Breath in Action

The Art of Breath in Vocal and Holistic Practice

Rena Cook, Jane Boston

• Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
• Year: 2009
• ISBN:
  9781846429484
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music

Breath in Action looks at the significance of breath to human life - not just the simple fact that if we stop breathing, we die, but also the more subtle ways in which our breath interacts with our voice and our being. Written by experts in vocal and holistic practice, the book is divided into four sections: Breath and the Body; Breath and the Mind; Breath and Holistic Practice; Breath and Performance.

It offers the latest theories from a variety of disciplines on how we can be taught to breathe better so as to communicate better, act or sing better, feel better, live better. Combining theory with practice, many of the chapters also offer clearly laid out breathing exercises and techniques.

Interdisciplinary in its focus, Breath in Action adds to specialist knowledge in the performance field, whilst also offering enlightening information for those interested in therapeutic and healing processes, movement, and voice and speech sciences.

SECTION 3

Breath and Holistic Practice

JANE BOSTON AND RENA COOK

An extended gaze eastwards has been incorporated into western performance praxis for the greater part of the twentieth century onwards, in part to refresh and revalue its own moribund traditions. The origin of this gaze is complex but its recent incarnation relates in part to the liberation philosophies of the 1960s with their reaction to the authoritarian structures and materialistic values of the previous decade. This gave rise to a myriad of ‘new’ thinking about established orthodoxies that were mirrored by many involved with the theory and practices of performance. These all shared similar cultural origins, reflected a West to East gaze and were almost exclusively holistic in nature.

Tara McAllister-Viel takes us eastwards with her subtle account of the ways in which the dualistic thinking embedded in western philosophy may have limited the conceptualization of the breath. She examines the place of breath in relation to the body–mind dichotomies and invites us to adopt a different and more holistic approach informed by other cultural practices and values. Interweaving her own cultural background in the States with those discovered in Korea, she offers specific observations about the ways in which the arts of Dahnjeon breathing can provide efficient muscular use as a foundation for good breath and vocal use.

As well as looking to the Far East, the gaze has also gone specifically to the indigenous cultures of the world. The chapter by Marj McDaid draws upon Central and Eastern Europe where she explores the evolution of her own breathing practice based on the influence of the Eastern Siberian teacher Nelly Dougar-Zhabon whose practice involves not only the influence of Siberian shamanism, but also Tibetan Dynamic Meditation and Qi Gong. An approach based upon a synthesis of methods, with reference to their specific implications for actor training processes, forms the basis of this chapter.

Michael Morgan follows with an exploration of the ways in which the exterior forms of of Chinese Qi Gong, such as acupuncture, martial arts, stretching and massage and the interior forms, such as a range of internal breathing methods, can relate to western mindbody training. He suggests that ‘questions, rather than answers’ should provide the most fruitful starting point for this complex examination involving forms that have been cultivated in one context and then transplanted to another.

Debbie Green, in an account of the evolution of her movement practice, places importance on the sensual activity of the breath. She instructively concludes that this, too, will vary between practices: ‘the movement we do on the out-breath in Pilates or Bartenieff Fundamentals may well be different from those we do in Yoga, but in any of these, connection to personal breath is key’. Whilst her focus begins with the actor, it is clearly relevant to all who work with the body from an intercultural and an interdisciplinary perspective. Her focus on the core energy of the breath suggests that everyone can access and benefit from it, creating a sense of multi-dimensionality where ‘the outside (is) informed by the inside through the breath’ (Green).

Rena Cook looks specifically at the healing methodologies of the East in order to reinvigorate the breathing practices of the western academies that have become stale and reliant on old mechanistic models and interrogates the question of ‘authenticity’ within both presence and performance. Where the more traditional western practices have been seen by some to be tainted with outmoded thought and knowledge, an account is provided as to why it has been to the older, deemed more ‘spiritual’, practices of the East that many practitioners have turned. Here, where they have found a more convincing unity of heart and mind, it is seen that the breath can provide a crucial meeting point between the conscious and the unconscious mind and offer synthesis rather than division.

CHAPTER 8

Dahnjeon Breathing

TARA MCALLISTER-VIEL

Breathing through ‘dahnjeon(s)’ is a way of breathing that can be found in many different Asian modes of training. The particular exercise called ‘Dahnjeon Breathing’ found at the end of this chapter is an exercise adapted from my experiences of long-term, rigorous study of several Asian practices.¹ Regular practice with these exercises will help you create efficient muscular use as the foundation for good breath and voice production. Long-term, rigorous practice will help you cultivate ki (energy), which will give your sound a sense of strength beyond muscular strength. These exercises will also provide the foundation for creating a sense of being in the here and now and help create the necessary preparation for drawing in your listener and sustaining communication. Before you begin the exercise sequence, it is important to understand:

•What is dahnjeon(s)?

