In search of ecstasy: Yoga principles in creative process and performing artists' training
Yoga and Theatre, practice as reasearch, psychophysical states, Asana, Energy and Ecstasy.
This work discusses the effects that self-knowledge and ecstasy - which can be obtained through the practice of Yoga, understood here from the tantric philosophical perspective – on performing artists’ expressiveness and psychophysical states. The methodological basis is practice as research articulated with the development of experiments in the rehearsal room and subsequent data analysis. The work seeks to establish connections between Yoga and Theatre concerning creative possibilities, by discussing the experience of artists who directly or indirectly dealt with theme such as Viola Spolin, Yoshi Oida, Stanislavski, Anne Bogart, and Tina Landau. Throughout the work, epistemological perspectives are approached such as the understanding of the ritual as a common element both in Yoga practices and in theatre, thus highlighting both practices as paths that may change the perception of the reality for practitioners. The second aspect is related to the state of presence in the here and now, also analysing Hindu mythology and the notion of Shiva’s creative dance of time and space. The third, and last part, is related to the ecstasy understood here as an intersection in the practice of yoga and theatre.