The Singer's Audition & Career Handbook is available for pre-order and will be released October 15, 2019. The following is an excerpt from Chapter 6: Dramatic Interpretation.
from Chapter 6: Dramatic Interpretation
Eliminating Extraneous Movement
In performance, all of your movements must emanate from your characters and the stories you are telling. By definition, any movement you engage in that does not will conflict with your singing and be experienced as a distraction.
When singers engage in extraneous or habitual movements that detract from their performances, it is usually due to the need to spend more time physically defining their characters. The impulse to move is usually a good and positive thing, but allowing that impulse to manifest unconsciously will yield distracting and counterproductive results. While the ultimate solution has more to do with actively embodying your character than with curbing extraneous movement, I feel that it is important to describe the categories of unintended movement that plague singers and to identify their probable causes. Becoming aware of these common behaviors is the first step in supplanting them with a more intentional dramatic approach.
Unconscious Physical Movement
When singers rhythmically shift their weight from one leg to the other, grasp at the seams of their skirt or trousers, rotate their head from side to side, or wiggle their fingers, it is likely that they are experiencing an impulse to move but failing to channel it in a way that effectively expresses their character. Such unconscious movements may be motivated in part by nervous energy, but even in such a case your ability to channel your impulses into movements that express your character will improve your presentation and likely calm your nerves as well.
Unconscious Facial Expressions
It is essential that you remain focused and present in your eyes while performing and that your facial expressions reflect you character’s thoughts and emotions rather than self-criticism or unconscious habits. For example, raising your eyebrows will make you look surprised or anxious; depressing them will make you appear angry or concerned. If these are not the emotions you wish to express, raising or depressing your eyebrows will distort your message. Your eyes must give us the impression that you are seeing everything that your character would be seeing, so if you focus internally, close your eyes, stare vacantly, or allow your eyes to dart around the room, this will also diminish your performance.
Movements that Reflect Technique or Musical Phrasing
With the exception of those rare moments where a character is called upon to sing a song (these moments are called diegetic music), classical singers must sustain the illusion that they are communicating naturally. Therefore, gestures relating to vocal technical events and movements that mimic the flow of the musical line interfere with this illusion. The sweeping arm movements that singers often engage in to encourage continuous breath release can be helpful in the practice room, but they do not belong on stage. As useful as you may find it to physicalize the arc of a phrase you are learning, when the time comes to perform it you must trust your voice to give shape to the melody and allow the rest of your body to express your character.
Standing Motionless
In many cases, cultivating stillness may be a prerequisite to the development of movement skills, and it is also true that economy of movement is often preferable to being too physically busy. At times, stillness can be a valid and effective choice if it serves your dramatic purpose rather than the desire to avoid habitual movement. But while a dynamic stillness can be powerfully evocative, motionlessness for its own sake expresses nothing. Young singers invariably battle a variety of tensions and extraneous movements when they first begin to perform, but while releasing these tensions and movements may facilitate freer singing it will not in itself yield dramatically compelling portrayals.
Rather than seeking to inhibit extraneous movement, singers can address nearly all of these issues by learning to actively engage in intentional movement. Take inventory of any physical habits that may encroach on your dramatic presentation and channel your impulses into movements that will define, rather than compete with, your characters.
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