Advanced 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 advanced students who were familiar with his approach. Bernard’s narration focused on imagery of the empty suit of clothes collapsing with the hissing exhalation; the support of an imaginary bar of a hanger under the flexed knees; the thigh bones as dowels resting in the cup-like thigh sockets; the pubic rami resting against each other; imaginary beads on a string between the pubic symphysis and 12th thoracic vertebra moving toward each other; the emptiness of the head as a sphere; and the wrinkles in the imaginary collar being smoothed upward as the lower end of the spine lengthened downward. 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 for 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, 41 Minutes
File size: 14.9 MB
Language: English
Price: $12.50
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$12.50
