Toward a Phenomenological Model of the Actor's Embodied Modes of Experience

Author(s): Phillip B. Zarrilli

Source: Theatre Journal, Vol. 56, No. 4, Theorizing the Performer (Dec., 2004), pp. 653-666
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25069533
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a Phenomenological
Embodied
Modes

Toward
Actor's

Model

of the

of Experience1

Phillip B. Zarrilli
can the contemporary
in performance
actor's body and experience
How
be
tools are useful in an attempt to better understand
theorized?2 What methodological
the embodied work of the actor? This essay applies one among a set of complimentary
tools to this question?a
Like
post-Merleau-Ponty
methodological
phenomenology.3
all accounts of embodiment
this one is necessarily
and experience
limited by "our
since it is extremely difficult "to express the
of representation,"
propositional modes
full meaning
of our experience."4 In spite of such limitations, this essay is intended to
contribute to phenomenological
studies of embodiment
their focus from
by extending

Phillip

Zarrilli

trains

actors

and

directs

most

His

internationally.

recent

include

productions

The

Beckett Project in Ireland at theGranary Theatre (Cork,May 2004), and The Water Station by
Ota Shogo with TTRP at The Esplinade (Singapore, September 2004). He recently led workshops at
Gardzienice
Jen

Theatre
He

Theatre.

Association,

the Centre

is the author

numerous

of Studies
onjerzy Grotowski
books and
essays,
including

of
Kathakali
Dance-Drama:
2002),
All Eyes
and When
the Body
Becomes
(2000),
at Work:
The
Actor
DVD-ROM,
Psychophysical
edition,

(second

of Performance

Practice

at

the University

of Exeter,

Where

(Wroclaw),
Acting
Demons

and for Tainan

(Re) Considered

to
Come
Play
is currently at work on a new book and
". . . at the nerve
ends." He
is Professor
Gods

and

He

(1998).

Acting
and

UK,

runs

private

in Wales.

studio

1
a grant from AHRB
with
assistance
for this essay was undertaken
Research
(UK).
provided
by
2
in this essay in its present
the model
of "contemporary
form does not
Although
acting" presented
or sensory
or how
bodies
issues of
address
the experiential
of actors with
physical
impairments,
on the
or ethnicity
the model
could be elaborated
in the future to
experiential
gender
impinge
body,
account
not addressed
for modes
of embodied
here.
experience
3
to
In addition
examination
of embodiment
and awareness
utilizes
my ongoing
phenomenology
and Mark
in the Flesh (New York: Basic
Johnson,
philosophical
linguistics
[George Lakoff
Philosophy
alternative
and ways
in non-Western
of articulating
discourses,
experience
paradigms,
The Body (Albany:
Yasuo Yuasa,
SUNY Press,
addresses
the
[see in particular
1987), which
in performance;
Where Gods and Demons Come to
Japanese body
Phillip Zarrilli, Kathakali Dance-Drama:
the Body Becomes All Eyes: Paradigms,
Discourses
and Practices
2000); When
Play (London: Routledge,
of
a South Indian Martial
Power
Art (New Delhi: Oxford
in Kalarippayattu,
Press,
1998)]; and
University
and awareness
and practices
in actor training and perform
of embodiment
discourses
contemporary
Books,

1999)];

practices

ance
"The Meta
(Re)Considered
2002, second
(London,
edition);
Acting
[Phillip Zarrilli,
Routledge,
TDR 46.2 (2002): 157-70;
Performance
Studio,"
physical
"Negotiating
Knowledges
Epistemologies:
21.1 (2001): 31-46]. See also Richard
For, and In," Studies in Theatre and Performance
About,
Shusterman,
Live: Aesthetic Alternatives
Press, 2000). For a
for the Ends of Art (Ithaca: Cornell University
Performing
to the present,
from Edmund
of phenomenology
Husserl
and for a discussion
of
(1859-1938)
history
limitations

and possibilities,

see Dermot

The Body
Johnson,
of Chicago
Press,

in theMind:

Moran,

An

Introduction

to Phenomenology

(London:

Routlege,

2000).

4
Mark

University

Theatre

Journal

1987),

56 (2004)

the Bodily

Basis

ofMeaning,

Imagination,

and Reason

4.

653-666

2004 by The

Johns Hopkins

University

Press

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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

(Chicago:

654

Phillip B. Zarrilli

concern

exclusive

the

with

to such

everyday

practices

non-everyday

as

acting,

and

to

in the analysis of theatre. Previous studies

build on the earlier uses of phenomenology
O.
Bruce
Alice
States,
Wilshire,
Rayner, and Stanton Garner have contributed
by Bert
our
to
of
the theatrical event, and redressed the critical disap
much
understanding
and
in the creation of meaning
(lived) body and embodiment
in
the focus
this essay is specifically
the theatrical event;5 however,
experience within
on the actor's modes of embodiment
per se. Future publications will address how a
informed discussion
such as this can be of pragmatic use in the
phenomenologically
here is applied to psycho
of embodiment
studio, as the model of modes
developed
actor
to
the
and
of
dramaturgies.6
specific
training
physical
of

pearance

the

and

Merleau-Ponty

the "Problem"

of the Body

came to identify the

in the seventeenth
century, Western
philosophers
Beginning
as a physical
certain
like
much
material
other
having
objects?as
object
body
as following certain
that could be characterized
anatomical and functional properties
of
this understanding
those systematically
scientific principles. Among
challenging
the 1960s, a series of three books by Maurice Merleau-Ponty?
the body during
Phenomenology of Perception, The Primacy of Perception, and The Visible and the Invisible?
a paradigmatic
shift inWestern
marked
thinking about the role of the body in the
of experience when he raised the fundamental philosophical
problem of
role (or lack thereof) in constituting
critiqued
experience.7 Merleau-Ponty
of the body and experience:
the hitherto static, objective nature of most representations

constitution
the body's

as

is" which

it is in our

think
quietly

Rejecting

looks

which

[TJhinking
the "there

of as an

life and
information

at the command
the

exclusive

on

must
return
to
the object-in-general
the sensible
and opened
world
such
we may
body which
legitimately
I call mine,
this sentinel
standing
body

and thinks of
above,
it; to the site, the soil of
that possible
for our body?not
from

underlies

machine
of my

words

assumption

that actual

but

and
of

acts.8

the natural

sciences

and modern

psychology

that treated the physical body (K?rper) as a thing, object, instrument, or machine under
and thereby challenging
the
and control of an all-knowing
the command
mind,

