Stanislavski Studies
Practice, Legacy, and Contemporary Theater
ISSN: 2056-7790 (Print) 2054-4170 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rfst20
Yoga and Stanislavski: reflections on the past and
applications for the present and future
Dorinda Hulton & Maria Kapsali
To cite this article: Dorinda Hulton & Maria Kapsali (2017): Yoga and Stanislavski: reflections on
the past and applications for the present and future, Stanislavski Studies
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Download by: [University of Newcastle, Australia] Date: 15 March 2017, At: 07:34
Stanislavski Studies, 2017
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/20567790.2017.1294382
Yoga and Stanislavski: reflections on the past and applications
for the present and future
Dorinda Hultona and Maria Kapsalib
a
Department of Drama, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK; bSchool of Performance and Cultural Industries,
University of Leeds, Leeds, UK
ABSTRACT KEYWORDS
Stanislavski’s interest in yoga and the influence of the discipline on Yoga; modern postural
the creation of the System have been illuminatingly acknowledged yoga; the system; performer
and examined by a number of scholars. Nonetheless, an aspect that training
has gone largely unnoticed is that Stanislavski drew from a kind of
yoga that in some crucial respects is very different from the kinds of
contemporary yoga that are practised internationally today. The most
important difference is the absence of established yoga postures in
the manuals that Stanislavski used in his day, and the centrality of yoga
postures in the practice of the discipline today. Based on this crucial
difference, this paper will propose ways in which understandings of
contemporary yoga can be brought into relationship with key aspects
of the System. It begins by summarising the historical background
to the relationship between yoga and actor training with particular
reference to the position of yoga postures within nineteenth-
century literature on yoga. It then considers how ideas and practices
within Stanislavski’s system – such as those related to “purposeful
action”, “inner action”, “inner life”, “active imagination” and the idea
of the “monitor” – can be illuminated, accessed and challenged by
approaches to the yoga postures as they have been developed in the
last 50 years. In so doing, the article, as a whole, takes as a premise the
increasing demands on the young actor for performer flexibility and
range, rather than specialization, and in its conclusion will touch on
ways in which yoga can act as a bridge for the contemporary actor
between different models of actor training and thereby affect a shift
towards possible future models.
Introduction
Stanislavski’s interest in yoga and the influence of the discipline on the creation of the System
have been illuminatingly acknowledged and examined by a number of scholars.1 On the
basis of fundamental developments in yoga practice as well as the ongoing evolution of
the System as a form of lived practice, the question that warrants further investigation is
whether contemporary practices of yoga have a place in teaching the System today.2 This
article begins by summarising the historical background to the ideological and pedagogical
currents that shaped the development of the System and contemporary yoga, respectively. It
© 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
2 D. HULTON AND M. KAPSALI
then goes on to consider how ideas and practices within Stanislavski’s system can be illumi-
nated, accessed and challenged by applications and adaptations of the yoga postures as they
have been developed in the last 50 years. In so doing, it takes as a premise the increasing
demands on the young actor for performer flexibility and range rather than specialization.
In its conclusion, it touches on ways in which yoga can act as a bridge between different
models of actor training and thereby affect a shift towards possible future models.3
Stanislavski’s interest in yoga and the historical influence the discipline exerted on his
work have been extensively researched and traced to William Atkinson, a North American
lawyer, known as “Yogi Ramacharaka”, who was particularly influential in the development
of New Age thought at the end of the nineteenth century. Since the similarities between
Stanislavski’s work and Ramacharaka’s books have already been recognized, we will not
rehearse these arguments here. Instead we would like to bring attention to one of the main
differences between the kind of yoga that Stanislavski encountered and the kind of yoga
that is widely practised today. One of the main differences, and the one we would like to
concentrate on, is that practice in the postures is virtually absent in nineteenth-century
formulations of yoga, whereas today, as historian Elizabeth De Michelis observes, “in com-
mon English usage ‘yoga’ is ‘postural yoga’”.4 Indeed, at the end of the nineteenth century,
yoga was presented to Western audiences as an ancient form of mind control and was very
consciously distanced from the tales of yogis “hanging head down over fires and in other
excruciating postures’”.5 Within this formulation, Mark Singleton observes that “the body”,
“was seen in essence to be a malleable and perfectible instrument, which through rigorous
mental control, could be brought into the thrall of mind and spirit.”6
Yogi Ramacharaka’s position in relation to this late nineteenth century ideological milieu
is very interesting. On the one hand, he claimed that his teaching cultivated a “perception
of the ‘I’ as independent from the body, the latter merely being an instrument for use”.7 On
the other hand, as Katherine Albanese recognizes “what was new about Ramacharaka’s
American yoga was the body”. Nevertheless, Albanese hastens to add that “the claims
Ramacharaka made for hatha yoga seem strikingly spare and his description of asanas
[yoga postures] suggests instead their continuity with simple callisthenics”.8 What Albanese
is describing here, and what other scholars after her examined in greater detail, was the
very cusp of yoga’s assimilation into modernity, its development as a secular, psychophysical
practice and Atkinson’s central position within those developments.9 In a study published
three years later, in 2010, Singleton persuasively argues that the curricula of yoga postures
we identify and practise today are an eclectic mix of various aspects of nineteenth-century
physical culture movements, such as Swedish Gymnastics, callisthenics, and bodybuilding
techniques, introduced into India through the military and the YMCA, and “various dis-
courses of ‘modern’ Hindu yoga” that emerged out of the Bengali intelligentsia and were
then exported to the West (and reached Atkinson and his contemporaries).10 Whereas in
North America, at the end of the nineteenth/beginning of the twentieth century, yoga was
gaining ground as a universal system of mind control, in India, yoga was being reconfigured
as an athletic system – albeit one rooted in Hindu traditions – that could contribute to the
country’s struggle for independence.
An important figure in the modernization of yoga in India was Krishnamacharya (1888–
1989), who combined “western and Indian modes of physical culture” with the philosophy
of Orthodox Hinduism.11 The achievement of Krishnamacharya, as well as the work of other
yoga reformists, lies not only in the creation and systematization of a curriculum, but in
STANISLAVSKI STUDIES 3
the development of a definitive psycho-somatic orientation that has defined the practice
of yoga ever since. In the technical accomplishment that has gradually begun to character-
ise the practice of yoga postures, we can trace a number of developments that have since
become the cornerstone of contemporary yoga pedagogy: an analysis of the postures in
terms of their anatomical processes, an attendant vocabulary of terms and instructions, and
an investigation into their therapeutic potential and application. In light of these origins of
contemporary yoga in western systems of physical education, and in view of Stanislavski’s
interest in, and use of, such systems, we would like to propose that the relationship between
the System and the practice of yoga today could be seen as one of common ancestry. In other
words, we would like to bring attention to the fact that Stanislavski was not only aware of
Ramacharaka’s texts on yoga that were in circulation at the time; he also encountered and
used the physical culture systems and their attendant pedagogies that have since formed
the basis of the global yoga canon. An example of such cross over is Mueller’s My System,
a widely read book on callisthenics published in 1904 and reprinted consecutively until
the 1950s. According to Rose Whyman, Stanislavski read the book in 1907 and began to
practise the exercises included in Mueller’s manual. 12 Equally, Mark Singleton observes
the resemblance between the exercises that figured in Mueller’s system and yoga curricula
that were developed at the beginning of the twentieth century.13 Based on this perspective,
we would like to propose that a number of correspondences can be drawn between certain
body-mind dialogues that we have identified within the contemporary practice of yoga
postures, and key terms used by Stanislavski. We would also argue that these correspond-
ences are not accidental but a result of ideological and pedagogical currents that shaped
the development of the System and contemporary yoga, respectively.
The system and three body-mind dialogues
Here, we are concerned with three such body–mind dialogues: firstly, one that we call “a
clear order” which has a correspondence with Stanislavski’s concept of “purposeful action”;
secondly, a dialogue to do with the embodiment of imagery which resonates with terms such
as “inner action”, “inner life” and “active imagination”; and thirdly, a body-mind dialogue
that we call “double consciousness” which relates to Stanislavski’s idea of the “monitor”.
