SUZUKI METHOD OF ACTOR TRAINING:

My Journey of Introduction and Instruction

Bronwyn Dunston

THE EVENT
In March of 2014 I attended a series of five workshops intended to introduce actors to the actor training
methods of Suzuki Tadashi. The workshops were advertised through Facebook and promised ‘It will
introduce the vocabulary of basic exercises to beginners...’ 1 and followed with:
Suzuki training is a way for the experienced to examine process or in-experienced performers
to develop skills in expression. Working with a vocabulary of formal exercises helps performers
to self-evaluate and gauge variations of approach between members of the group. In the
training, performers examine centre of gravity – develop a strong platform for speech and
singing, self-critique habits and improve their general availability for working in all forms of
performance. Ideas of animal energy, focus and maintaining concentration, breathing, stability,
'the grammar of the feet' and the 'mythic' in theatre will be explored. 2
The workshops numbered five in total and were of three hours duration each. We were instructed to
learn an excerpt from Dante’s Inferno verbatim by the first workshop.

The advertisement outlined the curriculum as follows:

In this workshop I will teach:
Stomping and Shaku-Hachi.
Centre-of-gravity exercises 1-4, with spoken/sung text.
Statues (standing & sitting), with spoken/sung text.
Slow ten.
Walks (10 walking styles).3

Our instructor was Matt Crosby. In the advertisement he outlined his credentials as follows:
I am an accredited teacher of the method, and have been exploring Suzuki Training since I
performed in the Playbox/Suzuki company of Toga (SCOT) tour of 'The Chronicles of Macbeth'
by Tadashi Suzuki in 1991. Subsequently, I re-visited the company as Japan Foundation
Fellow in 1995 and Asialink resident in 2000 – and train twice a week with Melbourne Suzuki at
Guerin Studios close to the centre of Melbourne, with like-minded performers to hone skills,
explore and keep sharp.4
I am unclear as to what the ‘accreditation’ procedure is for Suzuki actor training, but Crosby appears to
have a background which supports a belief in his extensive practical and theoretic understanding of the
system. According to the biography on Crosby’s website, he graduated as an actor from NIDA in 1981,
and appears to have developed an interest in the Suzuki actor training process from around 1991 when
he performed in the 1991 Playbox production ‘The Chronicles of Macbeth’. This production was

1
Matt Crosby professional website, accessed 3 May 2014
<https://sites.google.com/site/crosbeee/tadashi_suzuki/suzuki-workshop>
2
Ibid.
3
Ibid.
4
Ibid.

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SUZUKI METHOD OF ACTOR TRAINING:
My Journey of Introduction and Instruction
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directed by Suzuki Tadashi himself. Crosby has returned to Japan to strengthen his skills and
understanding of this process on several occasions since then. 5

SUZUKI METHOD OF ACTOR TRAINING

The Suzuki Method of Actor Training is a result of a lifetime of research and performance making by
Japanese director Suzuki Tadashi. Suzuki Tadashi has directed theatre in Japan since 1959, and has
enjoyed an extensive international career directing as well as teaching his actor training system.
Suzuki Tadashi began developing his system around 1966 when he established the Waseda Little
Theatre and had the space and time to work in intense detail with his acting company.

Suzuki Tadashi is a very modernist director but ‘...drew much of his nourishment from the traditional
and popular theatre forms of Japan. No other director has learned and stolen so much from Noh and
Kabuki’6. What he is most recognised for is ‘...triumphantly transferring the priority from the text to the
actor.’7 In 1968 his style of collage drama became identifiable. Ian Carruthers describes it thusly:
..the first text as verbal (the ‘quoted’ acting script); the second is the choreographed
movements of the actor speaking that script; the third is the layer of consciousness of the
dramatic actors who speak and move. All three are harshly and deliberately dislocated from
each other – and out of this ‘fissuring’ the fourth text of dramatic criticism appears. 8
The international fascination with his work, (and subsequently, his actor training methods), are
exemplified by the establishment of the Saratoga International Theatre Institute in New York State with
Anne Bogart (known for her development of Viewpoints as a stage actor training method) in 1992. Both
the Suzuki system and Viewpoints are alternative training systems to the Stanislavski ‘method’.

As I mentioned, the Suzuki actor training prioritises the actor in the performance process.
...Suzuki Training is a structured system which aims to build speed, strength of energy,
stamina, stability and concentration in a modular manner. It moves from simple to complex,
and from the mechanical to the creative.9
Suzuki Tadashi is fascinated with traditional Japanese theatre techniques, particularly those of Noh and
Kabuki, and also Butoh. Many of the forms (kata) are recognisable in his training exercises, and he
often uses professional practitioners of these styles in his own work. Suzuki is interested in finding a
way to reconcile these traditional practices with the needs of a modern world - ‘...here was a serious,
concerted and carefully thought out attempt to bridge the awful gap between traditional and modern
5
Matt Crosby professional website, accessed 3 May 2014
<https://sites.google.com/site/crosbeee/tadashi_suzuki/suzuki-workshop>
6
CARRUTHERS I, TAKAHASHI Y 2004 The Theatre of Suzuki Tadashi Cambridge University Press, Cambridge UK
pge 3
7
Ibid.
8
Ibid page 19
9
Ibid page 95

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My Journey of Introduction and Instruction
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theatre that is the despair of so many performers.’ 10 Suzuki was not looking to throw away tradition and
create modern western theatre, as was happening in the Shingeki movement. He was looking to create
something which truly fused the past with the present. ‘...It’s the feeling of the particular form...so the
actor can revitalize that marvellous physicality that comes from Noh and Kabuki.’ 11

EXERCISES
Over the series of workshops Crosby taught us the four basic centre of gravity movements, sitting and
standing statues, slow tenteketen, stomping, Shaku-Hachi, and the 10 walks. We also did many of
these excercises with voice layered in.

Before we began learning any particular movement sequences, Matt taught us the correct technique for
stomping, and had us do it first in lots of ten, then twenty and so on throughout the workshops, until we
worked up to the Shaku-Hachi (to be described later). He explained that correct technique was
important to prevent injury and to maximise the energy coming up through the body to be harnessed.
Stomping is actually very exhausting, so working up our endurance over time was necessary
preparation for the Shaku-Hachi.

BASICS
There are four basic centre of gravity movements, and we learnt each of these in turn. All Suzuki
movements are done in a bent knee position, which lowers the centre of gravity and creates a tension
between the lower body - which is always engaged and working - and the upper body which is meant to
be calm and serene. This tension appears to be a core concept for the training system. Carruthers
quotes Senda Ahikiko as saying that on the Suzuki stage there is always a big gap between the upper
and lower body – the conceptual and the physical self. 12

The first movement involves lifting your right leg, and stomping it on the ground away from the body. In
the process you transfer your weight to that foot causing your upper body to move to that side, and then
you slide your left leg to the right. Once completed, you repeat the excercise to the left. The challenge
is to be able to move your centre of balance left and right with no evidence or strain in the upper body
and with no bobbing action.

Basic number two is about moving the centre of gravity forward. You lift your right foot, then stomp it in
front of the left. Once the right foot has stomped, it slides forward and your centre of gravity should

10
CARRUTHERS I, TAKAHASHI Y 2004 The Theatre of Suzuki Tadashi Cambridge University Press, Cambridge UK
page 71
11
Ibid.
12
Ibid. page 19

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SUZUKI METHOD OF ACTOR TRAINING:
My Journey of Introduction and Instruction
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shift with it (always with no bobbing action). Then you stand on your toes before reverting to the
bended knee position. From that point you repeat the sequence with the left leg.

In the third series of movements you start with your feet in a v-position, with the toes of the right foot
pressed into the arch of the left foot. You raise your right foot, and stomp it down just fractionally
forward and right near the ball of the big toe. This is then repeated with the other foot. There is a
forward movement, but it is slow, and the tension is in controlling the minuteness of it.