5
Bert

in Little Rooms: On Phenomenology

Great Reckonings
States,
(Ithaca: Cornell
of Theater
and Identity: The Limits of Theatre as Metaphor
Role Playing
Press,
1971); Bruce Wilshire,
and the
To Act To Do To Perform: Drama
Indiana University
Press,
1982); Alice Rayner,
(Bloomington:
Bodied
of Michigan
Press,
Garner,
1994); Stanton
(Ann Arbor:
University
Phenomenology
of Action
Cornell
Drama
in
and
Press,
1994).
(Ithaca:
University
Contemporary
Performance
Spaces: Phenomenology
the
the semiotic
offers to supplement
As Garner
(or materialist)
body with
"Phenomenology
explains,
its
in
counter
the
(and phenomenalizing)
dephysicalized
body?to
body
signifying
phenomenal
in its material
resistance.
call the 'embodied'
with what we might
By addressing
body
readability
of which
of 'livedness,'
issues of embodiment,
objectifying
opens up the dimension
phenomenology
to maintain
its analytic
stance. The
no account
can
bracket
in order
and which
it must
give
theory
to a
its meanings
the epistemological
of a corporeal
model
resists
object yielding
body
phenomenal
observer"
(50).
decorporealized
6
forth
Actor at Work: acting ". . . at the nerve ends" (London: Routledge
The Psychophysical
Press,
with
book
DVD-ROM).
coming
7
and Kegan
Maurice
Paul,
1962),
(London: Routledge
Merleau-Ponty,
of Perception
Phenomenology
Visible and the Invisible
The
Northwestern
The Primacy
Press,
1964),
(Evanston:
University
of Perception
Press,
1968).
(Evanston: Northwestern
University
8
160-61.
The Primacy
of Perception,
Merleau-Ponty,
O.

University

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MODELOF THEACTOR'SEMBODIED
MODESOF EXPERIENCE /

655

Cartesian cogito, Merleau-Ponty

(re)claimed the centrality of the lived body (Leib) and
embodied experience as the very means and medium
through which the world comes
an account of the "actual body I call
into being and is experienced. He demanded
that

mine,"
lived

the

is,

concreteness,"

body
and

as

"an
as

"not

...

experienced
phenomenon
a
representable
object...

in the

for

the

immediacy
abstractive

of

its

gaze."9

He

dualism, and (re)claimed the centrality of the body

thereby rejected mind-body
as
and embodied
the
locus for "experience as it is lived in a deepening
experience
the focus of philosophical
awareness."10 For Merleau-Ponty,
inquiry shifted from "I
an
as modes
to
"I
examination
can"
the
think"
of the
of
body, i.e., sight and movement
or
of entering
into intersensory
"the world."11 Dermot
relationships with objects,
as undoubtedly
Moran
summarizes Merleau-Ponty's
contribution
"the
producing
can interact with the
most detailed example of the manner
inwhich phenomenology
a descriptive

and the arts to provide

sciences

account

of the nature

of human

bodily

being-in-the-world."12

The

Problem

of the Contemporary

Actor's

Body[ies]

We organize "the world" we encounter into significant gestalts, but "the body" I call
mine is not a body, or the body, but rather a process of embodying
the several bodies
one encounters
in everyday experience as well as highly specialized modes
of non
or "extra-daily" bodies of practices such as acting or training in
psycho
as a process of encounters
to act. This notion of embodiment
physical disciplines
opens up "the body" not as an object, and "carries us past the inveterate tendency to
and engage."13 As Stanton Garner
reify what we are trying to think and understand
to
and transformation, multiple
is
modification
and
"embodiedness
points out,
subject
.
.
.
the
modes
and
forms
of
that
the
of
characterize
disclosure,
varying
ambiguity
in
within
and
realm
between
modes
flux, oscillating
represent experience
phenomenal
everyday

of

orientation."14

perceptual

This essay begins with

account of one of the most
"question

of why
and

experience"

of the modes

an examination

of Drew Leder 's post-Merleau-Ponty

of
the body?corporeal
absence, i.e., the
vexing problems
. . . tends to recede from direct
the body, as a ground of experience

thereby

of bodily

becomes

on

to us.15

absent

absence

Leder

bodies.

Given

world,

I build upon Leder 's account by proposing

embodiment

my

and

focus

their

the

actor's

contemporary

respective

of

modes

an

provides

of the everyday

characteristic

modes

of

two additional
absence

account

extensive

surface
bodily

and recessive
being-in-the

extra-daily modes

characteristic

of

acting:

of
an

and shaped through long-term, extra-daily

aesthetic "inner" bodymind
discovered
modes of practice, and an aesthetic "outer" body constituted by the actions/tasks
of a
performance

score?that

body

offered

for

the

abstractive

gaze

of

the

spectator.

9
and Being (Evanston: Northwestern
Calvin O. Schr?g, Experience
Press,
1969), 130.
University
10
David Michael
Levin, The Body's Recollection
1985), 62.
of Being (London: Routledge,
11
87.
Merleau-Ponty,
of Perception,
Phenomenology
12
to Phenomenology,
An Introduction
434.
Moran,
13
David
Michael
"The Ontological
Dimension
of Embodiment:
Levin,
Heidegger's
Thinking
in The Body, ed. Donn Welton
Publishers,
(Oxford: Blackwell
1999), 122^9,128.
Being,"
14
Bodied Spaces, 51.
Garner,
15
Drew
of Chicago
Leder, The Absent Body (Chicago: University
Press,
1990), 1.

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of

656

Phillip B. Zarrilli

A Fundamental

"The

Paradox:

absent

body"

to address some of the inadequacies

in Merleau
but attempting
account
of
the
of
the
experience
Ponty's phenomenological
everyday
body, Drew
Leder 's The Absent Body addresses a fundamental problem and paradox:16
upon,

Drawing

in one sense
in our lives, it is
the body
and inescapable
is the most
presence
abiding
own
is rarely
characterized
That
the thematic
is, one's
essentially
by absence.
body
a book or lost in
own
state may
When
be
my
object of experience.
reading
thought,
bodily
awareness.
I
in a world
the farthest
from my
dwell
of ideas, paying
thing
experientially
or
to my
little heed
sensations
physical
posture.17

While
also

to moments
is not "restricted
of higher-level
but
cognition,"
our engagement
in activities such as sports, physical labor, or the

Such

forgetfulness
equally characterizes
arts?dance,

performing

acting,

live

etc. When

performance,

in

"engaged

fierce

to the slightest movements

it
of my opponent...
sport, muscles flexed and responsive
is precisely upon this opponent,
this game, that my attention dwells, not on my own
embodiment."18

How are we to account for this bodily absence? For Leder, the lived body (Leib) is
not a homogenous
thing, but rather "a complex harmony of different regions, each
operating according to indigenous principles and incorporating different parts of the
a lengthy description
world
into its space."19 Leder provides
of two modes
of
our
is
which
embodiment
constituted?the
experience
through
everyday
usually
is characterized by its
surface body and the recessive body (see figure 1), each of which
own

mode

of

absence.20

bodily

The

"Ecstatic"

Surface

Body

engage the world around us through our sensorimotor

intersubjectively
surface
a
as
we
use
or
to
to
when
hand
relate
the
such
world.
This
touch,
body,
body
explore,
We

the most

encompasses

the power
encounters

16
Leder

prominent

of the gaze.
is "ecstatic"

functions

which

shape

our

field,

experiential

such

The basic stance of the surface body vis-?-vis

the world
in that the senses open out to the world. This is the body

as a
and
physician
is therefore
informed

as

it
of

to philosophy.
His phenomeno
his M.D. before
turning
etc. His account
models
of physiology,
anatomy,
by biom?dical
that
construction
of
human
about
the
sensitive,
any
recognizing
insight
experience
culturally
a
an
set of possibilities
and tendencies
that take on definite
"involves
ambiguous
shape only with
....
are
context
and
The body's
cultural
practices
self-interpretations
always
already
by
shaped
add also by gender
and ethnicity.
culture"
(The Absent Body, 151), and Iwould
17
out of hand,
than dismissing
dualism
Descartes'
The Absent
Leder,
Body, 1. Rather
body-mind
a
account
addresses
of how
his project
Leder
directly,
providing
phenomenologically-informed
logical
is also

trained

account

Descartes

reached

pearance

that

his

conclusions.

is the foundation

received

our experience
that it is precisely
of the body's
disap
the body
is a tacit and
dualism.
"Because
mind-body
can come to seem disembodied"
(Ibid., 108).

He argues
for Descartes'

the rational mind

structure,
self-concealing
18
Ibid., 1.
19
Ibid., 2.
201 focus here on the main
features of Leder's
relation

to actor

Shigenori

Nagatomo's
of the Body:

Concept

training

and performance.
of Japanese
version

Yuasa's

Body-Scheme,"

account

relevant

For an account

which

to an examination
in many

Yasuo Yuasa's
philosopher
in Attunement
Through

ways

of my
parallels

"body-scheme"
the Body [Albany:

in
argument
see
Leder's,
("An Eastern
SUNY

1992]).

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Press,

MODESOF EXPERIENCE /
MODELOF THEACTOR'SEMBODIED
First body
surface

Third body

Second body
recessive

body

"Fourth body"

inner

aesthetic

body

657

aesthetic

"outer"

body [the "body"

constituted by
actions /tasks in

bodymind

i.e.,

performance,
the "character"

in

offered

drama,

for

the gaze of the

audience]
sensorimotor

subtle

visceral

fictive

[stance in relation to theworld]

recessive

ecstatic

once

hidden/then
in

ecstatic

practice

created

as

then

ecstatic

score,
or

recessive

[fundamental direction]
outward

once

inward

focal &

from

once

disappearance
recedes

disappearance

score,

as a dialectic

[mode of disappearance]
absent

depth

background

once

awakened:

outward / inward

created

as

that

to and

which

one

acts

absent
once

cultivated

modes

of disappearance
and recessive
background

created

are both

focal/

[mode of perception]
exteroception

to

attentiveness

interoception

[plus
proprioception]

"as

if"

exteroception,
proprioception,
interoception
[mode

that from which

exist

of operation/awareness]

the inner depths

in the world

that through which

Imay heighten or
cultivate

my

relationship
subtle

modes

to

that through which

I

"appear"
in a

"world"

of

and/
"interiority"
or the "world"

[voluntary]
[mediated/marked primarily by]
"flesh"

"blood"

Figure

1. The

"breath"

actor's

embodied

modes

"appearance"
of experience.