Starting with “a clear order”, we use the word “order” because of its multiple resonances: to
begin with, there is a strong sense of “order”, or sequence, within the practice of the yoga
postures that corresponds to the “well founded” and “proper logical sequence” within the
System. Tortsov sums up: “today’s class has taught you that stage action must be inwardly
well founded, in proper logical sequence and possible in the real world”.14 Then, there is
also a strong sense of purpose associated with the practice of the yoga postures beyond the
development of mere physical virtuosity. That is, they are invariably performed “in order
to”, and this conscious sense of purpose corresponds to the emphasis on “reason” within
the System, i.e. Stanislavski’s emphasis “that everything that happens on stage must occur
for some reason or other”.15 And finally, the yoga postures have within them a clear set of
‘orders’ or instructions that arise out of what might be termed a “cognitive analysis”16 of each
posture; and we would argue that practice in following these “orders” through facilitates a
key aspect of Stanislavski’s principle of “purposeful action”.17
For instance, whilst moving into the standing posture Virabadrasana 2 (Figure 1)18, an
instruction is to extend the trunk backwards in precise co-ordination with the opposite
4 D. HULTON AND M. KAPSALI
Figure 1. Alison Hahlo in Virabhadrasana II. Source: Photograph Peter Hulton.
action of bending the knee forward; and then, within the posture, to concentrate on expand-
ing the inner body, not the outer.19 Each of these instructions needs, in the first place, to
be cognitively grasped, as well as imaginatively visualised, and only then followed through
at a body-mind level by the practitioner. In other words, if the intellect, together with the
imagination, is clear, the body responds accordingly, as best it can, without intellectual
interference. Correspondingly, as Carnicke observes in her summary of the System – a
cognitively grasped ‘objective’ is used to solve a “problem”20 and there is a consequent
psychophysical effect: “the results take care of themselves”.21
A second body-mind dialogue we would like to draw attention to is encapsulated in an
understanding of the term “image” which allows for a constant toing and froing between
embodiment and imagination within the practice of the yoga postures, each informing
the other.22 This body-mind dialogue infuses both the detail of each posture, as well as the
wholeness of each, with a kind of energy: for example, in Virabhadrasana II the action of
spreading the arms can be embodied as if they are the wings of a bird,23 and the interplay
of balance between them can be experienced as if “they hold the scales of justice.”24 This
dialogue has within it, a correspondence with Stanislavski’s concept of “inner action”:25 the
body is outwardly “still” but at the same time, it is resonant with “inner life”.
Further to this, Stanislavski encourages – through the figure of Tortsov – a process of
giving depth and breadth to the “inner life” of a role through developing what he terms an
“active” imagination, that is, one which “works on its own” without “forcing”;26 and related
to this, we would like to propose that an adaptation of the lying down posture, Savasana,
can be used as a basis for accessing the kind of “active” imagination Stanislavski is asking
for. Ongoing practice in the posture can ultimately lead the practitioner towards a state that
is both deeply relaxed and at the same time receptively aware; and it is in this state of “alert
receptivity” that the imagination of the student actor can be guided, for instance, towards
a focus on images related to the “inner life” of a role or the development of a new charac-
ter.27 Within such an application, then, the process of “guided imagination” takes place in
STANISLAVSKI STUDIES 5
a deeply relaxed state, and because it is accompanied by an awareness of the body that is at
a literally deeper level28 than the processes of “visualisation” “in the mind’s eye”, or “aural
imagination” suggested by Stanislavski,29 we would argue that it potentially strengthens
the actor’s capacity to sustain “concentration”, through binding the imagination to a kind
of deep bodily awareness.30
The third body-mind dialogue within the yoga postures that we would like to attend to
is encapsulated in an understanding of the term “double consciousness”, which allows for
a kind of “objectivity” to be maintained whilst undertaking any action. We use the term
“double consciousness” to refer to an ability to observe or “monitor” different aspects of
embodiment, such as alignment, state of mind, and breath. whilst engaged in “doing” a yoga
posture.31 Correspondingly, the capacity to stand outside of a process, at the same time as
being engaged within it, is central to the nexus of skills that Stanislavski refers to in his chap-
ter on “muscular release”. In both cases, the skill of the “monitor” is consciously developed,
but with continuous practice, it becomes “second nature”.32 The language that Stanislavski
uses to describe this process suggests that the monitor can ultimately be experienced as a
form of psychophysical awareness that seeps into and penetrates the body-mind,33 just as
the intention within a contemporary approach to the yoga postures is to “spread the intel-
ligence to each and every part of the body”.34
The figures (Figures 2–6) depict a series of postures that can be performed in a con-
tinuous way.35 In such a sequence, the practitioner is slowly attending to – monitoring if
you like – the precise placement of her body, “the centre of gravity in each position”, the
co-ordination of her breath with her movement, “the relaxation and tension necessary to
maintain a specific position”, as well to move into and out of each posture.36 The function
of the “monitor”, then, as the term suggests is to “listen”, correct and adjust. It alerts the
yoga practitioner, as well as the actor, to things when they go wrong and can be used to
trace tension and discourage the habits that might cause it, and in so doing, as Stanislavski
notes, it can facilitate the “creative process” for an actor. 37 As such, we would argue, the
monitor can be seen as a link between the execution of a physical task and the embodiment/
Figure 2. Alison Hahlo in Bujangasana. Source: Photograph Peter Hulton.
6 D. HULTON AND M. KAPSALI
Figure 3. Alison Hahlo in Urdva Mukha Svanasana. Source: Photograph Peter Hulton.
Figure 4. Alison Hahlo in Ustrasana. Source: Photograph Peter Hulton.
affects/psychophysical state that the task produces. In relation to the “inner creative state”,
for example, Stanislavski observes:
a slight hitch occurs and the actor immediately “turns his eyes on himself ” to see which of
the Elements isn’t working properly. Having found the mistake he corrects it. In doing so he
has no difficulty in splitting himself in two, i.e. on one hand he corrects something which is
wrong and on the other, he continues to live his role. The actor lives, weeps, laughs onstage
but weeping or laughing he observes his laughter and tears. And it is in that double life, the
balance between life and the role that art lies.38
STANISLAVSKI STUDIES 7
Figure 5. Alison Hahlo in Adho Mukha Svanasana. Source: Photograph Peter Hulton.
Figure 6. Alison Hahlo in child’s pose. Source: Photograph Peter Hulton.
Conclusion
One of the key areas addressed by contemporary performer training is the relationship
between physicality and affect, and within studio practices this is often explored or achieved
through various combinations between different models of training. In light of this, we pro-
pose that applications, as well as adaptations, of the contemporary canon of yoga postures
can offer pathways towards a cultivation of action and imagination that are rooted in the
body. We would further argue that within a potential future model, yoga postures could
act as a bridge between different approaches, which, through a historical or discursive
perspective, may be seen as contrasting or incompatible. For example, as we have already
noted, a continuous sequence of yoga postures, such as the ones demonstrated in the series
8 D. HULTON AND M. KAPSALI
of figures (Figures 2–6), could be used as a ground for training the kind of observation and
monitoring proposed by Stanislavski. The sequence however also echoes with some of the
yoga-based sequence developed by Grotowski with the aim to train the actor’s impulse
and embodied imagination. As such, such a sequence could also be used as a starting
point for a variety of structured improvizations, for example the “sound and movement
transformation” exercises devised by the Open Theater.39 In other words, our proposition is
that yoga postures can accommodate different inflections and thus serve as pathways into
aspects or conceptualisations of the actor’s work that are historically or culturally discreet.
We propose this, not in order to erase these differences but in attempt to offer an embodied
common ground that allows students and trainers alike to experiment with the alignments
and intersections between different training approaches and thus equip the actor with the
flexibility and breadth that is required by contemporary performance, as well as affect a
shift towards possible future models.
Notes
1. Carnicke, Stanislavski in Focus; White, Stanislavski and Ramacharaka; and Tcherkasski,
Fundamentals of the Stanislavski System.
2. De Michelis, A History of; Singleton, Yoga Body. This article draws on, and extends, the authors’
recently published DVD/booklet Yoga and Actor Training.
3. Our primary reference is to Jean Benedetti’s An Actor’s Work (2008). The reasons we are
using An Actor’s Work as our main source are multiple. To begin with Benedetti’s translation
and editing work is by far the most comprehensible, accessible and accurate rendition of
Stanislavski’s System, which has been previously been presented in three separate volumes.
The other reason is that we do not speak Russian and as a result we do not have access to the
Russian archives from which other scholars have very productively drawn. Most importantly,
however, since this paper addresses the use of the system in the studio today, we thus assume
that other practitioners, like us, are most likely to use An Actor’s Work.
