Body Dynamics™
(Founded and Developed by Carol Reynolds) Eliza is a certified teacher since 1997
Body Dynamics™ is a form of hands on bodywork and movement designed to free the actor from habitual body patterns that inhibit flow of body, voice, breath, and emotion. It incorporates aspects of Cranial Sacral, FeldenKrais, Alexander, and Pilates including hands on soft tissue release work. Body Dynamics™ is founded on the principles of Bioenergetic Character Analysis, which integrates work with the body and the mind to help people with the history of their experiences held in the form of chronic muscular tension.
In an experiential curriculum that includes study of Anatomy, Ball work, Hands on Partner exercises, and Alignment / Balance / Vibration work, Body Dynamics™ offers the actor an opportunity to discover, and also become free from, their own habitual structure. The work examines the muscular defense system — the inherent part of our biological intelligence that is fused with our instincts, experiences, and memories. By unearthing and releasing that which is stored in muscular tissue, the actor becomes more free, more able to make choices, and more able to respond in the moment.
As my teacher Carol Reynolds likes to say, “Body Dynamics™ can help us become solid chocolate bunnies rather than hollow ones.” In other words, this work helps people authentically and freely embody themselves, coming more and more into the present, and presence.
In NYC I have taught Body Dynamics™ at the T. Schreiber Studio, Performance of a Lifetime, Carol Fox Prescott Studio, Rasa Yoga, and in Private Studios. I offer the work as a 12-week course, a 6-week course, in one-time workshops, or as ongoing ensemble practice. I have created mini-intensives for theater companies, offered weekend workshops to groups of actors, and also worked privately with individuals. I have integrated the pedagogy of this work as well as many of the exercises into many different settings of teaching and it is fundamental to how and why I make theater.
(please contact me for a more detailed curriculum)
pdf.body.dynamics.flyer.examples
Movement Teacher at Shakespeare & Company
(Created by Trish Arnold, furthered by Karen Beaumont, Kristen Wold, and Susan Dibble amongst others) Eliza is a certified teacher since 2002
This movement work is designed to increase ease, flexibility, and range of expression through the body and voice. Developed and taught in tandem with the Linklater voice work at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, Massachusetts, this movement work includes aspects of Body Mind Centering, Developmental Movement, Grotowski (cat), and other improvisational and expressive forms of play.
As preparation for the demands of acting Shakespeare’s text, this work helps to open, engage, and expand an individual’s capacity for fluid, emotional, and vibration filled communication.
I have taught this work at numerous Intensives and Summer College Trainings at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, Massachussetts and also at the Cal State Summer Arts Intensive. I have also created one time workshops based on this work designed to meet the needs of a particular group, text, or topic. This work is integrated into the way I work with my own company of actors and most other teaching I offer.
(please contact me for a more detailed curriculum)
The Art of Improvisation and The Art of Play
I have trained and practiced with Ruth Zaporah (Action Theater), Barbara Dilley (The Red Square), Wendell Beavers, SITI Company, and Barbara Dilley (Viewpoints), Meredith Monk (Voice and Body), Andre Gregory and Steve Wangh (Grotowski) The Living Stage (Improvisational Theater Games), Epizo Bangoura (African Drumming), and numerous others in the fine art of improvisation. All of these people and forms influence the method and content of my teaching.
My own form, Live Sound Action – rooted in percussion and sculpture and developed through the sensibility of the actor – has emerged out of this wide and deep experience that cultivates a multi-sensory approach in the process of theater making.
Please see the PDFs below as examples of guest artist residencies in which the curriculums/syllabi are based on an integration of Body Dynamics™, Shakespeare & Company Movement Work, Developmental Movement, and The Art of Improvisation.
2-day-bfa-freeing-the-instrument-workshop
7-week-bfa-syllabus-guest-artist-residency-voice.vibration.touch