Stanislavskian Relaxation Exercises

One of the things explored by Stanislavski was the effect of relaxation on psychophysical characterisation. He believed that relaxation was the key to imagination and that you could not form or perform a three-dimensional character in a tense state. He also believed that in order to perform efficiently, you need not to worry about your bodily movements, but your thought processes, objectives and actions. To demonstrate his belief Ben had us trying to do our times tables was performing a simple dance routine, although in of themselves, the times tables and dance routine were simple, when combined it became nigh on impossible to perform both actions simultaneously. We also did a variety of relaxation exercises which included; gradual full body tension and sudden relaxation with the visualisation of our bodies melting into the floor, an exercise which involved us imagining the tide gradually coming up over our bodies and another fascinating exercise. This exercise involved us striking numerous everyday poses, such as sitting or standing and then relaxing the muscles unnecessary for that position. This showed is quite how relaxed you could be in those positions and how much extra energy you are using whilst being in those positions. We also similarly worked on going from those positions to other positions and seeing what muscles and movements were completely necessary to do something like sitting or standing and then relaxing those muscles not entirely needed. This showed us the most economical way to go from various positions, and again show us the amount of extra energy we use in the most simple of movements. Due to these exercises whilst in rehearsals I always try to lose the tension from my body in order to devise or to perform, as I would agree with Stanislavski when he says relaxation is the key to the imagination.