardingthe use of the poses;were they
supposedto act as choreographicmaterial in their own right or were they employedas a base
on which material could be built? Despite my inclination toward the second option, until the
completionof the project I did not manageto find a structurethat could enable the participantto
utilize aspects of the yoga postureswithout resortingto a direct use of their shapes.

Apart from the lack of a satisfactory structure, in hindsight I also presume that the 'infiltration' of

the asanas in the movement, could have been due to a number of characteristics that the

asanas demonstrate, most notably the relative static practice of the poses, and the emphasis on

precision and alignment (which up to an extent determines the static character of the practice).
Although a detailed and accurate approach to the poses is what gives Iyengar Yoga its unique

character -and in my opinion renders its practice particularly useful for performers- in movement
improvisation such a feature can prove counterproductive; the practice forges a strong

connection between the actions that take place in the poses and their shape. My question,
therefore, in this project was how to develop improvisatory structures that could still make use of

the lyengar approach but at the same time transcend the shape of the poses and their

stationary character. How could I translate the relative static position of the yoga postures in

movement activities? Which aspects of the asanas could promote movement in the space? How

work on asanas could inform one's movement beyond the practice and reproduction of their

particular shapes? The aim of the first phase of this project was to identify the aspects of yoga

that could inform the performer's use of the body in improvised movement and address the

questions that emerged out of my involvement in Medea.

Initial Improvisations in Practical Project 11

The main objective of the improvisations at this first stage was to examine how practice of yoga

informed movement in the space. I thus explained to the participants that the improvisation at

this point was an end in itself with the aim to promote their movement in the space, to explore if

and how the practice of yoga affected their movement and to begin to develop their kinaesthetic

sense both as individuals as well as a group. I also mentioned that at this stage we were not

going to work with imagination, and, in the case the participants found that their movement gave

rise to images, I asked them to acknowledge this but not engage further. My insistence to
initially explore movement independent of imagination was based on my intention to layer the

activity gradually, and make sure that the participants had first become familiar with the

movement exploration. Indeed, it seems that a progression from physical movement to

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imagination is common practice in actor training approaches. Characteristically, Dymphna

Callery writes that 'the basic pattern of moving from impulse to gesture to image to word is
...
inscribed in the work of so many practitioners that it is worthwhile regarding it as a principle'

(2001: 15).

I started the exploration by employing a loose framework that I had devised for the Medea

project, i.e. I asked the participants to pick an aspect of the yoga poses we had practised in the

yoga session and explore it in the space. Based on the class that preceded the movement

session, the participants chose elements such as keeping the arms straight, lifting the kneecaps

up, moving the ears away from the shoulders, keeping the hips level. While they were moving I

prompted them to take into account the following: how does the particular element they chose

affect the rest of their body? What is the tempo, speed and spatial orientation of their

movement? Is the aspect they chose to work with always present in the movement or do they

play with variations around it, for example if they are working with drawing the kneecaps up, do
they always move with the kneecaps up or do they lift the kneecaps at specific points in their

movement? After this, we worked on another improvisation where I gave them the aspect on

which they were asked to concentrate.

My observations during this first week as well as the participants' feedback after the sessions

raised some interesting issues which determined further developments. First of all the

participants expressed a preference to having the theme of the exploration defined by me as

opposed to leaving the choice open to them. It also became obvious that their movement as

well as their engagement during the improvisations was proportionate to the clarity of the theme

that underpinned the yoga class. The more clear I was with what I wanted them to explore and

the more I could demonstrate the connections between the theme of the investigation and the

previous yoga session the easier they found to remain present and engaged during the
improvisation. Finally, my impression was that certain themes had more potential than others.

For example asking them to work with a number of arm movements that feature in different

asanas appeared too generic, whereas asking them to work, for instance, only with the

movement of the arm behind the back as it features in one asana appeared too narrow. I thus
identified elements in the practice of yoga, which could both provide the free movement with an

underlying structure but at the same time be broad enough to allow different variations to

emerge. These elements were grouped under two themes.

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 The Big Movement Theme

By 'big movements' I call actions that occur in a number of yoga poses and Involve the whole

body irrespective of their volume or size. There is perhaps a large amount of big movements

that can be identified in the practice of asanas. However my aim was not to exhaust the

possibilities of physical exploration provided by yoga, but to discover 'threads' that could link the

practice of asanas to improvisation. In this project, therefore, I experimented only with three big

movements; hinging from the hips, both forwards and sideways; shifting the weight from one

part of the body to another; engaging the abdomen and tensing or relaxing the core of the body.
(video: PPII-º Yoga and Movement Improvisation-* The Big Movement Theme-, Yoga

and Big Movement)

The choice of these themes was determined by their occurrence in a number of asanas that

feature in the beginners' syllabus and also by their daily, almost pedestrian nature. In terms of

the structure of the workshops therefore, my impression was that the nature of the big

movements could render them accessible regardless of one's movement experience (or lack
thereof), and, as such, these themes could act as an appropriate introduction to improvisation.

Although the aforementioned movements comprise an ordinary manifestation of human

physicality and form, practice of asanas places them within specific shapes and contexts. For

example in shifting the weight from one leg to the other -both in daily movement as well as in

asana practice- there are a number of adjustments that take place with different degrees of

subtlety and complexity. From a yoga point of view, the movement can thus be explored in a

number of ways, i.e. in terms of the contact of the feet to the floor, the relation between the

upper and lower body, the position of the head etc. As a result, the practice of certain postures

and the use of specific instructions make it possible to isolate different aspects of these

movements and explore them in their own right. When the practitioner is then asked to move in

the space, these aspects become part of a wider network of factors that shape one's

movement, and can either remain in the background of one's awareness or become the focal

point of one's exploration. In this manner, the big movements comprised a combination of daily,

mundane sort of actions with an extra-daily attention to specific aspects of them. (video: PPII-.

Yoga and Movement Improvisation-º The Big Movement Theme--+ Shifting the Weight)

The big movementtheme can, thus, be viewed as a tool to de-familiarizemovementsthat are

taken for granted and approachthem from a different angle. Based on the observationsduring
the big movement improvisations,my impression is that the participants'physical vocabulary

was broadened, and level of concentration and engagement was raised. Finally, it is worth

195
noting that although the current project explored only the three big movements that were

chosen initially, the importance of the theme lies in its potential to act as an organizing principle
for the yoga session, as a theme for movement improvisation, and as framework that 'alienates'
102
ordinary movement.

The Image Schemata Theme

Another way in which I attempted to organize the yoga material and render it appropriate for

improvisation was by employing the theory of the image schemata. In relation to the image

schemata and the use of yoga, it should be noted that the practice of asanas cultivates not only

psychophysical but also spatial awareness. The body is constantly located within the

parameters of the practicing space, and the practitioner is invited to literally extend the body

toward different cardinal points.

As a result the shape and orientation of each asana, determines the direction of different body

parts; for example in Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward Dog, Figure 34) the practitioner is

asked to 'bring the heels back and down' 'lift the hips to the ceiling', 'hit the front thighs back',
'press the hands down' 'turn the upper arms from in to out'. As the above instructions

demonstrate, the space is constantly thematized and the body is always approached in relation

to it. In this manner, the attention to and awareness of the space that is promoted by asana

practice chimes with the orientational character of the image schemata. 103Based on Johnson's

work and the spatial directions inherent to the postures, I started by identifying a number of
image schemata in the poses that were suitable for the participants' level. The image schemata

employed were In-Out, Up-Down, Front-Back. As the aforementioned image schemata were

explored through the practice of the yoga poses, I further identified a number of variations that

such schemata display in terms of movement. Below I give a table (Figure 44) with the

variations that were developed out of each schema and then I use the example of the In-Out

schema to offer a more detailed account of each variation.

1021use the term alienation in relation to the possibility of the asanas to bring awareness to one's quotidian
movement and thus allow the performer to escape Schechner's 'sing lebodiedness'. I will revisit this aspect
of asana practice in the next chapter.
'03 For further examples of the way orientational image schemata feature in instructions of yoga poses,
see appendix I for a description of a yoga class.

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 Figure 43, Victoria in Adho Mukha Svanasana

Variations in IN OUT UP DOWN FRONT BACK

Use of the Body Rotation of joints Vertical direction of Relationship between

different limbs, i.e. feet
pressing down, spine
extending up
Use of the Space Movement from centre use of different levels
to periphery
anterior and posterior
body
Movement in front/
back direction

Shape of Movement Movement from an Juxtaposition between Exploration of direction

open to a closed shape movement of the body of movement in relation
in one direction and to the use of front/back
movement of a limb in side of the body
another

Figure 44, Table of Variations of the Image Schemata

Variations of the In-Out schema

Rotation

As one of the aims of the asanas is to augment space in the joints, there are a number of

instructions about rotation especially in regard to ball-and-socket joints. For example in a

number of poses the upper arms are directed to turn from In to Out, so that the shoulder-blades

can go into the body and the chest can broaden. In the first video that accompanies this section,

the participants stand with the arms by their side and are asked to rotate the upper arms in the

shoulder socket from in to out. It is particularly interesting to note Tzu, in the yellow t-shirt, and

specifically the left side of her upper chest. The first time she rotates the arms outwards, the

upper chest broadens. When however, I asked them to maintain the outwards rotation in the

shoulder socket and simply turn the palms back in, she closes the chest area as well (note for

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example the 'wrinkles' that appear on the upper right side of her t-shirt). The second time
however, she manages to both maintain the upper arms and shoulders turning outwards and

turn her palms to face in.

CentreF-ºperiphery
Another version of In-Out is the movement from the centre of the body towards its periphery, as

is the case with all the jumps that precede standing poses. The practitioner starts from

Tadasana where the extremities are close to the body and jumps the arms and legs apart

reaching an almost star shape position. Accordingly there is the opposite movement where the

extremities come closer to the centre of the body, as is the case with poses such as
Garudasana and Malasana.

Open-Close Shape

Finally, asanas often display a movement from a closed shape to an open one, when for

example the practitioner is moving from the child position to Downward Dog. In cases like this
the empty space between the different parts of the body is moulded by the shape of the asana

and the distance between body parts. (video: PPII--+ Yoga and Movement Improvisation--+
The Image Schemata Theme--> Yoga and Image Schemata)

As the above examples demonstrate, yoga poses provided a number of structures through

which certain image schemata could be explored. On the other hand, approaching the yoga

poses through image schemata offered an additional kind of organizing principle that informed

not only the use of the body, as was the case with the big movements, but also the use of the

space. In this manner, the image schemata acted on two levels. On one level they offered
directives for the exploration of the space and on another level the same directives applied to

the use of the body. Finally, as I will discuss below, the big movement and image schemata

themes promoted a physical rapport amongst the members of the group, as they comprised a

framework in which the participants could locate, access and evaluate both their own as well as

their teammates' movement.

Structure of Improvisation

Using the big movements and the image schemata as organizing principles, I structured the

workshop sessions in the following way. We started with a yoga class, that was focused on

poses and instructions that highlighted one of the aforementioned themes. At the end of the

class I informed the participants about the theme we worked on, I revisited the variations

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 produced by the asanas and I invited them to explore the same theme in the space. The

participants were thus directed to explore any particular theme beyond the 'confines' of the yoga

poses; to develop and expand such theme in the space; to pay attention to the relation between
their body, the space and the rest of the group; and finally to create a plastique, i.e. a structured

movement phrase that derived from the theme of the exploration and was organic and

repeatable. In this manner, the yoga asanas were extended into the space and continued to
inform the movement improvisations without restricting the movement to the shape of the

poses. (video: PPII-º Yoga and Movement Improvisation-º The Image Schemata Theme-º

In and Out Improvisation)

Group Exercise

Once the participants became familiar with these tasks I introduced a group exercise. At any

point during the improvisation any one participant who had found a plastique could become the
leader, by saying 'I lead' and the others had to follow.104After copying the leader, the

participants could extend, adapt and/or incorporate the movement they received from the leader
in the movement they were exploring before the 'I lead' moment. In this manner, a plastique

could be shared by the whole group and as a result the participants explored not only their own

physicality but became familiar with other people's movement. It is interesting to note here that
during the process of copying-assimilating-developing, the participants frequently resorted to

the themes on which the improvisation was based. In their attempt to copy another person's

movement they not only drew from visual stimulation and kin tic a areness, but they also
_
used the information they received in the yoga class in relation to the particular theme. During
the 'I lead' exercise, these themes acted as an embodied point of reference according to which

the participants could decode and access each other's movement. As a result, the yoga classes

and their focal points, created a shared 'pool' of physical experiences that not only provided the
improvisation with a structure but enhanced the group's physical communication and

understanding. (video: PPII-º Yoga and Movement Improvisation-+ Group Exercise)

104Turning participant Into a leader is commonly encountered in a number of dance and drama exercises
a
and games, and I have personally experienced it in different variations. As is the case with exercises that
are so widely spread, it is difficult to pinpoint where the 'leader' exercise comes from. As noted by Callery
'games and exercises are passed on via practitioners and workshops and sometimes through
books.. Often no one knows who invented them' (2001: 15).
.

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Phase III: The Use of Imagination

The Association Exercise

Once the yoga classes were organized and the improvisations structured according to a theme,

the engagement of the imagination came to the foreground of the exploration. As a preparatory

activity I used the exercise on associations which had also been employed in the previous

project, i.e. after the yoga class the participants come up with images that emerge from the

practice of different asanas. It is interesting to mention, that in the case of this project, the

associations often reflected the image schema or the big movement that the yoga class

explored, even though the participants were asked to free associate on the yoga poses we

practiced. It is also worth noting that the participants did not have prior knowledge of such

theme, as it was disclosed after the association exercise and before the beginning of the

improvisation. For example, after a class that paid attention to the Front- Back image schema,

and in particular the relationship between posterior and anterior body, the participants came up

with images that contained the idea of reducing volume and depth and making something flat,

such as opening and closing a book, ironing, and making pastry for dumplings.

E,...,,. _,._ýn._. _.ýý _ý,..:

Figure 45, Pung in Uttanasana

The language and images that emerged through the association exercise also influenced the

instructions I used during the yoga class. Although such a practice is not very common in

Iyengar teaching, certain instructions acquired a more imaginative character and I started to

consciously borrow images and phrases that the participants had produced in associations. For

example in pose Uttanasana (Figure 36) where the upper body is hanging over straight legs, I

substituted the instruction 'release the spine and the neck' with 'allow the upper body to flow

towards the floor like a stream of water'. The intention of such a change in tone and language

was not only to stimulate the participants' imagination and encourage them to think of the poses

200
 in a different way, but also create a shared vocabulary and valorise individual experience. 105In

this manner certain images that initially emerged in the association exercise, re-appeared in the

instructions I used and also emerged in the drawings and writings that the practitioners

produced at later activities. Associative images, therefore, were experienced and explored both

in a physical, linguistic, as well as illustrative manner.

Use of Imagination and Improvisation

After the initial activity on free associations, I asked the participants to engage with images

during the movement improvisation, and toward this end I introduced a new exercise. While

they were improvising, I would frequently ask them to freeze and very quickly give a title to their

movement. After the frozen moment I asked them to develop further the image that was

conveyed by the title and the movement that was captured in the freeze frame. The aim was to

allow a plastique to develop, which this time featured not only a structured movement phrase
but also engagement with a particular image that emerged from or fuelled the movement.

Accordingly, in the case that any one participant wanted to become the leader she had to say

the title of the image/movement instead of 'I lead'. As a result, the rest of the group had not only

to copy a physical form, but directly work with an image. As the improvisations progressed, I

also invited the practitioners to experiment with the words and sounds of the title of the

plastique. The use of imagination was further explored in the production of drawings and text.
During or after the improvisation, I asked the participants to create a drawing or a piece of text

that was relevant to one of the plastiques they produced during the improvisation. In another

activity one member of the group was cast in the role of the 'writer'. The 'writer' remained

outside the improvisation and she wrote a piece of text based on the associations that emerged

while watching. (video: PPII, Use of Imagination and Improvisation)

In view of the workshop material that was produced during these two first phases of the project,

I would argue that the improvisational frameworks based on the big movements and the image

schemata that feature in the yoga poses managed to combine the precision and accuracy of
lyengar yoga with the flow of imagination, and produce movement material that was clear,

repeatable and imaginative. Both the actions we explored in big movement as well as in image

105It is interesting to note that the associations often reflected the personal background and life experience
of the members of the group. For example, the images procured by the three Taiwanese participants often
related to in Taiwan, such as Buddhism, gymnastics, and indeed dumpling making. The
common practices
possibility to use the practice of yoga and the associations exercise as a framework to produce
autobiographical material is examined in the next project.

201
schemata are of course ordinary movements that occur in the human body and comprise an

indispensable part of our physical experience. However, the usefulness of the big movement

and image schemata framework was that they endowed each movement improvisation with an

underlying structure and theme, and they also allowed variations on the same theme to emerge.
In this manner these frameworks promoted the coherence of the group, as the members

experienced the themes of the improvisations both in a personal as well as in a collective

manner, and they also offered the opportunity to combine elements of the yoga practice with

associative thinking and improvised movement.

A Pedagogical Evaluation of the Big Movement and Image Schemata Frameworks

In the introduction to the practical projects I have argued that a student's initial approach to

yoga features a shift from body image to body schema or from Nagatomo's 'tensionality' to 'de-

tensionality'. In the discussion of Zinder's work on the plastiques, I have also claimed that

movement improvisation is based on the opposite starting point, since the practitioners are

asked to suspend premeditated control over their movement, and allow their body to 'move
them'. As I have already mentioned, these improvisations were expected to result in plastiques,

i.e. movements that emerge rather than deliberately executed. If we use Gallagher's distinction,

it could be said that the practice of yoga in the beginning promotes an engagement with the

body image, whereas practice of improvisation seeks to develop the expression of the body

schema. The task, therefore, to use yoga in order to facilitate the performer in movement
improvisation is more complex than it originally appears. It is not simply a matter of finding a

way to extend the poses into the space and transcend their shape. More importantly, an
improvisation adheres to a completely different paradigm in regard to the relationship between

the mover and the movement, a symbiotic and interactional relationship where neither is 'ahead'

of the other. As a result, the improvisations begged for a different approach and pedagogy from
the yoga class.

First of all the basic tools I employ in yoga tuition, such as verbal instructions and physical

adjustments,were deemed inappropriate.As I have mentioned one of the aims of the yoga
classes was to bring attention to habits, and offer concrete alternatives. As such, the yoga
poses offer a solid shape according to which someone can be physically or verbally adjusted
into a more aligned, stable, effortless position. Practice of improvisationthough is not a dance

or a yoga class where there is a clear 'right' and 'wrong'. As a result, it is not a matter of
adjusting someone, but of enabling someone to find certain qualities in free movement.
Additionally,as the strategiesoffered by lyengar Yoga are inextricablylinked to the poses, they

202
 are thus inadequate to address patterns and qualities that emerge during free movement. For

the above reasons during the improvisations, I neither attempted to verbally condition the

participants' movement, nor did I bring attention to their habits. Since my concern in the
improvisation was to enable a different mode of psychophysical engagement (body schema),

and since habitual patterns are precisely elements of the body schema, it would be a paradox to

ask the participants to move in an organic manner but stay away from their habits. As Susan
Leigh Foster argues movement improvisation 'encourages us or even forces us to be "taken by

surprise". Yet we could never accomplish this encounter with the unknown without engaging the
known' (2003: 4). Taking the above observations into account, the approach adopted during

improvisation was to allow the body to develop these patterns further, and perhaps 'exhaust'

them, instead of prohibiting their use. Although this approach did not lead to dramatic results,

where for example habitual ways of moving were abandoned or a radical different movement

was developed, pre-existing patterns were enriched and a number of variations did evolve. In
this way of working, therefore, it is perhaps more accurate to say that habitual patterns are

transcended and transmuted instead of abandoned.

This approach was further promoted by the 'I lead' exercise where the participants had to copy

and integrate another person's movement. In this manner the participants came into contact

with new movement qualities, became aware of their limitations, and were also able to see the

variations that other members of the group developed out of their own initial movement.
Moreover, by contrast to the yoga class where the degree and intensity of the integration of new

elements as well as the shedding of old ones was largely controlled by me, in the improvisation

and the 'I lead' exercise the degree of assimilation and progression was up to the participants.
Finally, unlike the yoga classes, where health and safety reasons -apart from anything else-

dictated my position as a vigilant observer, during the improvisations I often joined the 'I lead'

activity, as my intention was not only to witness the participants' movement but physically

become part of it. The group welcomed my participation as it not only placed me at the same

level of exposure, but it also allowed us to develop a new format of communication.

Based on the above, I identify in the big movement and image schemata frameworks a

transition from body image to body schema.The participantsstarted with a yoga class that paid

rigorous attention to the workings of their body. During the course of the improvisations,

however, the kind of deliberate attention to the body was minimized,and they were gradually

asked to engage with the images, thoughts, sensations and feelings produced during and by

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their movement.The above transitionwas reflectedin the role I acquiredduring the process as

well as in the tools I employedin each activity.

Towards Performance

Although, as I have already mentioned, my intention with this project was neither to create a

piece of devised work nor direct a play, I still wanted to examine whether the material we

produced in the workshops had a choreographic and/or performative potential. In the beginning
I tried to shape the movement material according to choreographic devices I already knew, but

my impression was that such devices were alien to the process, as they did not stem directly
from it. I was wondering, therefore, about appropriate methods of devising that could both

render the material in some form and at the same time be related to the actual project.

During an improvisation on the schema of Front-Back, where Victoria was cast in the role of the

'writer', I started giving impromptu instructions to the participants about the direction, speed, and

quality of the movement as well as their relation to the rest of the group. During and through the
improvisation a structure was created, in which Victoria and the text she wrote were then

incorporated. I employed the same process in an additional session that took place outdoors. In

such a manner we created two pieces, which were a hybrid between a structured improvisation

and a finished product. Both pieces lacked an underlying theme, i.e. they were not 'about

something', since they were developed out of a movement exploration rather than an

engagement with a specific subject. However, they comprised the result of a working method

that emerged from the overall exploration and was rooted in the yoga practice. Of course, the

use of improvisation as a choreographing activity, or indeed as choreography in its own right, is

not an innovation. The work of theatre practitioner Ingemar Lindh (1945-1997), for example,
features a strong preoccupation with movement improvisation. Frank Camilleri specifically

contends that Lindh's 'major contribution to twentieth-century theatre practice' was 'the adoption

of improvisation instead of directorial montage, fixed scores, and choreography as an

organizing principle in the performance of theatre' (Camilleri, 2008a: 84). 106Similarly, Susan
Leigh Foster gives an account of the work of American choreographer Richard Bull (1931-

1998), who explored extensively structured forms of improvisation as instances of performance.

'06 It is worth noting that Lindh had collaborated with Grotowski and was familiar with the yoga based
training that Grotowski and Cieslak developed (Camilleri, 2008b: 434). Camilleri argues that Lindh's work
with improvisation comprises an attempt to extend formal training techniques, including Grotowski's yoga
based exercises, into the creative work (ibid. ). In this respect Lindh's work could be seen as similar to the
overall aim of this thesis and the particular goals of this project. However, because I found out about Lindh
in 2010, his work does not Inform this thesis.

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 Foster particularly refers to a performance Bull created in 1985 out of the improvisation of

'choreographing dancers' (2003: 5). 'Making and Doing writes Foster 'purposefully frames all

movements [of the dancers]-the stretches of a warm-up, offhand remarks and gestures, the

virtuoso execution of rhythmically complex phrases- as dance' (ibid). A thorough examination of

the use of improvisation in the work of the aforementioned practitioners is outside the remit of

this thesis, but it is worth pointing out that diverse artists have identified in improvisation a

compositional and/or dramaturgical potential. It also bears noting that the performative aspect of

improvisation can be approached and framed in many ways. Bull framed an improvisation as a

piece of dance, whereas Lindh explored improvisation as a way of theatre making.

In this respect, it is important to note that the working method that developed in this project had

specific affinities with the format of the yoga classes. In the same way that during the
improvisations the participants were inside the activity and I was outside, in the yoga class the

participants were in the pose whereas I was guiding them by verbal Instructions. I believe that
the participants' experience during the yoga class of receiving instructions related to their

movement, and also their familiarity with my voice, accent, etc, had largely prepared this way of

choreographing, and enabled them to both remain within the improvisation and follow certain

choices that were made by an outside observer. I would further argue that, despite the clear
delineation of insiders (participants) and outsiders (myself and the 'writer'), this way of working

featured a constant interplay between inside and outside. Sheets-Johnstone, for example, casts

the difference between improvisation and choreography in terms of inside and outside. '[I]n

improvisational dance' contends Sheets-Johnstone 'there is no critical eye or creative outside

eye. Thinking in movement is all from theinside.. Non-improvisational dances are

.
choreographed from the outside. ' (2009: 40). However, the way of working described here

allowed the generation and the crafting of the material to happen simultaneously. As a result,

the dichotomy between crafted and improvised movement was less pronounced, and the

boundaries between inside-outside became more porous.

The divide that, accordingto Sheets-Johnstone,stands betweenthe dancersthat are inside the

activity and the choreographerwho stands outside,was further eroded in this project through a

constant activation and exchange of images. The participants' movement created for me and

the 'writer' images, which we then verbalized and fed back to them. At the beginning, the

participants worked with abstract movements that explored a particular image schema. The

relationship between these individual, abstract movements, in terms of their spatial position,

rhythm, and quality evoked for me and the 'writer' images,of which the participantsmay or may

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not have been aware. In turn, the verbalization of these images created more movements,

which created more images and so on. For example, in the accompanying video it is clear that
Ying Ni could not see and in fact was not aware of the imaginary rope that tied her to Pung.

However, she managed to respond to my instruction to 'cut the rope' with a movement which

was not only clear and repeatable but compatible with the images according to which the piece

was structured. As a result, movements that developed out of individual explorations were

composed according to images that emerged amongst the members of the whole group and
inbetween their movements. In such a manner, relationships between the participants began to

emerge, a basic narrative gradually evolved, and the improvisational material acquired a form

that could be explored further and/or repeated in front of an audience. Most importantly, this

way of working created an uninterrupted trajectory from the practice of yoga, to the practice of
improvisation, to choreography. (video: PPII-º Towards Choreographing)

Phase IV: The Use of Resting Poses

As I mention in the previous section, the way I have been using yoga in the first two phases of

the project was based primarily on standing poses which require an active engagement with the

asanas. Recuperative postures, on the other hand, have a different character, since the

muscles are released, the eyes are shut, and the verbal instructions are minimal. The

practitioner's attention is, therefore, definitively internalized as contact with the external

environment is reduced. Furthermore, as 'the pose does the practitioner', physiological

functions and skeleton-muscular position are regulated by the pose without the practitioner's

conscious involvement. Practice in such a way enables change on a pre-reflective and

involuntary level without recruiting the practitioners' conscious control; when, for example, the

position, duration and sequence of certain poses affect one's heart rate. In this manner, one

could argue that a passive way of practicing yoga is closer to body schema and thus to

movement improvisation. However, the muscular inactivity and the induced calmness produce a
different kind of problem and my impression with this structure was that I needed to insert a

degree of deliberate engagement. If I wanted, in other words, to make use of resting poses, I

had to find a way to reactivate the participants and enable them to reengage with the

environment and with each other. In particular I wanted to develop a structure that could allow

expression and contact but at the same time maintain the de-tensional, body-schema state that

this way of working promotes. For this reason, I combined the practice of resting poses with an

exercise that is described in the book Body Space Image by Miranda Tufnell and Chris
Crickmay (1990: 102).

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 Structure of Activity

We first did a class on resting poses, and then while the participants were still In the pose I

asked them to choose one sensation that emerged during the class. The sensation could be a

physical one; it could be an emotional state or even a memory. In turn, I followed Tufnell's

exercise, and straight after the end of the class, I asked them to make a drawing that captured
the sensation, either by depicting it literally, or rendering it metaphorically through colour and

shape. Once the drawings were ready, I asked the group to use them as a score for their

movement. (video: PPII-. The Passive Framework--* Resting Poses, Drawings and
Movements)

As the video shows, at the beginning of the activity, there were clear links between the drawing

and the movement, but as in the previous improvisations the movement exploration began to

gradually develop and extend into the space. However, unlike the previous improvisations there

was no group coherence as every member of the group was engaged with something that not

only was personal but also quite internal. As I have mentioned already, the aim of this
improvisation was to employ the state of receptivity that recuperative poses seek to cultivate but

in an externalized mode of engagement. My first intention, therefore, was to enable the

participants to arrive at a movement that was external but at the same time recaptured the

original internal sensation. My second intention was to further externalize this sensation by

using it in relation to another person. For these reasons, I used a partner exercise.

As the participants' movement continued to develop and as they explored less depictive

renditions of the original drawing, I asked them to come up with a plastique that not only

captured the drawing but reproduced the original sensation. Once they put a movement phrase

together, I asked them to work in pairs. Every member of the group worked successively with

every one else and I invited them to pay particular attention to the way the original sensation

was affected by their contact with another person. I also asked them to remain as faithful as

possible to the shape of their movement and allow the movement to change only in terms of
intensity and quality. Ying Ni, for example, although she executed the same sequence, changed

her movement perceptibly according to the way her partner responded to her as well as the

relationship that developed between them. When Ying Ni was working with Pung, Pung's sharp

response accentuated the aggressiveness of Ying Ni's movement and their duet looked like a

fight. By contrast, when Ying Ni worked with Victoria, the latter responded with circular motions

which absorbed and contained Ying-Ni's aggression. This somehow diminished Ying-Ni's

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forcefulnessand the duet appears to be moving in a more harmoniousfashion. (video: PPII-º
The Passive Framework-* Partner Work)

Active/Passive Practice and Performative Relationship

In the previous 'I lead' exercise the emphasis was on capturing, doing, assimilating another

person's movement, whereas the emphasis with this exercise was to monitor shifts and

changes that another person's movement and movement quality might bring on. In this manner,

two different ways of practising yoga led to different ways of relating to another person. In the

instance of the big movement and the image schemata themes, the yoga practice acted as a

common ground that allowed the participants to develop their own movement as well as explore

and up to a degree embody the movement of another member. In the case of the resting poses

the participants worked with the sensation of a physical/emotional/mental stimulus which was

both personal and internal. In the first instance the development of a relationship and

communication with another person depended on kinaesthetic similarities, whereas in the

second case working with a partner was based on the exchange of energy, disposition, and

sensation.

My impression is that both ways of working can be very useful in rehearsal. The first way of

working can address the demands of ensemble work, as the shared points of reference not only

allowed the participants to relate and remain attuned to each other, but at times produced a

certain aesthetic and atmosphere. The second way of working, on the other hand, brought

attention to the individual and her interaction with a partner. Practising yoga in a passive way

can not only produce strong sensations from which the performer can draw, but also renders

one's boundaries porous. As one practises to let the pose to 'seep in', one can extend the same

principle in partner work and (learn to) become more sensitive and receptive. In this manner,

the passive mode of practising yoga can be rendered equally useful and applicable in a

theatrical setting. Below I offer a break down of the activities that comprised each framework

(Figure 37 and 38), and then I will discuss their employment in Rockaby.

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 Framework based on Active Way of Practice

Structureyoga class around a big movementor an image schema.

Practice asanas in an active way paying particular attention to the big movement/image
schema theme and its variations.

Free associateafter yoga class on asanasthat have been practiced.

Use subject of yoga class as a theme for improvisationand exploretheme through

movementand imagination.

Come up with a plastique.

Share the plastique with the rest of the group.

Based on the plastique, develop a piece of writing and/or drawing.

Figure46, The Active Framework

Framework Based on Passive Way of Practice

Do class on restorativeasanas.

Select a sensationthat emergedduring the class.

Drawthe sensation.
Exerciseby M. Tufnell
Use the drawing as a score for movement.

Explorethe movementin the space and come up with a plastiquethat reflectsthe

drawingand capturesthe original sensation.

Use the plastiquein partnerwork.

Keep the externalshape of the movementbut monitorthe shifts in the quality and
energy affected by the partner.

Figure47, The PassiveFramework

Phase V: Exploration of Rockaby

My choice to work with Rockabywas informed by my desire to explorethe applicationof yoga In

relation to a dramaturgy that casts acting and characterization in terms that are radically

different from the first project. In I

the previous endeavor applied the practice of yoga in

characterwork, which was understoodin a conventionalmanner. As such, yoga was employed

in order to facilitate the actors in embodyinga person, demonstratingan 'attitude', and creating

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a 'back story' that could inform their process and artistic choices. Beckett's protagonists on the

other hand, are not only in often unusual and extraordinary situations, but sometimes reduced

to fragments of bodies and disembodied voices. As a result, Beckett's dramaturgy requires a

different acting paradigm and approach. Reflecting on his work on staging and performing in

various plays of Beckett, Phillip Zarrilli indicates that 'what Beckett's plays demand of the actor
is not the creation of characters nor the realization of conventional dramatic action, but an

embodied actualization of thought as perceiving consciousness in action' (2009: 115). Zarrilli

drawing from the accounts of performers who have worked with and/or on Beckett further notes

that his plays often 'require an excruciatingly difficult process of embodiment' (Zarrilli, 2009:

115) in which the actor has to refrain from 'acting' and instead work 'totally within the moment'

(ibid.: 118). In view of the above, Zarrilli observes that 'Beckett appears to require the actor to

do overtly less' (ibid.: 123), since the movement, vocal expressivity and even physical presence

of the actor are dramatically reduced. However, Zarrilli also claims that Beckett demands 'that
the actor does more. What is this more? Where is it located? How is it generated? ' (ibid.). Zarrilli

has explored these questions by applying the psychophysical training he has developed based

on yoga, tai-chi and Indian martial art Kalarippayattu. I have already noted that in his process,

although yoga plays an integral role, the performer's work is often cast in terms of Tai Chi and
Kalarippayattu (see Introduction, Overview of Bibliography). It bears stressing, therefore, that

although this aspect of the project is very close and in fact draws from Zarrilli's approach on
Beckett, it also aims to explore Rockaby by employing a pedagogy and vocabulary that is

distinctly different from Zarrilli's use of the discipline.

However, my intention was not to direct and stage Beckett's text, not only because the primary

concern of this project was the development of exercises but also because the staging of

Beckett's work entails a certain dilemma. Rockaby, as indeed a number of Beckett's plays, are

not simply accompanied by stage directions that suggest a certain setting or style of

performance. They are conceived as total theatrical events in which the text (content) is
inextricably linked to its staging (form). Zarrilli likens Beckett's plays to 'a complex, architectural

structure textured like a snowflake with its own contours, edges, gaps, and silences' (2009:
117). In the same vein, in Performing Embodiment in Samuel Beckett's Drama Anna McMullan

cites actor and director Pierre Chabert who claims that 'the direction is always written into his

texts in a literal way, showing itself in a theatrical language where the word is never dissociated

from the place where it is spoken or from the concrete language of the stage' (1976: 41 as cited

in McMullan, 2010: 127). An engagement with Beckett's dramaturgy, therefore, poses a

dilemma as to whether or not one should follow his proposed staging, not out of reverence for

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 the playwright, but by virtue of the script, which is part of and constructed accordingly to a larger

performative concept. Exploring Rockaby in a workshop situation gave me the flexibility to use

the text in order to explore further the questions of this project, i.e. the use of yoga in relation to

the actor's movement, imagination and performative relationship, without having to conclude

such an exploration with a definite interpretation/staging of the play. Unlike Lady Larkspur, my

engagement with Rockaby did not lead to a performance that exemplified the application of

yoga, but allowed me to use the exercises devised in this project as preliminary work on the first

part of the text.

Rockaby was explored in particular relation to the language and metaphors that feature in the

text, the demands that the performance of the text places on the actor, and the relationship

between the recorded voice and the performer. The play was written In 1980 and features a

'prematurely old' woman seated in a rocking chair being rocked by an invisible power (Beckett,

1986: 433). The text is performed by a recording of the woman's voice. The only words uttered

live are the requests for 'more' that the woman makes every time the voice and the rocking

stop. In relation to its linguistic characteristics, I would argue that the language and imagery of
Rockaby displayed a strong presence of image schemata, and my original assumption was that

the framework I devised based on image schemata could serve as a pathway to approach

Beckett's text. According to my reading, Rockaby is permeated by the Front-Back image

schema, which determines the predominant action on stage (a woman rocking in a chair),
features constantly in the script ('going to and fro'), and most importantly conceals and at the

same time conveys existential connotations. Indeed, the piece can be seen as an artistic

rendition of Johnson's theory, since Beckett employs a clear spatial and physical structure to

talk about something abstract and metaphysical. Equally, the piece gains its dramatic power

and its possible impact on the spectator by being strongly suggestive but never conclusive; we

are never told what the to and fro movement actually stands for, but the staging proposed by
Beckett as well as the language have a far reaching effect. As David Pattie observes in The

Complete Critical Guide to S. Beckett, 'the gentle movement towards death is, it seems, more

determined and more painful than we realized' (2000: 92).

Instead, therefore, of approachingthe text according to a meaning or a theme that one might
deduce from it, our explorationstarted with experimentingwith the front-back movementwhile

sitting on a chair. Our starting point was the basic work that takes place in all sitting postures,

namely the activation of the inner pelvic muscles, sacrum and tailbone, as well as the opening

lift
of the chest and the of the sternum. I then asked the participantsto work with the images that

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emergedout of the text and/or their movement.The movementwas initially quite large and the
text was shared betweenthem.

Once all the participants explored the text and the basic movement in this way, I then followed

the original instructions and, as a result, the voice became separate from the movement and the

piece was recited by one person. Ying- Ni was cast in the role of the speaker and I asked the

rest of the group to move in relation to her voice. The moment movement and voice became

separate and the former was subjected to the latter, the participants' movement became much

smaller in terms of volume and more concentrated in terms of intensity. I then experimented

with placing Ying Ni in different positions and in different relationship to the participants.
Following Beckett's instruction for a recorded voice, i.e. a voice that is not physically present,

Ying Ni was originally placed in the corpse pose, where she could neither see nor hear very well

the participants. The idea was that she should maintain as much as possible the quietness that

is induced in the corpse pose and speak the text based on sensations that were taking place

while she was in the pose, for example once she spoke the text according to the pulse she

could feel beating on her thighs. Then I tried with Ying Ni standing with eyes closed and then

standing with eyes open. Finally I asked Ying Ni to sit in the same way as the rest of the group

with the eyes open and this final arrangement seemed to be working the best. First of all this

placement meant that Ying Ni was in the same position as everyone else and as a result they all

shared the same psychophysical experience. Second from such a position she could see every

one participant peripherally but no one directly. Third the participants could choose how close or
how far they wanted to be from the voice, as well as the direction from which the voice reached

them.

Based on this spatial arrangement, Ying Ni's instructions were to work with the voice as a

container that enclosed, surrounded, bound the practitioners together as well as the voice as
the conductor, that'played' or controlled the participants' voice, physicality, movement, imagery

and so on. Accordingly the participants, in order to start the text and the voice, worked with the
idea of anticipation, the feeling of climax, the image of water filling a bathtub that finally sets the

voice in action. Once the voice started, they worked with the pelvic engagement I mentioned
before and with images that emerged from the movement-voice relationship. In particular, I

employed the work we did with the resting poses and I asked the participants to approach the

task in a'passive' manner. They were specifically asked to allow Ying Ni's voice to affect them

and produce images and sensations in the same way that they allowed the resting poses 'to do

them' rather than them doing the pose. Indeed, the engagement mode that is cultivated in

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 resting poses is particularly apparent in the way director Herbert Blau talks about the actor's

process in performing Beckett as 'letting it happen rather than making it happen' (1982a: 123-4

as quoted in Zarrilli, 2009: 118) and the manner in which actress Billie Whitelaw understands

the actor's task to be 'not getting in the way' (Kalb, 1989: 238).

Furthermore, approaching Rockaby through the practice of yoga enabled the participants to

engage with the text through specific and concrete tasks and refrain from trying to deduce a

meaning or develop a character in a naturalistic sense. It allowed them to engage with the text

as a sonic, kinesthetic and imaginative experience and not as a representation of a particular

state or character. It also gave them the opportunity to develop different 'tracks' that connected
them to each other, to their environment, and to the text. 107At any one time, the participants

could choose to listen to Ying Ni's voice, or engage with the image that the voice/text produced,

or indeed respond and react to a particular aspect of their environment; one time for example
Pung worked with the window that was opposite and the light that was coming in. Moreover, the

scope of their physical score, which was constrained to a tiny to and fro movement and a

minimum freedom to play with the length of the spine, entailed a heightened concentration,

since, if the participants chose to shift their attention to the 'track' of their movement, its small

scope and volume meant that they had to sharpen their observation. Furthermore, attending to
their movement in such a minute and detailed manner, kept them in the present and foreclosed

any attempts to execute a movement with the intention to produce a certain effect; for example

try to repeat a movement that had worked in previous attempts.

In this manner, the work on Rockaby allowed me to approach a piece of text through the

frameworks that were developed in the previous phases of this project. Specifically, I recruited

the work we did in the yoga class on the spine and the pelvic area as a tool to enable the

participants' psychophysical understanding of the structure that underlies the language and

metaphors of the text; I employed the theory of the image schemata as an entry point to the
language, imagery and movement that features in the script as well as a basis for the creation

of a loose I
physical score; used the work we did in the recuperative poses as a way to facilitate

the participants' process in engaging with the peculiar demands that are placed by Beckett's

dramaturgy; and I finally utilized the improvisations we did as a group to allow the participants to

stay connected with each other. As already mentioned, I consider the work we did on Rockaby

1071 borrow the term from Patricia Boyette'saccount of performingin Zarrilli's The Beckett Project. She
specifically states that 'Beckett requires the to
actor work simultaneously on different "tracks"' (Zarrilli,
2009: 125).She specifiesthese tracks as the physicalscore,the vocal score and the surroundingspace.

213
to be preliminary. However, my impression is that the way we engaged with the text could

constructivelyinform the actor's work in a further attempt to perform the play. (video: PPII-º
Rockaby)

Conclusion

In conclusion, I would support that the value of the activities of Practical Project II lies not only in

the performative outcome they might render possible, but more importantly in the frameworks

that enable a systematic and consistent application of yoga. The project allowed me to address

the limitations of yoga practice I had identified in previous attempts to apply the discipline and it

enabled me to develop structures that connect the practice of standing and resting poses to

specific aspects of the actor's process and craft. In an embryonic fashion, this project has also

given me the time and space to try out these structures in crafting movement material and

approaching a piece of non-naturalistic dramaturgy. As a conclusive comment, I would also like

to examine this project through Neisser's model. An examination of the activities of this project

in relation to the way they engaged the participants' self aims to further outline the pedagogical

function of these activities and their alignment with an actor training approach that seeks to

involve the 'whole person'.

As I have mentioned in the previous chapter, Neisser argues that selfhood comprises of a

physical, interpersonal, extended, private, and conceptual facet. The frameworks developed in

this project enabled the participants to explore their physicality in many different ways, i.e.

through the concrete shape of the asanas and free movement in the space, in terms of the

kinaesthetic and energetic quality that different poses and movement produce, and in relation to

different themes, i.e. the various big movements and image schemata. The participants'

interpersonal self was also constantly engaged, primarily due to the workshop format which

involved a number of group activities. As in the previous project, the extended self was

foregrounded through the association exercise, which invited the participants to delve into

personal memories and images. The same exercise equally involved the private self. The active

use of images and the writing tasks were also avenues which inevitably engaged the extended

and the private self. Finally, the exercises developed in this project affected the participants'

conceptual self. As I mention in the introduction to the practical projects, the practice of yoga

may cause a revaluation of the practitioner's concept about one's self and/or lifestyle.
Additionally, the work we did on movement and imagination may have affected the participants'

concept about the use of these resources in theatre making. In a post-project questionnaire, for

example, Victoria noted that:

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 Concerning my own work as a performer and facilitator in Playback Theatre (a
uniqueform of improvisationaltheatre, that includesstorytelling),I am definitethat
the use of Yoga can help and train performers and facilitators in learning and
respectivelyguiding oneself and the group into releasingtension and discovering
new body-mind workingsduring rehearsaland further in performance.

In addition to the above, I would also argue that this project enabled the development of links

between the aforementioned registers. Neisser emphasizes that all different aspects of selfhood

are co-existent, with some more salient than others according to occasion. Nonetheless, it could
be supported that his five distinctions reflect a compartmentalization of selfhood which current

lifestyle often promotes. A visit to the gym, for example, is predominantly an ecological-self

activity, whereas a dinner with friends is primarily an interpersonal affair. A game of football with
friends, on the other hand, would require an equal involvement of the physical and interpersonal

aspects of one's personality. My contention is that the exercises developed in this project are

closer to this last category and thus blur the boundaries between Neisser's five kinds of self-
knowledge. For example the pair exercise that utilized the movement that emerged out of the

resting poses was both an interpersonal and physical activity. More importantly however, the
frame of the activity encouraged the participants to develop an interpersonal relationship

through their physicality. The intermingling of the different registers became more pronounced

in the work on Rockaby. The way the participants related to Ying-Ni (interpersonal self) was

primarily through their senses and position in the space (ecological self), while they had to

maintain a strong connection to internal images (extended self) which required an enhanced
degree of presence and concentration (private self). In the next chapter, I will review the way

Neisser's model allowed me to develop exercises for the devising of an autobiographical piece

of theatre. I will also discuss the further exploration of the frameworks developed in this project,

and particularly their deployment in relation to performance.

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Chapter V: Practical Project III

Introduction

The third practical project took place between October 2009 and February 2010 culminating in

the performance of a devised piece, entitled Bodystories, and a short presentation (see

Appendix V for the performance text). The aim of this undertaking was to explore the practice of

lyengar Yoga and the yoga-based exercises I developed in Practical Project II in generating

autobiographical material for performance and in devising a piece of theatre using this material.
I collaborated with three postgraduate students of the MFA programme in Theatre Practice,

Kelly Miller, Sim Lai and Bobo Fung, and one alumnus student of the same course, Elizabeth

Pennington. 1°°The project was realized in two stages: during the first phase I led fifteen three-

hour sessions, during which I instructed the participants in lyengar Yoga, and we then

generated autobiographical material that derived from the yoga practice. After the completion of
the first phase I studied the material we had generated on my own and structured the activities

for the second phase. We then proceeded with the second phase of the project, which spanned

over four weeks and included thirteen four-hour sessions. The focus of this phase was on
devising the final performance. The aim of this chapter is to expose the research questions, give

an overview of the theoretical tenets that have underpinned the project, offer an account of the

phases of the process, and discuss aspects of the practice in relation to the theoretical and

practical exploration I have so far undertaken.

The aims of the third practicalproject

The third practicalproject was plannedand deliveredaccordingto two complementaryaims:

" to explore each participant'srelationshipto the practice of yoga not only as a parameter
of the research but also as a theme of the final performance;

" to make use of the exercises I developed in the second project and examine whether
they could fulfil requirementsspecific to the performancethat the third practical project
was expectedto shape.

The third practical project was in many ways a continuation of the exploration that started with

the first two. As I have already discussed, the importance placed on each participant's

108Because of her status as an alumnus student my agreement with Pennington was that she would
attend the first phase of the project and in case she obtained professional employment I would release her
from her commitments for the second phase. As a result, Pennington did not participate in the devising
process and the final performance.
 experience has been an inherent part of the overall investigation. In the first two practical

projects it affected choices on documentation (video recordings, logbooks etc) and informed the

process of the project as well as the subsequent reflective analysis. It did not influence,
however, the performative aspect of the first project or the exercises that were generated in the

second, whereas In the third practical project it was placed at the centre of the exploration.
However, my intention was not to create a performance on the practice of yoga, but somehow

make use of the participants' relationship to the yoga practice in order to facilitate them in

generating autobiographical material for performance and to devise a piece of theatre based on

this material. How did the participants view the discipline and what was their experience of

practising Iyengar Yoga? How did this experience relate to other experiences of the participants'
life, training, artistic process etc? How did the practice of yoga influence the participants'

relationship to their body on a personal and artistic level? How would such relationship manifest
in the language the participants used?
I

Apart from the participants' experience, an additional thread that ran through the previous

practical projects was the theory of the image schemata. Based on a hypothesis I developed in

the first practical project that the choice of asanas for certain roles is underpinned by structures,

in the second one I used different image schemata as underlying formations in order to link the

practice of Iyengar Yoga with activities on movement improvisation. My specific intention was to

create frameworks according to which the practice of Iyengar Yoga could be applied in order to

facilitate the actor's use of the body, space and imagination independently of the particular

demands of a performative product. The next step of the research would entail, of course, an

attempt to use these frameworks in direct relation to performance. As a result, my aim In the

third practical project was to use the yoga-image-schemata-based exercises I developed in the

second one as tools for generating material, and crafting this material into a performance.
Finally, an additional thread that this project explored more systematically is the idea of

'alienation' that the practice of yoga can generate between the practitioner and her body. I have

discussed the use of this term in relation to the big movement framework that I developed in the

second practical project. In order to expose the way it relates to the current project, I will give an

the basic tenets that underlie autobiographical performance and discuss in more
overview of
detail the relationship between body and self.

Autobiographical Performance

In Subjectivity,Identityand the Body autobiographyand feminist studiesscholar,SidonieSmith,

observes that the aim of twentieth-century autobiographicalwriting has been to 'call into

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question' notions of a 'developmental selfhood', 'the fixedness of identity', and 'the unified self'
(1991: 184). As Smith demonstrates, during the last one hundred years, the nineteenth-century

notion of a core inner self, that resides deep inside the body and comes into light through

confessional writing, has been substituted by an understanding of the self as primarily

embodied and established in and by language. In a study entitled How Our Lives Become
Stories English literature scholar, Paul John Eakin draws from the work of Oliver Sacks, Antonio

Damasio, and Elizabeth Grosz amongst others, and examines the relationship between body

and self in order to make further observations about the interface between self and

autobiography. Based on a comprehensive review of the aforementioned authors, Eakin not

only is convinced that'our lives in and as bodies profoundly shape our sense of identity' (1999:

xi) but further supports that 'self and memory are emergent, in process, constantly evolving and
both are grounded in the body and the body image' (1999: 20). The author then proceeds to

demonstrate how the above claims underpin certain autobiographical texts.

Apart from confirming the significance of the body in the formation of the self, Eakin also

considers accounts that attribute a similar function to the role of narrative. One such study is
Narrative and the Self by philosopher Anthony Kerby, who claims that 'the self.. appears to be
.
inseparable from the narrative or life story it constructs for itself or otherwise inherits. The

important point is that it is from this story that a sense of self is generated' (1991: 6). It is

significant to stress here that Kerby does not comply with poststructuralist accounts that do not

recognize a subject outside and before language; he rather claims that our experience, because

of its temporal nature is understood and structured in narrative terms. Quite rightly in my

opinion, Kerby observes that 'when asked by others who we are, more often than not we are

forced to give some account of our past life, and this will be predominantly narrative in form'

(1991: 7). Such an account, though, is not expected to mirror a preserved past. Narration of the

past constructs the past anew according to the context in which the narration takes place;
'memorial experience is not simply of the past; it is... the past for me now' (1991: 24). Kerby,

therefore understands 'self narration' as an 'interpretive activity (1991: 7) and this leads him to

regard it as 'precisely the privileged medium for understanding human experience' (1991: 4).
Finally, Eakin in his volume on autobiography cites the work of Ulric Neisser and his model of

'Five Kinds of Self Knowledge' (ecological self, interpersonal self, extended self, private self,

conceptual self). I have already reviewed Neisser's thesis in the introduction to the practical

projects, and I have further used his model as an analytical device in the first two practical

projects. In relation to the development and constitution of selfhood that concerns this project, it

is important to note that Neisser's model appears to be combining an understanding of self as

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 primarily embodied with a view of the self as primarily narrated encompassing at the same time

the socialaspectsof selfhood.

The aforementioned notions of self not only underlie but are strategically employed in

autobiographical performance. In Autobiography and Performance, theatre practitioner and

academic, Deirdre Heddon, places such productions 'within and arising out of the second-wave
feminist movement' (2008: 3). In this manner, autobiographical theatre 'was regarded by women

as a means to reveal invisible lives, to resist marginalization and objectification and to become

speaking subjects with self-agency' (ibid.). The staging of autobiographical material was thus
based on the idea that the self is a cultural construction and cannot make claims to a unified,

transcendental nature, and on the understanding that identity does not exist outside narration, it
is narration.

The aims of autobiographical theatre to expose the power structures that build identities has led

practitioners to strategically employ the performer's body as the site in which the formation of

self is highlighted and 'played out' in front of an audience. Indeed, as pointed out by Heddon the

medium of performance offers more possibilities for the deconstruction of the self than its
literary cousin. Unlike literature where language 'inevitably writes over, writes out, erases the

writing "self"' (2008: 27), the autobiographical performer is physically present on stage in a way
that a writer can never be. In such a way, 'the presentation of self in performance is a re-

presentation, and often a strategic one' (ibid.) Dissonances, therefore, can be created between
the present performer and the re-presented self, in order to designate the space between

performer and self and thus highlight the forces that formulate the latter. Instead, therefore, of

unquestioningly treating the on-stage performer and the autobiographical self as one entity, the
theatrical medium has often sought to establish a distinction between the two and thus uncover

underlying agendas.

Although such a preoccupation may sound theoretically plausible and legitimate, an attempt to

practically separate the physical presence of the performer from his/her self would reveal a

number of difficulties. I have already referred to Schechner's astute observation that performers

are 'singlebodied in the same way they are singleminded' (1994: 221), and I have also made

clear that contemporary autobiography views the self as embodied. It appears, therefore, that

autobiographical performance has to address a double bind: on one hand the performer aims to

suggest that her is

'self' a 'discursive construct' (Heddon, 2008: 27), and on the other hand -
barring the use of technology- she has to employ an embodied performance in order to do so.

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How can an actor represent anything but themselves and how is it possible to create space

between their body and their self? How can the performer escape his or her body and the

representations and meanings that one's body already inevitably conveys? An example of

practically addressing these questions is given by theatre practitioner and academic Elaine

Aston in her discussion of Self-ish, an autobiographical performance she created with

undergraduate students. Aston paints a comprehensive account of the process:

Aided by Teresa De Lauretis's concept of being 'both inside and outside gender,
at once within and without representation', of being represented by the fictional
construct of Woman whilst also knowing 'that we are not that (De Lauretis, 1987:
10), we began to shape the workshopped material through a materialist-feminism
performance register; a 'me... but not me' style of playing. The main prop for
developing this transgressive 'me... but not me' register was a life-size version of

our 'selves'. Each woman involved in the workshop had a fabric version of herself
to play with, one which she in fact made her self (2000: 124).

As Aston's description makes clear, in this case, space between performer and self was

achieved through the creation of a dummy (Figure 39), which was `used as a kind of canvas for

trying out identities' (2000: 125). From a directorial point of view, therefore, Aston seems to

have freed her performers from the bond of 'single-bodiedness' by literally providing her cast

with a second body. In my opinion, Aston's device not only comprises a clever and ideologically

consistent way to resolve a problem of, in this case, female representation, but it further points

at the aforementioned difficulty that any attempt to challenge representation entails.

Figure 48, Self-ish, reproduced from Donnel and Polkey, 2000: 126.

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 Bearing the above in mind, the current project, although it did not have the political orientation

that characterizes much autobiographical theatre, attempted to use the practice of yoga in order

to address the difficulty that autobiographical performance entails for the physically present

performer. In this manner, the third practical project aimed to engage more systematically with

the idea that the practice of yoga could alienate the performer from one's body and it aspired to

practically employ this aspect of yoga in relation to the demands placed by autobiographical

performance. As a conclusion to the theoretical and practical considerations of the project, I

give a list of the theoretical concepts that informed it and the practice-related assumptions they

produced:

" The self is a fluid, multifaceted process that cannot be restricted to a single, unified

entity -" the project is not seeking to uncover an essential or core self. On the contrary,
it is expected that the use of different activities might cause the emergence or
involvement of different aspects of the participants' self.

" The sense of self emerges from and resides in our bodies -> the practice of yoga poses
can influence the way the participants view and relate to their selves, and it can further
allow them to gain some distance from their habitual modes of movement.

" The stories we tell constitute and reflect an ongoing identity formation ---pthe attempt to
capture the relationship between the participants' experience of the practice and their
sense of self will be primarily accomplished through the generation of autobiographical
material in the form of stories.

" Retrieval of past experiences is directly affected by our present circumstances--+

activities in the sessions and the nature of the project will affect the choice of stories the
participants are going to recount.

" Narrative does not capture a pre-existing past but portrays the way our present

experience moulds our memory and act of remembering, the stories shared by the

participants will not simply recount past events, but the choice and linguistic qualities of
these stories (use of pronoun, texture of text, use of tense, style of language) will be
informed by the context in which the stories will be produced.

Phase I: Generation of Autobiographical Material

In the previous two projects the teaching of the yoga poses had an introductory character, as

the aim was to familiarize the participants with the poses, so they could use them later in the

rehearsals. However, since my intention in this project was to explore and capture the

relationship between the practice of yoga and the participants' sense of self, this first phase of

familiarization was precisely the time when we generated the autobiographical material.

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Towards this aim, the sessions ran for three hours and included a yoga class of sixty to

seventy-five minutes, an intermediary activity, and the writing of the stories. At the end of the

sessions each person read their story to the rest of the group. It is important to mention that,

although I could not practice yoga at the same time with the participants, since I had to lead the

sessions, I tried to participate in the rest of the activities, particularly the writing and sharing of

stories. Despite the fact that the stories I produced were not linked to the yoga practice in the

same way that the stories of the other participants were, I thought that the autobiographical

nature of the project demanded that I was subjected to the same level of exposure as the rest of
the participants.

Phase I: Sessions I-VI

As the participants had no experience in Iyengar Yoga, the intermediary activities that followed

the first yoga sessions were only indirectly linked with yoga. When the participants became

more familiar with the discipline I began using the exercises I had developed in the second

practical project. All sessions culminated with the writing and sharing of autobiographical

stories. The first six sessions, therefore, began with an introduction to the basic syllabus of

asanas and continued with exercises that aimed to sensitize the participants to the stories and

memories that their body carries or instigates. Apart from generating material, my intention with
the aforementioned activities was to enhance the participants' awareness of the habitual body,

the way the body is moulded by the surrounding space and its interaction with other people. In

this manner, these preliminary exercises engaged different aspects of the participants' self,

starting from a predominantly physical engagement through the yoga practice (ecological self)

and continuing towards an engagement of the person's memories (extended self), thoughts and

feelings (private self) as well as collaboration with other members of the group (interpersonal

self). However, although any single session aimed to bring all aspects of self- knowledge into

play, their foregrounding was achieved in and through different activities. The next step,
therefore, would be to develop activities which could combine different aspects of self to the

same extent at the same time. Another concern, of course, was to gradually bridge the gap
between the yoga practice and the production of autobiographical material.

I attemptedto meet the aforementionedaims with an exercise that for convenience'ssake I will

call Bodytalk. Based on the work we had already done in placing the body/self into the

pragmatic as well as imaginary space and reconfiguringthe body's patterns, I gave to the
participantsa number of locations/occasions,such as bus stop, studying, waiting, sleeping etc,
and I asked them to put their body in a position they would normally take under these

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 circumstances. Once the participants were confident with their movements, I then asked them

to go in and out of the movement in ten counts. I asked them to be aware of the physical

changes that took place in each count, such as the engagement of different parts of the body,

alterations in the distribution of their weight, differences in their relationship to the ground etc.
After we practiced the journey in and out of the poses, I asked them to verbally describe the

different stages of each position, I.e. 'I lift my arm and I turn my head ninety degrees' 'I lift my

right leg and I place it on my left thigh'. I finally invited them to discern additional aspects of the

activity they were describing and recount it in more detail. (video: PPIII-º Bodytalk)

As I mentioned, the aim of the exercise was multifaceted. On a first level I wanted the

participants to become more aware and observant of their habitual body. The fact that they had
to follow the movement by verbal description enhanced their concentration and commitment to

the task; since they had to run a commentary on their movement they simply did not have the

time to think of something else and move mechanically. In addition to the above, the description

I asked them to give as well as the language they used was very close to the instructions

employed in Iyengar Yoga, where every movement is preceded by a clear and precise
instruction, for example 'press the heels on the floor and lift the kneecaps up'. The body or self,

however, that was being referred to in Bodytalk was not the extra daily body that Iyengar Yoga

practice is supposed to engage and develop. On the contrary, they were using a language that
belonged to an extra daily activity in order to describe a very daily mundane aspect of their

movement and life. Furthermore, the initial production of these movements did not derive from

the physical bodies only; the participants had to delve into their memory of former experiences

(extended self) and reproduce these movements. Finally, my instruction to first perform these

movements in distinct slow steps and then actually describe them disrupted the flow and

easiness that normally accompanies their execution. In this way these movements were

executed anew and the exercise set the ecological and extended self side by side. The

ecological self had to perform what the extended self brought into the surface, but had to do so

by engaging with these movements in a fresh manner.

Apart from their function as material-generatingactivities, it is also important to mention that

Bodytalk comprisedthe first step in developinga frameworkthat could allow the performersto

alienate their self from the body. By approachingtheir habitual positions in the same way we

practised the yoga poses, the participants re-visited the body's most frequent repertoire of

if
movements,as such repertoirewas a new form which they had to acquire and master from

the became 'alienated'from their own bodies.

scratch. As such, one could say that participants

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In addition, a contrast was set up between the familiarity which accompanied the participants'

experience of these postures and the objectified way in which they were asked to perform them.
In such a manner, Bodytalk offered a framework in which the very fact of 'singlebodiedness'

was strategically employed, in order not only to generate material for performance but also

unsettle the relationship between body and self that underlies such material. In the last section,
I will discuss the way this exercise was used in performance.

Phase I: Session VII-XIV

After the completion of the first six sessions I dedicated two sessions to experimenting with the

material we had already produced and trying out ideas for improvisations. Two weeks after the
beginning of the project and once the participants became reasonably familiar with the yoga

poses I began using the activities I had developed in the second practical project. We first

started with a yoga session that explored a particular body part or image schema, the

participants were then invited to explore this body partrmage schema in movement. A few

movements were chosen and the participants were asked to explore them further and in unison.
Finally, they were asked to write a story on the body part or image schema that the session

thematized. In this manner, each session respectively explored: the shoulder girdle; the pelvis;

and the image schemata From-To, In-Out, and Up-Down.

I will not dwell on these exercises further in this section, because I have already discussed their

relation to theoretical considerations as well as their potential to generate movement and written

material. The only thing I would like to stress at this point is that these sessions had a direct

effect on the writing style. The sessions that explored a particular body part, for example,

produced pieces of writing in which this body part was personified and the text was written from

the body part's point of view; a monologue for example of a wrist or a pelvis. Equally the

sessions that explored the image schemata generated texts that were structured according to

an image schema. (video: PPIII-+ Yoga and Stories-º Interview with Kelly Miller II)
Furthermore, as Kelly explains in the interview the theme of the yoga class and the

improvisation influenced not only the subject matter of the written material, but also the

participants' actual process of writing. As Kelly suggests, the yoga classes and the
improvisation activities determined the memories that emerged as well as the way in which

these stories were retold. Kelly's remarks are particularly significant, because they seem to

confirm the aspects of literature on autobiography which informed the underpinning

assumptions of this project. Her account foregrounds the relationship between the engagement

of the body In psychophysical activities (ecological self) and the function of memory (extended

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 self), the fluid nature of the act of remembering,as well as the interaction between past and

present. The texts that were produced during this phase proved particularly useful in the
devising process and I will return to the use of the image-schematabased
exercises in my
discussionof the performance.

Intermediary Phase

Once the first phase of the project came to an end, I studied on my own the materialwe had so
far generated. My intention during this intermediaryphase was to acquire an
overview of the
material, attempt to organize it according to a theme, and then develop activities that would

allow the group to dramatize it into a short performance. During the first phase, we had

produced a number of movement scores and a total of fifty-three pieces of writing that could be
divided in three categories:

" Accounts of past experiences in narrative form.

" Texts reflecting on the nature of the practice, the body part or the image schema that
was each time explored.

" Fragments of texts that did not comprise a story in the conventional sense.

Furthermore, in the texts of the first category, i.e. the stories, I observed the following

characteristics:

" Were of a personal nature but not overly confessional or revelatory (my impression is
that the participants could have recounted these stories in any conversational context

amongstfriends or classmates).109

" Derived from different stages of the participants' life, i.e. childhood, adolescence,
adulthood.

" Were completeand self-contained.

9 Did not have an -at least- intended message or point. They recounted an incident or
they captureda glimpse of one's life.

9 Neverthelessthey have been subjected to a selection process, since the participants

chose this story over others.

los When I
posed this question to the participants they said that, although they did not consider their stories
of a particularly confidential nature, they had not recounted them in a different setting, simply because the
stories were not appropriate or relevant to the settings wherein they usually find themselves. I think the
comment shows the influence of the project's context on the choice and character of the stories, but I
believe it also points at the conceptual self's interference; the participants came into the project with
established ideas about the project, their body and yoga.

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 9 Reflectedthe ethnic,
participants' cultural and biologicalcharacteristics.

I read the stories, keeping in mind the theme that I intended to explore in the project, i.e. the

relationship between body and self as mediated by the practice of Iyengar Yoga. What was the

relationship between body and self that the stories reflected? How could this relationship be

conveyed in a performance? What were the aspects of the personal lives/incidents of

embodiment that have been revealed in the stories that could be interesting to an audience?
What could serve as the central theme/through-line that could connect the stories into a whole

that was more than a sum of its parts? The texts, sporadic and diverse, could be approached

from a number of angles and in a variety of combinations, for example they could be classified

according to the age that they took place, for instance childhood stories, or according to the
body part they foregrounded, e.g. stories about hands. However, my attempts to organize the

stories in a way that thematized any of the above issues did not bring into relief the relationship
between body and self; or perhaps the relationship between body and self was so pervasive

that simply became invisible.

Indeed, according to the theoretical tenets reviewed in the first section of this chapter, the body

and the self are inextricably connected. In fact, they are so interlinked that, as claimed by Eakin,
the relationship between body and self and the former's role in the constitution of the latter

becomes evident, and hence possible to be examined, 'only when the link between sense of the

body and sense of the self is disrupted' (1999: 26 emphasis added). In his review of different

autobiographies and scientific literature, Eakin demonstrates, that causes of such disruption are

usually quite dramatic or even life threatening. It is not surprising, therefore, that a number of

neuroscientists, philosophers and social scientists were drawn to incidents of neurological

disorders, such as phantom limbs. Notwithstanding the peculiarities of each case, it could be

said that when the body or part thereof breaks down, changes, or becomes injured and cannot,

as a result, perform the particular function whereby we have been accustomed to access a

particular aspect of the world, the sense of self is also disrupted. Eakin, for instance, cites Oliver

Sacks' example who experienced an injury of his leg as a 'lesion in me' (Eakin, 1999: 26).

Based on the above, I returned to the stories that were generated in the project and looked for

elements that could qualify them as 'tales of disruption'. Quite surprised, I observed that not

only did many of stories feature incidents that at the time had challenged and/or threatened the
body and the self, but also that a number of these stories appeared in the very first session.