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to act

658

Phillip B. Zarrilli

or

disturbed

Unless

"flesh."21

some

in

interrupted

our

way,

is usually

experience

characterized by a certain degree of ongoing spatiotemporal

continuity. "My eyes can
scan a visual world
that is without
sudden gaps or crevices. If I abandon one sense,
of the
the continuity
perhaps
closing my eyes, the other senses help to maintain
world."22
the

i.e.,

the surface body

Physiologically,
outer-directed

immediate

five

emotional

senses

us

open

is characterized
to the

out

by exteroception,

primarily

external

world,

"without

usually

the lived body

response."23 However,

a
I
in the world
I inhabit. No matter
constitutes
where
move,
always
nullpoint
physically
in the midst
retains
and even
of motion,
the status of an absolute
"here" around
my body
....
are
as the center
all "theres"
from which
the perceptual
which
arrayed
point
Precisely
an absence
or
in the midst
remains
of the
field
the perceptual
radiates,
organ
nullity
perceived.24

in our perceptual
Given that the body constitutes a nullpoint
field, we experience from
the body, and the sensory world "involves a constant reference to our possibilities
of
in the ecstatic nature of our corporeality
active response."25 It is precisely
that the first
reason that the body is forgotten, i.e., "the body conceals itself precisely
in the act of
revealing what is Other."26 This primordial absence is correlative with the very fact of
"The surface body tends to disappear
being present in/to the world we experience.
I exist in the world,"
from thematic awareness precisely because it is that from which
i.e.,

and

of perception

organs

"my

are

motility

themselves

at

transparent

of use."27 When we fix our visual focus "upon that which

ahead, the back of the body is comparatively
forgotten.
"28

the moment

lies spatially and temporally

It is absorbed in background

disappearance.

in part by
This commonplace
of our surface body is made possible
disappearance
"sense of balance,
the operation of a second mode of perception?proprioception?the
tension, provided by receptors inmuscles,
joints, tendons, and
position, and muscular
allows our surface body to adjust our limbs, muscles,
the inner ear."29 Proprioception
etc.

to any motor

appropriately

how

task;

therefore,

we

do

not

usually

have

to

think

about

up a set of steps.

to walk

The sensorimotor
repertoire of the lived body is in a constant state of transformation
most evident when learning a new skill. Skill acquisition
is at first extrinsic where one
acts "to the skill qua thematized goal."30 For example, when first learning the lion pose
in the Indian martial art, kalarippayattu (see figure 2), a beginner must
learn how to
assume the pose "correctly" by placing one foot facing forward, and the other foot at
ninety degrees while keeping the two heels in line with one another, the knees directly

21
Leder's

use

"flesh"

Similarly,

metaphoric.
respectively.
22
Leder,
23
Ibid.,
24
Ibid.,
25
Ibid.,
26
Ibid.,
27
Ibid.,
28
Ibid.,
29
Ibid.,
30
Ibid.,

of

The Absent

and

"blood"

Body,

"ecstatic"
and

to mark

"breath"

the

surface

metaphorically

body
mark

are both
the

second

but also
descriptive,
and third bodies,

42.

43.
13.
18.
22.
53.
29.
39.
31.

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MODESOF EXPERIENCE /
MODELOF THEACTOR'SEMBODIED

659

above the feet providing

support, the external focus ahead, and the spine lengthened.
shift of attention
is often at first characterized
Skill acquisition
by a volitional
a
the
instruction
for
"check
teacher's
to,
alignment of the
example,
prompted either by
own
a
or
to
one's
one's
attention
of
check
shift
heels"
self-conscious
alignment. The
"to" over time becomes
the "from," i.e., as one acquires skill in taking the lion pose
intrinsic and "intuitive." The
to and from it.What was extrinsic becomes
and moving
in
and
its
the
lion
has
pose
steps to the point of mastery
practitioner
incorporated
which s/he can now act on and operate on the world from a place of knowing how to
sense allows one to
move
to and from the lion pose. The individual's proprioceptive
to the very act of placing the foot without
subtle, minor adjustments
one's
the adjustment,
i.e.,
"intuitively" adjusts as one moves.
bodymind
the body disappears.

make

The

"Recessive"

Visceral

thematizing
In this sense,

Body

is the recessive body, i.e., the deep, inner, visceral

The second body Leder describes
in
which
of
physical terms includes the mass of internal organs
corporeal depths
body
and processes enveloped by the body surface, such as digestion and sensations such as

an intensive
at Gardzienice
Theatre
2. The lion pose from kalarippayattu:
training workshop
Figure
the big
in the center forward position.
When
the lion pose
led by the author
Association,
learning
an
toe
creates
toe of the foot being kicked upwards
and
extended
is ideally
the
rotated,
big
slightly
are extended
as it extends
in the
tension
from the other four toes which
upwards
oppositional
toe have gone up to about forehead
the foot/big
direction.
After
level, they travel
opposite
and the external
the big toe down. As a beginning
downward,
gaze should be following
workshop,
are able to
here. For
not all participants
and
the
form described
embody
display
fully "correct"
nor is the foot rotated, nor is the gaze following
some the
the big
extended,
big toe is not properly
as one attunes
the
"correct"
toe on its downward
the
toward
practice,
journey. Eventually,
body
an awarness
and link to the "negative"
"internal
space of the root foot that is
eye" is keeping
grounded

into/through

the floor.

[May

1999

(Poland)]

Photo

by Przemek

Sieraczyrtski.

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660

Phillip B. Zarrilli

hunger.

our

Physiologically,

of our

experience

internal

viscera

and

is character

organs

to the surface body, "interoception does not share the

Compared
of exteroception."31 Leder provides
the example of taking a bite
before swallowing,
is experienced
through sight, touch, smell, and

ized by interoception.
multidimensionality
of an apple which,
taste.

