Jessica M. Beck
Jessica Beck, CL3 Certified in Alba Emoting, recently published an excellent article on Alba Emoting in Theatre, Dance and Performance Training, Volume I, Issue 2, Sept 2010, Routledge Press. The article, titled, Alba Emoting and emotional melody: surfing the emotional wave in Cachagua, Chile, focuses on the views of emotion in Western performance training and how Alba Emoting is among the first of the emotion techniques for actors to explore the connection between breathing and emotion in a scientific manner.
“Although the connection between breathing and emotion is nothing new, Bloch and her research team are among the first to explore this relationship in the context of Western science, articulating phenomena that many performers have been intuitively embodying for centuries.”
She provides an overview of Alba Emoting, where each of the seven patterns are described in detail. She also includes an important viewpoint of the “emotional controversy,” presenting varying theories and opinions on the use of emotion for the actor, including references to Denis Diderot, Benoit-Constant Coquelin, Constantine Stanislavsky, Jerzy Grotowski, Richard Hornby, and Lee Strasberg.
The article continues with her investigation in the use of Alba Emoting as a director and an actor. She provides stories of her experiences in training with various Alba Emoting instructors, including her work with Dr. Bloch in Cachagua, Chile. She also provides examples of using Alba Emoting to coach actors while directing and serving as a director’s consultant on productions in London, England.
As she concludes the article, she shares new developments in Alba Emoting vocabulary, including my approach of numbering and lettering the emotive patterns (see blog entry “Living in the As or Bs”). She documents her use of this approach while directing actors in a research project for her dissertation developments. She also reports on the various approaches to teaching Alba Emoting by certified practitioners, and how Alba Emoting comfortably pairs with other techniques like the Feldenkrais Method, the Meisner Technique, Strasberg’s method, Chekhov’s Psychological Gesture, and with the Grotowskian tradition.
To purchase the article as an instant download go to http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a927141791~frm=titlelink
