One of the key features of the physical theatre genre is the focus on the body instead of a text based stimulus. The actor focuses on how the body moves, allowing for a more free-flowing development of work and the term ‘physical’ indicates that this type of theatre isn’t a style which is generally seen in theatre by traditional theatre audiences. Physical theatre is also controversially mistaken for dance theatre which only focuses on stylised and planned movement and doesn’t look at other elements such as character and meaning. Dennis (2007) states “The design created by movement has both a narrative and aesthetic value” (Murray& Keefe, 2007, p185) although physical theatre has influences of dance within it, there is a deeper meaning to the more pedestrianised gestures used in the genre. Although this sometimes does not look aesthetically pleasing to an audience as much as dance does, there becomes a deeper meaning in which the audience can decode. Another feature is the allowing of the performers to experiment and ‘play,’ this is the basis from where the work is developed and moves into the final stages of performance that we see as an audience member. From being a part of the Process and Performance module, I have learnt that physical theatres creation of work relies solely on trying things out and throwing away work that doesn’t fit into the final product, this is an important aspect of physical theatre or there would become too much material for a performance but all the time we are adding to our ‘palette’ to develop and expand what material we have already created.
“The term itself – ‘physical theatre’ – denotes a hybrid character and is testimony to its double legacy in both avant-garde theatre and dance. It is precisely this double current of influences which needs to be taken into consideration in any attempt to delineate specific parameters of the new genre.” (Sanchez-Colberg in Keefe & Murray; 2007, p 21)
Ana Sanchez-Colberg describes physical theatre as a ‘hybrid character’ as physical theatre fuses together not only elements of dance but also elements of Avant-garde theatre and small elements of other genres such as mime that have elements of movement and physicalisation which were theorised by practitioners such as Jacques Lecoq. The collaboration of different styles of theatre performance makes up physical theatre. An example of the difference between dance theatre and physical theatre is that dance theatre relies on music as the music is first chosen and the choreography is created to the beats of the music where as physical theatre just adds a layer of music to the performance as an aesthetic element. The devising through experimental play in the process allows for a more varied style of work and unlike dance theatre which sees a neutral performance, physical theatre allows characters to be developed and the actor goes through the journey of the process instead of being told how to act by a director or through character directions in as script, which is the difference between physical theatre and more contemporary Avant-garde theatre.
A contemporary British performance company who falls into the category of ‘physical theatre’ is Jasmin Vardimon Company. The company’s work can fall into the genre of ‘Hybrid’ as they not only use aspects of stylised dance movement, but they take this one step further to push their bodies to the limit by experimenting and devising. The company is well known for the exploration of “human experience, social relevance” (www.jasminvardimon.com/about.html) as a starting point for the actors to focus on, from there the actors are given the freedom to explore and devise work but all the time having a motivation behind every movement which is what traditional dance theatre lacks. This element of physical theatre therefore provokes and challenges the audience to question what they are watching instead of there just being an aesthetically pleasing performance in front of them.
“Park delivers fresh statements about our time, treating us to Vardimon’s insightful humour and beautifully detailed movement. Park is a breathtaking collision of highly acute physical theatre, text, athletic dance and funky music”. (www.jasminvardimon.com/park.)
This quote from Jasmin Vardimon website confirms that the work of the company looks at social relevance for the audience and combines this with elements of text, dance and layers of music to create an exciting performance of physical theatre for the audience to watch, yet is different to contemporary Avant-garde theatre. Talking about Jasmin Vardimons performance of Yesterday, Georgina Coburn (2008) states that the work is “More performance art than choreography,” (www.jasminvardimon.com/reviews/yesterday.html)as this particular performance also uses digital images to aid their work. I think ‘performance art’ is a perfect example to describe the mix of dance theatre and physical theatre so that its hybrid character is more distinguished.
Bibliography
DENNIS, A (2002) The articulate body: the physical training of the actor London: Nick Hern
GROTOWSKI, J. (1975) Towards a poor theatre London : Methuen.
MARSHALL, L (2001) The body speaks London: Methuen.
MURRAY, S & J KEEFE (2007) Physical theatres: a critical introduction London: Routledge
KEEFE, J & S MURRAY (Ed) (2007) Physical theatres: a critical reader London: Routledge
ZARRILLI, P (2002) Acting Re(Considered) London: Routledge
Other Sources
http://www.jasminvardimon.com/about.html (accessed 1st March 2010)
http://www.jasminvardimon.com/park.html (accessed 1st March 2010)
Coburn, G. Review from www.hi-arts.co.uk/31 October 2008. http://www.jasminvardimon.com/reviews/yesterday.html (accessed 1st March 2010)
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