But

once

"these

swallowed,

are

possibilities

swallowed

up

as well."32

for

Except

and often unpleasant

evidence of digestive activity or dysfunction,
"the
an
into
visceral
of
involves
its
withdrawal
from
space
incorporation
exterocep
object
tive experience."33 The withdrawal
of the visceral body is a form of "depth disappear

the occasional

in that the viscera are "part of the body which we do not use to perceive or act
in a direct sense."34 Lacking the specificity of the surface body, visceral

ance"

the world

upon

are

sensations

therefore

often

and

vague

anonymous?we

this

experience

as

body

recessive, i.e., going or falling into the background. Characterized

by its recession, the
visceral body is therefore much more difficult to thematize.35 This is the (metaphorical)
that depth dimension
of experience "beneath the surface
body of "blood," suggesting
as
our
as
at the moment
well
into
life
of birth.
flesh,"36
temporal emergence
The normative

of both surface and recessive bodies is reversed when

disappearance
In pain, sensory
in the body
intensification
experience
pain or dysfunction.
demands
direct thematization.37 Pain is an affective call which has the "quality of

we

i.e.,

compulsion,"

the

pain

and

seizes

our

constricts

I must

attention.

now

act

to the

the discomfort.38 If I begin to lose my balance when walking up a set of

body
sense thematizes
in my normally
the dysfunction
steps, my proprioceptive
"good"
balance, and I automatically
attempt to regain my balance before falling. In both cases
to relieve

I involuntarily

act toward

the body, not from it.

of the lived body

is a constant
and
experience
everyday
intermingling
one
and
"we
of
"flesh
form
circuit"
inhabit
blood," i.e.,
exchange
organic/perceptual
as a gestalt which moves
between
ecstatic and
ing the surface/recessive
body[ies]
out into the world and falling back.39 The body's disap
recessive states?projecting
Our

and

pearance
account

absence
that

concludes

set of possibilities

"ambiguous
a cultural

context."41

dissociation

of mind

ness

31
32
33

for abstracted

Ibid.,

40.

Ibid.,

39.

Ibid.,

39.

mark
thereby
the
lived

The
from

West
body

mathematical

our
body's

"ceaseless

has

and

to valorize

tended

to

the world."40
nature

recessive

that take on definite

and tendencies
has

relation

ecstatic

us

encouraged

or linguistic

"immaterial
to "abandon

forms"

an

provides

shape only within

reason,"

sensorimotor

in contrast

Leder's

to more

and

this

aware

positive

34

Ibid., 53.
35
It is now
blood
36

commonly
recognized
etc. through
op?rant

pressure,
Ibid., 66.

37
Ibid., 77ff.
38
Pain is not

40
41

call bear
160.

Ibid.,

160.

Ibid.,

151.

or yoga

can

lead

to a lowering

of

53).

In the midst
of an athletic
athletes may overcome
competition
pain
physical
"A trained yogi can learn to ignore pain entirely
and suppress
performance.
or acts of will necessary
to resist
But the powerful
distractions,
responses.
training,
to its original
(Ibid., 73).
strength"
testimony
at

they operate
reflexive motor

Ibid.,

techniques
(Ibid.,

irresistible.

as

pain's
39

that biofeedback
conditioning

peak

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MODELOF THEACTOR'SEMBODIED
MODESOF EXPERIENCE /
of cultivating

modes

the types

awareness

of bodily

often

required

661

of the actor/

performer.42

The

"Inner"

"Aesthetic"

Bodymind

a
Since my interest is in constructing
phenomenological
analysis of the lived body
which takes account not only of the everyday surface and recessive bodies, but also of
the non-ordinary,
extra-daily lived body, I propose adding to the surface and recessive
bodies an equally important
and experience?the
"aes
(third) mode of awareness
thetic" inner bodymind.
This body
is that realm of extra-daily
and
perception
in
with
certain
associated
experience
long-term, in-depth engagement
psychophysical
or

practices

training

the martial

regimes?yoga,

arts,

per

acting/performing

se,

or

similar

forms of embodied
engage the physical body and attention
practice which
(mind) in cultivating and attuning both to subtle levels of experience and awareness.
This process of cultivation and attunement
is aesthetic in that it is non-ordinary,
takes
a
over
in
and
allows
for
shift
one's
of
and
the
mind
time,
place
experience
body
to
aspects from their gross separation, marked by the body's constant disappearance,
a much
of
and
It
subtler, dialectical
is,
engagement
body-in-mind
mind-in-body
as aesthetic since experience
is gradually
refined to ever-subtler
therefore, marked
levels of awareness, and inner since this mode of experience begins with an explora
tion

from

within

as

the

awareness

to

learns

the

explore

body.

I take as an example the well-documented

in
paradigm of the bodymind
developed
Indian yoga and the closely related Indian martial art, kalarippayattu, where a subtle
to the breath.43 In
is often accessed
level of inner awareness
through attentiveness
contrast to the involuntary,
of
and
absence, or the
everyday modes
disappearance
"to"
in
sudden attention given
the body
of
pain, these positive, voluntary modes
to explore realms of embodiment which,
refined self-presencing
allow the practitioner
while
allow one to
constraints, nevertheless
always bound by certain phenomenal
the terms and quality
(re)negotiate
encounter with itself in the world?at
cal practice
At

first,

or
this

of engagement
of the lived bodymind
in its
least during optimal moments
of psychophysi

engagement.44
subtle

inner

bodymind

is hidden,

and

unknown,

Since this bodymind

and mode
tally absent from experience.
it
for
the
of
the
is
understood
survival
necessary
everyday body,

therefore

fundamen

of experience
is not
to lie dormant within,

42

Ibid., 153.
43
see
On yoga

Tradition
of Chicago
Jean Varenne,
Yoga and the Hindu
(Chicago: University
The Philosophy
Manchester
of Classical
Yoga (Manchester:
University
and Yoga (Delhi: Motilal,
1991). On kalarippayattu
Religion, Philosophy
see Zarrilli, When
the Body Becomes All Eyes (123-53),
and
paradigm

Feuerstein,
1976); Georg
1980); and Jean Filliozat,
to the yogic
relationship
Bodies

of Practice

in a Traditional

Indian Martial

Art,"

