The conundrum of transmitting embodied knowledge for intercultural performance: A case study

How is ‘embodied knowledge’ transmitted? Certainly, in most Asian traditional performance practice, it is dinned into the body of the disciple through daily repetition. Unlike many western performance techniques, for example classical ballet, the discipline and transformation of the body in Asian performance forms is not managed through abstracted exercises, but rather by learning whole roles. In Bali, the student imbibes technique through regular practice until tarian masuk – literally until the dance enters the body. As a beneficiary of this pedagogical method, I know what it feels like, and as a student of anatomy and kinesiology I have some intellectual understanding of the nervous and muscular processes that make the appropriate movement happen; but how is this ‘sensuous knowledge’ transmitted? This case study examines the author’s experience of directing a group of Western-trained actors using techniques of Balinese topéng for an intercultural production of the Greek tragedy Hippolytos. It explores the physical and philosophical challenges for those who would make intercultural work, and who must find appropriate and effective methodologies for developing new body practices – often in a very short period of time.