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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 31, 1985)
is body seems to float and fly. soar, contort, fall, turn, twist, harden and loosen at the magical touch of his own ■ mind. Hayward Coleman, a world renowned mime-yoga artist, touched other minds when he performed at the University on May 16. through the efforts of the Black Student Union and University English professor Ed Coleman, Hayward’s brother. The show was an amazing blend of mime, yoga, acrobatics, vaudeville — move mcnt that Coleman calls physical comedy. TOE HOSTAGE Bound, physically and men tally oppressed, jerked by out side forces with no control over his own physical body, Coleman expresses with inten sity and power what it is like to be a hostage. He demonstrates, at the same time, practiced skill with total control over bis body. Coleman was inspired to do this particular act after perfor ming in Beirut. Lebanon im mediately before the outbreak of the civil war. His beginn ings in mime-yoga run on the same thread. He was studying economics at the University of California in Berkeley in die late 1960s, As part of his religious denomation, he was asked to give a presentation on what it means to suffer in contem porary America. He says he couldn’t imagine how to ex plain this theme in words. ‘‘We don’t suffer like the people in Africa, or the people in Vietnam, or the people in Beirut are suffering,” Coleman says. “It’s a different type of mental and physical suffering." So he did a skit called "The Loser,” about a baseball pit cher who comes into the bot tom of the 9th inning of the • World Series and loses the ball game by dropping a flyball. "It displayed the agony of losing a very, very important event and the physical pain that goes along with it," he says. After the presentation earned him positive response, Col eman was inspired to learn theater and mime. He worked with a local group and when he earned enough money, traveled to France to learn from the great mime-artist Marcel Marceau. For two years he worked intently with Marceau, then later worked with Marcaau’s master, Etienne Decroux. He has also studied with a Japanese mime. Mamako and Sol Cohen, a vaudeville comedy-acrobat. THE FIRST SPOKEN WORD Through metamorphasis, Coleman creates the evolution of man. He is a snake, he is a bird. He is a gorilla and finally he is a primitive human grun ting the first word: • * Hamburger." The metamorphis Coleman creates on stage is all part of his own metamorphis. His strongest transformation occured when he was perform ing in Tunisia in 1974. and a Indian woman introduced him to the philosphy and techni ques of Hatha Yoga. He then learned Hatha Yoga from spiritual teachers, and the postures and ideas of the yoga soon became a part of his act.. "I began to combine the two ideas," he says. "I used the philosophies of centers of con sciousness (in Hatha yoga) and centers of non-verbal com munication. which is what Decroux had taught. He found that Hatha Yoga helped strengthen, balance and control his body. It also helped to prevent injury. "My body is still supple and much stronger now than it has ever been in my life.” he says. "I’ve found the fountain of youth, especially through the ^German AUTO SERVICE VW’S MERCEDES BMW’S DATSUN TOYOTA Reliable service lor your 0^0 OQ1 O 2025 Franklin Blvd foreign car since 1963 W*Tfc"tI7 I fa Eucene, Or* 97403 ' YAMAHA Motor Scooters SPECIAL SALE PRICES 80 cc • Carries 2 people • 40*45 mph Special Sale Price reg. 895 00 NOW 74500 Ask About Our Credit Terms • Free Demo Rides * 20th South A & Main. Springfield Only 4 miles from campus • 74/-9354 breathing exercises.” The basic philosophy of Hatha Yoga — living a con scious and moderate lifestyle with discipline — became in tegrated into Coleman's own life. He says he disciplines his body with the daily practice of yoga, meditation and acrobatics, but trains only three hours a day — moderate for a professional performer, he says, THE ASTRONAUT His'body is levitated off the ground; he ia floating above the earth, it seems as though his body defies gravity. Coleman's ability to float is created by strong discipline, he says. He has found that he can leave behind his ego and become that being he portrays on stage. He calls it a transference of consciousness. “Marceau says it is like Bud dhism in which you first see the mountain and then you go to the mountain with your head and then with your chest and then with your pelvis.'' Coleman says, “and then you rise up to your toes and climb that mountain, and then you become that mountain, and then you come back, and you take on the quality of stability and solidness. “Mime yoga is like that." he says. “You actually take on the qualites pf a bird or you feel the warniness of a worm and what it Is like to forage around and |ust be chomping on a leaf...’* He dives into the ocean in one skit. “I really feel like I'm swimming in the water because my body reacts to my imagination so much so that It feels real. So there's a body sensation as well as mental im agination going on." The imagery he performs on stage is first seen in his mind through meditation. Coleman was initiated to Tibetan meditation in 1974. The type of meditation, creative im, agination, is performed by ’ Tibetan Buddhists who im-. . ° agine the Buddha sitting before them in a lotus flow'er.' PERSONALITY AND POSTURE A macho man on the beach, the Virginia Slim woman, the brain-only human; Coleman uses his body to express per sonality through posture and positioning. Though all his material is original, he says at the same time it is all borrowed from vaudeville performers, other mimes and regular people. Observing people is "my MAIN DESK STORE SPRING SALE Chocoholic ’a Special Sth Avenue Ghiradelli Choc. Chunks Cherry filled Chocolate Bars Hershey's Krackel Bar Peanut Butter Fudge Brownies Chocolate Cherries Sole limited to Block on haml _/ Hayward Coleman a master of mime food,” Coleman saya. “My favorite pastime is to sit in a cafe in Paris and watch people pass by. )ust how they hold their spines they communicate non-verbaity; how they walk they, say something about themselves. Oh. it's quite in teresting for me. 1 love looking at people." ‘.'He says being a mime-yoga artist Is a double-edged sword that he, in particular, has had a rough go at because he is the "first black mime" and had to break the ice, he says. "People look at the stereotype of Marcel Marceau and I don't look anything like Marcel Marceau," he says. "I thought I could make the kind of money Marcel could make just by being good at (mime)," he says. "But that's not true. 1 began to realize that there’s only one Marcel Marceau, and he was the first mimo m PMlUM CHINESE RESTAURANT ***** ilftt* Oriental Buffet Lunch Downstairs G Try Our Dinner Upstairs Hours: Downstairs M Th 11 00 7:00. F Sa 11 00 4 3C Closed Sundayt Hours: Upstairs Su Th 4 30 10:00 F Sa 5:00 10:30 1273 Alder Street • 683 8886 one, end It's his baby." • Bui Colmnan .has had numerous artistic successes.' He performed with Diana.Rosa for two yeai$ on her world tour, solo in. several countries . including Egypt.at several na tional locations Such as. • ' • (Caesar's Palace,.and has ap peared on French television and on American commercials for companies such as Burger ... King. ' . ^ And though he believes he could’ve.made more money ' • with hfs econmics degree,.he , is happy with- his- choice to stay in the arts- ,f . ; "1 don't .regret that choice," he says, "to be an artist.-to be a performer and to give my life to a type of art. which- perhaps 1 could raise to a level of a religous art. "So that way I’m greatly satisfied. I. wouldn't be here now talking to you." Shannon Kelley r —■•cue coupon 1 FREE Soda plus in«°FF I v any slice Offer good Monday-Sunday 11:30-Midniflht, Mon.-Fri. 3:30-Mic*night. Weekends 1211 Alder on Campus .686-959* 'tvPs^ sy* New York Pina •CLIP COUPON wmmmmm