Social

Press,
Press,
and its
"Three

Science

and Medicine,
28.12: 1289-310.
to a type of
subtle body
points

and paradigm
the map
of the yogic
culturally
specific,
of the "body" not addressed
experience
by the biom?dical
paradigm.
44
Since my discussion
I have chosen
to use the term extra-daily
focuses on acting,
to mark
the type
of non-ordinary,
modes
of engagement
here. The pursuit
described
of non-ordinary
modes
voluntary
can of course be
to the practice
as is the ideal in certain forms
of experience
of everyday
applied
living,

Although

of Buddhist
awareness
the Legacy

or as evident
in the everyday
in the legacy of Elsa Gindler
and body
world,
engagement
for everyday
life (see, for example,
Rebecca
Awareness
Loukes,
training
"Body
Training:
of Elsa Gindler,"
PhD thesis, Department
of Drama,
of Exeter, 2003).
University

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662

Phillip B. Zarrilli

to and through certain modes

of psychophysical
practice that engage
an individual
When
assiduous
of particular
practice
undergoes
to
embodied disciplines
like yoga and related martial arts, this body has the potential
this
and
the
is
be awakened,
mode
of
i.e.,
experience
perception
through
body
opened
as the bodymind.
To
and can become available to the experience of the practitioner
one must
to a particular
the subtle inner bodymind,
first attend directly
awaken
embodied
activity.
available only
the awareness.

is often achieved by
In the practice of yoga and the martial arts such attentiveness
means of attentiveness
to the breath. This inner body is therefore literally as well as
inner circulation of wind/energy/life-force
marked by the breath?the
metaphorically
of
the
identified in non-Western
body as prana or prana vayu in India, in
paradigms
and Hindus,
this inner
Chinese practices as qui, and in Japanese as ki. For Buddhists
or
as
of
where
breath
life-force
is
the
subtle
the
yoga
fully mapped
body
bodymind
line
the
of
travels along channels (nadi) and activates wheels
the
(chakras) along
spine.45
For Chinese Taoists this mode of inner experience of the viscera is pictured "as centers
for the circulation of qui/'46
along greater and lesser pathways
the result is that one's experience
of body and mind
long-term practice,
can
an
is
be
inner
subtle bodymind
altered, i.e.,
aspects of experience
fundamentally
can
Once
awak
be cultivated aesthetically
revealed, and
through specific practices.
or mode
ecstatic and can be directed
of awareness becomes
ened, this bodymind
inward and/or
outward
through one's practice. The ecstatic nature of this inner
as extremely subtle vibrations
in non-Western paradigms
is often manifest
experience
"to" the interior of the body, or between the
and/or heat. It can operate from-the-body,
from and the to. In some disciplines,
especially
inwardly directed forms of meditation
intended to take the practitioner away from engagement with the everyday world and
Over

away

and

ecstatically
meditation

ment,
as one

the body
But

intended

to enliven

the direction

in other

is outward

core,

inner/depth

outwardly
inner
and

the

between
and

the

outer

These modes

especially
encounter

oriented
outer,

world

one

arts

martial

this encounter with

toward

the

self-transcendence,

recedes.

intentionally

disciplines,
and alter
one's

it. It is in these

meets

modulates

therefore

recessive.

or

renunciation

toward

from-the-body

inward,

practices

the

to-the-body
encounters.

with

the

or

those

that

one's
and

modes

immediate

the environment
stance

is

direction

of practice

are
of

environ

and world
ecstatically

from-the-body?the

act of breathing
Of all the processes of the recessive visceral body, respiration?the
the most accessible of
which involves surface exchanges several times each minute?is
our visceral processes
to intentional control. Our breathing responds instantaneously
to shifts in emotion; therefore, "breathing is 'based in existence more than any other
function.'"47 It is through the breath that the aesthetic inner body reaches
physiological

45
Leder
power,
These

explains

charting

are meant
to have not only explanatory
but phenomenological
or to those who
in spiritual practices.
to the ordinary
engage
person
than
better
inner
subtle
and
of
the
may
experience
capture
shifting quality
to
inner body
The aesthetic
(The Absent Body, 182-83).
corresponds
organs"
between
the
which
mediates
other
"circuit of unconscious
quasi-body"

that "Such

experiences

energetic
portrayals
an image of fixed, massy
fourth circuit?the
Yasuo's

sch?mas

open

"An Eastern
circuits
(Nagatomo,
experiential
46
Leder, The Absent Body, 182.
47
Ibid., 183.

Concept

of the Body,"

59).

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MODELOF THEACTOR'SEMBODIED
MODESOF EXPERIENCE /
and touches both the surface body of exteroception,
of

our

inner

and also the depth

663

("blood") body

recesses.

state of absence of this third, aesthetic

fundamental
is wit
inner-bodymind
in our everyday
to
act
The
of
like
other
relationship
breathing.
breathing,
visceral domains, normally disappears unless a particular physical condition such as a

The
nessed
heart

or

problem,

a non-normative

mode

of

exertion

such

as

two

climbing

hundred

or pain in
stairs quickly, calls our attention to difficulties
breathing. Alternatively,
our
on
in
act
attention
and
the
of
focusing
breathing in a particular way, and in relation
one means
to the body, provides
to both work
the recessive
by which
against
our
awareness
in
to
and
of
the
breath
order
cultivate
the
breath
inner
disappearance
toward a heightened,
"ecstatic" state of engagement
in a particular practice and/or in
relation to a "world." For example, some masters of the Indian martial art, kalarippayattu,
teach simple breathing exercises at the beginning of training.48 Individuals stand with
feet at shoulder width, external gaze fixed on and through a point ahead at eye level.
to keep the mouth
closed, and to breath through the nose,
They are instructed
with
their "inner eye" the breath as it travels
(and literally) following
simultaneously
in and down along the line of the spine down to the lower abdominal region about two
inches below the navel (in Sanskrit, the root of the navel, nabhi muid). Sensing the
of the in-breath, and keeping
the inner eye fixed on the breath, on the
completion
exhalation they follow the breath on its journey back up and out through the nose. The
attention is directed simultaneously
outward with the external eye, and
practitioner's
inward and down with the "inner eye."
can gradually
to the breath in the
shift one's awareness
itsway to the visceral depths of the body below the navel.
Eventually, with long-term practice, the sensory awareness of following the breath can
be extended
from the lower abdomen downward
through the lower body and out
torso
the
soles
of
the
the
feet, up through
through
along the line of the spine, and out
or palms as the "inner
the top of the head, and out through the arms/hands/fingers
wind or energy" travels through the body. Although
it is normal for a beginner to at
first "space out" or experience the mind wandering
away from staying attentive to the
to
task
of
the
breath
and
from
the
lower abdomen?keeping
the
simple
following
Such attentive breathing
here and now as it traverses