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 In the first session the stories were generated out of an activity that I call Bodymap. 1° In

Bodymap each participant lies down and a colleague draws an outline of their body. The person

has then to map on the drawing any parts of the body that have some sort of history, memory,

sensation. The drawing can be abstract, conveying the way the experience feels, or descriptive.
Two out of the four stories produced through the Bodymap activity were about an accident; a

leg injury that nearly led to fatal septicaemia, and a fall that was not met by care and

reassurance. The other two stories were about biological changes; the advent of puberty and

the development of the participant's breasts, and the oncoming of age and the degeneration of

the participants' eyes. Three out of the four stories featured a doctor and the receipt of medical

care. All four stories were equally perceived by the participants as a disruption to the way they

used to see themselves and in some cases brought changes to the participants' subsequent
behaviour. In relation to the above it should be also taken into account that the instructions to

the exercise were quite neutral. I asked the participants to map the body parts that have some

sort of history, and I further gave the following two examples 'you may wish to draw a mark you
have on your knee dating from when you were little and fell down or you may want to draw a

part of the body that has been kissed and caressed'. None of the stories, however, was of a

positive experience. On the contrary all accounts featured an incident in which an act/process of

the body (septicaemia, loss of balance, puberty, growing old) had threatened, and eventually re-

shaped the self.

I mentioned in the first section that apart from the body, narrative is also thought to comprise an

important aspect of one's identity. I further demonstrated that according to recent studies the

past is supposed to be moulded by the present, and remembering is not simply an act of

retrieval but an act of reconstruction of a past event according to the context in which it is re-

membered. The fact, therefore, that all stories featured an accident or an occurrence that has
been perceived negatively by the subject acquires particular significance. It should, for example,

be taken into account that the participants knew about the theme of the project and were

prepared to create autobiographical material through the practice of yoga. Furthermore, various
discussions I had with the participants as well as entries in their notebooks leads me to believe

that at the inception of the project they had an already formed idea about what the yoga practice

10 Anna Haiprin has devised an exercise identical to Bodymap,entitled Self Portraits(Worth & Poynor,
2004: 64-6). I had been taught and used this exercise before I found out about Halprin's work, and
although I do not rememberthe context in which I encounteredthis activity,it is very likely that the person
from whom I learned it drew from Halprin's repertoire. In Halprin'swork, the exercise has a therapeutic
orientation,and It is quite telling that a map of the body is consideredby Halprina portraitof the self. I use
the name Bodymaphere, becauseI think capturesbetterthe characterof the activityIn this context.

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would entail and certain reasons for/expectations from taking part in the project. First of all it is
important to mention that apart from Simsim, the other participants approached me and asked

me to take part in the project. Furthermore, with the exception of Liz, who had already been

exposed to the practice quite extensively, all three mentioned at the beginning that they wanted

to work on their posture. I also assume that their interest in the project was informed not only by

personal but also by artistic concerns. Bobo, a longstanding member of a professional theatre

company in Hong Kong, for example, said that she wanted to become familiar with the practice

in order 'to take something back' to her company. It becomes quite obvious, therefore, that yoga

practice had already been cast as a means for physical improvement and artistic development.
Bearing this in mind it is not surprising that the stories produced in this first session featured an

incident where the body/self was in need of treatment, reassurance, support.

Furthermore, it should be stressed that the incidents recounted were not seen by the

participants as complete. When I asked Kelly for example what the story about her leg injury

meant for her, she explained that the incident made her aware that she should be taking care of
her body. Equally, Bobo told me about her story on the eyes, that although the incident initially

unsettled her deeply she was now more at peace with it; I still love my eyes and I want to

absorb all the beauty and evil of the world through them' is the sentence that concludes the tale.

The hypothesis, therefore, I am supporting is the following. The participants were about to begin

a practice which was not only perceived as health enhancing but also held a certain promise of
body/self-improvement. As a result, the stories produced in the very first session brought into

the foreground incidents in which their body and sense of self has been threatened. These

incidents, however, have been rendered in a positive light; the self has learned something from

these incidents and the incidents have been incorporated into the self's fabric. The choice of the

stories as well as the way they have been recounted reflects and perhaps has been influenced
by the participants' relationship to the practice and their assumption/expectation that practice of

yoga could fix disruptions of the body, and mend the cracks between body and self.

The relationshipof the participantsto their stories could also be seen to feature an interplay
between their body image and the body schema. The incident that occurred in each story
initially upset the participant's image of her self. As the severity/importanceof the incident

subsided, its repercussionswere assimilated in the participant's body schema; a scar on the
shin, a need for glasses, and fully developed breasts became respectivelyan integral part of
each participant'sbody schema and subsequentlysense of self. Furthermore,a conscious re-

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 encounter with these aspects was achieved through an activity that belongs primarily to the
body-imagedomain. The participants literally created an image of themselves,which allowed

them to delve into and illustrate elementsthat accordingto Gallagher'sdistinctionbelong to the

body schema domain. In such a manner, Bodymapoperatedon the verge betweenbody image

and body schema. An experience which was up till now an integral part of the participant's
selfhood becomes illustrated,verbalized,articulated,shared. A space is thus created between
the performerand her experience.

My decision, therefore, to base the final performance around tales of disruption was on one

hand informed by a credible theoretical and scientific position in regard to the body-self

interface. On the other hand, I believe it is supported by an important aspect of the participants'

relationship to the practice, as well as the manner in which such a practice operates. Based on
the above observations, I revisited all the stories we had created during the first phase and

selected the ones that featured a form of disruption between body and self. Instead of

attempting to organize them in a script, as was my initial aim, I finally decided to develop ideas
for improvisations and allow the script to be generated during the rehearsal time. I will now turn

to the last phase of the project and particularly reflect on the devising process.

Phase II: Devising a Performance

As I have already mentioned the stories had a distinct beginning, middle and end, took place at

different stages in the participants' life and featured various linguistic characteristics; some

stories were written in the first pronoun, some stories were written in past and others in the

present tense, some stories were descriptive whereas others featured a more elliptical style of

writing. Because of these characteristics, I soon realized that the theme of body-self disruption

that, according to my reading, ran through the selected stories was not enough to create a

coherent artistic product. From a dramaturgical point of view a number of questions had to be

answered in relation to the connection between the stories, their characters, and the spoken

text. From what or whose point of view were the stories going to be narrated/dramatized?

Would they feature the same heroine? Which parts of the text were going to be dramatized and

which narrated? Based on the above questions we explored the stories in various ways,

developing a number of movement scores, and trying out different ideas in terms of the

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proportion between narration-action and the relationship between narrator and actors. "' This

section will thus concentrate on the development of the structure of the performance; the use of

the image schemata as a tool for creating physical scores and structuring the performance; and

the use of yoga in the rehearsals in order to facilitate the participants with certain performative

demands. Because of the affinity between the first and second theme, they will be discussed in

the same section, whereas the application of yoga in the rehearsals will be discussed

separately.

The Use of the Image Schemata In Structuring the Performance and Creating Movement

Scores.

After experimenting with various ways of arranging the stories, I finally decided to organize them

according to the chronological order in which they represented the self. Because of this the
biological course of the body became the through-line of the performance and it added an

additional twist to the theme. Since the last story was on the difficulties that Bobo experienced

with her eyes, the body's journey through and subjection to time brought to the foreground the
fact of its gradual and inevitable decline. The idea to structure the stories in this way derived

from three texts produced through the exploration of the up-down schema. Below, I am giving a

detailed exposition of the texts, not only because they informed the structure of the final

performance, but also because they comprise an example of the way the yoga-image-

schemata-based exercises were used in the process of generating autobiographical material.

After exploring the schema through yoga and movement improvisation, Kelly produced a text in

which Up and Down was directly related to the height she gained as a teenager and the effect

that the physical experience had on her daily life; 'school's out for the summer. A whole new

world and life awaits. As the summer begins, different parts of my body continually begin to

ache and become injured' (Kelly, logbook, 2/11/09). Exploring the same schema, Liz also

connected the Up and Down schema with her experience of growing up and she additionally
introduced in her text a lift, which was used as a device that took her through different ages,

metaphorically rendered by arriving at different floors. 'Ping, doors closing. Her feet firmly on the

carpeted floor, the space around her body at the mercy of the machine. Going up. Blood drains
from her body seeping into pools in the bottom of her feet. Floor 10. She emerges into the

playground. Red brick. Grey netball court' (Liz, logbook, 2/11/09). Bobo's text, finally, also

111This last aspectof the exploration

was particularlyinformedby the work of director Mike Alfreds and the
storytellingdevices he used with theatre companyShared Experience(Alfreds,1981).

230
 demonstrates a connection between the Up and Down schema and the body's biological
journey in time. Furthermore,Bobo used a common metaphorthat derivesfrom this schema as

a structure according to which she organized an account spanning her whole life. Bobo used
the metaphor Up is Happy, in order to arrange the autobiographicalaccount in terms of positive
(up) and negative experiences(down). Her text consistedof short sentencesthat located her in
time and describedevents that have taken place throughouther life.

3-6 my kindergartenteachertied my left hand and forced me to write

with my right.

12 I directed my first play

13 I felt love by sitting next to my cousin. Our shoulders bumped into

each other (Bobo, logbook, 2/11/09).

It is worth noting that in the above texts, Kelly, Bobo and Liz not only give an autobiographical

account but they do so in relation to and through the lens of their physical experience
(ecological self). Furthermore, in Bobo's and Liz's case the physical experience is directly

related to emotional aspects that bring to the foreground their extended, private and
interpersonal self. Moreover, the last two texts also comprise a clear affirmation of Johnson's

argument; rational inferences and abstract thinking are structured according to schemata that

underlie our physical experience. In both Bobo's and Liz's story the body's Increase in height

and volume is directly connected to emotional aspects of growing up. Furthermore, in Liz's case

one can indentify an additional element of Lakoff and Johnson's thesis, I.e. their claim that
image schemata are alive, operative metaphors not remnants of previous linguistic formations

(1999: 66-7). Liz's introduction of a new metaphor, I.e. using the lift as a literal device for

denoting growth, falls under the category of what Lakoff and Johnson call 'novel metaphor' or

'novel extension' (ibid. ). The new metaphor made sense because there is a commonly shared

experience that physical growth is going up and there is an operative metaphor that connects

such growth to emotional and mental development (take for example expressions such as 'he is

still a child' and 'she hasn't grown up yet' commonly used to express an absence of emotional

maturity). Using the lift's literal function and based on the underlying up and down schema, Liz

used it metaphorically to denote the ascending journey from childhood to adulthood and

organize the text accordingly. Drawing from the same physical experience of Up and Down,

Bobo not only used the image schema In relation to growing up but introduced an additional

metaphor which has emerged from the schema and entered common parlance and

understanding: Happy in UP- Unhappy is Down (see Lakoff and Johnson, 1980: 14-21). A

231
comparative analysis of the three texts reveals that in all cases up and down was connected to

physical growth. Kelly's text offers a rendition of the physical experience of gaining height. Liz

accounts for the experience of growing up in relation to psychological and interpersonal

developments, keeping at the same time, by the metaphorical use of the lift, the physical

experience in the foreground. Bobo brings in an additional metaphor structuring the account of
her physical growth around emotional 'high' and 'low' points. I believe that the above texts apart

from confirming Johnson's argument, present very clearly the potential that the yoga-image-

schemata-based exercises have for generating autobiographical material. I also think that the

exploration of the image schemata through yoga and improvisation influenced significantly the

participants' experience of the schema and subsequently their memory. (video: PPIII-. Yoga

and Stories--o, Post Performance Interview Bobo, Kelly I, and Simsim) My story for

example, which did not result from the same activities but was written in the same session,

recounted a mountain trekking expedition and had nothing to do with the way I physically and

emotionally experience up and down.

An analysis of these texts makes clear that the body's and self's position in and subjection to

time was a theme that emerged from work on the image schema of Up and Down and informed

the style and theme of the writing. When, therefore, the question of the performance's structure

became pressing, the material we had generated so far pointed towards adopting a structure

based on chronological order. Such an arrangement could also enable me to make use of

material we had created in improvisations and structure it around three characters/figures: the

girl, the teenager and the woman. Moreover, the material that each of the participants had

created individually made the casting quite straightforward; through her stories and movement

Kelly had brought into the studio a convincing teenager, Bobo had primarily recounted stories

from her former adult life, whereas Simsim's past accounts were mainly located in her

childhood. ' 12

Apart from putting the stories in a chronological order and connecting each performer to a

I
particular age, attempted to convey the passage of time in an additional way. Reading the

texts that the participants had produced in relation to the schema of To and From, I noticed that

all of them had approached to and from in relation to the life's trajectory in time. Liz for example

the to and from wonders: 'how far back am I coming from? From my
pondering on nature of

"2 It Is also important to note that Simsim's physicality rendered her -perhaps a bit stereotypically-
appropriatefor the role of the little girl.

232
 birth? My conception? From the world before I was in it?' (Liz, logbook, 27/10/09). Bobo begins

her text in similar tone 'what does twenty years mean to you? What have you done in twenty

years?... What after the next twenty years? ' (Bobo, logbook, 27/10/09). And finally Simsim writes
'I am who I am now, is build up by my past, that is what I believe' (Simsim, logbook, 27/01/09). It

is worth noting that all three texts, as well as the improvisations from which the texts emerged,

approached the literal, spatial character of the schema, i.e. leaving one place to go to another,
in a metaphoric way; 'from' is the starting point in time for one's adventure in life, 'to' is the

situation in which one ends up. 13 (video: PPIII--+ To and From In Movement Improvisation)
The desire to move across the space that was particularly reflected in Bobo's movement

improvisation, as well as the passage of time that is clearly indicated in the texts should not be

surprising. According to Lakoff and Johnson the metaphor Life is a Journey has been very

prevalent and it clearly combines the passing of time (life) with movement in space (journey)
(1999: 60-3). Taking the above into account and looking for a simple device that could

designate on stage the passage of time, I decided to use a movement score which Kelly and I

were developing in relation to her story on the injured leg.

The score was not descriptive but derived from a deeper connection to the meaning Kelly had

attributed to the story; the body can break down it

and should thus be taken "`
care of. The

movement travelled into the space on a horizontal line and featured lifting and putting one leg in
front of each other. (video: PPIII-º Kelly's Walk) Using, therefore, the experience that moving

into space involves the passing of time, an element that underpinned the participants' treatment

of to and fro, I decided to place Kelly's score moving from up stage right to up stage left as a

way to signpost the progression of the body in time. In order to establish a connection between

the abstract score at the back and the action in the centre I also asked Kelly to say the last lines

of each story, and then take a step. The step, therefore, that punctuated the end of one story

and the beginning of the next moved Kelly into the space, and the space-time relationship that

underpinned her movement, created a temporal and spatial frame within which all the stories

were encompassed.

The use of space in order to designatetime is of course nothing new in theatre and I certainly
do not claim to have developeda new theatrical convention.What is of Interesthere is the fact

113The story I during the to

session on and fro, for example, was about leaving my parents'
produced
houseto go to a friend.Again my story did not emergefrom a physicalexplorationof the schema.
"` Kelly's story on her injured shin has been discussed extensivelyin the section on the generationof
in
material and relation to the possible influence that the context of the project had on the choice and
renderingof the stories.

233
that the aforementioned device is based on observations deriving from the participants' writing

and the way the latter has been affected by a physical exploration of the image schemata. It

might be argued that I arrived at results that theatre directors have been using for years, and
indeed I would not hesitate to assume that if image schemata are really so pervasive in

language and abstract thinking, then they probably play a much more important role in the way

setting and movement convey meaning, than it is currently acknowledged. For example,
discussing a production of All of Me, a performance by Leg on the Wall that deals with the life

and suicide of a girl, Jane Milling and Deirdre Heddon observe that: '[t]he structure of the piece

centres around two ladders downstage right and upstage left of the performance space, which
illustrate the emotional journey of the characters' (2006: 168 emphasis added). In a similar

manner, in Bob Wilson's production of Strindberg's Dream Play, Agnes enters the stage, i.e.
descends from heaven, by going down on a slanting ramp. Both pieces quite clearly use vertical

trajectories to metaphorically convey meaning and these vertical organizations work because

there is an underlying metaphor that connects verticality to emotional disposition (All of Me) and

an equally shared metaphorical rendition of heaven as a place, higher than ground level (Dream
Play). The necessity of using space in a metaphoric way, especially when staging fiction, is

finally emphasized by Gowan et al, who finish their chapter, 'Adapting Fictional Stories', by

concluding that 'it is evident that the translation from page to stage demands the development

of metaphor' (2007: 100). As the above examples show, metaphorical use of the space is

clearly an important aspect of staging that has been acknowledged and widely used. The

aspect I want to stress, though, is that the way space has been approached in this project
derived and was inextricably connected to the way the group generated material as well as the

yoga training they had undergone. It furthermore, influenced the aesthetic style of the

performance, which was quite minimal and simple, and primarily based on the relationship
between the narrative of the stories and a metaphorical use of the space. I will now discuss the

way the practice of yoga was used in order to support the performers' process during the

second phase.

The Use of Yoga in Performing Autobiographical Material

Before I begin with an expositionof the way the practice of yoga informedthe performers'work,
it is important to note that different scenes of the performance featured different interplays
betweenbody and self. The differenttreatmentsof the self that featured in differentscenes was
based on the premise that the self is multiple and fluid and, as a result, an expectation to

represent the 'true' self is unattainable. In this manner different scenes staged the self in a
different way. In the opening scene the performers were executing a score here and now

234
 without any character or figure being implicated or implied. In some of the scenes that followed,

the performers performed a former or different aspect of their self as characters in their
stories,
for example Simsim as a young girl, Kelly as a teenager, and Bobo
as an adult in Hong Kong. In
some other scenes the performers embodied a character in someone else's autobiographical

story, for example Bobo playing the secretary in Simsim's school. This category also includes

the scenes in which the performers were embodying someone else's former self. For example,

the 'injured leg' was Kelly's story, but it was told by Simsim in the first pronoun and enacted by

Bobo; Bobo and Simsim were performing Kelly as a child. Finally, in the last
scene, the
performers were executing a score here and now, while at the same time representinga self
there and then.

The disparity between the performers' present self and the self presented in their
stories was
further reinforced by the different uses of narration. Drawing from exercises developed by Mike

Alfreds and Shared Experience the '1' that featured in each story was
often divided between the
performer(s) who narrated the text and the performer(s) who executed the score. "' As a result,
the story could neither be attributed to a specific person nor completely identified with either text

or action. The owner of the story remained thus resolutely unspecified and it furthermore

created an additional dynamic; the obliteration of the links between specific stories and
individual performers played up to the
spectators' expectations of and assumptions about
autobiographical performance. 1'

In view of the above exposition, it is important to make clear that this project did not aim to

address the use of yoga towardscharacterembodiment.Differentaspects of work on character

as well as possible applications of yoga in relation to naturalistic and non naturalistic

dramaturgiesare discussed in the previoustwo chaptersand have been researchedin the first

two practical componentsof this researchas well as in the additionalprojects that I have been
involved. My main intention in this project was to use the practice of yoga in order to facilitate
the participants in the scenes where they executed a physical score without embodying a

character, i.e. the opening and closing scene. Below I will exposethe specificyoga applications
that took place during these sections and I will also discuss their relationshipto the active and

15 Such an approachwas also influencedby the fact that the

performersknew personallya large part of
the audience, and I had already committed myself to them from the beginning of the project that their
rivacywould be protected.
X16
Underminingthe veracity of the autobiographicalmaterial is apparentlya device used quite widely,
since 'many performers create ambivalenceabout the status of their autobiographicalwork in order to
promptquestionsabout the supposedlygiven' (Heddon,2008: 10).

235
passive mode of practice, which is a theme of exploration that has been taken up in the
previousproject.

a. Opening Scene
Drawing from the movement material that had been developed during the whole project and

based on the stories that comprised the performance script, we created a movement score that

featured movements of the body parts that were particularly accentuated by each story. Each of

these movements was also repeated at some point during the performance. The material of this

score derived from movements the participants had developed as themselves, i.e. without

assuming or embodying a character, and was performed in the same manner. Specifically the

score comprised of the following movements: the hand going to the mouth and slowly receding
down the chest; a brisk walk across the space and a sudden 'break' on the instep; the fingers

subtly reaching out and 'feeling' the air; the opening of the eyes and the gradual narrowing of

the eye focus; the hands exploring the face as 'strangers'; the head and eyes sharply looking

up. (video: PPIII-+ The Opening Scene--+ Movements from the Opening Scene) Some of
the movements matched the stories directly, i.e. they derived from the improvisation that

preceded the writing of the story, and other movements were combined with different stories
during the rehearsals. For example the movement of the hand wiping the mouth derived from

the exploration of In and Out, but it was used in the score of a different story. In a sense, the

movements were inextricably connected to the practice of yoga since they derived from yoga
based activities. As a result, when the participants had to perform these movements outside

their originating context, I re-employed the practice of yoga in order to increase their awareness

of particular body parts and allow them to inhabit their movement more fully.

For example the score on the eyes was based on a movement Bobo had developed during the

very first session and derived from her connection to the story about her eyes. Unfortunately, I
did not have a recording of the session and Bobo could not remember exactly what she did.

Based on an approximation of the way the movement looked like, I attempted to create a new

movement which could be executed equally well by all the participants. My intention was to

enhance the participants' awareness of their eyes, the musculature around the organ as well as
the way they make visual contact. Towards this aim we did a yoga class which included

balancing positions as well as forward bends and resting poses. As each of this group of

asanas affects the use of the eyes in a different way, the participants experienced both the
intense focus produced by balances as well as the softening of the eyes that takes place in

resting poses. We re-visited these poses a couple of times until I could see that the participants

236
 had established a physical understanding of the different qualities of visual focus. I then asked

them to explore these qualities further independently of the poses. The material that came out

of this exploration was then treated as a building block and was used in the score of the

opening scene. (video: PPIII-º The Opening Scene-º Exploring Eye Focus)

b. The Final scene

An additional way in which yoga was used in the performance can be identified in the closing

scene. The final scene comprised of the physical score that has been developed from the

participants' 'age positions'. As I have already mentioned, while exploring the Up-Down schema
Bobo and Liz produced texts that narrated past events in a chronological order. This particular

approach to Up-Down schema gave me the idea to attempt to do something similar with the

creation of a physical score. Towards this end I first led a session on recuperative yoga poses

and during the corpse pose I guided the participants through a visualization. The visualization
took them through different ages starting from their first memories and arriving to the present. I

specifically drew attention to positions their body used to habitually take during different stages

of their life and at the end of the class I asked them to execute these poses in the space.
Following on from the Bodytalk exercise, I asked them to be very clear about the physical

organization of their 'age positions' and develop a very precise and clear way of going in and

out of it. I emphasized that the position should not be mechanical but activate and be activated
by the image from which it occurred. In this manner, I wanted the participants to represent an

aspect of their self and not simply repeat a physical position. Once the participants had a clear,

repeatable physical score I then asked them to revisit the stories they had written and either

choose a sentence from the actual text or write a sentence that captured the theme of the text.
We then experimented with putting the short phrases and the movement together.

