Abstract
The central idea of this paper comes from the premise that the life that runs through the physical actions of the actor’s body will only be able to exist in his/her work from an acceptance and opening to the continuous imminence of its opposite – death – as a metaphor for emptiness, failure, not-knowing, not-controlling, abyss, error, fall. In this sense, the "allowing-oneself-to-die" favours, paradoxically, "allowing-oneself-to-live", which thus contributes to presence effects in acting. For this analysis, one of the starting points is the Oriental practice and philosophy, featuring aspects of yoga, meditation and Zen paradoxical thinking. Thus, we approach the mindfulness practice as a way of cultivating emptiness, aiming at providing the actor/performer with favourable conditions for an opening to the experience and zone of affect.
Keywords
embodied mind, life-death paradox, Actor preparation, Void, Presence
How to Cite
Lewinsohn, A. C., (2019) “The Life-Death Paradox in the Presence of the Actor”, Performance and Mindfulness 2(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.5920/pam.562
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