Finally we were taught a fourth basic centre of gravity activity. You start with your back to the
‘audience’, in a bent knee position, leaning forward with your upper body in a relaxed ‘flop’ (neutral
position). Upon instruction (a stick hitting the floor) you stand and spin to the right with your feet
shoulder width apart and facing front. You then return to the neutral position before repeating the
exercise to the left. Both moves are then repeated, but your feet must finish closed together when
facing front. The point of this exercise was to generate enough energy to power the spin, but then also
to stop it in mid-process and harness that energy.

SLOW TENTEKETEN
The final exercise we were taught on the first day was slow tenteketen which is a controlled very slow
walk across the room. The group splits into two, each lining up on opposite sides. Music is played and
both sides begin walking towards the opposite wall. It must be a controlled walk with no bobbing and
no sense of pause between steps or when the weight shifts. There is a point in the music when the
saxophone comes in and by then you must be at the opposite wall, turn on the spot and then start back
to the side of the room you began on.

STATUES
In the second workshop we revised the activities we had previously been shown and then moved on to
statues. There are two types of statues – sitting and standing. Before beginning with this though, Matt
had us do a controlled speed exercise where we had to sit from standing in 10 slow counts and then
stand again in 10 slow counts, with the entire process being at a single speed and controlled.

We began by learning standing statues. Standing statues involves going from a neutral, bent knee
squatting position into a free form full body pose upon command. Instructions can include low, high,
left, right, and back, which indicates where the energy, focus, and centre of gravity should be within the
pose. After holding the pose to test your stability, you return to the neutral pose awaiting the next
instruction. There is an advanced version which we were taught as well. This involves making the
poses very small and not returning to neutral in between. This eventually led to an exercise where we
went from pose to pose in a collapsing formation until we were lying on the ground and then standing
again in a reverse sequence.

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SUZUKI METHOD OF ACTOR TRAINING:
My Journey of Introduction and Instruction
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Sitting statues was next. You begin in a neutral sitting foetal position. This is the position you will
return to between statues. There are three sitting positions – leaning back a bit and lifting the feet off
the floor, leaning back and extending legs forward feet together with feet off the floor, and leaning back
and extending legs feet apart with feet off the floor. These poses test your core stability. The leader of
the group calls ‘one’, ‘two’ or ‘three’, and you make a full body pose in the appropriate sitting position

SHAKU-HACHI
In the third workshop we learnt the Shaku-Hachi. The Shaku-Hachi is an excercise whereby you spend
three minutes stomping and then, at a predetermined point in the music everyone in the group has to
end up at the back of the room facing the back wall and falling to the ground at the same time. Whilst
laying on the ground the energy must not be released and after a moment pan pipes start and each
participant can rise at their own pace. The final part of the exercise is to make your way to the front of
the room in free form, slow movement. The idea is that all the actors end up at the front of the stage at
the same time and with the ending of the music even though each has made it there in their own way.

10 WALKS
Crosby taught us three walks per session until we knew all ten. I will not go into detail about the
techniques of the walks, but they are: Ashibumi (Foot stamping) – used in Noh, Kabuki and Flamenco;
Uchimata (Inward ‘pigeon-toed’ walk); Waniashi (Bow-legged walk, literally ‘crocodile feet’); Sotomata
(Outward walk); Tsumasaki (Tiptoe); Yokoaruki No.1 (Side-step walk) – used in Kathakali; Yokoaruki
No.2 (Side-step walk and foot stamp); Ashi o horu (Throwing the feet); Suriashi (sliding walk) – used in
Noh; and Shikko (Squat walk). 13 We formed a line, and the music played and one after the other we
crossed the room doing these walks.

VOICE
One of the things Crosby emphasised from the beginning was that all this energy we were harnessing
with the tension of our lower bodies was then used to power the voice. After we became competent in
the various movement sequences, Crosby would call to us to ‘speak’. At those moments we were
required to pause in place and then recite the text in unison as a chorus. When Crosby and other
members of the group demonstrated this, it seemed like they were just pushing the voice out with as
much force and volume as they could. The group tended to copy this technique. Eventually, however,
I questioned how this is helpful as an acting technique.

