EMBMIND · EMBODIED MINDFULNESS: Performance Training for Deaf and Hearing Actors

EMBODIED MINDFULNESS: Performance Training for Deaf and Hearing Actors

The action ‘Embodied Mindfulness: Performance Training for D/deaf and Hearing Actors’ looks at the role of the body in mindfulness and aims to develop an embodied mindfulness-based performer training practice that is accessible to both D/deaf and hearing performers. The project responds to: the untapped potential for a body-based mindfulness training schema for performers; the lack of professional performance training for D/deaf performers; and the opportunity to use performative modalities to create mindfulness training that is accessible to D/deaf participants. The key societal significance of this project lies in its contribution to D/deaf performers and the wider D/deaf community. Currently, very few mindfulness practices are accessible to D/deaf participants, in either performance or general well-being contexts. This project addresses that lack. Mindfulness is a cultivated state of awareness which has been shown to enhance psychological resilience, emotion regulation, and well-being. Mindfulness training entails the development of particular modes of awareness, attention, intention and presence - all of which are also foundational skills for the performer. Embodied Mindfulness researchers have proposed that processes of embodiment are central to the effectiveness of mindfulness, and suggest 'embodied mindfulness' as the basis for future research (Khoury et al, 2017:1168). This is because a key aspect of mindfulness practice is found in its relationship with enhanced awareness of subtle body sensations (Davis and Thompson in Brown et al, 2015). Despite the centrality of body awareness in mindfulness training, there are few studies on the topic (Verhaeghen, 2017:105), and the nascent field of mindfulness-based performance training has not yet examined the implications and potentials of body-based mindfulness modalities. This project contributes to this aspect of mindfulness research, responding to the gap in the field. By analysing the links between proprioception, interoception, awareness and mindfulness, the project aimed to contribute new knowledge on the role of the body in mindfulness practice, and to use this theoretical foundation to design an embodied mindfulness-based performer training practice that is accessible for both D/deaf and hearing performers, by working in close collaboration with an international team of Deaf Consultants/researchers from the Deaf and hearing theatre company Equal Voices Arts: Denise Armstrong (UK), Rāhera Turner (Aotearoa New Zealand) and Thora Hübner (Germany, Aotearoa New Zealand).

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз