Acting and Emotion: Introducing Alba Emoting Your body is an instrument of emotion. Now you can learn to play it.
 
 
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Learning Alba Emoting
 
Learning Alba Emoting
Typical class sessions, learning process, comments from professional and student actors on completion of beginning training, and information on the certification system.

More detailed descriptions of material on this and other pages are available through published articles and books. See page 2 for a bibliography of sources.
  • the beginning Alba Emoting training course

    Alba Emoting arouses emotional response in the body through conscious application of effector patterns of breath and muscle tension organic to basic emotions. Though present in the body since infancy, these simple but precise patterns take some time to master: physical and emotional habits built up over years ingrain muscle tensions which can be challenging to penetrate. Most people experience significant release of habitual emotional tensions in the course of beginning training.

    A typical session involves extensive physical work alternated with discussion of theory and application, technical clarifications, and sharing of experiences. Each session begins with warmups and exercises to develop physical control, flexibility, and awareness. Effector patterns are introduced step by step in exercises of just a few minutes' duration; as skills develop, exercises explore use of patterns in interaction with others and in combination with movement and text.

    Learning rates vary according to emotional readiness and previously developed skills in physical awareness and tension control. A few participants will experience genuine emotion from a pattern within the first few hours of work; most will have these experiences by midway through the course. Control develops with command of technique; expertise develops over time, with practice, exploration, and application. A beginning training course is structured to allow most or all participants to develop sufficient understanding and technical command to use the patterns independently, including application to acting work. (This is defined as Level 1 Certification. See Certifications, p. 2)


  • Stages of the learning process

    The Alba Emoting training process can be broken down into three stages. Most people will have progressed to the second stage by the end of beginning training; the third stage develops independently with applicaton and practice.

    1. Robotic:
    Patterns are produced to their greatest intensity, with attention only to technical precision. The appearance of the emotion is stereotypical, oversized, and usually ingenuine.

    2. Induction:
    Accurate technical production of the effector patterns induces a genuine experience of emotion in the actor (this may or may not involve the emergence of memories and/or images). The patterns merge with the organic experience and subtly individuate without losing their basic integrity; the
    appearance, and experience, of the emotion becomes genuine.

    3. Integration:
    The actor is able to engage the physiological experience and expression of emotion with or without corresponding subjective experience: i.e., the actor can choose whether, and how much, to engage personal associations. The actor can, at will, control intensity of emotion, move from one emotion to another, and blend emotions to create truthful interaction.

    As technical ease increases, expression of organic emotion flows freely from concentration on circumstances, interaction with fellow actors, etc. -- with no need for conscious use of the patterns. The actor can also chose to make conscious adjustments to change, clarify, intensify, or sustain an emotional state.



  • Actors comment about Alba Emoting

    ...a sampling of the many written comments received from professional and student actors following beginning training, in their own words.



    --I love the technique... and the freedom of having these emotional patterns ...gives me a confidence I haven't experienced with other methods.

    --The theory behind [Alba Emoting] made perfect sense. It's given me a new approach to acting.


    --It has given me confidence personally as well as professionally. Some emotions have become unlocked because of the work.

    --I am much more vibrant and present. This class...has [helped] my emotional development incredibly.

    --It's opened me to a whole new world as an actor. It's unleashed something in me as a person and as an actor. Overall, the class is much more than I anticipated. ..a rare, wonderful surprise.

    --an awesome, freeing acting tool... All my basic acting skills have been sharpened.

    --I have better acting skills than I have ever had before.

    --A tangible, workable method with almost immediate results... I wish I could go back and re-do some of the parts I've played -- there's so much more I can do.

    --Making choices...is going to be a much shorter process. And choices are so much clearer!

    --More is at my disposal emotionally and physically... My awareness has grown significantly.

    --I've learned that all emotions are available to me.

    --I know how to more easily decode emotions in others. This has improved my empathy.

    --The ideal connection between the physical and emotional. [Alba Emoting] aligns your entire being.

CERTIFICATION LEVELS IN ALBA EMOTING

revised by Dr. Susana Bloch, Sept. 2010

 

About certification: Certification in Alba Emoting is at no level automatic; levels are conferred not according to hours spent in training, but by the individual’s skill development and maturity as determined by an appropriately certified trainer. The purpose of certifications in Alba Emoting is to protect the integrity of the work and to insure quality of experience and transmission of knowledge for students, practitioners, and teachers. Adherence to the privileges and limitations of each Certification Level (CL) must be accepted and followed by all practitioners as a point of honor.

 

LEVELS AND REQUIREMENTS

 

International certification in the study and practice of the Alba Emoting method distinguishes 6 Certification Levels (CL):

 

CL1      Introduction level

CL2      Basic level

CL3      Scholar level

CL4      Professional level

CL5      Academic level

CL6      Master level

 

Only people certified in levels CL4, CL5 (and, of course, CL6) are authorized to independently train people, giving Alba Emoting established certification below their level.

 

Each level is linked to one of the following specializations:

 

SPECIALIZATION AREAS

 

A -Universal teacher, includes all the following specializations.

B -Teacher specialized in Psychology

C -Teacher specialized in Performing Arts

D-Teacher specialized in Organizational Development / Business

E -Teacher specialized in Education

F -Teacher specialized in Medical, Paramedical and health professions.

 

 

GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF EACH LEVEL

 

  1. Introduction Level (CL 1)

Required teacher: CL6, CL5, CL4, and supervised CL3.

Objectives: Familiarity with some of the six effector patterns and Step-Out.

Requirements: none.

Authorized use: Self-use only.

 

  1. Basic Level (CL2)

Required teacher: CL6, CL5, and supervised CL4.

Objectives: mastery of the six effector patterns, Step-Out, sufficient to self-correct, and to accurately observe them in others.

Requirements: CL1

Authorized use: self- use only.

  

  1. Scholar Level (CL3)

Required teacher: CL6, CL5, and CL4 only training in their own specialization area. Certification can only come from CL6 and CL5.

Objectives: Mastery of the six effector patterns and Step-Out sufficient to be capable to reproduce them at will; work with Alba Emoting in the applicant’s specialization area; to go deeper in the scientific study of emotions; and to start the training as Alba Emoting teacher.

Requirements:

-CL1, CL2

- work as an assistant in, at least, 2 CL1/CL2 workshops

- training meetings

- physical training

- writing an article or a testimony about a specific issue related to Alba Emoting use

- final approval only comes after the applicant leads a CL1 workshop under a C5 teacher supervision.

Authorized use: training CL1 and CL2 in the applicant’s specialization area; personal and professional use of the method.

VERY IMPORTANT FOR PERFORMERS: This level may some times be given as a non-teaching, just practitioner certification, called CL3P.

  1. Professional Level (CL4)

Required teacher: CL5, with previous authorization from Susana Bloch.

Objectives: Mastery of the six effector patterns and Step-Out sufficient to holistic professional use of the method and training others.

Requirements: CL3

Authorized Use: Professional use of the Alba Emoting method.


  1. Academic Level (CL5)

Required teacher: Only Susana Bloch and Pedro Sándor or their replacement when they retire.

Objectives: to train Alba Emoting teachers, diffuse the method internationally and hopefully write articles, papers or books.

Requirements: CL 4

Authorized Use: professional use, and teacher training.

  1. Master Level (CL6)

Prof. Susana Bloch and Pedro Sándor are the only Master Level Teachers in Alba Emoting until they retire. When that happens, Alba Emoting Ltda., by majority of votes from its Council, will give this CL6 to the most relevant person in the world with certification CL5.

VERY IMPORTANT: all certification requirements are subject to revision.

 

  

Susana Bloch A.

 

Santiago de Chile

September, 2010

 

 
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