In his book ‘The Theatre of Suzuki Tadashi’, Ian Carruthers cites a quote from one of Suzuki’s most
famous actresses, Lauren Ellen, as she discusses her process for the Melbourne production of ‘The
Chronicles of MacBeth’. Lauren mentions that without correct control, the voice can come out with a

13
CARRUTHERS I, TAKAHASHI Y 2004 The Theatre of Suzuki Tadashi Cambridge University Press, Cambridge UK
page 92

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SUZUKI METHOD OF ACTOR TRAINING:
My Journey of Introduction and Instruction
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‘flat-line machine-gun vocality’14, and suggests that this is what was heard with the less experienced
members of that cast. I would suggest this is what we were hearing and being trained to do. After I
raised the question, Crosby pointed out that I was over thinking things, and that the Suzuki method is
about not going into the psychology of the text – this would be too Stanislavskian. He did point out,
however, that we should be saying the lines with intention, and I noticed much more vocal dynamics
after that point.

CONCLUSION
I went into these workshops knowing nothing about Suzuki Tadashi and almost nothing about his actor
training method. I assumed it was a general use process which is applicable across all modes of
acting. I was aware that it was very physical but did not realise it was a ‘physical theatre’ technique.
The Suzuki actor training method is a modernist acting process. It is important when trying to
understand what the goals of this technique are, to also understand what he was trying to do with his
productions as a director. What did he need from his actors to create his work?

As quoted earlier, Suzuki Tadashi used a collage technique to create his works. It is notable that he
never calls his productions the original names of the plays – he always renames the work. This is
because he isn’t performing the play itself, but interpreting it and breaking it down. He is interested in
non-realism as a style. His actor training method was never originally about application across all
acting situations.

The core of his method also stems from the high Japanese acting traditions of Noh and Kabuki, and
Butoh as well. As such, there are a large amount of cultural artefacts in the exercises. I think this
makes it extremely difficult for people with different cultural references to sort out the universal
elements of the system, and I am afraid Crosby was unable to articulate this for me to comprehend.
Also, the way in which the training and instruction take place are very Japanese – the use of the stick
hitting the floor for commands, the reluctance to answer questions, but to continue repetitiously until
you ‘get it’.
Ian Carruthers notes that in Western cultures, most actors need Viewpoints to help them translate the
Suzuki technique into something they can use. 15 Whilst it is Suzuki’s intention for his method to be
universal, the actual traditions it is attached to, and the style of training and instruction make it
problematic for non-Japanese to assimilate it into daily craft.

I also suspect that Crosby’s inability to articulate the concepts behind some of the work created a block.
For example, knowing that the use of foot stamping is to ‘...eradicate the ordinary, everyday sense of

14
CARRUTHERS I, TAKAHASHI Y 2004 The Theatre of Suzuki Tadashi Cambridge University Press, Cambridge UK
page 233
15
Ibid. page 75

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SUZUKI METHOD OF ACTOR TRAINING:
My Journey of Introduction and Instruction
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the body...’16, and ‘...the disciplines all relate to the possible ways in which the feet can make contact
with the ground, what they give the actor is a heightened physical awareness of the way foot positions
can generate sensibility’ 17 would help to contextualise the work for the initiate. Also, in teaching us the
detail of the forms only, we were unable to explore how to apply the ideas outside the forms. This was
not the intention of Suzuki. Ian Carruthers tells us ‘Suzuki was also at pains to guard against formalistic
closure (the very thing restricting the continued growth of Noh and Kabuki).’ 18

Having said all this, I learnt a lot about the specific techniques in the training method, if not about the
principles behind them. I am doubtful as to how applicable they would be in my work as director or
writer. I do not feel that we explored the ideas of ‘animal energy’ or ‘the mythic in theatre’, as
advertised. The length of the sessions was also a physical and mental impediment, and one of the
reasons for some participants dropping out. Two hours would have been a better structure for novices.

ENDNOTES
CARRUTHERS I, TAKAHASHI Y 2004 The Theatre of Suzuki Tadashi Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge UK

Matt Crosby professional website, accessed 3 May 2014 < https://sites.google.com/site/crosbeee/biog>

16
CARRUTHERS I, TAKAHASHI Y 2004 The Theatre of Suzuki Tadashi Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
page 73
17
Ibid page 71
18
Ibid page 72

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