Chekhov's excercises
For approximately three weeks, I pursued Chekhov’s first six exercises in a systematic way, every exercise for 3 days, for 10 – 15 minutes. A few minutes after every session were dedicated to write down whatever came to mind without censoring any thoughts.
Chekhov makes a strong emphasis that the actor needs to always keep in mind the final aim of every exercise. That helped in terms of keeping focus in every exercise, to have a strong purpose rather than just doing ‘whatever’, though it may be that it cut off for some part, my own thoughts and ideas whilst doing the exercises. After consideration of ignoring the pre-decided outcomes and purposes it became obvious that they couldn’t simply be unread and since this is after all Chekhov’s technique, full commitment to his exercises was demanded. I decided that personal ideas about modifications were more important later on in the process. Chekhov’s exercises are beneficial and important when taking on a character. It will strengthen senses for certain characteristics. Practicing the exercises is also beneficial to actors themselves. It will lead them to acquiring power over their own movements and body.
The exercise journal
My unfiltered thoughts and speculations after doing excercises 1 - 6 from Chekhov's original book, To the Actor on the Technique of Acting.
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Excercise 1: series of wide but simple movements, using maximum space around, involve and utilize the whole body, making movements with sufficient strength without straining unnecessary muscles. Imagining that I am becoming larger and larger, coming back to original position. Repeating movement several times, saying to oneself the |
Day 1
Feeling very strongly ,the oxygen flowing very liberally through every limb. Feeling that it makes me feel powerful while making me so big. Needing to focus while feeling my muscles are active, that they are not too tense. In the opposite movement, where I make myself small and close all surroundings, I feel also very safe and protected. With the right amount of activity in my muscles it made it easier to keep balance while stretching one leg out. - had a hard time connecting to that part of the exercise, it didn't feel any certain way. I feel I am sometimes holding my breath while making moves.
Though I almost actually felt the weight of the imaginary item.
Day 2
Tempted to wanting to make the moves like a dancer but holding off as Chekhov advises against that.
Feeling still very powerful by making myself grow, maybe even a bit dizzy as I feel the oxygen levels changing very suddenly, suddenly getting so much of it.
Feeling as I close myself off and making the surroundings smaller, I am recharging. Played around with doing the first movement and then the second one alternately again and again. Challenging to make the shifts smoothly as these movements make me feel very different things. Being strong - being scared, taking up space, being unapologetic - making myself smaller for the world, apologetic.
Day 3
Everything went more smoothly as I have started to recognize these almost routine movements. But then also trying to forget how exactly I did them the day before as that moment cannot be remade, there are only new moments. I like doing the action of tossing something /lifting something up and ect. With the sense that I am doing it with all that I have. But I am still missing a bit the ease of it still. Still a bit hectic
Excercise 2
After teaching self the means of this preparatory exercise to produce these simple, wide and free movements, continue doing them another way. Imagine that from the chest is a center that flows the actual impulses for all your movements.
Imaginary: center as a source of inner power and activity. Send this power into your head, arms, hands, torso, legs and feet. Letting the sensation of strength, harmony and wellbeing penetrarte the whole body. Make sure that the shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips or news don’t stanch the flow of the energy, letting it to be free,
Think that the joints are there not to make your body stiff but on the contrary to enable you to use your limbs with utmost freedom and flexibility. Imagine that the arms and legs originate from this center within your chest, not from shoulders and hips.
Movements: series of natural movements, lift your arms and lowering, stretch, walking, sitting down, get up, lie down, move different objects, put on coat, gloves and hat, take them off and so on… ,make sure all the movements are actually instigated by that imaginary center within the chest.
Make sure: let the power which flows from the imaginary center within your chest and leads you through the space precede the movement itself; that is, first send out the impulse for the movement and then, an instant later, do the movement itself. While walking forwards, sidewards, backwards, let even the center itself go out as it were from your chest, a few inches ahead of you in the direction of your movement. Let the body follow the center.
Effects achieved: making your walk as well as every movement smooth, graceful and artistic, and pleasant to fulfill as to look at.4
Day 1
Being a person that really needs to remind oneself to keep a straight back, this was very nice to do. This actually, as Chekhov predicted, made the physical posture better by itself with this focus on the chest rather than on the back itself. This thought that the chest is the essence of everything happening in my body is not completely irrelevant to me as this is something I think while singing.
Having this image in my mind makes me automatically feel graceful in a natural way without thinking, “be graceful” “stand up straight”
Day 2
Felt the need to take a moment in the beginning where I pictured this image of my chest having this kind of a light bulb inside. Now I feel like every impulse in this session actually physically starts in my chest. Like my brain is now placed next to my heart. After making a good connection, I did the same tasks from yesterday but also new ones.
