Beginning Constructive Rest
by André Bernard
In the 1980’s, André Bernard composed and narrated audio tapes devoted to the practice of Constructive Rest for participants in his California workshops. The tapes were produced to encourage his students to continue their exploration of the imagery. Bernard’s original Constructive Rest narrations were donated to the Thinking Body Institute by Ruth Botchan, the sponsor of his workshops at Berkeley Moving Arts.
General Description
This audio session was designed for beginning students. Bernard began by providing a description of the Constructive Rest Position and introduced the “empty suit of clothes,” a collection of images originally developed by Dr. Lulu Sweigard. The empty suit images described in this session relate to the collapsing of the suit and the sand subsequently spilling out of various open seams in the suit, gloves and toe socks. The smoothing of the wrinkles in the back of the suit coat, the seat of the pants, the collar and various features of the spherical empty head were also described. Bernard’s original Constructive Rest narrations were created for cassette tapes. They were converted to MP3 files by the Thinking Body Institute in 2017, but improvements to the audio quality were not attempted.
Click the arrow in the player below to listen to a short sample of the audio.
About the Author
André Bernard (1924- 2003) was a professional actor who appeared in numerous New York City theater and dance performances. He also held a broad array of on-air positions with the National Public Radio Station (WNYC) in New York. He became a student of Barbara Clark in the late 1940’s and together they devised pedagogy for teaching Mabel Todd’s educational approach in group settings. Through his adjunct faculty position at New York University and private studio and academic summer workshops in California, Germany and Switzerland, his teaching was a major influence on the evolution of post-modern dance education.
Product Details
Publisher: Thinking Body Institute Media LLC
Publication Date: 2017
Product Description: Mp3 Audio, 38:39 Minutes
File size: 14 MB
Price: $12.50
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