"eyes

in the

gut"?over

the normative

long-term

disappearance

practice

such

attentiveness

to breath

works

against

of the body.

I have focused here on the example of the subtle body of yoga and
Although
this particular
interior map of the subtle body has been well
kalarippayattu because
documented
existence
the
of an aesthetic inner-bodymind
marked
ethnographically,
I
this
is
would
to these particular practices.
not,
argue, exclusive
by
particular map
Rather,

numerous

modes

of

traditional

as well

as

contemporary

actor/dancer

training

such as Japanese noh, LeCoq, Meyerhold's

Grotowski-based
biomechanics,
work,
etc. provide practitioners with modes
butoh, Suzuki training, kathakali dance-drama,
of deep, assiduous
to develop an
the practitioner has the potential
training in which
or
aesthetic inner-bodymind.
Each particular cultural, historical,
artistic/pedagogical
a version of this aesthetic inner
The mature
practice over time develops
bodymind.
the ability to voluntarily
thematize the body through use
practitioner
ideally develops

48
Zarrilli,

When

the Body Becomes

All

Eyes,

128-39.

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664

Phillip B. Zarrilli

so that one "stays [more] present" in the moment

of
one
not
is
this type of "self-presencing"
of
the
experience
primary,
which most of us live out the body,"49 for the actor, martial artist,
to bodily activity itself is practically
cultivated
attending
through
of the breath

and/or

through

non-ordinary,
To

on

experience
long-term
awareness
"inner"
optimal

summarize

the

discussion

thus

stage
to be
one's

far,

of

experience

training

long-term

to attain

is able

in one's

deployed

everyday "ways in
or meditator,
such

one

se, where

per

practice. Although

practice.50
the

gestalt

body-as-a

is usually within
the context of experiential
for the
however,
disappearance;
some type of psychophysical
or
individual practicing
discipline
through long-term
embodied
practice, the experience of surface and recessive bodies can be enhanced
and modulated
and attunement of a third, inner aesthetic
by the gradual awakening

whole

inner bodymind.
The Aesthetic
In

actor

the

performance,

tasks that constitute

enacts

and

specific
as

experienced

Body

offered

of

for the abstractive

in

character

set

score?that

performance

outer body

the aesthetic

read

spectator?often

"Outer"

actions/

gaze of the
drama.

conventional

The

actor's body, therefore, is dually present for the objective gaze and/or experience of an
for the actor per se. The actor's body is a site
audience, and as a site of experience
as well as experience
are generated
for both self and
representation
through which
other.

The

actor

an

undergoes

that

experience

is one's

own,

is therefore

and

constitu

tive of one's being-in-the-world,

and simultaneously
constitutes a world for the other.
all
Stanton Garner describes
this as the "irreducible twinness of a field that is?from
inhabited

points?simultaneously

of a drama,

this fourth body

and

seen."51

is conventionally

For

spectators

the

attending

read and experienced

enactment

as a particular

character.

the actor ideally embodies,

attends
to, and inhabits an
During
performance,
at hand which
set
structured
the
of
field
actions/tasks
immediately
experiential
by
a
so
with
the
and
does
mode
of embodied
constitute
score,
performance
collectively
the
and
constraints
the
aesthetic
conventions
inhabitation
of
qualities
fulfilling
at
For the actor operating
received or constructed
for that particular performance.
a
once
score
or
it
is
of
virtuosic
the
created
rehearsals
levels,
period
devising,
through
as
structure
to
actor
that
both
and
the
ecstatic
itself
recessive, i.e.,
presents
potentially
towhich and/or from which one acts or bodies forth the performance.
The fundamen
or
is a modulation
is both to and from, i.e., the actor's performance
tal direction
in relation to that score. As a constructed/fictive
oscillation
score, this set of tasks or
actions is absent until it is created, and bodied forth in performance. Once created and
for the
present
and
recessive.
perception

actor
For

operates

as a score,
the

actor

between

the modes
within

of
the

exteroception,

disappearance
enactment

are both
of

proprioception,

the

score
and

focal/background
in a role,

one's

interoception,

49
Leder, The Absent Body, 153.
50
or not the type of awareness
in relation
to a specific practice
cultivated
is transferable
Whether
an
or to
but complex
that cannot be fully addressed
other practices,
interesting
question
daily life, is
this essay.
51
Bodied Spaces, 51.
Garner,

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i.e.,

to
in

MODESOF EXPERIENCE /
MODELOF THEACTOR'SEMBODIED

665

are made as necessary

the immediate demands of the four
to/with/for
adjustments
score
as
it unfolds,
actor
thematizes
the
the
bodies.
inhabiting as fully as
Ideally,
as its moment
action
and
each
of
the score,
each action within
linking
possible
enactment
moment

arrives.
of

constant

However,

enactment?to

one's

adjustments
to the action

balance,

must
of

to and

be made
another

actor,

within

to a

cough

the
or a

field of the actor is, as Garner explains,

laugh from the audience, etc. The experiential
center
to
At
the
is the tension
and
of this ambiguity
oscillation.
ambiguity
"subject
between

inside

and

outside."52

The

actor,

therefore,

a dual

with

operates

consciousness

in a process of constant modulation

and
of the four bodies with all their ambiguities
score.
The
actor
is inhabiting and
the unfolding
tendencies, always ideally thematizing
a score through which he appears to act in a world. The actor's breath
embodying
appears to be the character's breath, i.e., the actor's breath both is his own and
simultaneously

is the breath of the character.

