The Italian Dance Manual as a Source of Action for Theatre
(Rachelle Tsachor, Tal Shafir)

To dance is to take action. Historic dance manuals are outstanding primary sources of detailed instructions for specific actions. Specific action is a foundation in actor training, where physical actions are the path to emotionally truthful behavior (Stanislavski1936). Current emotion science (Thompkins 1962, Laird 1974, Izard 1993, Flack 1999, Neumann 2000, Carney 2010, Shafir 2013, Shafir and Tsachor 2015) demonstrates thatsensory feedback from movement contributes significantly to experiencing emotions, validating theories proposed as far back as Darwin (1872) and James (1884). These studies have important artistic implications for how instructions in historical dance manuals can easily provide a simple clear path to action, and therefore emotional power in theatre. Indeed, language in the dance manuals themselves implies that moving in specific ways leads to emotional and interpersonal results.

This poster briefly reviews the scientific studies indicating how bodily action is key in producing feelings (both in the mover and in those watching movement). It shares findings from our recent study of motor qualities associated with specific emotions, and explores the specific dance and manners instructions in FabritioCaroso'sNobiltá di Dame as a rich sources of action, and therefore emotion, for actors to embody in period drama. Results from a recent Period Theatre Movement class show howdance instructions and concepts such as misure, pavoneggiare, become powerfully expressive physical action for actors, andgive examples how actors use discoveries from Renaissance dance to create truthful expression for period characters.

Tal Shafir, Haifa, Israel:

Tal Shafir (PhD U. Michigan, R-DMT), after certifying and teaching dance and working as a dance-movement therapist for several years, completed her Masters and PhD in neurophysiology of motor control, then two postdoctoral fellowships in brain-behavior interactions in motor development and in affective neuroscience. Her research at University of Michigan's Department of Psychiatry focused on brain mechanisms underlying movement-emotion interaction. This research is the topic of her TEDx talk: "How your Body Affects your Happiness". Shafir continues her research in her current position as Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of Creative Arts Therapies in University of Haifa.

Rachelle Tsachor, Chicago, Illinois, USA:

Rachelle Palnick Tsachor (BFA Juilliard; MA, CUNY; CMA); is Assistant Professor of Theatre Movement, at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her historical dance publications include chapters in Dover's Courtly Dance of the Renaissance; Gordon & Breach's Moving Notation and the Institute for Historical Dance Practice's Terpsichore 1450-1900. Her reconstruction of Nido d'Amore was the basis for Dancetime's video The Majesty of Renaissance Dance. Tsachor was associate editor of Dances for the Sun King: André Lorin's Livre de Contredance. She researches the bodily expression of emotions with Dr. Tal Shafir.