•How breathing from the (lower) dahnjeon helps train the voice?

•How using this breathing practice can benefit your voice training?

WHAT IS A ‘DAHNJEON’?

Sometimes ‘dahnjeon’ is translated into English as ‘centre’,or ‘energy centre’ (Benedetti 1990, p.28–9). Dahnjeon(s) are a part of an eastern understanding of the body integral to eastern medicinal praxis and fundamental to the way the body functions. There are three internal dahnjeons and four external dahnjeons. The ‘lower dahnjeon’ also referred to as dantien or tan-den (Japan) or nabhi mula (Sanskrit meaning ‘the root of the navel’),² is located two inches below the navel and two inches inside the body. The ‘middle dahnjeon’ is located two inches inside the body behind the sternum, and the ‘upper dahnjeon’, is located roughly between and just above the eyes within the forehead (also referred to in some Asian practices as the ‘mind’s eye’, the ‘inner eye’ or ‘third eye’). There are four external dahnjeons, one located in the palm of each hand where the centre fingernail touches the palm while fisting (jangshim in Korean) and one located on the bottom of each foot, just below the ball when the foot is flexed (yongchun in Korean).³

This body knowledge becomes the foundation for the transmission of embodied practices. Because the exercise at the end of this chapter focuses on the lower dahnjeon, I will concentrate on this area in order to better explain one understanding of how a dahnjeon can function in developing the breath for sounding.

THE LOWER DAHNJEON AND TRAINING THE VOICE

Sometimes the lower dahnjeon as an ‘energy centre’ is compared to a western understanding of ‘centre of gravity’ in the body because both are formless and invisible but have palpable physiological effects on the body (Benedetti 1990, p.28–9). However, the lower dahnjeon works differently from centre of gravity. Breathing through the lower dahnjeon trains the mind through the body, cultivating an intense bodymind relationship and ‘ki’ (Korea), also referred to as ‘chi’ (China) ‘qi’ (Japan), ‘prana’ or ‘pranavayu’ (India). Ki moves in/through/around the bodymind through ‘dahnjeons’ and a system of channels called ‘meridians’ (kyung lack in Korean), travelling down the back of the body (yang energy) and up the front of the body (eum or yin energy) in a cyclical process, alternating between eum-yang polarities in the body (Yuasa 1993, p.75–6; Yoo in CTR 2007, p.87).

When breathing through the lower dahnjeon while voicing, the resultant sound manifests a sense of strength that cannot be explained through the body’s muscularity alone.⁴ Abdominal muscle(s) are used in combination with breathing energy or ki, creating a strong resonant sound that is compelling to listen to.

DAHNJEON BREATHING AND TRAINING THE VOICE THROUGH BODYMIND

Sometimes the energy of the breath can be understood through training metaphors. Here, I am referring to breathing energy, or ki, as a physical reality and material condition of training and performance. Not only can the practitioner feel this energy, sometimes recognized as heat or vibrations, but the listener can hear within the sound a concentration of focused awareness during communication.

One use of breath/ki for the practitioner is to prepare and sustain the breath for sounding. To better understand how this might work, we can find insights from one of the earliest explanations. Zeami Motokiyo (1364–1443), in his treatise Kakyo, discussed how ki functioned when training the Japanese Noh actor’s voice, ‘First the Key; Second the Activating Force (chi); Third, the Voice.’ Mark Nearman explains his interpretation of Zeami’s instruction,

That which inwardly must receive, preserve and sustain tonal pitch is identified as the actor’s ch’i. Before attempting to vocalize, an actor should first listen to the sound of the flute or in the case of a student, the teacher’s voice. On the basis of that externally produced tonality, the actor should determine his ‘tonal center,’ by ‘hearing’ and sustaining it within his own mind. He experiences that tone as ‘vibrating’ within himself, particularly in his tanden (dahnjeon). The performer then ‘closes his eyes,’ that is, he concentrates on that tonal center to the exclusion of all external ‘visual’ stimuli, and inhales. Only when he has gone through this process is ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Of Related Interest
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Acknowledgements
• Contents
• Foreword
• Introduction
• Section One: Breath and the Body
• Section Two: Breath and the Mind
• Section Three: Breath and Holistic Practice
• Section Four: Breath and Performance
• Contributors
• Index