From Grounded Foot to Leaping Foot

This research project developed from a realisation that there was a missing link between movement work for grounding and the next demand on the student to jump. Debbie Green and Ita O'Brien began their research, ‘From grounded foot to leaping foot’ in February 2009, proposing the statement ‘grounding is a pre-requisite’ as the premise from which to start the investigation into how the use of the feet can be developed to take the actor from this deeply grounded place to jump and leap safely. The work is explored within the context of fundamental movement for the acting student with the aim of maximising the actor's physical choices within her/his expressive work. From being grounded to leaping is quite literally a big ‘leap’ for acting students to make. Following nine months of research (March–December 2009), Green and O'Brien led a series of six practical sessions with nine volunteer actors between January and March 2010 to develop the progression from the ground, through the rigour and preparation required to take the body into a jump and leap, to the strength and articulation required to land safely. The work was then presented as a Practice and Pedagogy Forum, to an invited audience within the Research Events programme at Central School of Speech & Drama on 26 October 2010. The work has subsequently been taken back into the classroom. This article is the culmination of the research into the progression of work, ‘From grounded foot to leaping foot’

The drama of doing: occupation and the here-and-now

In this reflective discussion of Playback Theatre, parallels are drawn between occupation and drama, as a thing that is done, an embodied performance. Playback is considered from the perspectives of both performers, who respond to the teller's autobiographical narrative and the audience, who witness the performers’ and the teller's response. The moment of enactment of the story is presented as a kind of threshold, where the performers are in the moment and aware of the moment as they listen and begin to respond to the story. They tune into their somatic and emotional responses, call forth personal experiences that elicit ‘empathic imagination’, and listen for the imagery, emotions and cultural narratives embedded in the story. Knowledge of theatrical conventions, sequences remembered from previous performances, and collaboration with fellow performers compound the mix. The performance is discovered as it unfolds, with the phenomenological essence of the story creatively revealed in the doing. Understanding how ideas and artworks are created through and in the doing, it is proposed, is important if occupational science is to understand how the present is infused with the past, even as we inhabit the here and now

The emotional openness of wonder and admiration to educating our moral desires

Emotions comprise cognitive and motivational traits. For the former, one of the most relevant traits is the subjacent eudaimonistic belief, while the motivational trait becomes clear in its imperious mood of “passivity” of our actions. The first trait explains emotions in terms of a distinctive rationality: what goods and values we consider we need in order to be happy. The second trait, warns us of significant changes in our environment as a result of our situation of needy beings However, there seems to be an exception: not every emotion is eudaimonistic. Admiration and awe help us to recognise that there are objects that are not included in our scheme of goods that should be incorporated; therefore, they contribute to the flourishing of our lives through their intrinsic ability to be open to the world. Admiration and awe make us focus maximally on the object and minimally on ourselves. This experience happens especially with rationality, love, and beauty, but also with moral models that tend to perform heroic actions. We propose that an integral moral education includes cultivating an attentive way of looking at our world and at human suffering that might be very fostered by awe and admiration, and which at the same time motivates us to wish good for ourselves and for others. Nowadays, however, there are two widespread views about morality that slow down our farming of both emotions: sentimentalism and solipsism. As long as they presuppose challenges for the main objective, they both will be analyzed.Filosofí