Demostración pedagógica de Ana Correa.

In this video, Ana Correa (one of the founding and still active members of Peruvian theater ensemble Grupo Cultural Yuyachkani) demonstrates her acting technique to a group of students, complemented with further commentary by Yuyachkani's artistic director Miguel Rubio. Correa believes that the body is an actor's instrument; in this pedagogical demonstration she focuses on her body work and her work with objects in the development of a character. Among the diverse elements of body work, Correa shows: the importance of moving the body through space in different ways and at different speeds; the importance of feeling your weight in the space; and how to make musical 'phrases' with your body, and how to play with the timing of the phrase and manipulate it. The demonstration also includes an example of how the actress incorporates Tai-chi into her character development Tai chi being an important methodology for exploring and developing bodily expressivity for Yuyachkani. The lecture also includes mask work, as Ana shows how the mask takes on its own identity, how the masked character moves, and how it responds to various objects. Correa also discusses the balance between text work and body work. One of the elements of body work she demonstrates is dance, in particular the use of tap dance to learn how to play with timing. Ms. Correa goes over the creation of one of her characters, 'Po Po' the clown. Part of her methodology for creating this character included playing with musical instruments (in the case of 'Po Po', an accordion), not only as instruments per se but also as performing objects; special attention is paid to the exploration of how to express emotions with and through them. Peru's most important theater collective, Grupo Cultural Yuyachkani (www.yuyachkani.org) has been working since 1971 at the forefront of theatrical experimentation, political performance, and collective creation. 'Yuyachkani' is a Quechua word that means 'I am thinking, I am remembering'; under this name, the theater group has devoted itself to the collective exploration of embodied social memory, particularly in relation to questions of ethnicity, violence, and memory in Peru. The group is comprised of seven actors (Augusto Casafranca, Amiel Cayo, Ana Correa, Débora Correa, Rebeca Ralli, Teresa Ralli, and Julián Vargas), a technical designer (Fidel Melquíades), and an artistic director (Miguel Rubio), who have made a commitment to collective creation as a mode of theatrical production and to group theater as a life style. Their work has been among the most important in Latin America's so called 'New Popular Theater, ' with a strong commitment to grass-roots community issues, mobilization, and advocacy. Yuyachkani won Peru's National Human Rights Award in 2000. Known for its creative embrace of both indigenous performance forms as well as cosmopolitan theatrical forms, Yuyachkani offers insight into Peruvian and Latin American theater, and to broader issues of postcolonial social aesthetics. Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics