Sensitive Space: Malmgren's Inner Attitudes

Every year thousands of young people across Australia audition to join actor-training institutions.1 In major cities, as well as the existing university-based performing arts degrees, independent institutions have proliferated, teaching acting via full-time, part-time and short courses.2 Yet the Bureau of Statistics reveals that the number of Australians claiming to earn a living from the performing arts is low.3 Whilst parents often caution their teenage school leavers against University courses in the performing arts, the numbers applying have not dropped in response to the reality of the career outcomes, as would be expected. This paper suggests a phenomenological approach to this conundrum, and draws on both Maurice Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology as well as Rudolf Laban's theories of space.