Radical Sensing and Performer Training

Elsa Gindler’s Embodied Translations

Rebecca Loukes

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English

Routledge
13 February 2025

Performance art; Acting techniques

Series: Perspectives on Performer Training

This exciting new book explores the pioneering radical sensing work of Elsa Gindler (1885–1961) and the practices of five women inspired by her. It re-considers a range of trajectories of influence across the established canons of twentieth-century performer training practices and challenges conventions of performer training historiography. Moving from the early twentieth‑century Physical Culture movement through Modern and Postmodern dance training in Europe and North America to contemporary devised theatre in the UK, this is the first book‑length study of Gindler’s pedagogy in relation to performance. It allows trainers, arts practitioners, theatre, dance and art historians, and students to understand previously untold stories in performance, Somatics and philosophies of knowledge. Bringing Gindler’s unique practice into dialogue with philosophies drawn from pragmatism and phenomenology, the book explores concepts of concentration and Gelassenheit, situation, gestalts of breathing, negative epistemology and phronesis, to create a picture of Elsa Gindler’s work as situated, context specific and inter‑subjective. It also explores how feminist ways of knowing and being are embedded in the practices themselves.

Drawing on the author’s 30 years of experience of training in work inspired by Elsa Gindler, this book allows theories and practices to converse and merge to build a rich and multi‑dimensional perspective of performer training. Woven throughout are practical experiments for the reader to try, alongside analyses of performances and previously unpublished workshop material and notes. Beyond performance, this book locates Gindler’s work within wider contexts of social and ecological crises and suggests that this radical sensing practice can be used as a quiet way to make a difference in the world.

By: Rebecca Loukes
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm,
Weight: 380g
ISBN: 9780367074647
ISBN 10: 0367074648
Series: Perspectives on Performer Training
Pages: 192
Publication Date: 13 February 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

List of figures Acknowledgements Introduction: Training Sensing/Sensing Training Part I: Elsa Gindler and her work Chapter 1: Elsa Gindler’s body stories: From Gymnastik to sensing Chapter 2: Concentration in Gindler’s work: A conversation with Gelassenheit Part II: Sensing Gindler’s Work in Training and Performance Chapter 3: Situating Sensing: Gertrud Falke-Heller’s Dance Training at Dartington Hall Chapter 4: The gestalt of breathing: Charlotte Selver, Sensory Awareness and Performer Training Chapter 5: Staging Sensing: Elaine Summers’ Kinetic Awareness and Pauline Oliveros’ Sonic Meditations Chapter 6: ‘Invisible’ Training and ‘Phronetic’ Knowledges in RedCape Theatre’s Be brave and leave for the unknown Conclusion: Performer Training Knowledges and Embodied Translations Index

Rebecca Loukes is Associate Professor of Performance Practice in the Department of Communications, Drama and Film at University of Exeter and Co-Founder and Co-Director of RedCape Theatre.