ABSTRACT
With more people of color taking prominent roles on US stages and screen, drama schools must recenter curriculum to meet the diverse narratives of their student populations and industry demands. Many Western drama schools are concentrated on colonial mores of white supremacist embodiment: physically, emotionally, and psychologically. Living outside of the United States for over a decade and incorporating intercultural actor training practices can invite unique perspectives on successful intercultural hybrids for actor training. This chapter introduces the concept of Balinese taksu and shares intercultural practice with the Balinese and how it further emancipated the author’s actor training methodologies from the constraints of Euro-dominant actor training aesthetics, which enfranchised a sense of self-worth as a Black queer artist. This chapter argues for training environments that invite Black and Brown actors to explore their diasporic knowledges through other cultural and more holistic uses of the body in tandem with popular Eurocentric pedagogies.
