In the late twenties, actors and directors of the Group Theatre, who were pioneering the use of Stanislavski's teachings, saw the value of teaching ballet and the emerging modern dance. Actors now routinely learn dance, but dancers rarely study acting. In The Six Questions, Nagrin maintains that a command of acting techniques allows the dancer to couple the passion of a body in motion with the heart and mind of the dancer.
In five parts, the book first examines the personal essentials demanded by dance. The second part looks at the pitfalls inherent in the act of performing from vanity to self-hatred. The third part, the core of the book, poses six questions: Who? is doing what? to whom? where and when? and why? and against what obstacle? In the fourth part, Nagrin looks at the tools for working on the role, and the fifth part enters into the very act of performing. All of the work is handled in terms of movement alone: no dialogue or scenes from plays are used.
The Six Questions is a companion piece to Nagrin's other works, How To Dance Forever, and Dance and the Specific Image: Improvisation. Together they present an invaluable teaching and learning tool for anyone in love with dance.
The Six Questions i ii The Six Questions Acting Technique for Dance Performance Daniel Nagrin University of Pittsburgh Press iii Published by the University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, Pa. 15261 Copyright © 1997, Daniel Nagrin Theatre, Film and Dance Foundation, Inc. All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America Printed on acid-free paper 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging–in–Publication Data and acknowledgments of permissions will be found at the end of this book. A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. iv These pages are dedicated to Helen Tamiris 1902–66 She gave me and many others the liberating insight that the art of dance and the art of acting were rivers waiting to be joined as one. v vi Contents a c kn o w l e d g m e n t s introduction xi xxiii Part One. The Theory 1. Work on the Self 3 Pride in Your Physical Presence 4 When You Dance, You Can Lose Your Mind 6 Relish the Game of Pretending 7 Recall Your Earliest Performing Instructions 9 Observation, Imitation and Imagination 13 Keep a Journal 16 Read a Book 17 Too Much and Not Enough 18 2. Eroding Elements of the Performing State 21 The Crutches of Style 21 Performing for the Audience: Seen and Unseen The Intolerance of Uncertainty 27 Vanity Versus Self-hatred 29 Reaching for the Result 31 vii 25 3. The Six Questions: The Syntax of the Performing State 33 Who or What? 35 Is Doing What? 37 To Whom or What? 44 Where or When? 45 To What End? 47 The Obstacle? 48 Emotion Memory 49 Direction 50 Summary of the Six Questions: Questions, Doubts, Paradoxes and Contradictions 52 4. More Work on the Role 58 Impulse Analysis 58 Relationship to the Music 60 Sense-memory Work 61 Passive or Active? 62 Controlled or Released? 63 Focus: Internal or External? 65 An Event, a Recurrence or a Ritual? 68 The Inner Rhythm of the Role 68 Contradiction 69 Living with the Magic “If ” 70 Justification 72 Living with the Game of Oscillation 73 Taste 75 Pursue the Mannerism/Probe the Cliché 76 Determining Style 76 5. Performing 87 Lining Up Your Energies 87 Rivers of Energy Pouring Into Each Moment of Performance Stage Concentration Versus Oscillation 99 Dealing with What Is, Not with What Was 100 Interacting with the Others and the Environment 100 viiii Contents 94 Energy: Too Much/Too Little/Just Enough 101 Competition 1