Ellen Marshall Blog Task 1

1)
As quoted above physical theatre is a creation of the body and the ways in which movements encode story and themes. The main argument of physical theatre is, is it a form of dance or acting? The lifts, throws and passion in certain dance genres are similar to what you see in physical theatre. Dance cannot overly express a character in depth and their journey and transitions as the nature of the style adds limitations. Acting would fit more suitably when it comes to the sense of having perpous behind the movements.

Physical theatre does not have a set rule of how to move and is most definitely not a handful of movements put together with no meaning or feeling. The only conventional thing about physical theatre is that it is an expansion of pedestrian movements. Take DV8 Physical Theatre - Enter Achilles for example, they take the sinerio of every day pedestrian movements of drinking at a bar and exaggerate them in to elaborate movements, which are somewhat poetic to the eye. There are no limitations to what the body can express with out the spoken word.



2)
‘Physical Theatre is not codifiable. The term is applied to such a diverse range of work that it has become virtually undefinable.’ (Callery, 2001, p.5)

Physical theatre is always a subject for debate, this genre of performance can be seen in a varied selection of the performing arts therefore it is hard to specify to which genre it belongs. As commented on above, it would be hard to pigeonhole such a creative means of performance. Ana Sanchez-Colberg comment on it being a ‘hybrid character’ just furthers my belief that it is in fact so diverse you cannot categorise it as it stems and has influences from many things.

‘…the term ‘physical theatre’ first came to public attention through the emergance of DV8…’ (Murray and Keefe, 2007, p.14)

DV8 before this were known as a dance group but watching their performances you can see that the theatre arts have heavily influenced the performances.



3)
Going on all the stereotypes of what makes physical theatre it became apparent that although there is a very vast definitions there is also a fine line between it falling in to a different category. Take Akram Khan’s company every where you look will define them as a Dance group, but who actually gets to decide what genre it is? He uses a mixture of Kathak dance, which is very narrative orientated, and watching his work it’s hard not to see a story. Granted this type of performance does involve the spoke word and there are many companies which would be easier to set in stone as being Physical Theatre. Akram Khans performances just sum up this question of if it’s a ‘hybrid character’ there are no right or wrong answers on these fine lines the beauty of such a genre is that it is what you make of it.

Bibliography

Murray, S and Keefe, J. (2007) Physical Theatres: A Critical Introduction. Oxon: Routledge.

Callery, D. (2001) Through The Body A Practical Guide To Physical Theatre.
London: Nick Hern Books.

Other Sources

Physical Theatre http://www.blackfishacademy.com/physical.htm (Accessed: 25.02.09)