4. De Michelis, A history of, 8.
5. Albanese, A Republic of, 350.
6. Singleton, “Suggestive Therapeutics,” 76.
7. Ramacharaka, Raja Yoga, 30.
8. Albanese, A Republic of, 360.
9. Albanese is right in pointing out that despite Atkinson’s intention to provide guidance and
instruction in a physical form of practice, his books provide very little information on yoga
postures. It can equally be argued that the hypothesis, put forward by Rose Whyman, that
Stanislavski did not practise yoga postures is historically accurate (Whyman, The Stanislavski
System, 85). Where Albanese goes wrong, however, is in suggesting that Atkinson’s resort to
callisthenic exercises is an aberration from yoga practice, which presumably was already in
existence.
10. Singleton, Yoga Body, 5, 22.
11. Ibid., 23.
12. Whyman, “The Actor’s Second Nature,” 116.
13. Singleton, Yoga Body, 118, 140.
14. Benedetti, An Actor’s Work, 48.
15. Ibid., 39 emphasis in the original.
16. The term “cognitive analysis” is used synonymously with the term “affective cognition” by
Carnicke: both engage the actor with intellectual analysis and imaginative visualisation
(Carnicke, “Stanislavsky’s System,” 13, 14). Both these processes – “analysis” and “visualisation”
– have their correspondence within practice in the yoga postures. Cognitive analysis of the
postures has largely been the work of BKS Iyengar. It relates to the dynamics and alignments
STANISLAVSKI STUDIES 9
within them, which are inextricably bound to their sense of purpose. Iyengar also utilises the
element of “visualisation” in the yoga postures through the introduction of imagery, in order
to bring “inner life” to parts of the body, or to the whole posture.
17. These instructions provide a “way in” to what might be referred to in the System as the
postures’ “inner life” (Benedetti, An Actor’s Work, 62). We are using the term “inner life” here
because both body and mind are involved in performing the yoga postures. Stanislavski also
uses the term “inner action” to describe “intense mental action” which may be occurring in
a “physically motionless” body (Benedetti, An Actor’s Work, 40, 41,). As noted previously,
“action” is always linked to its “inner, motivating causes” (Benedetti, An Actor’s Work, 46),
that is, “action” is always purposeful.
18. Virabadrasana 2 is from amongst the first group of postures that we propose as being helpful
within an actor training context. As a group, these standing postures comprise: Tadasana,
the mountain posture, Trikonasana and Parsvakonasana, two of the angled postures, and
then a partner to Virabhadrasana 2, that is Virabhadrasana 1. These postures might appear
deceptively simple at first glance, but for beginners the dynamics within them can be complex
and challenging. Above all, the discrimination, balance and flexibility that such postures
develop, require the practitioner to focus on the processes or “body-mind dialogues” that
operate within them, and avoid the temptation of forcing towards end results.
19. Iyengar, Yoga Darsana, 77, 78. There are 42 notes for this posture listed in this source.
20. Carnicke gives an example of a “problem” that a character might have: Lady Macbeth is
“embarrassed” by her husband’s behaviour in public. This “problem” needs to be solved by
“action”. Lady Macbeth’s “action” is to “cover up” (Carnicke, “Stanislavsky’s System,” 15, 16).
21. Benedetti, An Actor’s Work, 43. Stanislavski speaks of feelings (emotions) appearing “of their
own accord”. He urges his students to “think hard about what has gone before and re-create
it. Don’t be concerned with the result” (Benedetti, An Actor’s Work, 43). As noted previously,
he speaks also of “inner, motivating causes” (Benedetti, An Actor’s Work, 46). Carnicke
summarises the process: “the actor places full attention on carrying out the required action,
with the character’s emotions arising as a natural result” (Carnicke, “Stanislavsky’s System,”
16).
22. It is exemplified in one of Iyengar’s lesser known publications, The Art of Yoga.
23. The bird image is taken from notes recorded by Dona Holleman during lessons given by
Iyengar. The unpublished collection is entitled Yoga Darsana London 1970–1974.
24. Iyengar, The Art of Yoga, 37.
25. Benedetti, An Actor’s Work, 40.
26. Ibid., 64–6. Stanislavski tells the story of his niece’s favourite game “and what if?” in order to
illustrate “dynamic action” and the need for the actor to develop an “active” not a “passive”
imagination (Benedetti, An Actor’s Work, 65).
27. An extract from a workshop that examined this technique can be viewed here:
http://theatredanceperformancetraining.org/2016/03/yoga-and-actor-training-imagining-
and-writing-a-character-by-dorinda-hulton-from-the-dvdbooklet-yoga-and-actor-training-
by-dorinda-hulton-and-maria-kapsali-routledge-2016-dvd-filmed-and-edit/.
