The Centre for the Less Good Idea is an interdisciplinary incubator space for the arts based in Maboneng, Johannesburg

LUC DE WIT | MASKING THE FACE, UNMASKING THE BODY: PRESENCE AND ACTION ON STAGE

How can the process of masking the face help one to better understand the movement of the body? How does this aid in the location and establishment of oneself – one’s body – in relation to the world and the characters, histories and contemporary realities that charge it?

Through masking the face, we are able to better locate and make sense of the body – its languages, its implications, its sensitivities and sensibilities.

Led by Brussels-based actor, director, drama teacher and Feldenkrais practitioner Luc De Wit, Masking the Face, Unmasking the Body: Presence and Action on Stage is a workshop exploring presence and the significance of gesture through work with the Neutral Mask.

Hosted by SO | The Academy for the Less Good Idea, the workshop took place from 27 June to 1 July at The Centre for the Less Good Idea and saw 13 Johannesburg-based actors, directors, dancers and theatre-makers participating in De Wit’s workshop.

De Wit utilised the Neutral Mask as a tool for discovering heightened sensitivity as a performer and for questioning the fundamentals of movement and theatre. A series of clear exercises and improvisations allowed for the participants to learn through performance and observation in equal measure.

The five-day workshop culminated in The Open Moment, a public showing of the week’s work and a unique opportunity for audiences to witness De Wit’s approach and methodology.

CREDITS:

Luc De Wit is a Brussels-based actor, director, drama teacher, Feldenkrais practitioner and a long-time collaborator of William Kentridge. Having begun his career as an actor, De Wit worked increasingly as a stage director and has, since 1995, focused more on directing operas. He teaches regularly at theatre and music colleges in Europe and has presented a number of workshops for actors, singers and directors. He currently teaches at Lassaad International Theatre School in Brussels. Since 2005 De Wit has worked as a co-director with William Kentridge and often features as a performer in Kentridge’s operas.

The participants of Masking the Face, Unmasking the Body: Presence and Action on Stage were: Itumeleng Moeketsi, Kaldi Makutike, Micca Manganye, Moeketsi Koena, Molebogeng Phiri, Muzi Shili, Paballo Phiri, Philangezwi Nxumalo, Phumlani Mndebele, Phuti Chokwe, Sibahle Mangena, Thabo Rapoo and Noah Cohen.

Athena Mazarakis is the Momenteur for the SO Academy

PHOTOGRAPHER | Zivanai Matangi

WAYS OF THINKING

“Words are one thing, but there are other languages… the language of the body which is not separate from life. It is [a language] to rediscover, to awaken that sensitivity of the body and its relation to the world.” – Luc De Wit  

Four masks sit just off-stage, they are silent and inactive, but they are not without presence. Once carried by the actor, they become vital tools used to better examine and make sense of one’s body and physical presence in the world.

From 27 June to 1 July 2022, the Brussels-based actor, director, drama teacher and Feldenkrais practitioner Luc De Wit was invited to lead a workshop on mask and movement at The Centre for the Less Good Idea. Part one of a series of 2022 workshops by SO | The Academy for the Less Good Idea, Masking the Face, Unmasking the Body: Presence and Action on Stage, saw 13 Johannesburg-based dancers, actors, theatre-makers and performing artists participating in De Wit’s workshop.

Over the course of the five days, which culminated in an Open Moment for the public, De Wit worked with the participants to explore the Neutral Mask, the tacit knowledge of the body, tension, rhythm and improvisation among other things.

Establishing commonality and sensitivity through the Neutral Mask

The Neutral Mask, said French actor, educator and mime Jacques Lecoq, is a mask without conflict. Implemented as a rehearsal tool by Lecoq, it is a symmetrical mask, not used for performance, but rather to unify and to find a commonality with one’s own body and with others. In masking the face, the whole body (including the face) is able to become one clear action, one clear thought.

“This mask is beyond nationality, race and identity,” explains De Wit. “It is essentially about what it is to be human. What do we share as people?”

A mask without conflict also means that there are no mistakes and in this way, every movement by the performer becomes an attempt at making sense of the body, a questioning of what constitutes the basics of being on stage and the basics of movement itself. What emerges is a series of inquiries. What is the dynamic of a farewell? Of a meeting?

Through the use of the Neutral Mask, the participants ultimately come to occupy a state of constant discovery, receptiveness and corporeal possibility. 

“I don’t want to get too mystical, but if the mask is carried properly, it changes you,” says De Wit. “The first thing is to just put it on. Some feel good in it, some feel safe, some feel claustrophobic. But if you carry that mask, it starts shining, it becomes brilliant. The whole body is there and it shines. When you don’t have the right tone, it becomes dull. So it’s all about a state of being… You have to have this state of openness and vulnerability.”

The voyage of the human being

The journey of the neutral mask, explains De Wit, is the journey of humankind. Over the course of the five-day workshop, participants are led through a series of improvisations prompted by clear scenarios that can be understood as mirroring the fundamental human journey throughout time.

