How theories of expressive movement and non-verbal communication can enhance expressive conducting at all levels of entering behaviour
Creators: name: Mathers, Andrew Meredith
Publisher: name: Monash University
Year: 2017
Subjects: Uncategorized

description: In this thesis, my main research question is whether bodily-kinaesthetic skills, expressive movement, and non-verbal communication can enhance methods towards expressive conducting. I investigate the aspects of bodily-kinaesthetic learning that are being used in conducting textbooks, the role of the mind-body connection, motor skill development, and proprioception in the development of kinaesthetic learning. I also investigate how the movement theories of Laban, Dalcroze, Delsarte, Alexander, and Feldenkrais, and the use of non-verbal communication skills and concepts, can be used to enhance expressive conducting. I discuss how conducting textbooks identified in my two surveys teach expressive gestures and the use of the left hand, which are two areas that have been identified by experienced secondary school conductors in Melbourne as ongoing weaknesses in their conducting vocabularies, noting how each textbook approaches conducting instruction from a kinaesthetic standpoint. A priority for the training of conductors at all levels of entering behaviour is to facilitate instruction in the bodily-kinaesthetic domain, as too much instruction can often occur in verbal and written form. The significance of proprioception to expressive conducting is the relationship proprioception stimulates between movement and sensory awareness, including its influence on the development of fine motor skills and non-verbal communication. I explore how the use of the expressive movement theories of Laban, Dalcroze, Delsarte, Alexander, and Feldenkrais can enhance expressive conducting at all levels of entering behaviour, and examine commonalities of these five expressive movement theories. Firstly, all five are strongly in favour of the integration between body and mind, which is vitally important for conductors, whose gestures must reflect the music and thought processes happening in their brain. Secondly, all five represent an educational process, and as such, are highly relevant to the teaching of expressive conducting, particularly in the early stages. Thirdly, all five are learnable by anyone, not just those with high entering behaviour. Being learnable, they should be employed in the earliest stages of conductor training. Finally, the importance of proprioception is acknowledged in all five of the expressive movement theories. Conductors can enhance expressive conducting through an examination of the categories of non-verbal communication, such as emblems, illustrators, affect displays, regulators, and adaptors, and the coding of non-verbal communication, particularly kinesics. Although corrective mode gestures and universally understood emblems are important for conductors to be taught, as they emphasise clarity and precision, I believe that more use could be made of illustrators and affect displays by conducting teachers in order to access the declamatory mode. Furthermore, more use could be made of regulators and affect displays by conducting teachers in order to access the narrative mode.