André Bernard
André Bernard developed his interest in Ideokinesis through his quest for a career in acting. Born June 10, 1924, in Columbia, South Carolina, André demonstrated an aptitude for the sciences as a child. Toward the end of his teenage years, it was clear that he was also gifted with a magnificent speaking voice. While pursuing college majors in chemistry and mathematics, Bernard cultivated his vocal ability by working as a radio announcer. He enrolled in courses in the performing arts toward the end of his college years. After graduating in 1944, Bernard studied acting while continuing his radio work. By 1948, he had become a member of the widely acclaimed Barter Theater.
Bernard saw Erick Hawkins performing with the Martha Graham Dance Company while on tour with the Barter Theater in 1949. He was inspired and immediately recognized that training in modern dance would significantly enhance his acting skills. Backstage one night, Bernard visited with Hawkins, who encouraged him to come to New York City to study dance. The following year, Bernard moved to the city, located Hawkins, and began to take classes at his studio. In a 1989 interview, Bernard explained how those classes led to lessons in body alignment with Barbara Clark:
After some lessons with Erick I began to see that there was something in the movement that his people did that I thought was wonderful but I didn’t know how to get it into my own movement. And so I asked him if there was anything that I could do to learn that. So then he mentioned Barbara Clark. He said, ‘go to her and she will show you what you need to know.
Bernard continued with his first impressions of Clark’s teaching:
I had my first lesson and I still remember that very well… my first impression was that it was such a strange way to think. I had been in the university level of studying what is obvious…. She gave me a table lesson and a little bit of either sitting or standing or something. Whatever it was I thought it very strange and I don’t think I would have gone back had it not been for Erick … that is why I hung on. And then of course as I began to take more lessons, I began to get a perception and a reaction from the images and then of course I really began to like it more and more.
When Bernard became a student of Clark in the 1950s, Mabel Todd’s prominence in New York was waning. Concerned that her work would be lost when Todd closed her New York studio, Clark formed an organization devoted to continuing the teaching called “Technique for Movement.” Initially, Clark, Bernard, Joanne Emmons and a few other students gathered for weekly meetings. Then they rented a studio where Emmons taught dance classes, and Clark and Bernard conducted the table teaching.
Bernard remembered Clark’s procedure for teaching as quite precise and methodical. First, Bernard received a table lesson from Clark, and then he practiced the techniques on another prospective teacher who assumed the role of the student. As Bernard progressed toward mastering the table teaching, Clark referred several of her students to him for additional practice. Bernard enjoyed working with this small clientele of students that included many of Erik Hawkins’ dancers.
Bernard’s work in body alignment harmonized beautifully with his study of acting at Drama Tree, the school created by Anthony Mannino. Mannino trained actors in the Meisner Technique, which was based on the original theories of the great Russian director Konstantin Stanislavsky. Troubled by chronic back pain, Mannino took table lessons with Clark and Bernard and sent them acting students needing remedial work in posture and movement.
Barbara Clark’s Technique for Movement organization remained active throughout the 1950s. When the group gave up their studio in 1958, Bernard began teaching at Drama Tree, and Mannino suggested that the material be taught in a class format. Although group teaching was quite a departure from Clark’s tradition of individualized instruction, she helped Bernard to prepare for the classes. Clark attended many of Bernard’s classes at Drama Tree and offered suggestions. Bernard considered Clark, his “silent partner” and paid her half his fee for as long as he taught at the studio.
Bernard’s teaching of body alignment for actors was only one facet of his professional activities during this period. He landed minor roles in productions by the Kraft Television Theater and the Hallmark Hall of Fame. He performed as a narrator for choreographer Charles Weidman and later for the dance humorist Mimi Garrard. In 1965, Bernard began working for WNYC-FM. As the host of the program “Around New York,” he introduced classical music selections and greeted prominent writers, actors, dancers and musicians for almost twenty-five years.
That year also brought Bernard the opportunity to teach body alignment classes for the Tisch School for the Arts. In 1970, his appointment broadened to include the Dance Division of the School of Education, Health, Nursing and Arts Professions (SEHNAP) at New York University. At NYU, Bernard enlarged the scope of his classes to include lectures on the scientific aspects of the approach based on the works of Mabel Todd and Lulu Sweigard. Additionally, he simplified Clark’s table techniques into “tactile aids” for students to use in teaching each other. To avoid misunderstanding related to the use of touch in his classes, Bernard explained that,
Tactile aid is a light touch … on the part of the body which is to be imaged. The touch can be stationary or moving. Its purpose is to clarify where the image is taking place and the direction in which the image is moving, bringing focus and kinesthetic awareness to the process.
Bernard’s career at NYU provided a platform for influencing dance students from all over the world. Their enthusiasm for his “physio-philosophical” approach spawned additional teaching opportunities on the west coast and later in Europe. The information Bernard presented in his workshops and classes was fairly consistent. Yet, as his personal experience of the material deepened, he continually found new ways of conveying the information. The many students who repeated his classes renewed their knowledge of the common thread and made new discoveries through Bernard’s artful manner of juxtaposing the images. From the actor’s discipline, Bernard encouraged beginning and advanced students to approach the imagery with the mindset of the “first run-through.” He reminded students that any occasion for re-thinking an image could be an opportunity for new kinesthetic insights as long as “you don’t do the image — let the image do you.”
In 1997, Contact Quarterly featured articles about Bernard’s work in the reprint, “Ideokinesis and Creative Body Alignment.” With the assistance of two of his European students, Bernard documented his summer workshops in Europe in a book called Ideokinese: Ein creativer Weg zu Bewegung und Korperhaltun which was published in 2003. An English version of the book became available in 2006.
André Bernard died on May 21, 2003. His life in the arts was honored in memorials conducted in New York City, Berkeley, California and Bern, Switzerland.
—Pamela Matt (2016)
Bibliography for André Bernard
Bernard, A. “An Introduction to Ideokinesis,” Contact Quarterly, Reprint #3 Ideokinesis and Creative Body Alignment. Summer/Fall 1997: 24-25. http://www.contactquarterly.com.
Bernard, A., U. Stricker and W. Steinmüller. Ideokinese: Ein kreativer Weg zu Bewegung und Kőrperhaltung. Bern, Switzerland: Verlag Hans Huber, 2003.
Bernard, A., U. Stricker and W. Steinmüller. Applied Ideokinesis: A Creative Approach to Human Movement and Body Alignment. Berkeley, California: North Atlantic Books, 2006.
Corfield, L. The Thinking Body: The Legacy of Mabel Todd Explained. Videotape. Piermont, NY: Teacher’s Video Workshop, 2000. http://www.dancehorizons.com or Teachers’ Video Workshop, P.O. Box 425, Piermont, NY 10968, Tel: (914) 359-6224.
Nelson, L. and N. S. Smith eds. “Remembering André Bernard 1924-2003,” Contact Quarterly, Winter/Spring 2004: 10-19.
Rosen, R. and N. Lyons. “Interview with André Bernard,” Contact Quarterly, Reprint #3 Ideokinesis and Creative Body Alignment. Summer/Fall 1997: 26-38. http://www.contactquarterly.com.
Sieben, I. “Ideokinesis, or the Art of Moving Pictures,” Ballet International/Tanz aktuell (English Edition) January 1999: 64 -65.
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