The score was technically demanding since the participants had to reproduce their individual

positions both clearly as well as simultaneously with each other. In order to facilitate the

participants with these demands I asked them to approach each position in the same way we

approached the yoga poses. I thus asked them to be very observant of the way they executed

the movements and pay attention to every stage and micro movement of each position and the

it
way affected their overall physical organization. It is important to note that by that stage the

participants had already been practising yoga for three months, and the sessions throughout the

project had been paying a lot of attention in breaking the poses down and explaining the
different actions that took place within the same asana. As a result the participants found it both

237
easy and useful to apply this particularaspect of the practice on an activity that had similarities
with the way they had been practisingthe poses. (video: PPIII-º The 'Age Positions')

Furthermore, by approaching their 'age positions' in the same detailed manner in which they

had been practising the asanas, a contrast was created between the participants' current adult

female body and aspects of their previous physicality, which of course could only be

approximated. In this manner, the score created a space between the participants' body, the

one we could see in front of us on stage, and the self that was being suggested, the one we had

to use our imagination to recover fully. As I have already mentioned, this space was not used in

order to comment on the power mechanisms that structure gender and the body politic, but the

score managed to bring into relief both the physical body of the performers as well as

representations of their previous self(ves). The participants used therefore, the body in a way

similar to the one Aston's students used their dummies, i.e. as canvases in which they moulded

previous identities. During the 'age positions', the performers were thus simultaneously

physically present and represented.

c. The Interplay between Active and Passive

The opening and closing scenes foregrounded the performers' physical presence in the here

and now of the performance and framed the whole material. In my opinion, during the opening

scene the performers demonstrated the highest degree of engagement in the whole

performance and although (or because) their score was abstract, they managed to convey the

meaning/importance/challenge that each of the movement carried for them. The closing scene
by contrast was more up beat and descriptive. The performers were taking positions from

different ages which could be easily recognised and they finally owned up to the stories by

repeating lines from the scripts. The two scenes, therefore, had a very different quality,

additionally induced by the lights and use of music. The aim of the opening scene was to draw
the audience in, to give little hints of the action that was going to follow, and to create an

immersive atmosphere. The closing scene aimed to finally 'introduce' the performers to the

audience. For these reasons each scene was performed in a very different way, which I believe
demonstrates the performative potential of the active/passive mode.

Both qualities have been discussedextensivelyin the previouschaptersince they comprisedan

important research terrain for the second practical project. In a nutshell, the active mode of

practising yoga involves engaging the muscles and actively executing the pose. The passive
mode cultivatesthe ability to release into the pose and allow the pose to happen. Both modes

238
 have been explored during the previous project in relation to the participants' improvised

movement and performative relationship to the rest of the group. The results of this first
explorationled me to assumethat these two modescould have further performativepotential.

In relation to the current project the opening scene made use of the participants' experience in

the practice of recuperative poses, which were often re-visited before working on this scene.

Drawing from the manner in which recuperative poses are practiced, I asked the participants to

allow the movement to happen, to allow the movement to engage them psychophysically and
do them, rather than them executing the movement. I also clearly emphasized that their

attention should be on the sensation produced by their movement and I furthermore invited
them to relish and enjoy this sensation without worrying about moving on to the next action or

finishing at a certain time. On the contrary, the final scene was directly connected to the way the

participants had experienced the active mode of the yoga practice. They had to do the score

and execute it precisely and on time. Unlike the opening scene their eyes were open and fully
focused making direct contact with the audience. In this manner, these two scenes were

devised according to the active and passive qualities that the participants had experienced in

the practice and they also produced very different renditions of the ecological self. Both scenes,

it could be argued, staged a form of engagement rather than a theatrical action and both scenes

prioritized the performers' embodiment of their self rather than the embodiment of a character.

Conclusion

In conclusion it could be said that the third practical project allowed me to engage further with

themes that have emerged in the research I have undertaken so far. I specifically investigated

the yoga-image-schemata-based exercises that derive from the second practical project and

demonstrated how they can be used for the generation of autobiographical material and for the

crafting of this material into a theatre piece. I also experimented with an application of yoga in

relation to a different performance genre, and specifically addressed certain aspects of

autobiographical performance and dramaturgy. It is also important to emphasize that the

aspects of theatre making that this project embarked to investigate have been addressed by

exercises that have been developed through and during this research. Other devices were, of

course, used and I have mentioned Mike Alfreds' exercises on storytelling. It has to be made

clear though that these exercises addressed aspects of the performance that were not expected

to be approached through the research. The relationship between action and narration, for

had to be addressed but was not expected to be researched in this project. As

example, clearly
it
a result, was expressed, in someone else's terms and approached with someone else's tools.

239
More importantly, however, the project has allowed me to explore and apply the practice of

yoga and the yoga based exercises I have developed so far onto all main stages of theatre
making: generatingmaterial, organizingthe material into a script, devising a performance,and
performing.

Furthermore, this project generated a number of additional questions which point towards future

research directions; what other methods of writing/storytelling could I use in order to create and

share autobiographical stories? How could practice of yoga inform the relationship between

actors and narrators? In what other ways could autobiographical stories be structured? How

could the stories be rendered in a more symbolic way? How else could I use the metaphorical

concepts that underlie colloquial language and theatrical conventions? Apart from the questions

specific to the project, the current undertaking also gave rise to directions for future investigation

which will be discussed in the following, conclusive section of this thesis.

240
 Conclusion

This final section gives an overview of the thesis, presents and evaluatesthe outcomesof this
PhD project in relation to performative and pre-performativeaspects of the actor's work,
discusses its pedagogical dimension, summarizes the main points that have emerged, and

points out directionsfor future researchand experimentation.

Overview of Thesis

This thesis began with an examination of recent bibliography on yoga with the aim to present

the basic tenets and characteristics of the discipline, and place the practice of lyengar Yoga

within a wider context. The study of these sources has revealed the emergence of a field of

research that compels one to reconsider prevalent notions about yoga and re-examine

characteristics that have been ipso facto attributed to the discipline. From these publications

yoga emerges as the result of a polyvalent and multifaceted exchange of ideologies and

somatic practices that has been going on between East and West from the mid 1800s onwards.
On the basis of these sources yoga can be viewed as neither 'Indian' nor 'ancient', although

yoga practices do derive from the Subcontinent and reach back to antiquity. Nevertheless, the

practices exercised today and being ascribed the generic term 'yoga' are the product of

transatlantic and post- Enlightenment developments.

An exposition of Iyengar Yoga within the context of anglophone, transatlantic yoga brought to

the foreground the modern characteristics of the style as well as the innovations advanced by

B.K.S. Iyengar. The section on Iyengar Yoga also highlighted areas that beg further

consideration by MY scholarship and revealed a possible bias of certain scholars towards the

modern, Western heritage of the discipline at the expense of its indigenous characteristics. A
full picture of current yoga practices and the influences that underpin them remains yet to be

advanced. A historical examination of yoga has also offered a lens through which I discussed

my own engagement with the discipline in a manner that foregrounded both my personal

experience as well as the relationship between such an experience and a wider nexus of
developments. Apart from placing me within the field, an overview of my own involvement also

made clear that the practice of yoga is a situated event, dependent on historical, social as well

as contingent facts, such as the approach and personality of one's teacher, the time and energy

one can dedicate to the practice and the like. In such a manner the exposition of my own

foreshadowed that becomes particularly pertinent in the rest of the thesis, i. e.

practice a point
the present attempt to apply the practice of yoga in theatre, and I would argue any such
attempt, is by definition conditioned by one's embodied knowledge,subjective understanding
and idiosyncraticapproach.In the same way that no yoga practicecan be consideredto be the
yoga practice,no yoga applicationcan be regardedas the yoga application.

The historical examination of yoga pursued in the first chapter, has been used in the second as

a lens, through which I examined prominent theatre practitioners and companies that have used

elements of yoga in their artistic work. The examination of these practitioners was organised in

a chronological order which also reflected the developments that took place in yoga practices.
The chapter discussed primary and secondary sources, pointed out the existing gaps in current

information and contributed new material based on interviews. The chapter also aimed to

highlight the manner in which the aforementioned ipso facto characteristics of the discipline

have been taken for granted by and obscured the analysis of certain theatre scholars and

practitioners. A comparative examination of the aforementioned practitioners also made clear

that the way each one of them employed the discipline has been conditioned by the kind and

aspects of yoga that was available to them, as well as the artistic, performative and pre-

performative issues they expected to address through yoga. In view of the work of the scholars

and practitioners examined in this chapter, I would argue that attempts to use or write about

yoga should be based on a historically informed and essentialism free attitude towards the
discipline.

The first and second chapters aimed to expose the larger context in which this PhD project is

situated and particularly place the practical exploration within a historical, artistic and

pedagogical framework. The subsequent chapters on the three practical projects have been

introduced by a lengthy discussion, which provides an analysis of yoga practice from a

sociological and phenomenological perspective. Although the immediate aim of this thesis has
been to exhaust neither of the above perspectives, my impression is that an application of yoga

in theatre should be accompanied by, if not based on, an articulate understanding of the

embodied knowledges that can be achieved through yoga, and also be cognisant of the political

and social character of the practice.

The introduction to the three practical projects has also exposed the theory of the image

schemata and the concepts of body image-body schema. Although, this thesis did not focus

exclusively on the above theories, it is important to stress that they offer potential for further

practical and theoretical exploration. The concepts of body image-body schema can comprise

useful tools towards an analytical reconsideration of different forms of movement training as

242
 well as a pedagogical approach towards the performer's habits. The theory of the image
schemata on the other hand, alongside their use in the current project, can be applied in a
numberof fields, such as performancehistoriographyand textual analysis.

The introduction of the three practical projects also discussed a number of methodological

choices, such as the emphasis I placed on the participants' experience and the development of

their ability to approach the practice of yoga in an associative manner. Attention to the

participants' experience derives from the wider pedagogical agenda that underpins this study

and the conviction that an approach to training must be flexible and porous enough to

accommodate the experience of the people who undergo it. In this respect, the yoga

applications that have resulted from this PhD project are to a considerable extent the product of
the work of the specific people who took part in the projects.

The third chapter of this thesis exposed and reflected on the first practical project of this study.

The project aimed to explore the practice of yoga poses for the development of character in a

naturalistic dramaturgy. The chapter discusses the exercises I devised/used for the project and

they way these exercises informed the performers' process. Based on the manner in which the

participants of the project approached these exercises I observed that the use of certain asanas
for the development of a specific role is based on the performer's interpretation of the role,

his/her previous training and acting approach, his/her experience of the pose, as well as the

shape and kinaesthetic quality of the latter. Drawing from the theory of the image schemata I
further hypothesized that the choice of certain poses for certain roles is not arbitrary, but

underpinned by a gestalt which underlies both the pose as well as the role.

The fourth chapter discusses the second practical project which aimed to address certain

limitations that I have identified in my hitherto attempt to apply the discipline. For this reason,

the project took place within a workshop rather than a rehearsal/performance process, and it

focused on developing a set of exercises and frameworks that could combine the practice of

yoga postures with work on movement and imagination. The project also featured

experimentation with a text by Samuel Beckett, in order to explore these exercises in relation to

non naturalistic dramaturgy. The fifth chapter dealt with the third practical project, which

explored the use of yoga in the generation of autobiographical material and the devising of such

material into performance. This project gave me the opportunity to expand on an idea that has

underpinned the other two projects, namely the distance that the practice of yoga postures can

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create betweenself and body. I further argued that the ability to create such distancecan serve
specificdramaturgicaland performativedemandsof autobiographicaltheatre.

Outcomes of Thesis

Based on the above, I would support that the current study researched and utilized the practice

and pedagogy of Iyengar Yoga and developed frameworks according to which elements of this

style can be deployed in a training and rehearsal context. In terms of actor training, this thesis

addressed the following aspects of the actor's pre-performative resources:

" Movement; i.e. the enrichment of the actor's movement vocabulary, the presence and
transcendence of kinaesthetic and postural habits, the use of the space, the ability to

work with external/spatial directives (in-out, up-down, front-back) as well as internal

and/or qualitative stimuli (internal sensations and external perceptions received by
partner and group).

" Imagination; i.e. the actor's ability to free associate and use bodily forms (asanas) as a
springboard for images; the capacity to conjure and sustain images through guided
visualization and/or improvised movement.

" Relationship to fellow actors; i.e. the development of the actor's performative
relationship to a group and a partner in terms of kinaesthetic awareness, sharing and
exchange of images, receptivity.

in terms of performance, this PhD project experimented with different dramaturgies and the

demands they place on the performer. The emphasis placed on text in each project has not

been equal, as in the first and third project the text has been at the centre of the investigation,

whereas in the second project engagement with the text took place at the end of the process

and had only an experimental and preparatory character. It bears noting, however, that each
text (Williams, Beckett, autobiographical) has been approached by using different aspects of the

discipline. Work on Williams' text focused on the practice of the yoga poses in order to inform

the actor's process of character embodiment; experimentation with Rockaby concentrated on

applying the different kinaesthetic and energetic states that different poses generate in order to
develop the actor's ability to 'get out of the way' and allow the text to happen; exploration of

autobiographical writing used the yoga poses as a source for instigating the body's and the

self's memories and stories. It is also important to note that apart from the aforementioned

scripts, this thesis has experimented with the 'dramaturgy' of movement improvisation, not only

as a training form but also as a choreographic activity. More specifically, the relationship
between yoga instructor and yoga participants served as a blueprint for the relationship

244
 between choreographerand performers.In such a manner,the flow of the improvisersand the
interventionof the choreographerhave been combined in a working method that allowed both
improvisationand choreographyto happenat the same time.

In terms of lyengar Yoga, this PhD project explored and applied the diversity of anatomical

detail, the clarity of the directionality of movement, the generation of different energetic qualities,

and the distinctive vocabulary that are present in the specific style. This thesis has also

extended the use of Iyengar Yoga and developed frameworks which allowed the practice of the

poses to inform the actor's improvised movement, and imagination. It also explored the

expectations and assumptions that may lead performers to take up the practice of the discipline

and the manner in which these expectations can infiltrate their performance work.

Based on the above, I would argue that the exercises that have been developed in this study

can be of use to a performer who is familiar with lyengar Yoga independently of an actor
training context. I would also hypothesize that certain exercises can also be used and accessed

by performers who are familiar with other styles of yoga apart from Iyengar. Furthermore, it is

important to stress that the frameworks developed in this PhD project allow the use of yoga

independently of the performer's previous yoga experience. In fact, from an lyengar Yoga point

of view all the participants that took part in the projects would be classified as 'complete
beginners'. Although in two out of the three projects I dedicated considerable time in

familiarizing the participants with the style prior to the beginning of the project, I would argue

that the participants' ability to perform the poses was irrelevant to the degree according to and

manner in which they could apply them. The practical projects have thus confirmed my initial

hypothesis that it is the participants' relationship to and experience of the practice that matters

rather than their virtuosity. It bears noting, for example, that the way Thor used Vrksasana in his

exploration of the character of the Writer in the first practical project derived from his difficulty

with the pose, i.e. losing his balance, rather than his ease. This, of course, does not mean that

putting care, attention and time in teaching a psychophysical discipline is regarded as a luxury

item, which the actor trainer might dispense with. On the contrary, I would stress that ensuring

that the participants feel safe in/during/with the practice is a primary provision for the

participants' ability to 'stretch' such a practice and use it outside its original context. Equally, the

actor trainer's knowledge of and experience in teaching a discipline such as yoga cannot be

overemphasized.

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In view of the above, I would also support that the training approach advanced by the current

study manages to combine the benefits of form training with the ability to use such a form in a

variety of performance genres. In Theatre Anthropology Eugenio Barba lists the 'pros and cons'

of western actor training in relation to non-western forms. His comparison indicates that the
Western actor has at her disposal a wide scope of performance styles, whereas the Eastern

performer is trained in one specific theatrical genre only (1991: 10). Despite the obvious

advantage that Western actors seem to have in comparison to their Eastern counterparts,
Barba regards the lack of a clearly defined training form as a disadvantage, since it renders

Western actors 'prisoners of arbitrariness and absence of rules' (ibis). If we place Western and

Eastern training at the two ends of a continuum, the application of yoga could be seen as a

middle place between the two. On one hand the practice of yoga offers a rigorous form and a
technique, which if and while being mastered, can make accessible less tangible aspects of

performing. On the other hand, as this study has demonstrated, the application of yoga can

address a variety of performing styles and thus not remain restricted to one genre. In this

respect, I would argue that Iyengar Yoga can be a particularly useful style of yoga in a yoga-
based or yoga-informed actor training, precisely by virtue of the emphasis it places on the

shape of the poses and the conviction that the attainment of their shape can have far reaching

connotations for the practitioner's physiological, mental, and psychological well being.

Outputs of Thesis and Dissemination

The contribution of this PhD project in the field has been the marriage of a form of practice that

an actor is likely to practice, either during one's training or as part of one's personal pursuit, with
forms of performance (text-based and devised theatre) that an actor is likely to encounter in the

professional arena. As such, the achievement of this thesis has not been aesthetic innovation,
but the development of new ways of addressing questions of training and performing that take

place within existing aesthetic models. This thesis, in other words, does not propose a form or a
theory of performance based on yoga, in the way, for example, that the Natyasastra documents

a training process and also outlines the aesthetic theory on which such training is based and the

aesthetic experience that such training is expected to produce. The scope of this study has
been considerably more modest, as I chose to work with existing forms of dramaturgy,

aesthetics and performance.

The relationship between the frameworks/exercises and the performance products that

emerged out of this PhD project becomes particularly apparent, when we consider the
evaluation and disseminationof the outcomes of this thesis. In terms of dissemination,it is

246
 interesting to note that, although the final performance is the means by which a certain research

project will reach a wider public, in the case of this thesis, the research cannot be disseminated

solely through the performances. In some genres, the performance score is often identical to

the performer's training regime; a solo in Swan Lake, for example, is both part of the

performance as well as part of the dancer's training. In this manner, a ballet student may
develop her training by watching the performance of the piece and placing particular attention

on the way a renowned dancer executes a certain step or movement. In the same way the

development of an innovative form of choreography can be disseminated both through training

and performance. By contrast, an actor aspiring to use yoga in her work would not be able to do

so by watching, for instance, The Lady of Larkspur Lotion, since yoga is not evident in the

outward actions of the final score, although it informed the actors' process. As a result, although

one might argue that a certain kind of actor training can affect the experience of an audience,

the dissemination of the training that developed through this PhD project is primarily achieved

through the exercises that comprise it. In relation to the current study, I would thus contend that

the outputs of this PhD project are not only the theatre pieces that culminated the first and third

practical project, but also the exercises that partially informed and enabled them.

I would further argue that these exercises cannot be evaluated according to the stage

performance of the participants. A claim, for example, that the visualization exercise facilitated

Liz's performance in The Lady of Larkspur Lotion, would need to take into account all the other

resources, yoga based or not, that Liz might have engaged during the process. Liz's claim that

the visualization exercise was useful for her performance is also suspect, as her response could

be conditioned by a variety of factors. This might betray a guarded response towards the

participants' experience, which also seems to contradict my earlier claims about listening to and

taking their experience into account. However, there is a considerable difference between

placing the participants' experience at the centre of the investigation, and using such

experience as a token for the validity of the investigation. My point, therefore, is that when it

comes to evaluating these exercises, and especially when this evaluation takes place in an

academic framework, the participants' point of view is of little help. In the same way that Paul

Heelas argues that claims of spiritual enlightenment can be academically neither corroborated

nor refuted, because 'the academic simply does not have the tools' (1992: 6), I would support

that an actor's account of what and what does is

not work extremely helpful in the studio, but of

247
little help for academic and assessment purposes. "' The visualization exercise, to return to the

previous example, was helpful for some of the participants and not for others. In terms of

evaluation, this leaves me with mixed results which neither endorse nor disprove the validity of

the exercise. Based on the above, I would thus argue that the merit/quality of these exercises

can be evaluated only against the extent according to which they managed to address certain

questions. Their usefulness and validity, therefore, must always remain provisional and
dependent on the context in which they are used and the person who decides to use them. In

this respect, the present study cannot make claims about developing exercises that 'work' and

guarantee the performers' success (in any way we might choose to understand such a term). It
does claim, however, that it has developed exercises that made use of certain aspects of yoga

practice, and in doing so reconfigured important aspects of training and performing.

Pedagogical Considerations

Of course, it can never be overemphasized enough that yoga, of any style or form, is not an

acting technique as such, and I have already discussed the aspects of yoga that are
incompatible with performing and acting, as well as the additional tools that are needed to

complement the deployment of the discipline. The wager of the current research has been thus
to develop a form of training that maintains the aspects of yoga that have been identified as

useful, without compromising the pedagogical principles that underlie the discipline, for example

the sequence of the poses, the appropriate syllabus for the participants' level, a consideration

for the participants' physical abilities and limitations. My attempt to maintain the pedagogical

principles of the practice but also use it in order to train actors has generated a number of

questions, particularly in relation to the structure and vocabulary by means of which such

training is imparted and the framework within which it takes place.

In terms of structure, I have already noted in the introduction to the practical projects, that yoga

sessions have already a very clear organization which mainly relates to the anatomical

characteristics of the poses and the psychophysical effect they are expected to have. As such,

an actor training session or rehearsal that seeks to use yoga is expected to accommodate the

existing structure of the yoga classes within the structure of the overall session. Most

significantly, the yoga session, having a logic and narrative of its own, signals a clear beginning

"7 An attemptto assessthis PhD project accordingto the experienceof the participantswould also require
different researchmethods,presumablyderivingfrom quantitativemodels. In relationto this thesis, even if
I based an assessmentof the projects on the number of the participantsthat found the exerciseshelpful,
the targetgroup is too small to provideany conclusiveargument.

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 and end, which has to be negotiated. In other words, transitions have to be worked out, so that

the yoga session maintains its integrity without taking over the rehearsal, either in terms of

energy or time. Apart from the yoga based exercises, this study has developed a set of

transitions that can ensure a smooth running of the session. The main transitions that have

emerged from the practical work are:

" After the end of the yoga class, the participantscontinue to explore yoga poses, this
time with the aim to work on their role.

" The yoga class finishes with resting poses, which are used as positions for guided
visualization.

" The yoga class finishes with resting poses during which the participants observe the
presence of a sensation, which they then explore in drawing and movement.

" After the end of the yoga class, the participants are asked to reengage and explore in

movement specific elements that the class emphasized.

" After the end of the yoga class, the participants are asked to note the associations that
the class generated. The session may continue with further exploration, in movement or
writing, of these associations.

Apart from a clear structure, yoga sessions also feature a unique vocabulary. Nevertheless, a

tension seems to exist between kinds of knowledge that can be articulated and kinds of

knowledge that are by definition 'tacit' and quite often embodied. John Freeman, in a recently

published volume on research through practice, traces the concept of 'tacit' knowledge to
Michael Polanyi's use of the term and indicates that it has concerned to a significant extent

current scholarship on practice as research (2010: 179). Knowledge that is tacit, Freeman

observes, may not count as knowledge in an academic context, simply because such

knowledge by definition cannot be disseminated (ibid. ); if I cannot communicate what I know,

then my knowledge cannot directly benefit anyone else. Although Freeman recognizes the

possibility of practice based research to produce knowledge that falls outside the scope of what
is academically instituted and accepted as 'knowledge', he nonetheless argues that

'transference of knowledge.. is the key principle of research' (ibid.) In relation to this thesis, the
.
above question has an important pedagogical dimension.

Although Freeman's volume is not restricted to the field of actor training, I would contend

alongside him that the actor trainer should be to

able articulate embodied knowledge and I

249
would further support that a big part of any actor training pedagogy is the distinct vocabulary it

manages to develop and utilize. 1' In this respect, the 'logocentrism' of Iyengar Yoga can be

seen as offering the actor trainer the advantage of an already highly developed vocabulary that

communicates action, direction and quality of movement. The contribution of the current

research has not been to dispense with words, but to use the possibilities that the Iyengar
'jargon' already offers in order to develop a commonly shared vocabulary of phrases, images

and instructions. Based on the understanding, that although an instruction such as 'open the
back of the knees' in Uttanasana can never convey the agony in the hamstrings and the

released sensation in the spine and the neck that one might feel, the instruction becomes the

way in which actor and actor trainer share an ineffable and kinaesthetic experience. In the same

manner, the instruction to 'use an asana to find a character', for example, became impregnated

with a number of possibilities, which were not present when I first gave the instruction. In such a

manner, the initial instruction, crude and generic, gives rise to phrases, i.e. tools and exercises,

that are more detailed and particular; for example 'choose an asana and explore the way the

position affects your voice and the illocution of a particular line', 'explore the social and

psychological characteristics through the lens of your psychophysical experience of the asana',
'choose one aspect of the shape of the asana, and use it as a base to explore the physicality of

your character'. In this manner, the current study managed to create a vocabulary that enables
the communication between actor and actor trainer and can channel and guide the actor's

process.

Another element that became evident in this PhD project is that the function of an actor training

programme is not only dependent on the words that carry it, but also on the framework in which

the training operates. An incident that took place in the third practical project is particularly

representative of the importance of such a framework. During the rehearsals of Bodystories, I

asked Simsim to apply a particular aspect of breathing, which we had only practiced once, in
the 'You Happen' scene, where the girl walks towards the mother. Before starting work on the

story, we did a session on resting poses which was followed by a long corpse pose. As Bobo

and Simsim were lying down in the corpse pose I asked them to become aware of the gap
between inhalation and exhalation and observe how this gap widens when the breath becomes

18 The importanceof a shared vocabularyis particularlyexemplifiedin the work of Phillip Zarrilli. Certain
instructions,such as 'open the top of the head', are used during the training as well as the rehearsal
sessions. In other words, Zarrilli has managed to create a language that is equally applicable in both
contexts, and thus facilitates a direct application of the training into the rehearsal.My observationsare
based on my experienceIn attendingZarrilli's training and performingin a piece he directedas part of the
PerformancePracticeMFA, at the Universityof Exeter.

250
 soft and regular. We then started working on the scene where I asked them to maintain the soft
but alert state of mind produced by the resting poses. More specifically, at the moment where

the girl meets the mother's gaze, I asked them to reproduce the feeling of suspension that they

have experienced in their breathing. Apart from my attempt to apply this particular aspect of

yoga I also gave them instructions about the scene that were unrelated to the yoga practice.
Although, my impression during the rehearsal was that they both managed to perform the scene

in the way I had envisaged, Simsim later told me that she was not clear about the yoga-related

instructions and she could not make the connections between what she did in the yoga practice

and what she was asked to do in the scene.

In relation to Simsim's comment, it also bears noting that I used the exact same aspect of

breathing with Liz in one of her own projects. Liz also did a session on recuperative poses

following the breath and after the yoga she managed to apply this aspect of the practice (the

gap between inhalation and exhalation) directly in the scene she was working on. Personal

characteristics notwithstanding, my assumption is that Simsim's difficulty to impromptu apply a

new aspect of the practice is connected to the overall orientation that the application of yoga
had in this project. Liz had already applied aspects of the discipline on character work and I

believe that she was accustomed in transferring elements from a yoga context to a rehearsal

context. The project in which Simsim was involved, though, did not concentrate on applications

of the practice towards character embodiment. As a result, isolated attempts to use aspects of

the practice on character work, such as the one I describe above, were not supported by a

wider framework and were not organically connected to the working methodology that

underpinned the project. If my hypothesis about Simsim's difficulty is right, then it becomes

clear that the orientation of an application as well as the framework in which an applied training

takes place has a direct effect on the training's efficacy and the participants' experience.

Another conclusion, therefore, that derives from the current study, is that yoga cannot be simply

used, it has to be framed in a particular way. This entails that the actor trainer has a very clear
target that the practice is expected to address. In such a manner, although it might be

counterproductive for the actor to know in advance the aim and objective of every single

exercise, it is important that the every activity is consistent with and operates within a wider
framework.

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Summary of Findings and Future Directions

In summary, this thesis gave me the opportunity to make discoveries, which, I would argue, can

be further used by other people. Below I offer a list of the training, performanceand pedagogy

relatedfindings:

" Yoga can be used towards pre-performativeas well as performativeaims.

. lyengar Yoga and possibly MPY in general feature certain characteristics, such as static
poses, lack of associativethinking, absenceof direct relationshipto the group and/or a
partner,which are inimicalto a training/creativeprocess.

" Nevertheless, the practice of lyengar Yoga can be combined with activities on
movement improvisation and imagination, and it can also inform the actor's ability to

relateto fellow actors.

9 The practice of yoga poses can inform the actor's process of character embodiment.

. The practice of recuperative poses can facilitate the actor in developing receptivity
towards fellow actors and/or theatrical scripts.

" The practice of yoga poses and yoga based exercisescan engage the actor's memory
and one's ability to developautobiographicalmaterial in a psychophysicalmanner.

" The practice of yoga postures can allow the performer to deal with specific aspects of
autobiographical performance, in particular the use of the body in the strategic
representation of the self on stage.

" The practice of yoga within a training environmentcan foster a relationshipbetween the
trainer and the participantswhich can be further used and/or transferred in a creative
context.

" The practice of yoga postures can be used by practitioners who are not extensively
familiarwith the practice.

" The pedagogy of yoga offers enough flexibility that can allow its practice to be moulded
and tailored according to specific demands and/or aims of the creative and/or training
process.

" The transition from the practice of yoga to rehearsal can be achieved by a variety of
mechanisms.

" The application of yoga in performance can be more productive if it is framed and
organisedaccordingto preselectedaspects of the performer'scraft.

" The applicationof the discipline in performancecan be greatly assisted by the input and
active involvementof the peoplewho experiencethe practice.

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 Apart from the theoretical arguments and practical material that this research has generated, it

has also created a horizon of future avenues of study. I have already referred to the limitation of

this study in using only one style of yoga in the practical exploration. A fruitful subject of

research would thus be to experiment with other styles of yoga and explore how far the

peculiarities of a particular style affect the character of the application. An equally Interesting

topic of research would be to use the yoga-based exercises that have been developed in this

study with a group of performers that are trained in a different style of yoga. Would the

exercises still make sense? What other variations may emerge? Similarly, future research could
investigate aspects of Iyengar Yoga that have not been utilized by the current study. More

specifically, my assumption is that the breathing exercises can open new areas of applications,

such as voice production and the creation of affective states. Research into the breathing
techniques offered by Iyengar Yoga can also take place in conjunction with breathing-based

actor training techniques, such as Suzanna Bloch's Alba Emotion work.

In addition to the above, there are a number of aspects of training and/or performance that this

study has not addressed, and could offer fertile ground for future exploration. The use of yoga
for developing the performer's voice is a subject that has been explored by Hulton and,

arguably, a number of voice exercises are based on yoga. Based on this material, a future study

could for example examine, expand, or systematize the use of yoga in voice training as well as

explore aspects of yoga such as chanting, which, to my knowledge, has not been yet thoroughly

researched. Apart from voice work the use of yoga could also be researched in relation to other

aspects of performance and training, such as circus skills, mime, and Commedia del' arte. As

the aforementioned genres have their own extensive training vocabulary, it would be interesting

to examine the way yoga could inform such vocabularies further. Moreover, the use of yoga

could be explored in relation to specific actor training techniques. I have already drawn attention
to the relationship between Michael Chekhov's PG and the use an asana to find the character

exercise (see Chapter 3). The use of yoga in relation to Chekhov's work might result in

interesting findings, not only because Chekhov has been probably trained in Stanislavsky's

yoga-based exercises, but also because his work relies to a considerable extent on archetypes.
Could the images that reside in some yoga positions render them appropriate psychophysical

activities for the development of archetypes in Chekhov's training? Could we approach the PG

as an asana, and explore it in relation to its anatomical, kinaesthetic and energetic vocabulary?

There is also scope to develop the use of yoga in the domains that this project has already

addressed. The in
use of yoga additional dramaturgies and/or texts could give rise to a new set

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of questions and/or working methods. How could yoga be used for example with texts that are

written in verse? How could yoga inform the staging of comedy or the creation of a live-art

piece? Accordingly, the use of yoga could be further explored in relation to contact
improvisation, and I believe the partner work which often accompanies the teaching of asanas

could be explored in relation to significant aspects of contact improvisation such as the give and
take of the partner's weight and the tactile sensitivity of the whole body. In relation to

autobiographical writing the practice of yoga can be further advanced, using, for example,
different positions to write or produce oral material, and exploring the relationship between the

kinaesthetic and anatomical aspect of the pose and the structural elements of a piece of text.

Moreover, the use of yoga can not only extend to additional areas of performing, it can also be

explored in alternative ways. New frameworks of application can develop, such as using in a

session one pose only, or strategically scattering the practice of certain poses throughout a

rehearsal or workshop. Frameworks can also develop according to the 'cat' template, where a

sequence of yoga poses could be linked together and practiced with different intentions, i.e.

production of images, work on voice and the like. Finally, it would be also interesting to examine

cases where the practice of yoga is not 'administrated' by an external, omniscient actor trainer,
but becomes part of a performer's or director's working process. Could for example a performer

use the practice of yoga in order to prepare an audition monologue or to work out his or her

physical score? Finally, the pedagogical value of the use of yoga is still based on hypotheses

and/or empirical observations. Can yoga develop the actor's confidence, empathy, and

awareness? Are there particular aspects/styles of yoga that are more beneficial in this respect?
Can the practice of yoga ensure better working relationships amongst company members?

What is the relationship between the practice of yoga and a cognitive, neuro-scientific based

approach towards acting?

The aforementioned questions give rise, therefore, to a vista of future directions and

possibilities. The current popularity of yoga practices as well as the 'age of training' (Heelas,
1992: 169) which, arguably, underlies not only acting but also Western culture, could well mean

that yoga applications in theatre will proliferate in the years to come. This thesis hopes that it

has demonstrated the potential of the subject and paved the way towards its further

development.

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Appendices
Appendix I: Description of a Yoga Class

In this section I give a description of a 'typical' session of yoga, as it would take place in any of

the projects. Not every session was identical to the one I describe below, but the aim of the

exposition is to outline the most frequently practiced positions, expose the order in which they

would be usually practiced, and the instructions that most usually accompanied them. 19 Of

course, the classes included additional poses to as well as variations of the ones listed below.
The poses were also practiced in different order, depending on the subject of the class.

Emphasis was predominantly placed on standing postures, as they are considered to be the

foundation for other types of asanas, for example forward bends and back bends. Backward

bending postures were practiced in moderation, as they come later in the beginners' syllabus.

Savasana was always practiced at the end of each session. The classes would usually take

place in groups, although conflicting schedules meant that at times I had to teach the

participants individually. The material was disseminated through verbal instructions,

demonstration on my own and/or a participant's body, as well as hands on adjustments. The

classes also featured a familiarization with basic anatomical terms and functions, for example
the name of certain muscles and the structure of specific joints. Moments from different yoga

classes as well as the most frequently practiced poses can be also seen in the Appendix video.
(PP III-ºYoga Class)

Standing Poses
Tadasana (Mountain Pose): Press the heels down. Lift the Kneecaps up. Bring the inner legs

towards each other and close the gaps between the legs. Allow the buttock-flesh to melt

towards the floor and lift the front pelvic rim. Move the shoulders away from the ears and extend

the arms from the shoulders to the fingertips. Broaden the collarbones and lift the breastbone.

Keep the chin parallel to the floor and the eyes looking straight ahead.

Urdva Hastasanain Tadasana(Lifted Arms in MountainPose):Open the arms to the side. Turn
the arms up so that the hands face the ceiling. Lift the arms up. Keep the ribcage soft and the

lower back long. Pressthe feet down and extend all the way up to the ceiling.

"s I mention
only the instructions that were given during the pose and not the ones that were given before
or after, i.e. the way the participants would get in and out of the position. In poses that are executed first on
the right side of the body and then on the left, I give description only for the right side.

256
 Vrksasana(Tree Pose): Press your foot against the inner thigh and the thigh against the foot.
Keep the hips level. Turn the bent knee back and the right buttockforward. Pressthe heel of the

standing leg down and lift your arms up. Open the armpits and create space in the waist area.
Keep the eyes soft.

Trikonasana (Triangle Pose): Press the feet down and lift the knees up. Turn the right knee

back and push the right buttock forward. Extend the right arm to the floor and the left arm to the

ceiling. Keep both sides of the torso equally extended. Move the top of the head away from the

tailbone.

Parsvokonasana (Angle pose to the side): Bring the right knee against your right elbow and

move the right buttock towards the front. Keep the right thigh parallel to the floor. Make sure you
have a right degree angle between your right thigh and your right shin, and that your knee is

above your ankle. Extend the back leg back and open the back of the left knee. Press the left
heel back and down and extend the left arm away from that heel.

Uttanasana (Intense stretch forwards): Extend all ten toes forward and make sure your weight is

coming towards your toes. Have the buttocks over the ankles. Open and press the sole of the
feet on the floor and lift the knees up. Allow the spine to extend towards the floor. Keep your

head and neck completely relaxed and allow the weight of the head and your arms to release

the spine further down. Keep your eyes open and stretch the back of the legs.

Adho Mukha Svanasana(DownwardFacing Dog): Press the hands straight into the floor and

extend the arms from the wrists up. Move the shoulder-bladesin and open the armpits. Extend

the spine up and send the buttock bones towards the ceiling. Lift the knees and open the back

of the legs. Send the heels back and down. Keepthe neck released.

Seated Pose
Dandasana (Staff Pose): Be on the front edge of the buttock bones and press them down.

Extend the heels away and lift the knees up towards your groin. As you press the buttock bones

down lift the front pelvic rim. Press the fingertips on the floor and bent the elbows back and

down. Take the shoulders away from the ears, and the shoulder-blades into the back. Open the

chest and broaden the collarbones.

Forward bend

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Janu Sirsasana (Forehead to Knee Pose): Extend the heel away from you and lift the knee cap

up towards your groin. Open the back of the straight leg towards the floor. Press the buttock
bones down and lengthen from the pubic bone to your navel. Check that the weight is equally

distributed between the two buttock bones, and the sides of the torso are stretched equally.

Allow the head to release down towards the floor. Keep the shoulder soft and do not push

yourselves forwards with your hands.

Twist

Bharadvajasana: Press both buttock bones equally down, extend the spine up and turn. Use

your left hand against the right thigh to turn the left side of the chest even more. Keep the

shoulders level and away from the ears. Move the right shoulder back and the left shoulder-
blade forward and into the back. Keep the chest open and the breastbone lifted.

Inversion

Savargasana (Shoulderstand): Press the upper arms down and stretch the legs up. Move the

buttock flesh towards your heels. Extend the heels away and stretch the inner sides of the legs.

Keep the legs together.

Recuperative Pose
Savasana (Corpse Pose): Allow the abdomen to sink deep into the pelvis and the pelvis and the

sacrum to open onto the floor. Release the jaw and allow the tongue to deflate and rest behind

the lower palate. Keep the nostrils soft. Release the temples and the eyebrows and allow the

eyes to recede further away from the eyelids. Keep the hearing in. Bring your attention on your
breathing and follow your breath.

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 Appendix It: A Note on Documentation and the Accompanying Videos

This appendix aims to briefly contextualizethe DVDs that accompanythis thesis in relation to

relevantdevelopmentsin the field of practice-basedresearchand also accountfor the choice of

the specific videos and editing tools. Audiovisual documentation has been at the centre of

practice-basedresearch.12°It provides a record of the performance(s)which form part of the

candidate's submission,a vital means by which the PhD candidate can show the process of

one's practice, and an effectiveway for disseminatingone's research.Nevertheless,the role of

documentationin a practice-basedPhD gives rise to a numberof problemsand is characterized
by certain limitations.

First of all, it is evident that documentation through camera provides a 'monocular vision' (Rye,

2003: unpaginated). 12' This can prove problematic, especially when the camera attempts to

capture a live performance that features simultaneous actions in more than ' 2'
one place. The

same problem becomes more accentuated when camera is used to document studio work,

where lack of clarity of action and an often chaotic spatial arrangement is an inherent part of the

process. Finally, in specific relation to this research the audiovisual material presents another
difficulty. In comparison to the subject of this PhD which has by definition an embodied

character, the audiovisual material appears illustrative and two-dimensional. In other words, the

video can depict how a yoga pose or a yoga based exercise looks like, but it can never allow

one to experience how the same pose/exercise feels. Despite the aforementioned

shortcomings, I regard the DVDs as an integral part of the thesis, since they allowed me to:

" create a record of the live performances and presentations;

" illustrate aspects of the studio process;

" connect the work that took place in the studio with some of the theories that
underpinned this work in the first place;

" presentthe participantsand their opinions.

For the sake of clarity and effectiveness, the audiovisual material has been subjected to

selection and editing.The selectionhas been necessary,since I recordedalmost every session.

120For a debate on the documentation and editing process of research material see Thomson et al, 2003.
121Carolyne Rye, 2003 httr)://www. bris. ac. uk/parie/s cr. htm, accessed on 40 April 2011.
122This has been the case in the performanceof the first practicalproject.At the beginningof the video of
the performanceI decidedto show the action in three separatewindows,so that the viewercan see all the
actions that were simultaneouslytaking place on stage. This arrangementis not ideal, as the three places
of action cannot be to in
placed next and relation each to other in the same way they were during the
actual performance. I think this example is Indicativeof the fact that the camera cannot fully capture and
reproduce the live event. It rather transposes the live event in a new medium and thus creates a new
version but not an exact copy.

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The overall length of the material, therefore, meant that I could not present it in its entirety. The

videos were selected according to their relevance to the research question examined in each

project/chapter. Due to the practical nature of the project as well as the overall aim of the thesis

to develop yoga-based exercises, I also decided to show videos from all the exercises that were

developed/devised in the three practical projects. The videos that accompany this thesis,

therefore, illustrate the process of and/or a particular moment within a specific exercise,

whereas audiovisual material that was not strictly relevant to the research questions was not
included in the final DVDs. As a result, these videos are intended not to serve as a step-by-step

guide for the use of yoga in either training or rehearsal, but rather to convey the practical aspect

of the research and offer a glimpse of what took place in the studio.

In some videos, the exercises are accompanied by short interviews with the students-actors

who participated in the process. I regard the inclusion of these interviews as an important part of
the DVDs, since the experience of the participants has been a central concern throughout the

whole research. As such, the DVDs allowed me to combine in the same medium material on the

exercises with material from the interviews. Although some of these interviews could have been

transcribed and included in the written thesis, I think the audiovisual version transmits the

participants' experience of and/or opinion on a particular exercise more effectively than written

quotations.

The editing process aimed to render the material accessible.As I have already mentioned,the

monocular vision of the-camera-on-the-tripodmeant that sometimes the aspect of practice I

wanted to emphasizewas not effectivelypresentedin the actual shot. For example a particular
moment I wished to talk about took place too far back in the studio or a detail I wanted to
discuss was barely visible. In other cases, the shots included the process of more than one

person and thus the frame appeared'busy'. A number of devices were thus employed,such as
voice over, zoom in, slow motion, repetition,and subtitles, which aimed to direct the viewer's
attentionto a specific aspect of the frame and draw connectionsbetweenthe visual image and
the written word. Overall, these DVDs are not intended to stand alone and/or substitute the

written thesis. This does not entail, however, that the thesis is somehow more important than
the DVDs. I believe that both mediums (re)presentdifferent aspects of the research and they
thus complement each other and enable the reader/viewerto access the material in different

ways.

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 Appendix III: Additional Practical Projects

During the course of the current research I have been involved in eight practical projects. My

role in and activities of each project differed considerably and I was thus able to address my

subject matter from a number of perspectives. This thesis has discussed extensively only the

projects I planned and delivered, but have also referred to the others. The intention of this

section is to give an overview of all practical work I engaged with, highlight the themes that

certain projects had in common, and place in a wider context the three projects I discuss in

more detail. For the sake of clarity I use numerals to number each project, whereas i use Latin

characters to distinguish the three projects that were specifically created for the current

research.

Project 1: Participation In MA/MFA Theatre Practice Programme (Oct: Dec. 2007)

The first project I was involved was a production of Sarah Kane's 4:48 Psychosis directed by

Phillip Zarrilli. The production took place as part of the MA/MFA programme in Theatre Practice.

Alongside the students of the programme I attended the whole module, which included an initial

period in yoga, Tai-Chi and Kalarippayattu training, a phase of structured improvisations, and
finally direct work on Kane's text. The module culminated in a production which was performed

four times at the University of Exeter. Participation in the aforementioned module gave me the

opportunity to experience and closely examine the way Zarrilli is using non theatrical training

methods within a theatrical/actor training environment. Additionally, it allowed me to engage

with my research question from a performer's point of view, since in my attempt to meet Zarrilli's
directions and address the demands of the text, I drew not only from Zarrilli's training and

vocabulary but also from my own practice in lyengar Yoga. Apart from the module's overall

significance for my later development, its primary value lay in the chance it offered me to use an

aspect of my yoga training which I did not manage to employ in any of the other projects,

namely the breathing or pranayama exercises, which I have been practising since 2004.

Guidelines of Iyengar Yoga in relation to respiratory training are very clear; one should not

embark on breathing exercises before completing a minimum of two years training in the

asanas. The rationale behind such restrictions is that the breath, being a subtle element of

one's physiology, should be addressed only and when the practitioner has developed a sound
foundation in the skeleton-muscular domain. In addition to the above, although my teaching

certificate officially allows me to teach some of the breathing exercises, within Iyengar cycles in

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the UK pranayama tuition by junior teachers is discouraged. The aforementioned limitations

meant that examining the use of breath as a training tool for actors through the lyengar style
had to remain outside the remit of my work with the people who participated in my project.

