Some light for the New Year

I want to wish wish you a happy new year. I’m not sure, however, what that phrase means this year. The ring of those words has changed. Hoping and wishing feels naive and “happy” feels downright risky!

Undaunted, I’m wishing you some light for the new year to come. I’m imagining you, lighting a candle or watching the sunrise color the sky. A moment like that. Or a quiet moment when there is space between the noise of the room and the noise in your mind. In that light or that space, I hope you recall moments from this past year that brought you joy.

Can we take some light into this next year.? We really don’t know what we will encounter.
But I am making plans, wishes, hopes… and space to just not know. I look forward to not knowing with you.
See you in 2022.

An Article Belinda Co-Authored: Theatre, Dance, and Performance Training: Volume 3, Issue 1, 2012

Cultivating a lively use of tension: the
synergy between acting and the
Alexander Technique
Teva Bjerken, Belinda Mello and Robin Mello

Theatre, Dance and Performance Training Volume 3, Issue 1, 2012

Abstract

This paper explores how the Alexander Technique concept of ‘use’ provides a means for exploring tension within the pedagogy and practice of mentoring young actors/artists. It presents examples taken from classroom instruction, linking the Alexander Technique with acting performance as two related and synergistic processes. It also provides examples from basic curricular processes and examines a composite case study, which stands as an aggregate portrait for students working in a university-based conservatory training programme. The discussion concentrates on how learners develop a lively, flexible and psychophysically grounded craft and ends by reflecting on the function of the Alexander Technique and its ability to provide a framework for theatre artists.