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  • A Balancing Act: The Development of Energize! A Holistic Approach to Acting
  • Barbara Sellers-Young
A Balancing Act: The Development of Energize! A Holistic Approach to Acting. By F. Emmanuelle Chaulet. Gorham, ME: Starlight Acting Books, 2008; pp. 336. $22.50 paper.

Cofounder of the International Michael Chekhov Association Lisa Dalton contextualizes F. Emmanuelle Chaulet's A Balancing Act: The Development of Energize! A Holistic Approach to Acting by stating in the Foreword that "it is increasingly evident that actors' greatest challenges have more to do with the invisible, energy-based imbalances than the actual acting process." Borrowed from physics' designation of observable forms of physical energy, the term energy has been widely adopted by writers and practitioners of various performance techniques. Questions concerning the concept of energy in performance—what it is, how it is created by the actor, and its relationship to the audience—have been addressed by actors and teachers of acting throughout the last hundred years. For example, Jade McCutcheon documents early twentieth-century projects of Stanislavski and Chekhov in Awakening the Performing Body (2008), while intercultural theorist Phillip Zarrilli integrates Western and Asian approaches to energy through focusing on breath in The Psychophysical Actor at Work: Acting at the Nerve Ends (2008). Chaulet's approach concentrates on the Hindu chakra system as a primary method of training the body to be relaxed, released, focused, present in the moment, and open to the potential of the imagination.

In fifteen chapters and six appendices, Chaulet's carefully crafted method takes the actor on a journey from a personal awareness of his/her energy system, to an application of that knowledge in the creation of a character. Chaulet acknowledges acting theorists, from Stanislavski to Lee Strasberg, noted for their promotion of realistic acting styles. This acknowledgment is integrated in the first four chapters, which offer a very personal reflection on her study of acting and the evolution of her "energetic approach" that is the result of the discovery of various Asian associated approaches to the body such as polarity, yoga, and so on. The weaving into the text of prior realistic acting methodologies provides a strong basis for her approach, which she begins to describe in chapter 5, "Anatomy of the Energetic System." It is here that she articulates an approach that unites realism as an aesthetic ideal with the energy of the body based on the Hindu chakra system.

The incorporation of the chakra system has been the topic of acting and movement workshops at conferences of the ATHE since at least the mid-1990s. Chaulet extends this conversation to include the relationship of Hindu conceptions of the body to the actor-as-person as well as actor-as-character. In chapter 6, "Clearing the Energetic System," Chaulet concentrates on four of these physical modalities associated with movement: the power of thought, raising vibration, negative energies, and polar opposites. Anyone who has spent hours in such contemplative forms of practice as meditation, chi gong, t'ai chi, or yoga will recognize the argument Chaulet is making for the unity of mind and body through the power of thought. Such individuals will also be aware of the different states of the body's vibrations, and the relationship of these states to internal blocks within the energy system, and, ultimately, how the latter can be adjusted through the integration of imagery, kinesthetic awareness, and movement. These four modes of being are directly or indirectly referenced as Chaulet guides the actor through a series of explorations to discover and explore a character in chapters 7 through 11. The final four chapters of the text, chapters 12 through 15, provide practical advice for actors and directors on how to incorporate an energetic approach to acting from the rehearsal process to performance, as well as how to find closure (chapter 12) following the performance. The appendices are a set of expanded explorations referred to throughout the text and cover such topics as self-affirmation, pre-performance clearing, activation, and wellness.

This text, as well as those by McCutcheon and Zarrilli noted above, point to an increasing incorporation of Asian conceptions of the body into American actor training. Since Stanislavski's...

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