Faculty member at the Juilliard School, Joe Williams came to Ames for the day on Feb. 23 from New York, teaching students of theatre, music and dance his Three Pillars approach to Delsarte.  

The Delsarte System of Expression aims to aid in understanding human movement and expression. The Three Pillars approach focuses on three major concepts: body, mind and spirit.

“We posses all three elements, body, mind and spirit. They are our territory, but there are some we are more comfortable with than others. It is the Delsartian idea that we engage in all three of these elements,” Williams said.

Before the workshop began, Williams visited and caught up with several people who already know him and have been to previous workshops of his. There were a variety of men and women of differing ages at the workshop, consisting of ballet, pole and burlesque dancers, a figure skater, a photographer and an artist.

The Delsarte workshop began at 10 a.m. when 30 of Williams’ students joined together in a circle, interlocking their hands. Williams turned on some calming music and led the students through exercises that focused on the body, mind or spirit.

Williams associated these three main concepts with areas of the body, allowing the students to utilize these techniques in their performances and artwork. The body was associated with the abdomen, the mind with the head, and the spirit with the chest. 

As Williams explained the meaning behind the movements and introduced various exercises, he consistently emphasized, “Does it make sense to you, can you physically do it and can you feel it?”

Williams got the students to focus on their movements on a deeper level than most people normally would. He pointed out how the miniscule tilt of someone’s head can completely change the message that is being portrayed. Students then spent 15 minutes practicing giving different messages with the tilt of their head.

Williams focused on the power of body language in any situation, especially in performance or artistic situations.

“That’s the power of art. The power of the artist changes the world around them with what they say with their body,” Williams said. 

Burlesque dancer “Horchata Dentana” drove to Ames from St. Louis just for another chance to work with Williams. Dentana has attended previous workshops with Williams in Seattle.

“I was hoping to learn more about Delsarte and I really love the classes that I took with him in Seattle and I was hoping to reinforce the things that I learned there or learn a little more and I actually just did both so I’m really excited,” Dentana said.

Elisabeth Brown, 27, came to the workshop from Ankeny. She came to improve upon her use of movement to connect to her audiences.

“My dance troupe brought Joe here today, and they just love him to pieces. I’ve attended other classes of his and I’m getting better, stronger,” Brown said.