102

According to Delsarte, each gesture is expressive of something, and is preceded

and given birth to by a thought, a feeling, an emotion, a design or a motive. He
believed that gesture is the communication of the soul:
Gesture has been given to man to reveal what speech is powerless to express. The
gesture, then, like a ray of light, can reflect all that passes in the soul. Hence if we desire
that a thing shall always be remembered, we must not say it in words; we must let it be
divined by gesture. Speech may be termed the sense of the intelligence. Gesture is the
sense of the heart (see Shawn 1974:58).

Delsarte’s ideas are supported by the importance of non-verbal communication

over verbal communication, which will be emphasised in Chapter Six. Enhancing
the expressive use of gesture is vital for conductors, who are usually unable to
use words to communicate in performances. According to Delsarte, gestures are
more powerful anyway!

For Alexander, the concept of the Use of Self does not differentiate between
body and mind. Alexander explained his discovery of this unity in his book, The
Use of the Self (Alexander 2001:21):
I must admit that when I began my investigation, I, in common with most people,
conceived of ‘body’ and ‘mind’ as separate parts of the same organism, and
consequently believed that human ills, difficulties and shortcomings could be classified
as either ‘mental’ or ‘physical’ and dealt with on specifically ‘mental’ or specifically
‘physical’ lines. My practical experiences, however, led me to abandon this point of
view and readers of my books will be aware that the technique described in them is
based on the opposite conception, namely, that it is impossible to separate ‘mental’ and
‘physical’ processes in any form of human activity (Alexander 2001:21).

Based on my conducting experience, I have found that much of the pure ‘mental’
work of conducting is achieved by the conductor prior to working with an
ensemble through a combination of score study, knowledge of styles and
performance practice, and practical experience. This preliminary work creates
feelings about the music and sensory impressions within the conductor that are
required to be bodily communicated to the ensemble when they meet in rehearsal
and performance. I have also found that my most successful communications
with an ensemble have occurred when I have conceived the bodily movements
(gestures) as a direct result of my feelings and sensory impressions, thereby
developing the sensation and the movement in combination in a way described
by Alexander.

In common with the other four expressive movement theories, Feldenkrais

emphasises the connection between mind and body. For Feldenkrais, the learning