Although I did not have a pre-planned intention to employ my training in pranayama during the

Performer Training module, certain questions that arose during rehearsals, led me to seek

solutions there. Participating in Zarrilli's performance thus enabled me to address an aspect,

which would have remained otherwise unexplored.

Practicing Pranayama and Performing Silence in S. Kane's 4:48 Psychosis

The way in which practice of pranayama proved pertinent to the requirements of the

performance was through the play's frequent pauses. Following her urge to find consistency
between form and content, Kane not only talks about silence in the original text, but made

specific decisions about the silences that intercept it. An indicator of the importance of silence in
4:48 Psychosis is that the script's only stage instructions regard the orchestration of such

pauses. Kane regulates the place and the duration of the silences by marking 'silence' or 'long

silence' in the text and/or by leaving a blank space between the lines of the actual page. In this

way the pauses acquire a pivotal role both in terms of the play's structure, i.e. its rhythm and

musicality, as well as the play's content, i.e. the meaning that is being conveyed or interrupted
by a certain silence. As a result, the frequency, duration and intensity of each pause carry the

potential to influence the overall aesthetic result of a performance by comprising a decisive

thread in its texture.

In accordance with the above, the instructions we received from Zarrilli highlighted the

importance of the silences. A pause was far from being deemed as a dead space that

interrupted the dialogue; by contrast we were instructed to intensify our engagement with the

action or state at hand. In this sense we were asked to carry on within the pause a 'residual

awareness' of what had been said and happened before, so that the silent moment could
become filled with energy and the possibility to convey- even at times accentuate- meaning.

As I mention before, the duration of certain pauses was marked by Kane herself, but in general

the duration of all the pauses was negotiated during rehearsals. What was the ideal duration of

each pause? Was there an ideal duration or the length of a pause was constantly fluctuating

according to other parameters of the performance? Or to speak in more colloquial terms, the

question that started to emerge was how can/do I know when I should break the silence and

say my line. An answer to my question was given towards the end of the rehearsals, when

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 Zarrilli mentionedthat 'there is a reciprocalrelationshipbetweenthe space a pause takes and

the engagement the performer can maintain within this pause'.123This comment proved

especially helpful to me because I could identify this kind of connection between pause and
engagementthrough my pranayamapractice.

The practice of pranayama consists of the exercise of the basic modes of inhalation, exhalation

and retention of breath in a number of possible combinations. After practice in inspiratory-

expiratory forms of pranayama, the students are usually instructed in retention. A specific type

of retention is Viloma Pranayama, the 'pranayama where inhalation or exhalation is not a

continuous process, but one that is interrupted by several pauses' (lyengar, 1981: 146). In the

case of inspiration, the lungs are gradually filled by short inhalations that are intercepted by

pauses and accordingly during expiration, the air is exhaled intermittently. During the pauses

the breathing process is thus suspended and the practitioner should make sure that no air is

leaking in or out. In this way the lungs are filled and emptied gradually and in this sense 'the

pranayama can be compared to climbing up or down a tall ladder, with a pause at each step
(ibid. )'. Finally, the action of suspending the breath should not be in any way forceful or forced

and it should always be regulated according to the student's capacity. The practitioner is thus

trained to assert a certain control on the breath, without violating basic physiological functions.

My experience in practicing Viloma informed my attempt to perform silence and allowed me to

approach my concern about 'when to speak' from a different perspective. First of all, in Viloma,

although the breathing stops, the engagement persists. It could even be said that the

suspension of the breathing intensifies the engagement, as the practitioner is asked to spread

the awareness on the specific part of the lungs that is emptied or filled. In a similar way during

the silences in 4: 48 the text ceases, but the performer has to remain activated. In both cases

the doer is asked to remain active in a passive state. 12'The critical difference though is that in

Vi/oma practice the length of the suspension is a relatively uncomplicated matter; it is very clear

whether one ends up gasping for breath or whether the suspension is released a bit too soon.
Practice of Viloma, therefore, not only cultivates one's awareness within the moment of

retention, but it also promotes one's 'knowledge' of when to initiate the next in- or out-breath.
Drawing from this type of practice, I attempted to approach the difficulty that Kane's text posed

123The quote is taken by the notes I was keepingduring rehearsaland it is as close to the originalidea as
possible it is for the written word to capturespoken language.
24The passive state of the performerdescribed here is specificallyrelated to the performanceof 4:48
Psychosis,wherethe momentsof silencewere usuallyaccompaniedby relativestillness.

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for me. By remaining fully active during the silence, I tried to sense the point when the silence

had been exhausted and thus speech could resume. Instead of being pre-occupied with finding

the appropriate moment for breaking the silence, I tried to enhance my sensitivity of the pause it

self.

Although I did not do this type of breathing while rehearsing or performing the relevant part,

practice of Viloma Pranayama outside the rehearsals provided me with a psychophysical

context in which I could place the task. The combination of this practice and Zarrilli's instructions
led me away from an intellectually driven approach, and towards a solution that was founded in

a psychophysical understanding. Practice of viloma thus provided me with a paradigm that

rendered Kane's and Zarrilli's instructions both comprehensible as well as accessible. Zarrilli's
direction not to 'think how long a pause is', but 'feel where the consciousness resides' made

sense, since I could relate it to a form of practice, which was both tangible and immediate.

Project 2: Medea (April-July 2008)

The second project in which I participated was the Individual Practice project of MFA student,

Lindsay Gear. Lindsay, being interested in yoga and having done some lyengar Yoga before,

asked me to collaborate in her final project/dissertation. The question of the project was how to

use yoga in order to approach the character of Medea, as it features in Euripides' homonymous

text. My role in the project was to train Lindsay in lyengar Yoga, and then devise exercises that

could facilitate her in the embodiment of the role of Medea. Additionally, since the role of the
director was left quite open, I then shaped the material in a final performance. However,

because directorial questions and responsibilities were postponed until the very final phase of

the project, the performance demonstrated a lack of a directorial input and vision. Despite this

shortcoming though, this project laid the foundation for my subsequent work and gave rise to a

number of questions.

First of all, I fully realized that if the use of yoga within a theatrical environment was going to

address the performer's process and work on a certain character, then this work had to be
framed within a production. This led my decision to take on fully the role of the director in

Practical Project I. Second this project allowed me to explore my initial ideas about the form that

an application of yoga could take. A number of activities were devised which aimed to develop
Lindsay's relationship to the yoga asanas, enable Lindsay in her rendition of the text and the

creation of her score. The first activity was to ask Lindsay to keep notes before and after the

yoga sessions, the second activity was to ask her at the end of each class to free- associate on

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 the asanasthat we worked on, and finally to ask her to use the asanas as a base to create the

role of Medea. All aforementionedactivities were used in Practical Project I, and have been
discussedin the relevantchapter. In this sectionthough, I would like to discussthe last of these

exercises,not only because it is the one more closely relatedto performance,but also because
it contains in embryonicform the questionsthat went on to occupymy research.

Use an Asana to find the character

The exercise was employed both as a way for Lindsay to approach the character of Medea as it

features in the whole play, as well as a tool to create a score for one of the play's monologues.

The first variation is described vividly in Lindsay's notes:

[I] read the whole Medea play again over the weekend, and [... ] I then chose four
asanas that I felt overall connect with aspects of Medea's character. These
included two different strong warrior postures, a posture where legs and arms are
twisting around each other, and a posture which is on the floor in an attempt to
surrender, but due to the intense stretch within the asana, my personal
experience of it is that I can never fully surrender. These are the ways I
experience Medea's character most when reading the text: i.e. in a state of
fighting (strong and very intense energy inside), in a state of twisting and turning
inside herself (despair and manipulating), and in a state of painful attempted
surrender, never quite finding the way to give in to the earth, but desperately
needingto (Lindsay,logbook).

As the above extract makes clear, Lindsayconnectedthe psychophysicalexperienceshe had in

certain asanas with the way she interpreted the tragic character. The underlying idea of this

exercise was that the practice of these asanas would enable Lindsay to access

psychophysicallythe attributesshe identifiedin Euripides'heroine.

A more specific version of the above activity was to ask Lindsay to choose one or more asanas

in particular relation to one of the monologues that feature in Euripides' script. The monologue

was thus 'transcribed' in asanas and was further explored in the following two ways. In the first

variation, Lindsay did the pose in the space and then, I asked her to identify an element in the

pose that felt particularly close or relevant to the character. She then had to explore this

particular element in the space until she came up with a short movement phrase. Then she

repeated this phrase a number of times in order to it

memorize and become familiar with its

nuances and details. In this manner we would create a physical score, and once it was ready,

Lindsay executed it again while speaking the lines that corresponded to the particular asana,

out of which the score evolved. The relation between text and movement was explored further;

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we experimentedwith Lindsay speakingthe text at different points of her score, or breakingthe
text down and repeatingparts of it a number of times and so on. In the end we would create a

short phrase of movementand text. Then we proceededwith the next bit of text and the asana
that Lindsayallocatedto it and the same processwas repeated.

In the second variation, Lindsay allocated yoga poses to parts of the same text, but this time we

did not develop a phrase out of each pose. Simply, Lindsay did the pose a couple of times and

then she started speaking the text. Sometimes Lindsay said her lines at the same time with the

pose, or she spoke the text once she was already in the asana. In this manner parts of the text

were matched to particular actions that were taking place in the asana.

The above process generated a number of issues that the rest of the projects explored further.

First of all a question arose regarding Lindsay's choice of asanas. Was it simply a matter of

personal experience and understanding that certain asanas were attributed to the character of
Medea? The second question regarded the relationship between parts of the text and certain

asanas. Did certain asanas work better with certain lines and if so why? Finally, our exploration

attempted to use the static actions and movements that take place in the asanas in order to

create a score that extended into the space. The first question therefore was how a spatial

extension of the asanas could be achieved in a more systematic way, and the second question

regarded the degree of visibility that such score would finally assume. Would a score crafted out

of the asanas be completely visible, would it be minimized, or completely internalized in the

same way that for example the Psychological Gesture is being used? The aforementioned

questions have been approached by the subsequent projects in a number of ways.

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 Project 3: Red Sky (February 2009)
After the completion of Practical Project I, Liz Pennington, who played the homonymous part in

The Lady of Larkspur Lotion, asked my assistance in a project she was involved. The project

was a production of Stan Lai's Red Sky and was directed by a student In the department. Red
Sky is set in an old people's home and Liz wanted to explore the embodiment of age through

the use of yoga. My role within the project was to help Liz with her work on the character,

whereas I was not in any way involved in the direction of the project or in the process of the

other performers. Liz and I worked together for five sessions, which aimed to specifically

address how the use of yoga can facilitate the actor's process in embodying age. In a couple of

sessions we also worked with specific parts of the text that Liz found challenging in rehearsal.
This section will discuss only two aspects of the work.

In order to arrive at an aged body which was both convincing as well as non stereotypical, Liz

and I worked on the spine. To begin with we worked on finding the character's 'young body', the
habitual movements and postures that the character would take on at a younger age, and we

proceeded by gradually accentuating these characteristics. Particular attention was laid on the

use of the spine and how Liz could find the movements and position of specific vertebrae and

spinal muscles in order to both convey the image of an aged body as well as be able to

consistently maintain the shape for the duration of an hour-long performance. Based on lyengar

Yoga I thus devised the following activity. In Iyengar Yoga practitioners often resort to the use of

the wall in order to understand and correct alignment. The straight and flat surface of a wall can

act as a reference point that potentially brings one's attention to habitual posture and its

aberration from a more aligned version. The practitioner has thus a guideline according to which

s/he can gauge the curvatures of the spine and the alignment or misalignment of the joints.

Based on the above, I asked Liz to work against the corner of a wall and by moving towards or

against it to find the shape of the aged spine. Which part of the spine curved forwards and

which compensated back? How the posterior spine affected the anterior spine and the front of

the body? Which parts of the spine were convex and which concave? Once Liz acquired an

understanding of the different parts of the spine and their configuration, she moved away from

the wall and she started 'carrying' the shape into the space and engaging the extremities in

walking, using her hands, exploring the position of the head and eyes etc.

Another exercise aimed to address a part of Liz's script. At one point during the play, Mrs Silk

tells her fellow inmates a story from her youth. Liz received from the director the specific
instructionto 'tell the story with flow'. I thus asked Liz to start by practicinga few rounds of sun

267
salutation (which was a yoga sequence she was already familiar with) in order to develop a
sense of fluidity and continuityin her movement.Once she could do the sequencewith relative
ease, I asked her to start saying the text. My instructionswere to coordinatethe text and the
movementand to maintaina continuousflow of both.

Practising yoga poses or a set thereof in order to apprpach a piece of text had already been

examined both in the Medea as well as in The Lady of Larkspur Lotion projects. However, as I
have mentioned before, the allocation of a yoga pose to a piece of text depended on the

practitioners' choice. My initial impression was that such choice derived from the participants'

experience of certain poses, which is personal and thus peculiar to the person who is using the

asana and speaks the text. In this instance though, the choice of the asanas, that Liz was

supposed to work with, was determined by me. My choice was based on the director's
instruction about rendering the text with a certain degree of flow, as well as my own experience

with the sun salutation. However, there was another element which I think made the

combination successful and enabled Liz to reach the required result. The text was a version of
the proverbial competition between the rabbit and the turtle, and it thus conveyed the language

and the images of a race. My impression therefore is that my choice was dictated not only by

the result that Liz wanted to achieve (flow in the text by flow in the body), but also by the text's

language and imagery. This case comprises yet another example of the ways that the physical

forms of an asana could be connected to the linguistic form of a text and how the former could

act as a pathway to perform the latter. In this manner it could be argued that both the sun

salutation as well as the text feature the Path image schema. The sun salutation, although it
does not move in the space in a linear fashion, demonstrates a very clear journey from one

pose to another as well as an employment of all three levels (up, middle, down). The text on the

other hand uses a version of a well known tale to convey a strong metaphor of life as a journey.
There is congruence therefore between the characteristics of the sequence and the allegorical

message of the monologue. As a result, the execution of the sequence can potentially allow the

actor to physically experience the concepts of travel, speed, continuity, which are conveyed by

the text both in a literal as well as in an allegoric fashion. Moreover, the hypothesis that yoga

poses and language are permeated by a wider structure could also mean that the allocation of

asanas is not only a matter of personal choice, and could therefore be used with some degree

of consistency; in this case, although the choice of Sun Salutation was mine, it was in fact

effective in another person's process.

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 Another point that is worth mentioning in relation to Red Sky, is that my involvement in the

project was specifically tied to Liz's process and played no role in the play's staging. Equally,

my intention with this project was not to address specific aspects of the performer's work but

specific aspects of Liz's work. My aim for example was not to examine how yoga poses could
be used in order to embody age, but how I could facilitate Liz in utilizing her practice of yoga in

order to embody the old lady that features in the play. Decisions and exercises in this project

therefore were project-specific and not research specific. Nonetheless my approach inevitably

drew from my hitherto practice, and it reflects my engagement with certain issues, for example

the use of the performer's experience and the relationship between the asanas and a piece of

text.

Project 4: Blood Mother(May-June 2009)

Blood Mother was Liz's final project, and as it happened with the previous one (Red Sky), she

asked me to become involved. Liz's idea was to devise a performance based on the character

of Mother as it features in Lorca's Blood Wedding. Moreover, she wanted to use the theme of

the play, in order to draw parallels with issues of knife crime, which at the time received growing

concern and attention from UK media. My initial role in the project was to employ my skills in

yoga to help Liz with the creation of the character and the physical score. The direction of the

performance as well as the arrangement of the text was taken care by Liz and another MFA

student, Kelly Miller. However, as the rehearsals progressed, I also became involved In the
devising process. In my attempt to assist Liz, I drew from a number of activities I had used in

I
previous projects and also employed some of the I
exercises was working at the same time in

my own Practical Project II. In fact, my involvement in Blood Mother gave me the opportunity to

apply in a rehearsal situation the frameworks which I was exploring in my second practical

project. In this I
part, will concentrate on the use of the themes of Big Movement and Image

Schemata and the way they informed the devising process.

The Use of Big Movement In Character Creation

As in the previous projects, my first task was to read the play and consequentlychoose the

aspects of yoga which I deemed could be useful. According to my reading, the Mother

compriseda powerfulcharacter,which Lorca conveyedin strong, highly metaphoricallanguage.

Shackledby a social setting which renderedher incapableof taking revenge,the Mothercarried

her pain with dignity and fury. In my imagination I could see a very upright, stern woman with

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the feet firmly on the ground and the chin high up. I imaginedher body to be very rigid, and her

movementrestrainedby chronic muscularcontraction.

Based on my approach of Lorca's character, I thus decided to employ the active way of

practicing the asanas, and specifically focus on standing poses. I identified two big movements,

on which the tuition of these poses was going to concentrate, namely the use of the feet, and

the engagement of the big muscles of the body such as the quadriceps, and the trapezius. The

use of standing poses aimed to enable Liz to develop an understanding of the use of the feet

and her connection to the floor as well as engage with poses that are physically demanding and

thus experience a degree of muscular contraction. I explained my rationale to Liz, who agreed

both with the way I interpreted the Mother as well as with the proposed use of yoga. Following

the framework that I developed in the Practical Project II, I first taught the asanas to Liz

concentrating on the aforementioned aspects, and then I asked her to explore the same themes
in free movement in the space. Based on these aspects, Liz started to explore and develop the

character's body, gestures, and -up to a degree- voice. In this manner, the use of big

movements allowed me to use yoga in a manner that was more accurate and time efficient than
the previous more generic exercise of 'use an asana to find a character'. The clarity of the

theme (exploration of feet, muscular tension) offered me guidelines for the selection of the

asanas and the aspects of the practice on which Liz was supposed to concentrate.
Furthermore, this framework cleared any ambiguity regarding the role of the asanas in the

devising process and the way they were going to inform the construction of character. Finally,

the theme provided a structure to the whole rehearsal session, since there was a thread that

both Liz and I could follow from the asana practice, to the improvisation, to the creation of the

character.

The Use of Image Schemata and the Devising Process

The second element I would like to discuss is the use of image schematain relationto the text,

and the way this way of working informedthe devising of the performance.While reading Blood
Wedding,I was not only interestedin the Mother, but also in the image schematathat the play

or the character may contain. My hypothesiswas that since image schemata inform linguistic
functions and shape metaphors, then their presence in a piece of text should not be

surprising.12'I assumed,therefore, that image schematacould provide a link betweenthe text

125The work on Red Sky was also informedby a similar idea, since I approachedan extractfrom the text
accordingto the Pathschema.

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 and the actor's embodimentof the role. Furthermore,as I discuss in the previous section, the
use of image schematacan potentiallyoffer not only bodily structuresbut also spatial. In effect,
my assumptionwas that uncoveringthe predominantimage schema(ta)of Lorca's text, could
give us ideas about the use of the space.

However, repeated readings of Lorca's text did not procure the desired results. The language

was highly metaphorical, but not in the way I had expected; the metaphors that permeated the

script were in fact of a different kind. According to Lakoff and Johnson, metaphors can be

classified in three categories; orientational, ontological and structural (1980: 147-8). In

Metaphors We Live By, the authors explain that orientational metaphors are the ones that 'have

to do with spatial orientation: up-down, in-out, front-back, on-off, deep-shallow, central-

peripheral' (ibid.: 14). From the above definition it is easy to assume that Johnson's theory of
image schemata is a development of the concept of orientational metaphors, and it can thus be

supported that the metaphors to which image schemata give rise are predominantly, if not

exclusively, that of the orientational kind.

Based on the categories proposed by Lakoff and Johnson, I would argue that the metaphors

encountered in Lorca's text belong to the ontological kind, i.e. 'ways of viewing events,

activities, emotions, ideas, etc., as entities and substances' (1980: 25). The Mother, for

example, often attributes human and animal characteristics to her emotions, and as such the

emotions become agents that take action inside or against her; 'The hopelessness' of her loss,
'stings [her] eyes and the roots of [her] hair' (1955: 35), 'there is a shriek' inside her breast

'standing tiptoe' (ibid.: 69), and a'serpent' stays in her chest (ibid.: 35).

Despite the strong images that such language generates, I realized that the existing metaphors

had little in common with the image schemata, and could not translate in any of the activities

that I had in my toolbox. '26 I thus returned to the text, this time with the intention to find the

overall movement of the play -if there was such a thing-, a kind of organizing principle that
bound all the elements together. I thus identified the deaths of her beloved ones as well as the

continuation of the life of their killers, to be not only the Mother's raison d' eire, but also the

126The aforementionedmetaphorswere In fact used and led to a numberof activities,which were up to an

extent based on yoga. For examplearound the metaphorof the serpent/scream that inhabitsthe Mother's
I
chest, employedthe use of a belt Is
which very common in IyengarYoga. After using the belt in various
asanas, in improvisation Liz tied it around her chest and played with different combinations between
breathing,releasingthe belt and letting out a scream. Althoughwe both liked the result,the materialwas
discarded.

271
leitmotif of the play. The tension between the ones who live and the ones who do not is

constantly reiterated, exemplified not only through a realistic life story, but also through strong

references to the earth, and the personification of death in the face of a beggar. Based on such

a reading, I identified in the script the interplay of the Up Down schema, which, although did not

appear in the linguistic metaphors, did nonetheless comprise an axis according to which the

themes and the actions of the play could be organized.

My idea, therefore, was to use yoga in order to facilitate Liz to gain a psychophysical

experience of the Up and Down image schema, with the further aim to use such an

understanding in the creation of the physical score and the development of the character. For

this reason I employed the corpse pose, which aimed to facilitate Liz's connection to the floor

and her ability to release into it. Furthermore, I used a variation of the pose, where a weight is

placed on the thighs. In general terms, the use of the weight aims to enhance the practitioner's

muscular release, but in this case the intention was to enable Liz to gain a physical experience

of being weighted down because of an actual weight, rather than the imaginary burden of grief

that is conveyed in the text. In this manner, although the corpse pose is most popularly used in

in this instance the pose was employed in ' 27

an active way. Liz, while
a passive way of working,
in the pose, was thus asked to remain engaged with the environment, recite a few lines of verse

that recur in the play, and specifically use her supine position to send the lines upwards. Liz's

position as well as the reference of the lines to knives and their lethal potential produced in both

of us the image of a graveyard, which we explored further in two versions, which influenced the
final performance. In the first version, we treated Mother as a ghost that lying in her grave

constantly recounts her story. In the second, the Mother walks through the village and visits the

graveyard where her loved ones lie. Both ideas evolved further and were incorporated in the
final performance in the following way.