28. Within the posture, the focus is located at the bottom of the breast bone and just above the
solar plexus. It is an interior place in the body where different psychophysical responses such
as excitement, or fear, are experienced, and referred to in yoga as the body-mind’s “centre of
emotions”. (Iyengar, The Art of Relaxation, 5). Focussing on it whilst “actively” imagining –
for example, in relation to a set of “given circumstances” – encourages a connection between
imagination and feeling.
29. Benedetti, An Actor’s Work, 79.
30. If the trees in a dark forest, for example, are sensed, not so much in the mind’s eye, but lower
down in the body, and the imagined sounds in the forest are registered in the same interior
place, the psychophysical responses become arguably more “engrossing,” and easier to retain.
The “circles of attention” become simultaneously interior and exterior: deep inside at the same
time as out there, in imaginative space.
10 D. HULTON AND M. KAPSALI
31. An ability to observe the doing in the doing is central in Indian thought and best exemplified
in the image of the two birds in the Upanishads: “two birds, inseparable friends, cling to the
same tree. One of them eats the sweet fruit; the other looks on without eating” (Mundaka
Upanishad, 3.1.1–3.1.2). The image has primarily existential and philosophical connotations
and illustrates the sense of detachment that is also pervasive in Patanjali’s formulation of yoga.
It has clear echoes with Stanislavski’s formulation of acting as a split between full embodied
experience (laughing, weeping) and its observation.
32. Benedetti, An Actor’s Work, 123.
33. “All these positions [the ones tried by Kostya and his classmate] required constant release of
this or that group of muscles and an increase in the control exercised by the monitor. For that
we need well trained powers of concentration, which would quickly find their way around,
distinguish our physical sensations and investigate them” (Benedetti, An Actor’s Work, 126).
34. This is an image often used by Iyengar and other teachers of this school of yoga.
35. The proposed sequence is a shortened version of an adaptation of the hybrid sequence devised
by Grotowski, known as the “cat” (Grotowski, Towards a Poor Theatre, 154). The adaptation
differs from that historic sequence in the following ways: the number of the postures has
been reduced; an emphasis is placed on the “emotional centre” of the body; text and sound
can be used; and an improvisatory phase is included in the middle, sandwiched between
preparatory and concluding phases.
36. In this paragraph, the phrasing marked by quotations is taken from Benedetti, An Actor’s
Work, 127. The same instructions could well have been used in a yoga class. The similarities
in the content and tone of the instructions suggest further the pedagogical links between
Stanislavski’s system and modern postural yoga.
37. Benedetti, An Actor’s Work, 120.
38. Ibid., 302.
39. Here we are thinking about the potential use of yoga to allow ideas and forms from other
models of actor training to come into contact with, and cross fertilise, each other. For example,
Approach 6 in Yoga and Actor Training, combines ideas from Stanislavski (subtext, intention/
objective) with ideas from Grotowski (the sequence itself is an adaptation of Grotowski’s, and
so is the idea of performing it with a partner), with ideas from Chaikin (“movement action
sequences” are part of the Open Theater repertoire and, in turn, surely came to the Open
Theater via a Laban teacher).
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Alison Hahlo and Peter Hulton for permitting the use of the pho-
tographs in this article.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributors
Dorinda Hulton is a Honorary Senior Research Fellow in Drama at the University of Exeter. She
qualified as an intermediate senior Iyengar yoga teacher directly under B K S Iyengar in Pune, India
in the 1970s, and has explored applications of that discipline to actor training in a variety of ways.
Her research through written publication has focused on actor training as well as the creation of “new
work”; and her publication through professional practice includes the direction and dramaturgy of
a series of bi-communal, interdisciplinary pieces of “new work” with creative artists from both sides
of the military border in Cyprus.
STANISLAVSKI STUDIES 11
Maria Kapsali is a lecturer in Physical Performance in the School of Performance and Cultural
Industries at the University of Leeds. She has recently published the co-authored DVD/Booklet Yoga
and Actor Training (Routledge, 2015) and edited a special issue of Theatre Dance and Performance
Training Journal entitled “Training, Politics and Ideology” (July 2014). She is a co-convenor of the
TaPRA Performer Training Working Group and curator of the Studio Space of Theatre, Dance and
Performance Training Blog.
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