ACTING FROM GROUND AND CENTRE AWARENESS
Ground and Centre Awareness is a ‘state of being’. Actors who enter a state of G&C A experience a grounded connection to the earth, a sense of ease in the body, a ‘centredness’ in the belly and heart, with an expansive openness which radiates presence.
Ground and Centre Awareness allows the actor to be with whatever is arising and enables the actor to channel characters, emotions and energies.
“It is only by grounding our awareness in the living sensation of our bodies that the “I AM”, our real presence, can awaken.” – G.J. Gurdjieff
What I mean by ‘being with what is arising’, is that an actor can handle the large energies that want to move through the body while channeling. When an actor is ungrounded, the energies become too much to handle. Like an electrical cord that is not plugged in, the work is all over the place. Sometimes the actor starts out grounded and then the energies become too much and they cause the actor to rise up high in the body, cutting off any access to the lower energy centres of the body where the instincts are housed.
Ground and Centre Awareness is an ‘alive’ state of being. The actor is open and available, ready to be taken where the energies want to go, simultaneously able to direct the energies. There is not so much ‘control’ and ‘manipulation’ in the work. It is not forced. It appears confident and grounded, alive and vibrating, truthful and connected. The sub-conscious and conscious minds are linked, so that there is a flow of creative sub-conscious material through consciousness. And there is an undeniable presence in the actors being.
How does the actor achieve this ‘state of being’? Well, the “blog article gods”, told me only to write a few hundred words at a time, so that will be the topic in next week’s article.
If you would like to continue to part 1 go here: https://cindytanas.com/the-actors-instrument/grounding-for-the-actor/
All characters exist inside of you because you are connected to the “Collective Unconscious”. You are enough! Believe in that!
Love,
Cindy Tanas
Useful link:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioenergetics
Cindy Tanas Actors Studio teaches acting classes for Theatre and Film in Toronto and the GTA, Collingwood and Southern Georgian Bay.