Stanislavski Studies

Practice, Legacy, and Contemporary Theater

ISSN: 2056-7790 (Print) 2054-4170 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rfst20

Stanislavsky and Yoga

Thomasina Unsworth

To cite this article: Thomasina Unsworth (2017) Stanislavsky and Yoga, Stanislavski Studies, 5:1,
134-136, DOI: 10.1080/20567790.2017.1293371

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/20567790.2017.1293371

Published online: 22 Feb 2017.

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 134  BOOK REVIEWS

uncompromising advice to the acting teacher that seems as fresh and challenging today as it
would have done at the time it was written.
The final two books, unfinished but skilfully collated by the editors from Demidov’s archive
with the aid of his outline plans, are inevitably less coherent, but contain crucial insights into
the author’s thinking and the progression of his ideas. These are not drily presented, and at
times become the author’s passionate dialogue with himself as he strives to articulate the means
of moving beyond the foundations of actor training towards an elevated technique capable of
creating work on the very highest artistic planes. The Artist’s Creative Process Onstage (Book
Four) and Psycho-Technique of the Affective Actor (Book Five) are of particular interest in their
exploration of the relationship between the actor and the character and are accompanied by
a detailed “Glossary of Terms and Exercises” compiled and annotated by Malaev-Babel from
Demidov’s preliminary notes.
The gathering together of this material into one comprehensive volume, is a staggering
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achievement by its editors, and they provide an illuminating biography and extensive notes.
Most exciting, however, is the freshness and relevance of Demidov’s voice which leapfrogs sixty
years of Western debate on the subject of acting. Key Western acting pedagogues (e.g. Adler,
Marowitz, Meisner) who wrestled similarly with the limitations of the “system” are, obviously,
not mentioned in these pages, but it is hard not to think of them, as it is inconceivable that
the debate in the West could have followed the same path if Demidov’s work had already been
widely available in English.
Becoming an Actor-Creator is not a book to dip in and out of, at least at the first reading, and
the earlier sections need to be fully grasped before the later ones can be absorbed, but, despite its
physical weight at over eight hundred pages, it is eminently readable; Demidov’s tone is buoyant
and approachable, his passion notwithstanding, and each page provides new nuggets of sage
provocation. The book should excite actors and acting teachers the world over, as well as be of
enormous interest to theatre historians and anyone with a wider interest in the development of
creativity. It deserves to become the backbone of every actor’s library, as it surely would have
been already had it been published sixty years earlier. Interest in Nikolai Demidov is gradually
gaining traction beyond Russia, and it is to be hoped that, with this publication, he will further
increase his influence on mainstream Western actor training. Although Demidov allows, in his
introduction to The Art of Living Onstage, that “some beliefs that we consider unshakeable today,
will no longer be relevant” (144), his arguments are still persuasive and his ideas astonishingly
pertinent.

Will Wollen
Drama and Theatre Studies, University of Kent, UK
W.Wollen@kent.ac.uk http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6372-1548
© 2017 Will Wollen
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/20567790.2017.1296223

Stanislavsky and Yoga, by Sergei Tcherkasski, London, Routledge, 2016, 125 pp.,
(paperback), ISBN 978-1-138-95409-0

The aim of this book is to offer a comparative reading of the Stanislavsky System and Yogi
Ramacharaka’s books, which were an important source for Stanislavsky. Tcherkasski argues
that around 40% of exercises in a contemporary Stanislavsky-based actor training programme
are rooted in Yoga. He goes further in asserting that it was this strand of Stanislavsky’s creative
practice that initiated the dialogue between East and West in theatrical culture and actor training.
These arguments are supported by vivid examples drawn from Stanislavsky’s teachings and the
whole makes for fascinating reading.
 STANISLAVSKI STUDIES  135

