Breath

DIXON, Luke. Play Acting: Thirty-two theatre workshop activities that create performance. New York: Routledge, 2005

Speaking and listening are physical activities. All the voice work in this section comes from an understanding of the functioning of the performer’s body, of which the voice is just one extraordinary part. We start with breathing, the activity that keeps the body alive and gives it motion, and the activity that is the basis for all voice work. We explore the infinite variety possible in the use of just one or two simple words before going on to sentences, verse and more complex forms of expression. The voice is constantly explored in relation to the moving actor and the dynamic relationship between body, voice and space. (DIXON, Introduction, p.3)

‘And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.’ The words from Genesis echo those of the Ugandan proverb that says that ‘life is your ability to breathe in every time you breathe out’. In the fifity years between my birth and writing this book I may have taken some for billion breathes. Most of them, unless I have been overexerting myself, or having a lesson in Alexander technique, or rehearsing a troublesome song, I will note have noticed. We breathe in as we enter this world and we breathe out as we leave it. Our breaths are what mark us being alive. To breath in is inspiration; to breathe out is expiration. To breathe is to be inspired. (DIXON, p.53)