The Effect of Theatre Training on Cognitive Functions

Art Meets Sport: What Can Actor Training Bring to Physical Literacy Programs?

“…She reasoned that the capacity to fully realise our embodied selves can be viewed as physical literacy, and she defined physical literacy as the "motivation, confidence, physical competence, understanding and knowledge to maintain physical activity at an individually appropriate level, throughout life" [6]. While popular and clearly grounded in an expansive analysis of philosophy and education, this definition has been criticised as too reductive/simplistic, and potentially simply a combination of four other previously existing constructs e.g., [7,8]. Alternatively, if we view this definition as an attempt at unification or synthesis of these four constructs (among others), which Cairney et al [9] describe as an experiential convergence of these constructs as part of the 'process' of physical literacy, two interesting possibilities emerge.…”

“…Our unique insights suggest that encounters with actor training offer additional specificity to motor/linguistic development approaches, and bring exciting new learning perspectives to the four domains of physical literacy identified by Sport Australia. An ongoing practice of actor training can deliver a number of benefits well beyond its remit, providing major health benefits, building connection, and developing empathy [7,58]. We have found that their own long-term actor training practice has enacted an aggregation of perceptual acuity, almost like a virtuosity of perception, that is, active fluency in nonverbal domains of affect, feeling, emotion and gesture whilst engaged with deep task absorption, which informs their micro-decision making toward optimising embodied responsiveness in daily life.…”

“…She indicates that empathy necessitates 'an investment of time, of single-minded concentration and of imagination', and, like relationship-building, empathy requires 'the ability to let go of our own world view long enough to be intrigued and moved by someone else's' [58]. Sofia's study with actor training in the treatment of Parkinson's Disease found that the motor control and ability required to complete some exercises coupled with the demand to manage the social situation resulted in a stabilising of the body schema of the individual while they focussed solely on their intention to move rather than an explicit motor act [7]. Performance studies scholar Lutterbie [59] investigated the way in which the individual's physical gestures might lead in an expanded interior space for meaning-making in university acting students.…”