Stanislavsky and Yoga is full of wonderful insights into the development of the System.
Tcherkasski is careful to point out that there is no opposing division between early and late
practice as some have suggested. Instead he follows the progress of the work, contextualizing
it within the political agenda it had to negotiate. Soviet censorship created the necessity to
reframe the language used to describe the practice, but the presence of Yoga remained always an
influence. It was no passing infatuation. Russian artists of the period were disillusioned by the
spiritual apathy of society and as a result turned to Eastern ideas, Stanislavsky in his attempt to
assist actors in harnessing the creative state, turned to ancient sources to help him. Tcherkasski
illuminates this process of discovery through snippets from classes and diaries and lectures. The
reader is offered a richer understanding of Stanislavsky’s thinking through an examination of
the parallel between actor training and Yoga. At times this is quite revelatory.
Chapter 1 offers an overview of the use of Yoga in Stanislavsky’s practice. It chronicles briefly
how Stanislavsky became acquainted with Yoga and then takes us through its application to
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the work in the First Studio of the Moscow Art Theatre. One can then see how the work devel-
ops through classes with Actors of the Moscow Art Theatre and the Second Studio in the late
1910s and the 1920s. During this period, Stanislavsky wrote: We will be dealing with the art of
experiencing … The elements of this creative state: (a) freedom of the body (the muscles) (b) con-
centration (c) activeness. The reader begins to feel that the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle are coming
together as Tcherkasski almost forensically draws together strands of the System as they run
parallel with the practice of Yoga. Clear connections emerge that although presented simply,
feel revelatory in their nature. The chapter continues, guiding us through the use of Yoga in
the Opera Studio and into the late period of Stanislavsky’s work, the 1930s. The broad range of
Stanislavsky’s interests and influences are documented as are specific quotes that illuminate the
extraordinary endeavour behind the development of the System. A favourite of mine comes
from instructions given by Stanislavsky to a female performer: Fingers are the eyes of the body.
Reading this one cannot fail to be inspired by Stanislavsky’s approach to the central question
of An actor’s creative sense of self and genuine communication. This book not only offers us an
interesting interrogation of the application of Yoga within elements of Stanislavsky’s process,
but it also offers a reminder of how deep and extraordinary a thinker the man himself was, and
how beautifully he communicated his thoughts.
The second chapter considers Yoga in the literary heritage of Stanislavsky. The industrial and
geopolitical developments in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries determined a new
stage in the dialogue between East and West. The Yoga that influenced Stanislavsky is placed in a
concrete historical period. Tcherkasski notes that the historian Elizabeth De Michelis coins the
term Modern Yoga, for the practice that emerged in the second half of the nineteenth century.
Historical context usefully underpins Tcherkasski’s analysis here. Grotowski, following on from
Stanislavsky’s explorations, ran into problems when he tried to apply Yoga to theatrical work
on the basis of genuine Hindu texts. He wrote: we began by doing yoga directed toward absolute
concentration … There was a certain concentration, but it was introverted. This concentration
destroys all expression; it is an internal sleep, an inexpressive equilibrium: a great rest which ends
all actions. Stanislavsky, however, found that he could apply Yoga to his work with less difficulty
drawing from the teachings of the late nineteenth to early twentieth century American yogi
Ramacharaka who laid out Yoga principles as the basis of self-control and self-improvement.
The objective of reaching nirvana was not emphasized. Stanislavsky used the yogic idea of
disengaging oneself from distracting impressions into the productive ability to concentrate with
full attention during a performance. Tcherkasski carefully lays out a comparative reading of
Stanislavsky and Ramacharaka and in doing so offers a fascinating connection between terms
within the System and those used by Ramacharaka; Terms such as Bits, Adaptation, Want are
lent new clarity within the context of this reading.
 136  BOOK REVIEWS

There are further lists of elements of Stanislavsky’s work that correlate with the practice of
Yoga and these are interrogated further in the final chapter of the book which focuses specifically
on the yogic elements of the Stanislavsky System. Here the rapport between Yoga and the System
is very clearly illuminated with direct examples of interconnecting strands and again the result
is the reader has a sense that this is revelatory. Commonly used exercises within contemporary
western training can be viewed in a new light after reading this book. The purpose behind
the ideas underpinning an exercise, while always known, is strengthened by the explanation
of how it corresponds with elements of Yoga. Understanding is deepened. That is not to say
that Tcherkasski highlights only how the parallels work, he also usefully demonstrates where
divisions arise.
Stanislavsky and Yoga is fascinating for many reasons: It places the System within its histor-
ical context, reminding us of the conditions within which it developed and the influences that
guided it. It deepens our understanding of some of its most fundamental elements through its
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explorations of the influence of Yoga on the System and in doing so it offers fresh insights into
the mind and work of a great man. The writing is direct and without pretension. These things
combined make it a pleasure to read.

Thomasina Unsworth
Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance
thomasina.unsworth@bruford.ac.uk
© 2017 Thomasina Unsworth
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/20567790.2017.1293371