| OCR Text |
Show HANDBOOK FOR TEACHERS OF INTERPRETATION 30 needed, and therefore is effective and will be remembered. hand" suppose that the student used the But nine tenths of "prone nothing need be said, and the time may be profitably used for other purposes. Why encumber the the class will naturally do. as Then student with needless definitions and useless practice of exercises? vital contribution to the field of gesture has Delsarte. The most by Francois Delsarte. It is too bad tat we have only the fragments he has left and the contributions of his students. His six laws of gesture are vital: priority, retroaction, the oppo sition of agents, unity, stability, and rhythm. The stimulus for speech activity shows First Law: Priority. then the the itself first in face, then the chest, and from there eye, from and legs to feet: The final opening of through arms to hands, the hands, meets the voice just as the ac gesture, or "stroke" to cented syllable of 'the strong word of the important idea is spoken. This timing of gesture is important, for the interpretation becomes ludicrous if the stroke is too early or too late. Such faults should been made be corrected when noticed in the recitation. Second Law: Retroaction. The student must sense the dif The passive speaker is af fected by the emotion from outside, he becomes the passive agent ference between being acted upon and acting toward. and active attitudes must be differentiated. If the and he will retroact, go away-even from a loved one. The greater without, the greater the retroaction. If the his is audience, he will go toward the object. The affecting speaker the more the body will be toward the to desire his influence, greater audience of person. This was the first law that was discovered by the stimulus from Delsarte," Third Law: Opposition of Agents. This is the law of bal even the little finger moves, some ance, which means that when other portion of the body moves to counterpoise this action. "The opposition of agents is the harmony of gesture. Harmony is born of From opposition, equilibrium is born in turn. Equilibrium is the great law of gesture, and condemns parallelism; and these are the laws of equilibrium: contrasts. 2 Delsarte, System of Oratory-Edgar S. Werner, New York. |