Day 3
I enjoy this thought that from your chest is a power bank so much that I have started practicing this exercise in my everyday life. Doing everyday movements and chores like when taking laundry out of the washing machine, putting away dry laundry or vacuuming. The way I step onto the bus or carry my little niece. At the moment I can’t quite put my finger on why this feels so nice. This thought of leading with the heart has a nice sound to it.
Exercise 3
MOLDING as before, making strong and broad movements with the whole body.
Saying to myself:” like a sculptor, I mold the space surrounding me. In the air around me I leave forms which appear to be chiseled by the movements of my body.”
Creating strong and definite forms. Thinking of the beginning of the movement and the end.
Saying again: now I begin my movement which creates a form. Along with this, think and feel your body itself as a movable form. Repeat each movement several times until it becomes free and most enjoyable to fulfill. Your efforts will resemble the work of a designer who, again and again, draws the same line, striving for a better, clearer and more expressive form. But in order not to lose the molding quality of your movement imagine the air around you as a medium which resits you. Also trying the same movements in different tempos
Try reproduce these movements by using only different parts of your body: mold the air around you with only your shoulders and shoulderblades, when with back, elbows, knees, forehead, hands, fingers, etc. Preserving strength and inner power flowing through and out of your body. Avoid unnecessary muscular tension. For the sake of simplicity do your molding movements at first without imaging a center within your chest.
Then connecting: returning to natural movements and everyday business, combining with this thought of center, sensations of strength, molding power and form.
Train your hands and fingers separately making any natural movementsm take move lift, put down.touch and transpose different objects.
No need to exaggerate the movements.5
Day 1
I felt incredibly stiff in this exercise as I was trying hard to make every movement have a clear beginning and end, i lost the feeling of flow. Thinking about molding clay perhaps has this natural effect. I felt it then was helpful when I let go of the thought in exc. Nr. 2, the power source is from the chest.
Day 2
Feeling more heaviness in my movements than the day before, feeling that every movement, as small as it is will leave a mark in the air, or on the item my finger or hand touches. Even though every small movement makes a mark, this is a little bit suffocating feeling, like it takes a lot of effort moving, as if I was lying in clay or wet cement. When reproducing movements with different parts of my body I kind of got lost. It helped me a little bit to actually picture a sculpture that I was making with my hand and then try to make it again with another part of my body like my shoulder. I felt everything in my body being very heavy.
Day 3
Playing a bit more with tempos today. To me, this molding quality goes naturally with a slow tempo. but I tried to make my sculptors very fast which I only can do by being very strong and energetic. Having the power to move within this very restricting clay.
Which is a very different feeling then from the previous days where I felt a bit drained after being in this molding mode. This awakens the idea that it would be interesting to visit this exercise again when someone is portraying a character that has the world’s weight on their shoulders, someone who is perhaps completely exhausted, drained, even worried, depressed and so on.
Exercise 4
FLOATING still using the wide and broad movements of the previous exercises, utilizing the whole body; then switch to the simple natural movements and finally exercise with your hands and fingers only. Awakening in self still another
Thought: “my movements are floating in space, merging gently and beautifully one into another. “
Movements must still be simple and well shaped!! Let them ebb and flow like big waves. As before, avoid unnecessary muscular tension, but, on the other hand, do not let the movements become weak, vague, unfinished or shapeless,
Imagine: that the air around is a surface of water which supports me and which my movements lightly skims. Change the tempos. Pause from time to time
Think: that my movements are a little pieces of art, as all exercises suggested in this chapter. Sensation of calm, poise and psychological warmth will be the reward. Let these sensations fill your whole body.6
Day 1
As the movement both has to have a clear ending and beginning but still be floating and merging into one another, which I find to be a bit of a paradox, It came to me that in order to do that I had to connect it to my breathing. The beginning of the movement is where I breathe in, and then where I have emptied my lungs of air, marks the ending of the movement. Still this is now almost like a dance, which Chekhov did not recommend
Day 2
Keeping on with the breathing discovery from yesterday, feeling that the air moving in and out through the body and then around is in fact the water. I now feel that the water is controlling me, and the impulses lie in the water rather than within my chest any more. Giving me the idea that maybe this exercise could be revisited when portraying a character that is very influential and missing initiative and a sense of self-assuredness. Just going with the flow
Day 3
Playing more with natural movements today rather than just improvisational movements that are not or rarely found in the everyday life of a normal person that is not a dancer. Taking a seat with this floating feeling, standing up, washing my hands, the way I say hello, the way I open a cabinet. There is a sense of lightness in this, maybe this could also suit a character that does not have many responsibilities in life, or has a few worries, a young person perhaps.
Exercise nr. 5
FLYING like flying birds easily grasping the idea behind these next movements. Imagining the whole body flying through space. As in the previous exercises, the movements must merge into each other without being shapeless. The physical strength of the movements may increase or diminish according to your desire, but it must never disappear altogether. Psychologically you must constantly maintain your strength, you may come to a static position outwardly, but inwardly you must continue your feeling of still soaring aloft.