The Performance of Blood Mother

In the first scene, Liz entered the stage from behind the spectators singing a very sombre song,

lay down on the floor, and recited the short poem that was used in the activity with the corpse

pose. The atmosphere of the whole scene suggested the idea of a funeral, whereas Liz's

position, with her body lying down and her head turned upside down looking at the spectators

127The particularexamplealso shows that poses are classifiedaccordingto the way they are being used
rather than a predeterminedset of criteria and that active/passiveare provisionalcategoriesthat enable
me to work with and speak aboutdifferentmodesof attentionand qualities.

272
 created a slightly quirky image. Finally, the words with which Liz closed the scene 'Even if I lived
for a hundred years, I 'II talk of nothing else' conveyed the idea of the Mother remaining in her

past and haunting the present. In this manner, the first scene used effectively the idea of the

mother as a living person paying tribute to her dead, but also the Mother as dead that returns to

seek absolution. Indeed, in the final scene Liz enacted a symbolic burial by burying three
knives, and repeated the poem of the opening scene.

In effect, the Up Down orientation was not only operative in the physical action performed by

Liz, (coming from standing up to lying down), but it was also consistent with the more subtle and

intangible elements of the scene, namely the place of the action (a graveyard, I.e. a liminal

place between Up and Down) and the character of the Mother (living or dead? ). As a result, the
Up Down image schema offered a structure that underlay the physical score as well as the

atmosphere we sought to create. And although the employment of yoga (use of Savasana) in

this instance did not inform Liz's construction of character in the same way that the use of big

movements did, it generated images that drove the devising process and shaped the final

outcome.

It is also important to mention that this project featured the only case in which the physical

shape of the asana was used directly in the performer's score. When Liz lay on her back, of

course she was not performing Savasana, but she was, nonetheless, still using the external

shape of the pose out of which this particular moment was created. Even more pertinent is to

note that despite my desire to move away from the explicit images that the yoga poses convey,
in this instance the practice of Savasana (corpse pose) was used precisely because of the

associations of death that the pose brought to mind.

Finally, it would be an omission not to mention that the final product was influenced by ideas

and images that Liz had in other rehearsals, and her process was not based solely to the use of

yoga. The different ways in which Liz reached the final result, expose the variety of methods

and activities that one can use in a devising process. Nonetheless, an application of yoga was

operative, as it did not only inform the character creation, but it extended into the devising and

staging of the final performance. More importantly, the use of yoga in Blood Mother assisted not

but facilitator and devisor. The Up and Down

only the performer's work, also my own process as
image schema for example, apart from informing Liz's process, assisted my own reading of the

text as well as my approach towards the material that Liz produced in the rehearsal. It Is also

worth noting that the aspects of yoga that were employed in Blood Mother were predetermined

273
by me. Unlike most of the previouscases, where the choice of the asanaswas decided by the

participants,in this one the yoga materialwas preselectedand up to a degree prearranged.The

outcome of such an approach,leads me to believe that starting with a preselectednumber of
asanas can be more efficient and perhaps effective. On the other hand, of course this way of
working decreases the degree of agency that a performer has on his/her own process and
requiresthat the performerand the trainer/facilitatornot only have already developeda working
relationshipbut share the same vision of the characteron which they are working.

274
 Appendix IV: The Lady of Larkspur Lotion

Scene: A wretchedly furnished room in the French Quarter of New Orleans. There are no

windows, the room being cubicle partitioned off from several others by imitation walls. A small

slanting skylight admits the late unencouraging day. There is a tall, black armoire, whose doors

contain cracked mirrors, a swinging electric bulb, a black graceless dresser, an awful picture of

a Roma Saint, and over the bed a coat-of-arms in frame.

Mrs. Hardwicke-Moore,a dyed blonde woman of forty, is seated passively on the edge of the
bed as thoughshe could think of nothingbetter to do.
Mrs. Hardwicke-Moore (in a sharp affected tone): Who is at the door, please?

Mrs. Wire (from outside,bluntly): Me! (Her face expressinga momentarypanic, Mrs. Hardwicke-
Moore rises stiffly.)
Mrs. Hardwicke-Moore: Oh..... Mrs. Wire. Come in. (The landlady enters, a heavy, slovenly

woman of fifty.) I was just going to drop in your room to speak to you about something.
Mrs. Wire: Yeah? What about?

Mrs. Hardwicke-Moore (humorously, but rather painfully smiling): Mrs. Wire, I am sorry to say

that I just don't consider these cockroaches to be the most desirable kind of room mates-do

you?
Mrs. Wire: Cockroaches, huh?

Mrs. Hardwicke-Moore: Yes. Precisely. Now I have had very little experience with cockroaches

in my life, but the few that I 've seen before have been the pedestrian kind, the kind that walk.

These Mrs. Wire, appear to be flying cockroaches! I was shocked, in fact I was literally stunned

when one of them took off the floor and started to whiz through the air, around and around in a

circle, just missing my face by barely a couple of inches. Mrs. Wire, I sat down on the edge of

this bed and wept, I was just so shocked and disgusted! Imagine! Flying cockroaches,

something I never dreamed to be in existence, whizzing around and around and around in front

of my face! Mrs. Wire, I want you to know--------

Mrs. Wire (interrupting): Flying cockroaches are nothing to be surprised at. They have them all

over, even uptown they have them. But that ain't what I wanted to--------
Mrs. Hardwicke-Moore (interrupting): That may be true Mrs. Wire, but I may as well tell you that

I have a horror of roaches, even the plain old-fashioned, pedestrian kind, and as for this type

that flies ----- llf I am going to stay on here these flying cockroaches have got to be gotten rid of

and gotten rid of at once!

Mrs. Wire: Now, how am I going to stop them flying cockroaches from coming in through the

windows? But that however, is not what I-----

275
Mrs. Hardwicke-Moore (interrupting): I don't know how, Mrs. Wire, but there certainly must be a

method. All I know is they must be gotten rid of before I will sleep here one more night, Mrs.
Wire. Why, If I woke up in the night and found one on my bed, I'd have a convulsion, I swear to

goodness I'd simply die of convulsions!

Mrs. Wire: If 'II excuse me for sayin' so, Mrs. Hardshell-Moore, you 're much more likely to die

from overdrinkin' than cockroach convulsions! (She seizes a bottle from the dresser. ) What's

this here? Larkspur Lotion! Well!

Mrs. Hardwicke-Moore (flushing): I use it to take the old polish off my nails.

Mrs. Wire: Very fastidious, yes!

Mrs. Hardwicke-Moore: What do you mean?

Mrs. Wire: There ain't an old house in the Quarter that don't have roaches.
_
Mrs. Hardwicke-Moore: But not in such enormous quantities, do they? I tell you this place is

actually crawling with them!

Mrs. Wire: It ain't as bad as all that. And by the way you ain't yet paid me the rest of this week's

rent. I don't want to get you off the subject of roaches, but, nevertheless, I want to colleck that

money.
Mrs. Hardwicke-Moore: I 'II pay you the rest of the rent as soon as you've exterminated these

roaches!
Mrs. Wire: You'll have to pay me the rent right away or get out.

Mrs. Hardwicke-Moore: I intend to get out unless these roaches get out!

Mrs. Wire: Then get out then and quit just talking about itl

Mrs. Hardwicke-Moore:You must be out of your mind, I can't get out right nowt
Mrs. Wire: Then what did you mean about roaches?
Mrs. Hardwicke-Moore: I meant what I said about roaches, they are not, in my opinion, the most

desirable room-mates!

Mrs. Wire: Okay! Don't room with them! Pack your stuff and move where they don't have

roaches!

Mrs. Hardwicke-Moore:You mean you insist upon having roaches?

Mrs. Wire: Now I insist upon havingthe rent you owe me.
Mrs. Hardwicke-Moore:Rightat the momentthis is out of the question.
Mrs. Wire: Out of the question?Is it?
Mrs. Hardwicke-Moore:Yes, and I 'II tell you why! The quarterly payments I receive from the

man who is taking care of the rubber plantation have not been forwarded yet. I 've been
expectingthem to come in for several weeks now but in the letter that I receivedthis morning it
seemsthere has been some little misunderstandingabout the last year's taxes and------

276
 Mrs. Wire: Oh, now stop it, I 've heard enough of that goddam rubber plantation!The Brazilian

rubber plantation!You think I've been In the business seventeenyears without learningnothing
about your kind of women?
Mrs. Hardwicke-Moore(stiffly):What Is the implicationin that remark?
Mrs. Wire: I supposethe men that you have here nights come in to discuss the Brazilianrubber

plantation?
Mrs. Hardwicke-Moore:You must be crazy to say such a thing as that!

Mrs. Wire: I hear what I hear and I know what's going onl
Mrs. Hardwicke-Moore:I know you spy, I know you listen at doors!
Mrs. Wire: The first thing a landlady in the French Quarter learns is not to see and not to hear

but only collect your money! As long as that comes in- okay, I'm blind, I'm deaf, I'm dumb! But

soon as it stops, I recover my hearing and also my sight and also the use of my voice. If

necessary I go to the phone and call up the chief of police who happens to be an in law of my

sister's! I heard last night that argument about money.

Mrs. Hardwicke-Moore: What argument? What money?

Mrs. Wire: He shouted so loud I had to shut the front window to keep the noise from carrying out

on the streets! I heard no mention of any Brazilian rubber plantation! But plenty of other things

were plainly referred to in that little midnight conversation you had! Larkspur Lotion- to take the

polish off nails! Am I in my infancy, am I? That's on the par with the wonderful rubber plantation!
(The door is thrown open. The Writer, wearing an ancient bathrobe, enters. )

Writer: Stop!
Mrs. Wire: Ohl It's you!
Writer: Stop persecutingthis woman!

Mrs. Wire: The second Mr Shakespeareentersthe scene.

Writer: I heard your demon howling in my sleep.
Mrs. Wire: Sleep? Ho-ho! I think that what you mean is your drunken stupor!

Writer: I rest because of my illness! Have I no right to------

Mrs. Wire: Illness- alcoholic! Don't try to pull that beautiful wool over my eyes. I'm glad you

come in now, Now I repeat for your benefit what I just said to this woman. I'm done with dead
beats! Now is that plain to yuh? Completely fed-up with all you Quarter rats, half-breeds,

drunkards, degenerates, who try to get by on promises, lies, delusions!

Mrs. Hardwicke-Moore(covering her ears): Oh, please, please, please stop shrieking! It's not

necessary!
Mrs. Wire (turning on Mrs. Hardwicke-Moore):You with your Brazilian rubber plantation.The

coat-of-armson the wall that you got from the junk-shop- the woman who sold it told mel One

277
of the Hapsburgs!Yesl A titled lady! The Lady of Larkspur Lotion! There is your title! (Mrs.
Hardwicke-Moorecries out wildly and flings herself face down on the saggingbed.)
Writer (with a pitying gesture): Stop badgering this unfortunate little woman! Is there no mercy

left in this world anymore? What has become of compassion and understanding? Where have

they all gone to? Where is God? Where is Christ? (He leans trembling against the armoire. )

What if there is no Brazilian rubber plantation?

Mrs. Hardwicke-Moore (sitting passionately erect): I tell you there is, there is! (Her throat is taut

with conviction, her head thrown back. )

Writer: What if there is no rubber king in her life! There ought to be rubber kings in her life! Is

she to be blamed because it is necessary for her to compensate for the cruel deficiencies of

reality by the exercise of a little-what shall I say-God-given-imagination?

Mrs. Hardwicke-Moore(throwingherself face down on the bed once more):

No, no, no, no it isn't imagination.
Mrs. Wire: I will ask you to stop spitting me in the face those high-flown speeches! You with your

780-page masterpiece-right on a par with the Lady of Larkspur Lotion as far as the use of

imagination's concerned!

Writer (in a tired voice): Ah, well, now, what if I am! Suppose there is no 780-page manuscript in

existence (He closes his eyes and touches his forehead. ) Suppose there is in existence no

manuscript whatsoever! What of that, Mrs. Wire? But only a few, a very few-vain scribblings-in

my old trunk bottom... Suppose I wanted to become a great artist but lacked the force and the

power! Suppose my books fell short of the final chapter, even my verses languished

uncompleted! Suppose the curtains of my exalted fancy rose on magnificent dramas-but the

house-lights darkened before the curtain fell! Suppose all these unfortunate things are true! And

suppose that I-stumbling from bar to bar, from drink to drink, till I sprawl at last on the lice
infested mattress of this brothel-suppose that I to make this nightmare bearable for as long as I

must be the helpless protagonist of it-suppose that I ornament, illuminate-glorify it! With dreams

and fictions and fancies! Such as the existence of a 780-page masterpiece-impending

Broadway productions-marvellous volumes of verse in the hands of publishers only waiting to

release them! Suppose that I live in this world of pitiful fiction! What satisfaction can it give you,

good woman, to tear it to pieces, to crush-call it a lie? 111tell you this- now listen! There are no
lies but the lies that are stuffed in the mouth by the hard-knuckled hand of need, the cold iron

fist of necessity, Mrs Wire! So I am a liar, yes! But your world is built on a lie, your worlds is a

hideous fabrication of lies! Liesl Liesl... Now I am tired and I 've said my say and I have no

money to give you so get away and leave this woman in peace! Leave her alone. Go on, get

out, get away (He shoves her firmly out of the door).

278
 Mrs. Wire (shoutingfrom the other side): Tomorrowmorning!Moneyor out you gol Both of you.
Both togetherl 780-page masterpieceand Brazilian rubber plantation! BALONEYI(Slowly the
derelict Writer and the derelict woman turn to face each other. The daylight is waning greyly

throughthe skylight. TheWriter slowly and stiffly extendshis arms in a gesture of helplessness.)
Mrs. Hardwicke-Moore(turning to avoid his look): Roaches! EverywherelWalls, ceiling, floor!
The place is infestedwith them.
Writer (gently): I know. I supposethere weren't any roacheson the Brazilianrubber plantation.
Mrs. Hardwicke-Moore(warming): No, of course there weren't. Everything was immaculate

always -always. Immaculate)The floors were so bright and clean they used to shine like -
mirrors!
Writer: I know. And the windows-I suppose they commanded a very lovely viewl

Mrs. Hardwicke-Moore: Indescribably lovely!

Writer: How far was it from the Mediterranean?

Mrs. Hardwicke-Moore (dimly): From the Mediterranean? Only a mile or two!

Writer: On a very clear morning I daresay it was possible to distinguish the white chalk cliffs of

Dover? Across the channel?

...
Mrs. Hardwicke-Moore: Yes-in a very clear morning it was.

(The Writersilentlypasses her a pint bottle of whisky.) Thank you, Mr.----?

Writer: Chekhovl Anton PavlovitchChekhovl
Mrs. Hardwicke-Moore(smiling with the remnantsof coquetry):Thank you, Mr-Chekhov.

279
Appendix V: Bodystorles

1. The Wounded Shin

When I was nine years old I fell down and hit my right shin. It was really bloody, but being the

little kid I was, I didn't take care of the wound. A couple of weeks later, it hadn't healed

completely but I had forgotten all about it. That weekend my family went to Lake Anderson with

all our family friends. It was 95f outside but when my parents looked around they saw me

shivering cold under a blanket. They through I was merely getting sick and put me to bed. A

couple days thereafter my shin had swollen up to the size of a baseball. My parents immediately

rushed me to the emergency room where the doctor told us that if my parents would have

waited any longer then I would have died. The infection had grown so deep it was nearly to the
bone and once it reaches the bone there nothing anybody can do. They put me into surgery on

the same day. And with my mum in the room and only a slight bit of numbing to the leg, the

doctor dug out the infection. As he was popping what he described as a giant pimple he said the

liquid oozing from my leg looked like navy bean soup. To this day I will not eat navy bean soup

and I can't feel that spot on my leg.

2. 'You happen'
Once upon a time, there was a girl, twelve years old. One day she sat on her mother's lap. The

mother was holding her, as usual touching the girl's body. The girl was used to the mother's

touch and being surrounded by the warmth. But once the mother touched the girl's chest, she

screamed and said: "You happen! ". The father was having dinner beside them. The mother told

the father that the girl "happen", just like telling him what they are going to have for dinner. The

mother looked at the girl, the girl looked at the mother, and she had no facial expression. Since

then, the girl hasn't sat on the mother's lap again.

3. The Concussion

I am playing football in the playground. Girls versus boys. It must be spring because the sun is

shining and the playground is busy. Before I realize who or what the football hits my head hard.
Time passes and then I go to the receptionist (the ugliest woman I have seen in my life).

'What's the matter Lai Sim Fung?'

'Can my dad come and pick me up? I feel dizzy.'
My dad takes to the hospital. The doctor is impatientwith me. 'You 've got concussion.3 days

rest. No telly, no school, no reading'.

Time passes.

280
 I am on the coach on a school trip. I turn my head and I see the boy who hit me with the ball.

'You fucking son of a bitch' I murmur. I fall in love. We decide to become boyfriend and

girlfriend. I don't see him very often because he is in another class. I fall in love more. The

school closes and summer comes. I never see him again. He calls me after ten years and says.

'You know, we never really broke up. In a way we are still together'.

4. Growing Up
In the summer before I went to the new high school my body began to ache and became

injured. First my wrists, then my legs and finally my right hamstring. I am dying I tell my mum. I

am positive of it. I am eating all the time, I am in pain all the time and my trousers don't fir any

more. Goshl Am I pregnant? Mum can I get pregnant without ever kissing a boy? My mum tells

me I am ridiculous and asks me to calm down. Summer continues I am in more and more pain.
When I move to the new high school instead of being the shortest in the class, I am now the

tallest.

5. The Piano

You know that feeling, when something randomly pops itself into your head; an idea, or a

thought so familiar, so brilliant, so important that you don't trust it. Either because such thought

could not have come from you, you think you must have seen it on the TV or somewhere, or
because you cannot tell whether such thought has actually happened. Maybe you dreamed it

years ago, so vividly you believe it to be a fact. Well, this happens to me all the time. I have just

started senior school and we do music classes with a beautiful, elegant woman called Miss
Penny. Miss Penny inspires me and I have a piano at home and I often play with it. One day I

went to the piano and knew that if I let my hands, they would play. I sat and improvised for
hours. It was the most amazing thing that has ever happened to me. It started from my heart,

through my shoulders, down my elbows, through my wrists and out through my fingertips on the

piano keys. In class I offered to show Miss Penny what I came up with at home. The class were
less than impressed but she was astounded. I think I must have lost it after a while and I never

knew how I did it. I just remember her face and my embarrassment in front of my peers. But

then when I came back home I could not do it anymore. Maybe I 've dreamed all about it. I just

knew I could it and then I couldn't do it anymore.

6. The Wrist
You may want to stop hurting me. No, seriously you have to stop. Do I have no say

whatsoever? Have I become obsolete? Am I nill? Am I void? I can feel, you know. I provide a

281
lot. You might not want to hurt me. You know my neighbour? Hey, I am talking to you. Yes, you!

You know my neighbour? Lives on the other side of the land? Looks exactly like me? Well, she

told me you've been doing the same shit to her. Now what the hell is all that about? You got a

thing against us? Are you a wristist? You hate wrists, don't you? Well, we'll show you. You are

getting no support from us anymore. We'll just be dead weights at your side from now on. That's
itl Consider me dead to you. If you ever decide to apologize and treat me fairly I'll be here

practicing my speech. 'I have a dream that one day, all body parts shall be treated equally'.
That's an original. You can quote me on that. But don't planning on writing it down, because you

need my help and I ain't gonna do it. I am a free wrist. Hallelujahl

7. The ears

I only knew him for two days. For a man that I probably will never see again for the rest of my

life, he owns one part of my body. First we met, he was kind, polite and knowledgeable. He

shared with me his life. We lay down, he told a heroic event he has done when he was young.
Suddenly he would like to kiss me, I pushed him away. Later that night, I openly gave him a hint

to kiss me, but he didn't, surprisingly, he didn't. Before I left him, we hugged and we kissed. I

touched the tip of his tongue. We are distant away, in terms of height and age. He kissed my

ears, with his tongue. You are always so young. He is 50, she is 23. The ears can never accept

any kiss from anyone, the 23-year-old girl said.

8. The eyes
It was a sunny day. We are supposed to see everything clearly. Sky is clear blue with white

clouds. I was talking to someone. We were heading to the same direction, to work I guess. I

was happy and very energetic in the conversation. I looked at her from time to time and what I

saw seemed a bit blurred. I blink. Better. But it came back again after a while. I guess I was
tired or something. Newspapers, scripts, books, documents, computer screen, more often I

found that I could not see them as clear as I used to. Eyes are so important to a person

especially an actress. I act with my eyes... If they go, what will happen? I will lose connection

with my partners, my audiences. Waiting in the clinic lobby. Nothing has been more painful as

that time. I am so scared. That moment I discovered how much I love my eyes. Detailed

examination took place, the doctor said: It's deterioration. I said: oh and waited for him to

continue. He didn't. There is a silence. Not long, but seems to me longer than ever. I said: Isn't

there anything we can do? Then he said: Nothing we can do. I said: Nothing? He said: Nothing.

It's deterioration. No medication? Why no medication for deterioration? I am only forty. Surgery?

282
 Appendix VI: Questionnaire for Practitioners

Practical Project I:
What was your experience in the project?

Which aspects did you find more interestingand why?

Which aspects did you find less appealing?
Do you think the way we used yoga is relevant to your own process as an actor? If so, how? If

not, why not?

Did you make any new discoveriesabout your work as a performerthroughthis project?
Do you think you are going to use some of the material we explored together in future projects?

How do you think the practice of Iyengar Yoga relates to acting?

Any additionalcomments.

Practical Project II
What was your experience in the project?

Which aspects did you find more interesting and why?

Which aspects did you find less appealing and why?

Were there things you would have liked to do in this project but we did not do?

Did you make any links between the practice of Iyengar Yoga and the exercises we did on

Rockaby?

Do you think the way we used yoga is relevant to your own existing process as an

If so, how? If not, why not?

actorlperformer/theatre-maker?
Did you make any new discoveriesabout your work as a performerthroughthis project? Do you

think the work we did together is going to inform your future work?
Any additionalcomments.

Practical Project III

What was your experiencein the project?

Which aspects did you find more interestingand why?

Which aspectsdid you find less appealing?

Did the use of yoga change your perceptionof your self and your body?
Did the use of yoga affect the stories you chose to share and the way you wrote them?
Did you approachyour own stories in a differentway than the stories that were not yours?
Do you think the way we used yoga is relevant to your own process as an actor? If so, how? If

not, why not?

283
Did you make any new discoveriesabout your work as a performerthroughthis project?
Do you think you are going to use some of the material we explored together in future projects?

How do you think the practice of lyengar Yoga relates to acting?

Any additionalcomments.

284
 Bibliography

Aaron, Jules, 1974. 'Seven Meditations on Political Sadomasochism',Educational Theatre

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THESIS CONTAINS

CD