By making one’s way through the forest, into the ocean, up the mountain and across the plain, participants must craft short sequences and plausible settings through the use of gesture and the presence of the body on stage, magnified by the use of the Neutral Mask.

“It is a voyage through the whole world, everything that surrounds us in order to discover the phenomena, or rather the dynamic of the phenomena that surround us,” explains De Wit. 

As the participants make their way through these scenarios and settings, they journey closer towards themselves. It is a journey of survival, fear, exploration, navigation, curiosity and decision-making. It is about primal movement and emotion in a fight for one’s life. Ultimately, says De Wit, it is about living. 

Learning through doing: Movement as theory

Thinking through movement is central to the workshops. Less concerned with theorising the body, De Wit works to encourage a learning through doing – a means of surfacing the intelligence of the body and getting it to converse with the mind and the immediate environment.  

In addition to the exploratory and improvisatory scenarios, De Wit also brings to the workshops a series of exercises inspired by Lecoq and designed to unify the body. Identifying and isolating tension in the body is one such exercise, which sees participants mapping tension out on a numerical scale while also performing this tension through a series of sketches – waking up, winning the lottery, escaping a fire. There is no movement that is without tension, explains De Wit.

Similarly, learning the undulation of the spine, and subsequently of the entire body, is an exercise in the unification of the body. Taking an action or a gesture and making it as big as possible becomes a means of expanding the body in order to better study its many parts. In this way, De Wit helps participants to draw a thesis out of each movement or gesture – it’s activity, motion, impact and consequence. The simple act of opening and closing the body becomes a way of thinking before, during, and on the precipice of a movement, figuring out where it is going and what it is becoming.   

“So, the whole thing is about making everything clearer and more sensitive. About how the body is an undivided thing,” explains De Wit. “It’s never my aim to look at different parts of the body, it’s always the whole body. To understand the whole body, you must understand its many parts. And there is an order.”

Repetition and rigour

Repetition is key. By making participants attempt a movement or perform a scenario again and again, De Wit is able to both draw out and establish more novel or emotive elements in their movements, providing a rigorous yet generous critique, helping participants to achieve an embeddedness through repetition.  

There is also the resultant learning through observation. By focusing his critique on the individual, De Wit ultimately provides a set of instructions and insights for the collective. Sincerity serves as the basis of De Wit’s feedback. There is no sting to his criticism, it is only generous response and demonstration, down to the last gesture.   

Through the repetition of these exercises and improvisations, and the subsequent feedback they garner, a dynamic emerges. It is a certain precision and understanding of movement and gesture, coupled with the free-flowing and deeply intentional activity of performance that results in a fuller understanding of one’s body in the world.

While Masking the Face, Unmasking the Body: Presence and Action on Stage culminated in The Open Moment – a public showing of the key exercises and training tools introduced over the five days of the workshop – the process was not in preparation for this moment. Rather, the workshop was an intensive and dedicated process spent unlearning the habits of the body and its unconscious movements and gestures with the Neutral Mask providing a blank slate, a vital point of departure.

– David Mann

PHOTOGRAPHER | Zivanai Matangi

THE OPEN MOMENT | MASKING THE FACE, UNMASKING THE BODY: PRESENCE AND ACTION ON STAGE

Part public showing, part open workshop session, The Open Moment is a glimpse into De Wit’s approach and methodology in which he uses the Neutral Mask as a tool for discovering heightened sensitivity as a performer, and for questioning the fundamentals of movement and theatre.

De Wit opens with a history of the Neutral Mask, as well as a brief framing and introduction to the approach, exercises and training tools he employed in the workshop before leading the workshop participants through a series of prompted exercises and improvisations. As the audience watches, De Wit steps onto the stage with the performers, giving notes for the benefit of performer and audience alike. Through this dynamic of open instruction, the audience gains a deeper understanding of both the methodologies and the movements playing out on stage.

“The journey of the neutral mask is the journey of humankind,” explains De Wit before prompting a series of scenarios for the participants to navigate – turbulent seas, crumbling mountains and burning forests. Using nothing but their bodies and the empty stage, the participants immerse themselves in the improvisations, negotiating and also embodying the elements. They become tempests, unyielding rockface, the fire rising up to find oxygen before retreating once more to the forest floor.

In another moment, the participants launch into an exercise together, running into the sea. As they move further into the ocean, the water begins to impact different parts of their bodies, submerging them, slowing them down. It is an exercise in imagination and, of course, in the use of the body, activating or centering different parts of the body as they go along.

Throughout it all there is De Wit, guiding and contextualising simultaneously. It is through his instruction and observation, as well as through the activity of the participants on stage, that his methodology becomes clear.

– David Mann

CREDITS:

FACILITATOR | Luc De Wit
PARTICIPANTS | Itumeleng Moeketsi, Kaldi Makutike, Micca Manganye, Moeketsi Koena, Molebogeng Phiri, Muzi Shili, Paballo Phiri, Philangezwi Nxumalo, Phumlani Mndebele, Phuti Chokwe, Sibahle Mangena, Thabo Rapoo & Noah Cohen