Richards.
The 'Heart of Practice' is a collection of detailed interviews with Thomas
Richards, a close former student of Grotowksi's. What I have found to be
particularly interesting about this book is that for such an organised
account of the recollection of the workshops; in which we learn about the
styles and techniques used and practiced with, what comes out of it
entirely speaks of the organic growth of the work. It seemed that the more
I read, and the more Richard's would submerge himself into telling the
story of his work with Grotowski, the more I felt there was a link with
the human spirit, (or at least our inner selves) and performance.
Richard's responses in describing Grotowski's work are in some respects
similar in how he described Grotowski himself: 'There was a specific
quality of silence before each of his responses that was not at all
artificial.' It's made very apparent all the way through that Richards
dedicates himself to the work of Grotowski, perhaps partly due to what he
himself as a young student achieved with him and how much this made a
positive impact on his personal life. The training he participated in
reached a climax for Richards when Grotowski showed an interest in him
because of his performance in which he presented a clear 'intention'.
Clearly this turning point gave him a new train of thought that entirely
transformed his way of living, and his attitude within Grotowski's
workshops. Each time Richard's would answer a question within this book he
would always respond with a detailed account of a past rehearsal/workshop,
and this would appear as a well constructed train of thought. What would
consistently follow this however would be a sudden burst of electric
descriptions. He would often use the word river, repeatedly to paint us
with a picture of how inherit perhaps the work of Grotowski is to us as
humans, or how it is something that can be used spiritually, not just as a
performance tool. The use of the word river stood out to me also because
of my own experiences with our physical theatre classes. The 'wind dance'
in which we use every part of our body, and all of our energy to
participate and move in gives me images of native settings. The idea of
being lifted effortlessly off the ground and gracefully back down again in
ways echo's a lot of Richard's descriptions. The rhythms and patterns are
organised and constructed so we can perform the dance or movement again,
but as we move our mind set changes in order to keep the performance a
'truly alive process' (Thomas Richards's p.13).
Considering the work within our classes, in which we aim to use pedestrian
movement in order to ask what it means to move in this way, to make this
gesture, to produce this movement with our bodies; 'Heart of Practice'
proves highly relative in its analysis. Through reading this collection of
interviews with Thomas Richards and using it to reflect back on class work
I am progressing more towards truly understand why 'the creation of lines
of little beats of human behaviour…'(Thomas Richards) is so vital to
unleash and physically work as performers ourselves.
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