I like to use a lot of different kinds of warm-ups at the beginning of rehearsals, mostly physical.  I tend to do a lot of yoga-influenced stuff because I think it helps the actors renew their attention to their bodies, and also make them aware of their breath.  It’s almost a cliche, but it still amazes me to think about breath: how it is a vital, necessary function of the human body, and yet it can be controlled by the human will/mind.  Unlike many other physiological mechanisms that operate without our conscious effort (heartbeat, blood flow, cell regeneration, digestive processes) we can exert control (to a certain, even great extent) over our breath.  Because of this, many practices (yogic, performance techniques, and otherwise) look to the breath as a key to the connection between body and mind (spirit and matter, rational and emotional).  I have always been intrigued at dance performances to what extent breath is visible.  In Suzuki, breath is “the actors’ secret.”  And there is something so immediate about hearing people breathe — you can sense someone’s emotional state in their breath.

Last Tuesday was a singing day, so I wanted to give the actors a breathing exercise.  I had them all lie down with their heads on each others’ bellies.

Then, starting with Mark who was at the bottom of this head-to-belly pile, they pass a deep breath on to each other, one by one.  It’s a pretty elementary exercise, but a good way to build awareness of your breath in your belly when you got someone’s 10 pound noggin on it.

After breaths, they passed laughs and cries down.  It was difficult to discern which laughs were part of the exercise and which were genuine after a while.

Good times.