Finding Your Stage Persona

November 28, 2001

If you’re having difficulty embodying a character you’re dancing in a ballet, you might want to schedule some reading time before the performance.

Researchers at Emory University
monitored the brain activity of 21 undergraduates after the students read Robert Harris’ Pompeii, a dramatic fictional novel. They discovered the subjects’ brain waves fluctuated along with the main character’s story, suggesting that books can “transport you into the body of the protagonist,” as the study’s leader Gregory Berns said to CNN. So if you need to find fearless courage before you take the stage, you might want to pick up The Hunger Games and read about Katniss Everdeen’s daring escapades.