Lessac Kinesensics research committee
As we are dedicating ourselves to the growth of Lessac Kinesensics, it is imperative to have a committee who can support, facilitate and guide all members of the Lessac Institute with and through research. The support and involvement provided by such a committee will be beneficial to the researchers as well as to the Institute.
The research committee has as its main goal the development and verification of Lessac Kinsensics. The research committee does not assume or take on any roles already established by the MTC regarding oversight of the teaching of the Lessac work. As the committee recognizes that Arthur Lessac viewed the exploration and teaching of the work to be research in itself, the research committee positions that all research supported will be based on the epistemological stance that the Lessac training exists under the supervision of the MTC. The committee uses the words development and verification to note the need to look at the impact (outcomes) of this training in various contexts. As such, it is assumed that the research committee, while separate in its function, from other areas of the Institute, is still dependent on the work of said other areas, such as the MTC and strategic business planning (for growth and expansion of the brand).
The research committee determined niche areas where research clusters can be formed in to do research. Examples of niche areas are ESL, LK and well-being and application of LK in languages other than English. Members of the Lessac Institute are invited and are always welcome to suggest niche areas or clusters under niche areas to the committee. In these cases, the committee will place a call to all members of the Lessac Institute to obtain whether there are more members interested to do research in the same cluster or niche area and bring these people together. The aim here is to determine how we can support and learn from each other.
Should a member want to work on a specific project in solidarity, the research committee will certainly respect and support this and provide the same services as with potential cluster projects.
Below is a figure to further clarify the above niche areas and clusters:
Members of the Research Committee:
Members of the research committee must either be members of the Lessac Institute or known as “Friends of the Lessac Institute” through their dedication and commitment to the enhancement of Lessac Kinsensics. Such a ‘friend’ should have special skills and knowledge in the field of research and be willing to serve as a member only on the research committee without any remuneration. Such a friend will not have any voting rights in any other matters in the Institute. Only Certified Trainers may serve as director and assistant director of the research committee. The assistant director will become the director in the next term.
Current members of the Research Committee:
Melissa Hurt: Melissa Hurt (MFA, PhD) authored Arthur Lessac's Embodied Actor Training (Routledge 2014) and several articles and chapters on the Lessac Kinesensic work. She teaches Voice for the Actor at the State University of New York in Albany and owns Integrative Studio, LLC, where she helps individuals and groups become their true, enlivened selves through embodiment practices. Learn more about Melissa and her publications at www.melissahurt.com.
Karina Lemmer (PhD): Karina holds a PhD, which examines multilingual embodied acting in the South African context. She is a senior lecturer at the TUT Department of Performing Arts where she specializes in voice and acting. Karina is also an editor for IDEA (accent data base for actors internationally) and a certified Lessac practitioner who has coached several productions and films. She has adapted and directed several classical texts and has also created original multi-lingual South African Theatre within the academic context and for platforms such as the National Arts Foundation and other festivals. Karina has published in the Voice and Speech Review and the South African Theatre Journal and has presented at National and International Conferences.
Allan Munro (PhD): Allan is not a Lessac Trainer but a huge supporter of our work and will serve on the committee as a “Friend of the Lessac Institute”. He has written on Research in the Arts and is a sought after workshop facilitator on Art Research processes and methods in South Africa. He has an excellent profile as supervisor of post-graduate studies in the arts. He has served on and chaired IRB’s (or Research Ethics Committee) and has published on the role of Ethics in Arts related research. This provides him with wide experience on the reviewing of research proposals across the spectrum of research approaches, as well as the ethical considerations that go with these approaches. His commitment to the Lessac work arises from his realisation of the profound influence it has had on actors in the preparation for and performance of roles in theatre, as well as in his own professional voice work.
Marth Munro (PhD): Marth is an established researcher. She has a publication record that demonstrates her research on and commitment to Lessac Kinensics. She is a Lessac Kinesensics Master Teacher and serves as the team lead of the Research team. She has served the Institute as director and facilitator of the South African Lessac Kinesensics Intensive workshops and co-facilitated the 2015 USA Lessac Kinesensics Intensive workshop. She is Professor extraordinaire in the Drama Department, School of Arts, University of Pretoria.
Maria Regina Tocchetto de Oliveira (PhD): Maria Regina (Gina) is an actress, director and acting teacher at the University of Grande Dourados, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. In her Masters (2008) she drew comparisons between the Body NRG’s found in Lessac Kinesensics and the pedagogies of Constantin Stanislavski, Michael Chekhov, Eugenio Barba and Philippe Gaulier. She investigated the actor’s presence and use of the Radiancy NRG in comic performance. In the Doctorate (2020), she articulated Lessac Kinesensics, specifically the notion of working on oneself within the field of Somatics. She related the Body NRG’s of Lessac Kinesensics to the levels of tension encountered in the pedagogy of Jacques Lecoq. Beyond this, she developed a somatic tune-up routine for acting and applied it to the creation of a short scene entitled Cães (Dogs). In 2015, she organized the first Lessac Kinesensics introductory workshop in Brazil, under the direction of Master Teacher Deborah Kinghorn. She participated in intensive workshops in the United States (2006, 2014) and South Africa (2017, 2019) and has been a Lessac practitioner since 2017.
Sean Turner (PhD): Sean serves as assistant director of research and will become director in the next term. Sean in a researcher whose focus is on interdisciplinary research. His interests include A/R/Tography, Arts Based Educational Research, Multilitieracies, Critical Youth Studies, Media Studies, Critical Discourse, and Research Topics within the broader landscape of Special Education, including learning disabilities, behavior disorders, and autism.
IRB:
The Lessac Kinesensics IRB functions as a sub-committee of the research committee. The function of the IRB is to assess and validate any research proposal for its adherence to the fundamental research ethics principles of beneficence, non-malfeasance/non-maleficence, participant autonomy, informed consent, justice and good research practice including beneficiation and the consideration of any risk/benefit ratio. In this regard these principles imply the following (these must be seen as glosses on the basic principles and not as clear definitions):
Beneficence: The research to be undertaken will lead to the benefit of humanity in some form (thus excluding research that is of interest but of no benefit).
Non-malfeasance/non-maleficence: The research will engage with any potential harm to participants (animals and the environment, although it is not foreseen that this will come into question) and will address ways of controlling, limiting or eliminating such potentially harmful consequences (see risk-benefit ratio’s, below.)
Participant autonomy: The research recognises the rights of the participant at all stages of the research, including the right to choose to continue or to opt out of the project.
Informed consent: The research accepts that to allow participant autonomy to be recognised the participants will be effectively informed on aspects of the research to be undertaken to the extent that the participant is sufficiently informed to be able to exercise his or her individual rights.
Justice: the research accepts the responsibility the engage fairly with all participants in the upholding of human rights.
Good research practice: It is generally accepted that bad research design and execution is ethically unacceptable because the engagement with participants will not lead to reliable (or acceptable) results and therefore the research is, to all intents and purposes, wasting other people’s time and money.
Beneficiation: Good research includes in its execution a form of beneficiation for those who have contributed to the research.
Risk/benefit ratios: it is acknowledged that research is very seldom risk free, but that the risks involved have been considered, minimised and controlled, and weighed up against the potential benefit for humanity and for the participants.
The IRB will consist out of the 3 permanent members of the research committee as well as co-opted members who are experts in the various research areas addressed in the submitted proposals, including one member representing the MTC. These co-opted members will serve only for the duration of a specific proposal/proposals and may or may not be members of the Lessac Institute as determined by the need of the proposed study.