Gesture and Form





A remix of exercises for butoh training based on the book;To the Actor: On the Technique of Acting by Michal Chekov
  1. Walk around, find a place in the space, stand in neutral position and with the whole body make a opening movement, using all the space around you. Go back to neutral position, find a new place and repeat this using different openings movements.
  2. Same as step 1 but use part of your body only, experimenting with big, small, and very subtle movements.
  3. Same as 1 + 2 but now using closing movements.
  4. Same but mixing opening and closing movements.
  5. Gradually add reaching, withdrawing, pushing, pulling, throwing, catching movements.
  6. Experiment with inventing some more simple movements.

After this you do same exercise, but this time you make sure that each movement originates from the hara, the point two inches below the navel. You can imagine that energy is flowing from the hara into your body, creating the movements.