Physical Theatre Performance
Monday, January 16, 2012
The industry's national conference - APAP (Association of Performing Arts Presenters) - has come and gone but not without leaving us all in a whirlwhind of ideas, inspiration, strategic thoughts, leads, follow ups, and of course, inundated with performances. To each his own and my own is very much circus arts, physical theatre and dance. I had the pleasure to take in two terrific physical theatre performance while in NYC -- Traces by Seven Fingers and Leo by Circle of Eleven.
So I'm throwing around the term physical theatre and I know it's pretty vague. It took me years to wrap my head around it. Suffice it to say it's been around forever but with the molding and marrying of many disciplines and genres, it's gaining popularity.
Physical theatre in the simplest terms marries the physicality of dance with the narrative of theatre. Now that's loaded because dance is movement but can look many ways. Theatre typically follows a narrative but that doesn't mean the narrative is spoken. See why it's confusing? Even Wiki gives a nod to its confusion. But it offers this simple definition: Physical theatre is any mode of performance that pursues storytelling or drama through primarily and secondarily physical and mental means.
It often includes all or some of the following:
Work is often devised and not based off a pre-existing script
It's interdisciplinary - music, dance, theatre, circus, visual art all combine
It challenges a traditional sense of place and space
It blurs lines between audience and performer
Origins of physical theatre are contemporary dance, mime and movement, circus, and Commedia dell'arte. I love this quote from Daniel Stein, a student of Etienne Decroux, father of corporeal mime:
"I think physical theatre is much more visceral and audiences are affected much more viscerally than intellectually. The foundation of theater is a live, human experience, which is different from any other form of art that I know of. Live theatre, where real human beings are standing in front of real human beings, is about the fact that we have all set aside this hour; the sharing goes in both directions. The fact that it is a very physical, visceral form makes it a very different experience from almost anything else that we partake of in our lives."
Here are a few video examples of artists/companies that I describe as physical theatre. I mentioned above Seven Fingers and Circle of Eleven. Others are roster artist Robert Post | Post Comedy Theatre and DV8 Physical Theatre.
