“Physical theatre is theatre where the primary means of creation occurs through the body rather than through the mind.” (Callery; 2001, 4)
Physical theatre is truly creating something through your body and letting go of your mind whether it’s from stimulus or just a feeling. We have had to learn to let go of the mind through different techniques and exercises. Being able to let go of your mind gives you the chance to truly connect to the work, instead you can just take on the full emotion from the session.
Training of the body is vital in physical theatre “We live in a real world. A very active and concrete world that has shaped and modified the use of the body in a number of ways” (Marshall;2001,3) We as a society are moulded into acting to what is classed as “normality”, With physical theatre none of this matters when performing, you completely let your body go and move to how you feel is right. It’s important that the ensemble receives training, we as actors are the creators we need to create to our full potential. “Process of self discovery as well as an opportunity to master skills” (Callery;2001, 19) Training has enabled us to discover different parts of the body and how far we can push ourselves emotionally and physically and how far other members can push themselves. Training is important to master the moves within creativity as Callery explains within the quote above, these moves cannot be learnt overnight they take time and effort, they’re a way of “Enriching the ensemble and accessing a common physical vocabulary, a route towards collective creative energy” (Calery;2001, 19) This training has enabled the class to achieve all of the same moves together and have the same creative energy as everyone else, this is important when working in such a large group so that everybody is equal and has the same opportunity to help create and contribute.
As physical theatre involves fully expressing yourself through movement some people within our ensemble have found this difficult as they’ve felt they aren’t capable because of their size/shape due to society’s rules of what size is acceptable. Physical theatre has helped crush these established views as we have found size doesn’t matter, the moves and techniques can be mastered at the same level and quality, in a way it sets new standards for the people within the ensemble and to the audience. For physical theatre to become fully expressive and real for the audience we as actors “Must invite strangers into their private world, and fully reveal what’s happening there.” (Callery; 2001, 54) were letting strangers into our community/ensemble where real emotions and personal issues are on show. Talking about emotions can be a difficult task, their personal and private, to put these on stage cause feelings of security and vulnerability, but as doing it as an ensemble gives a sense of support. This has caused the group to connect emotionally, we feel as a group through body language, sight and hearing we listen through our bodies not through speech.
Ana Sanchez-Colberg suggestion of physical theatre being a hybrid character coming from many of its components originating from dance and theatre and that physical theatre doesn’t hold its own originality. Physical theatre is constantly being defined to what it is or isn’t as it is such a wide area to cover within the 20th century as it has become more popular to create. This chapter from A critical reader has many suggestions that physical theatre can be placed within the same genre as Avant garde theatre, this can be suggested due to how physical theatre is created and what it portrays; its modern and maybe ahead of time for theatre and it also goes against the traditional western style of theatre, as the objectives and aims of both styles are completely different, as are the contents of both genres.
The quote seems to imply that physical theatre doesn’t exist within its own genre, that it’s just created through hybrid’s using other genres such as dance; people interpret them as dance theatre as they hold many of the same elements. When studied closely the work itself is very different, physical theatre holds narrative and explores many key political views that maybe haven’t been touched upon, dancers are given a theme and they all dance to the same rhythm, within this they may perform an emotion or even a style of dance i.e. hip hop but unlike physical theatre they do not tell a strong narrative.
Whether physical theatre is a hybrid character can be highly debated, practitioners such as Dymphna Callery; 2001, Marshall, L; 2001 and John Murray and John Keefe; 2007, all agree within their texts that physical theatre is in a genre of its own, unlike Mark Franco;1995 who describes it as modern dance rather than something completely different. The term physical theatre is thrown around loosely I think it’s being harder to be defined “The term physical theatre has evolved as a catch phrase to describe touring theatre companies whose work has a strong visual dimension” (Callery;2001. 6) From this quote it implies that maybe companies themselves need a further insight it to what physical theatre involves and takes to create and perform before they can actually start calling themselves physical theatre groups or that they are mistaken as physical theatre groups.
Dv8 are a British physical theatre group created in 1986 and led by Lloyd Newson, a psychologist who then carried on to study at London’s contemporary dance school, he was not a choreographer nor a dancer. Their name itself stands for Dance and video. “Their ambition was to create works that were the products of a collective process, that were radical and provocative.........that devised a new, less sophisticated vocabulary of movement, for removed from the flexed footwork of modern dance “(Dv8 physical theatre;1995.11) DV8 aim to break away from the modern dance world and create something different that pushed the boundaries of dance and themselves, you can see this in their most recent pieces; The most famous pieces of DV8’s work are; strange fish- This consists of themes of loneliness, longing for company and human interaction. Achilles- tests masculinity and hierarchies of power amongst men within society. Dead dreams of monochrome men- this expresses themes of sexuality and gay rights, the piece expresses what it’s like to be a gay man within today’s society.
“Aim is to portray how people interact with one another. More important than patterns and spatial structures” (DV8 physical theatre; 1995, 13) The aim and key feature of DV8 is to portray people within society and how we interact with one another, most of their work revolves around political views, but not through traditional theatre, they like to push the boundaries of dance “DV8 Physical Theatre's work is about taking risks, aesthetically and physically, about breaking down the barriers between dance and theatre”(http://www.dv8.co.uk/about_dv8/artistic_policy)
Lloyd likes to have different actors for each piece as he would like them all to be able to relate to the work, each actor has some experience or emotional connection to their work for them to be able to suit the character, unlike modern dance when an actor only has to be able to move with their body not their mind. DV8 is a very successful company, they have strict and key features about physical theatre and to what it should portray, every piece of their work shows strong narrative by using nothing more than movement, and each piece engages the audience through story and their ability to move. A great way to define DV8 is a quote from the guardian newspaper “DV8 aims to connect the world outside with the world inside – or, if you like, the personal with the political. Even though their focus is on the body in action, they use whatever means they need to achieve that connection – dance, acting, circus, and film, whatever. The message matters more than the medium.” (http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2008/oct/21/dance) This is what completely defines them as a company, It’s simply the matter of not caring who or what they are, all that matters is the message being carried across to the audience and they shall push as far as they can go to get the message there.
Bibliography
Tufnell, M (2003) Body space image.
Murray, S and J Keefe (2007) Physical theatres a critical reader. London Routledge
Franco, M (1995) Dancing modernism/ performing politics. Indiana University press.
Callery, D (2002) Through the body. London Routledge.
Marshall, L (2001) The body speaks. London Methuen.
DV8 physical theatre (1995) DVD guide booklet From Dead Dreams on monochrome men.
Digital sources
http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2008/oct/21/dance
http://www.dv8.co.uk/about_dv8/artistic_policy
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