Paper short abstract:

Through experience with master performances, drama students gained a new appreciation for noh that transcended exterior aesthetics. Rather, students comprehended technique, appreciated complexity in stillness, and even reassessed their own approach to other forms of performance.

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores the implications of a workshop designed for students on a practice-based course grounded in actor training approaches in Chinese and Japanese drama, which introduced them to key patterns of noh movement through demonstration and participation. Students spent three hours a week practically training in noh, experiencing how it operates as a form, but also thinking about transferable skills that could be used outside of the context of noh. An important outcome of the "Passion in Stillness" workshop was its effectiveness in highlighting how constraint enables creativity. In turn, this enhanced the students' understanding of the complexity and difficulty of maintaining stillness as an essential mode of physical expression. During the workshop itself, some students were curious as to why certain kata were retained if they are so difficult to perform well. This was explained both in terms of a discipline that has origins in ascetic ritual, and as a means of pushing boundaries creatively. The students' appreciation of these points was evident in the practical assessments and reflective work at the end of the course. They had become more inclined towards considering technique as the essential essence of noh, rather than seeking to imitate exterior aesthetics. Instead of devising expansively, students focussed on constraint, and the physical manifestations of stillness, energy, and labour as the bedrock of performance skill. This demonstrated a comprehension of the deep level skills of the noh actor. Their inability to easily imitate noh movement introduced the concept of failure as a training tool, and impressed upon them the need for long periods of training to achieve a professional standard of performance. Beyond noh, it also enabled them to reconsider their approach to other modes of performance - for example, naturalism - in light of the tension, stillness, and control they witnessed and experienced through noh.