“Archetypal Bodies” R&D 5

The Psychological Gesture

Action has to be approached through the realm of the will. It is not the character’s thinking, it is the will of the character taking on a form. Therefore, gestures are not simply physical imitations of shapes and forms but a physical manifestation of archetypal meaning.

The main concept:

(Number 1 = My instrument: The Body) -> invokes -> (Number 2 = My psyche)

Steps to The Psychological Gesture:

1. Gesture
2. Qualities of the gesture
3. Relations to the feeling (how the gesture makes you feel?)

The Michael Chekhov Handbook mentioned that the body needs to be developed and trained so that it becomes sensitive to this psycho-physical connection. As a performer, our body conditioning and concentration are the key activities in realizing anything of value. When we concentrate, we send ourselves towards an object or image, and then we become one with the image. We can feel its quality, sense its personality, and receive impressions and impulses. Therefore, the body must act as a sponge to absorb the psychological values and qualities from the movements. Movement is not gymnastic but psychological in that it affords us the experience of states of being.

I warmed up by starting with basic archetypal gesture explorations. I started with the archetypes of The Hero, The King, The Orphan and The Coward. The goal here is to let the impulse guide you to a direction, with no extra gesture just yet (up and down, forwards and backwards, expansion and contraction).

Archetypal images vibrate within us. According to Peterson, archetypes provide a framework for understanding life’s complexities and finding meaning. They help people orient themselves within the chaos of existence by offering models for action.

I noticed that my body, in fact, informs and provides an emotion connected to the essence of the archetype while I’m listening to my inner impulse. It’s very difficult to describe the inner experience while doing it. The impulse is not arbitrary but siphons from a broader awareness and past experiences.

The archetype is NOT the character but the will force of it.

The second experiment is to re-imagine two of my previous dance theatre scenes from “VENT!” (2022).

The script of this scene (act 2)

red water.
red water is coming out of its leg

it is so beautiful
i do not understand

it is screaming so loud in this beautiful sight

it is deafening
it is powerful
maybe it’s happy, like i am

but i think it is in pain

why?

it is like the flower beside him spreading side to side

i can see clearly now

more than just silhouette

it’s the same color”

The flower, as an archetypal symbol, holds rich meanings across cultures, mythologies, and psychological frameworks. The flower sprouts and dies as the season passes. The flower symbolizes the ephemeral nature of life and the passage of time. It also symbolizes beauty and love. In this instance, the character I’m portraying is breathing as a flower in response to the text.

There are six statements of action. These statements could be called archetypal, and all other actions or objectives are based in: I Want – I Reject, I Give – I Take, I Hold My Ground – I Yield. Try as I might, I cannot come up with others. I found that these suffice. Because they are archetypes they hold so many things within them. Qualities are practically infinite in number, and quality will always change the archetypal to the specific. Kissing and punching, which seem to be opposite actions, are truly both giving. One of them is tender and soft, the other is violent and hard. The specific gestures themselves may differ as well, but essentially it is something coming from me and going to you.”

The Michael Chekhov Handbook: For the Actor page 52

The script of this scene (act 1)

as i snap the crooked legs
the black echos are bouncing in a cube shape corridor

the post-mortem of this cockroach is telling me
that the darkness is getting colder

all my life
in a fetus position
hair grown like a lawn on my back

i can feel the wind is changing

i feast on whatever i can in front of me
dust, cockroaches and sometimes even screws

i believe there is something up here or down here
something, but i don’t know
i can hear them

everyday
i crawl through the ducts following the source of sounds

and when i finally saw them
i knew
they are my maker
those were the voices in my head and teaching the things that i know

i shall now heed their call and accept their blessing

The pilgrim archetype symbolizes the journey of seeking, whether for meaning, enlightenment, identity, or transformation. The pilgrim is inherently spiritual. They embark on an arduous journey that is driven by a sense of longing or a desire to discover truth, purpose, or a higher reality. Also, the path of the pilgrim is often uncertain and requires humility, resilience, and trust in the process. I believe the texture of this archetype is very complex. It includes all the “I Want – I Reject, I Give – I Take, I Hold My Ground – I Yield” archetypal gestures in one. I surrender my ego yet hold my ground from blasphemy. I want to move forward yet resisted to forget. I give my soul, yet clasp my heart.

‘I want’, is itself an archetypal statement of action. There is a gesture that clearly speaks this, a primitive and lovely gesture that wakes up in us these streams of wanting; it may even be the very first gesture we make to the outer world as human beings. It is a gesture from the infant who sits alone and calls out to the mother, not with words but with the body. The gesture says, ‘I want comfort, I want food, I want you.’ As you read this, it is possible to see this gesture, because we all know it, we have all made it. And if you make this gesture right now, you can feel the streams of wanting moving through your body. It bids you into this action.”

The Michael Chekhov Handbook: For the Actor page 48