The Emotional Fluency project is the result of a large Insight Development Grant for two-year funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC, a major federal research funding agency that promotes and supports postsecondary-based research and training in the humanities and social sciences.
Emotional Body Instructors-in-Training and certified Alba instructors, Tom Stroud (CL4 Alba, and Associate Professor at the University of Winnipeg) and Ines Buchli (CL2 Alba, and Associate Professor at York University) along with their colleague Gayle Murphy (Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia) are the co-investigators of this grant-funded project. The Emotional Fluency Project is administered through the University of Winnipeg and is a multi-site project with research hosted in Vancouver and Toronto.
The Emotional Fluency Project will investigate the emotional effector patterns’ effectiveness in providing a support mechanism for the professional contemporary actor in the stimulation and regulation of emotion. The significance of this research is driven by the necessity for safe and ethical practice for the actor within the acting profession and the emotional challenges encountered by the actor working within the stylistic diversities of contemporary theatre practice. Amidst growing concerns for the actor’s emotional well-being, the investigation posits that, as a purely somatic approach to the stimulation and regulation of emotion, the emotional effector patterns can offer the actor a means to mitigate emotional vulnerability in the creation of character and in meeting the stylistic demands of a given production.
The main objective of the project is to determine if the emotional effector patterns can provide the actor with a safe, practical and effective methodology to consciously
- Control the degree to which they engage in a process of identification or detachment from the character
- Monitor and regulate actor vulnerability in the creative process
- Minimize post-performance stress
During the first year of the Emotional Fluency Project’s research the research team will offer workshops in Vancouver and Toronto designed specifically for performers. A small select group of Canadian actors will be chosen through an audition process to participate in the Emotional Fluency Project from the beginning training workshop, to an intermediate training, and then through additional scene study work and final assessments and surveys. However, the basic Emotional Fluency workshops in Vancouver and Toronto, and the intermediate, Emotional Fluency in Action workshop in Toronto are also open to the public for registration. Performers participating in these workshops will also be given the opportunity to provide feedback in the form of surveys. To learn more about the project and how to register for the workshops, visit https://emotionalfluencyproject.com/home.
Laura Bond (Founder of the Emotional Body®, CL5 Alba, and Professor at the University of North Carolina Asheville) will serve as the master teacher for the Vancouver and Toronto workshops. She will be accompanied by experienced Emotional Body and Alba certified instructors: Tom Stroud, Violette Kjelgaard, and Ines Buchli. To learn more about the workshops, visit our Courses page: https://emotionalbody.co/courses/.