Imagine: the air around is a medium which instigates your flying movements. My desire has to be to overcome the weight of your body, to fight the law of gravity, while moving, change tempos, a sensation of joyful lightness and easiness will permeate your entire body.start this exercise too, with the wide, broad movements. Then proceed to the natural gestures. While carrying out the everyday movements.
Make sure to preserve their truthfulness and simplicity.7
Day 1
feeling that flying and floating are not that different, having a hard time making a connection and had to quit and start again a few times. Coming back to just standing still for a few minutes and picturing in my mind that I am actually up in the air. And I cannot just lie there, then I will fall from the sky. I reactivate the power bank living in my chest and I stand up, while standing still with my hands a little bit out I send just the right amount of power through my arms and legs that will keep me from the ground. No other movements today
Day 2
I see the difference between flying and floating now more clearly. I could maybe fall asleep floating in water, not having a lot of control where my body drifts but I need to keep control while flying. I have to have strong intentions. For that, I think it’s hard to do movements in this setting that don’t have any purpose. Then I lose the connection and focus on what I am doing and why I am doing it.
Day 3
Doing the exercise today made me think that a person that flies through an event of their life, is a person who has a strong desire, will and intention, (that even is stronger than gravity) If there is no intention you will crash. A flying character is a person who will go through fire and ice to get what it desires the most. The drive comes from the power bank in the chest.
Exercise nr. 6
RADIATING again with the big movements, then going to simple natural movements, lifting arms up, lowering, stretching it forward, sideways, walking around the room, lying down, sitting down, etc., but continuously and in advance send the rays from your body into the space around you. In the direction of the movement you make. And after the movement is made.
Continuing sitting down after i have sat down, how?
The answer is simple if you remember yourself sitting down after i have already sat down. Tired and worn out, true, your physical body has taken this final position, but psychologically you still continue to sit down by radiating that you are sitting, you experience this radiation in the sensation of enjoying your relaxation. The same with getting up while imagining yourself tired and worn-out: your body resists it, and long before you really get up, you are already doing it inwardly: you are radiating getting up before actually doing it. You continue to get up long after you are already standing.
Not suggesting: that you must act or pretend to be tired during this example. It is merely an illustration of what might happen in a given real life circumstance. This should be done with every movement that comes to a physically statit position. Radiation must precede and follow all your actual movements.Radiating is going out and beyond your own body. Sending rays in different directions from the whole body at once and afterwards through its various parts- arms hands fingers, palms, forehead, chest and back. You may or may not use the center in the chest as the mainspring of the radiation. Filling the entire sðace around you with these radiations.
Make sure: to be alert to the subtle differences between the flying and radiating movements. Until practice makes them easily apparent to you.
Imagine: that the air around you is filled with light.
Make sure: not to be disturbed be doubts as to wether you are actually radiating or wether you are only imagining that you are. If you sincerely and convincingly imagine that you are sending out rays. The imagination: will gradually and faithfully lead you to the real and actual process of radiation.
Results: sensation of the actual existence and significance of your inner being will be the result of this exercise. Other sensations: those of freedom, happiness and inner warmth. All these feelings fill your entire body and becoming very much so alive and sensitive and responsive.8
Day 1
Although I understood the terminology of Radiating I struggled today knowing if I was achieving it. I lay down, sat down, stood up, walked around the room and picturing myself doing so in advance, actually doing it and then again reminiscing the event of doing it and playing it back in my mind. Chekhov says that you should not let doubts as whether you are doing it or not disturb you, but going through this process for the first time I couldn’t help to wonder. I went back to the bigger abstract movements feeling it getting a little bit easier, while making myself big like in the first exercise. I have already achieved this in my imagination that everything around me is getting bigger. Curling up and making me smaller, I felt how the air around me was already pressing me down long before I actually did it. And I easily could imagine the action going on and on in my mind.
Day 2
Started with doing the big basic movements of big and small. Then moving on to the everyday ones. I started making up situations for every movement I wanted to make. Sitting down next to an imaginary person I have a love interest for. Then it became very natural for me to imagine sitting down before I actually did it. It made sense because in that situation a person is likely to go through it in your head before actually doing it, and then afterwards playing the moment again and again in your mind as a person in that situation is very self conscious.
Another situation I made up: waking up after a terrible night’s sleep of only 4 hours and having a long day ahead. You are already awake and are searching for the strength to actually get up. Doing it in your mind before, and then feeling how hard it was afterwards but being glad you did it.
Day 3
I went back to doing natural movements out of nothing but the movements itself, with out having to find a reason for the actions. I cannot simply think, now be mad, feel sad or be happy! And after a while I felt liberated from the thought that I have something to prove with my actions. I felt that a lot was happening for me inner being this time around,
I believe radiating is also something I will experiment with someone else to join me in a session.