circuit" experience knits together all

For the actor-as-self,
the "organic/perceptual
between
of the bodies as a gestalt within which there is constant, dialectic movement
ecstatic and recessive states with respect to each of the bodies.53 None of the bodies is
settled or absolute, but always in a constant state of ambiguity. Therefore, the actor's
a constant dialectic
the world
of performance
lived experience within
engages
in heightened
between and among these four bodies. Optimally,
extra-daily activities
the surface and recessive bodies may recede further into the
such as performance,
a
background, but of course are always present. The lived body as gestalt is present as
an intersecting,

intertwining,

Concluding

Discussion:

The notion

chiasm of multiple
The Actor's

intertwining,

"Body"

as the "Chiasmatic

of the lived body may

that the experience

"chiasm"?braiding,

bodies.

or

best

be described

with

criss-crossing?originated

Body"
as a

Merleau-Ponty's

that characterizes
of the intertwining
the body's
fundamental
early description
In
to
the
world
model
the
surface
the
body.54
relationship
through
proposed here, the
as a braiding
and intertwining
chiasmic nature of experience
is more complexly
in the modulation
elaborated
described
of the four modes
of bodily
experience
ecstatic surface, the depth/visceral
above?the
recessive, the subtle inner bodies, and
the

fictive

body

of

the

actor's

score.

Leder's

analysis

adds

to

Merleau-Ponty

the

of depth or verticality associated with our deep, visceral experience.55 Such

in the voluntary modes
is most evident
of psychophysical
practice that
verticality
In
awaken experience
the
inner
and
selected
martial
subtle,
yoga
through
bodymind.
one
arts like the yoga-based
when
exercises
the
kalarippayattu,
bodymind
through the
or tying knots
to be literally braiding, interweaving,
various forms, one is understood
within the inner body. As the practitioner
repeats over and over again a form like the
lion pose, she moves
from one lion into another by sliding the rear foot along the earth
dimension

and inside "through the centre" (or abdomen) before sliding the foot forward. When
performed
correctly with the hips forward and a lengthened
spine, the repetitious
in (to one's center), and then out (from the center)
action of bringing
the foot/leg

52

Ibid., 51.
53
Leder, The Absent Body, 160.
54
The Visible and the Invisible,
Merleau-Ponty,
55
Leder, The Absent Body, 62-63.

passim.

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666

Phillip B. Zarrilli

or knotting which
a form of churning
the lower
constitutes
literally exercises
abdominal region. This act of tying or braiding creates a constant opposition?the
type
of opposition we experience when we tie a tight knot in a rope, pulling with our two
to tighten the
in opposite directions
hands on both ends of the rope simultaneously
as
can be manifest
knot. Here the results of long-term exercise of the body-as-chiasm
a grounding
energy circulated out from the lower abdomen,
of the rope), along the spine, and available to/in the hands

through the feet (the ends

(the ends of the rope).

a
In such heightened modes
of psychophysical
practice, one is able to experience
. . .
outer
inner
and
boundaries
where
"the
between
"bidirectional
incorporation"
become more porous."56 The lower abdominal
region is the activated inner depth to
of the body can travel along the line of
and from which one's attentive thematization
the spine outward through the rear foot, out the top of the head, through the palms.
a South Asian paradigm,
the
one's ability to engage and encounter
Ideally within
and attuned to the point where "the body becomes all eyes," with
world is heightened
to the sensory surround.57
an ability to respond immediately
through the bodymind
and embodiment
outlined here points not to a
The chiasmic model of experience
in
but rather the operation of
that is unitary
its self-presencing,
mode of subjectivity
as a constantly
betwixt and
shifting tactical improvisation modulating
subjectivity
in the score
its own deployment
and its modes of engaging
between one's bodymind
a
(physical and textual) during training and performance. One is in constant process of
to the bodies as they
in
to
one's
absence
relation
and/or
presence
adjustments
making
the phenomenologi
encounter
this particular moment
of enactment of a score. Within
never
is
settled or fixed
actor's
the
cal model
here,
complex subjectivity
explored
in a process of its own
within a present or a body, but rather is engaged continually
play with the "to"s and "from"s which are characteristic of each mode of embodiment.
structure

The

In our

of

the

score

actor's

provides

as

practices

actor

actors,

the

actor

engaged with

i.e., to be corporeally

be played,

trainers,

one

with

set

of

tasks

or

actions

to

and through one's bodymind.

or directors,

the

implications

of

the

issues

in this essay include the following: how an understanding

of our multiple
lead to the
and the recessive nature of each body might
of embodiment
on
work
the
cultivation
of
of
for
impulse, action,
strategies
enhancing
development
awareness inwhich absent or negative space is inhabited as part of
and a bodily-based

raised
modes

the

In my

process.

performance

own

training

and

work,

performance

I continue

to ask,

to thematize voluntarily
and
is it possible for the gestalt of the actor's body-as-a-whole
which
the
around
inhabit
and
better
the
both
space
usually
body
body
thereby
one looks from behind or maintains
"disappear"? For example, what happens when
an active awareness of the soles of the feet as one part of the dialectic of the bodies-in
These,

performance?

of

course,

are

open-ended

questions

of

"how."

56

Ibid., 165.
57
For a full elaboration

Body Becomes

All

of

this metaphor

of optimal

bodymind

engagement,

see Zarrilli,

Eyes.

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When

the