Blog Assessment – Task 1

Blog Assessment – Task 1
Emilia Breadon

1. ‘Physical Theatre’ is seen as a mixture of both dance and theatre, some practitioners argue what is and is not seen as ‘physical theatre’ because it is difficult to define.
Through my development in Process and Performance I have learnt that it is not always about depending on dialog to tell a story and that it can be done through body movement and body memory alone. Meaning that you should not have to think ‘what happens next’, your body from previous training and practise automatically remembers what comes next.

‘At its simplest, physical-theatre is theatre where the primary means of creation occurs through the body rather than through the mind’ (Callery, D (2001) p.4)

This made me realise that every movement must have a reason behind it, but whether you choose a clear move to represent it was your own choice. So you could make the audience look deeper into the piece and what it is about.


2. ‘The term itself – ‘physical theatre’ – denotes a hybrid character and is testimony to its double legacy in both avant-garde theatre and dance.’ (Sanchez-Colberg in Keefe & Murray; 2007, p 21)

Ana Sanchez-Colberg suggests that the ‘hybrid character’ of physical theatre is a double current of influences these being Dance and Theatre. I believe she is correct in what she is stating because when these two genres when put together create a new genre is this becoming ‘physical theatre’.
I think physical theatre is a hybrid performance genre because when watching a piece you can clearly see the dance and theatre genre elements. With the dance process it is all choreographed and practised till it is made perfect making sure no one steps or moves in the wrong way but with physical theatre there may be parts that are choreographed but they can always change. With theatre you manly use pedestrian movements, actions that reflect the dialog. From my experience in process and performance we have in the past used ‘play’ as a starting point and then worked on from there using pedestrian movements but then developing them so they become more stylised, this can also involve improvisation and changing the piece.


3. ‘DV8 Physical Theatre's work is about taking risks, aesthetically and physically, about breaking down the barriers between dance, theatre and personal politics and, above all, communicating ideas and feelings clearly and unpretentiously.’ (http://www.dv8.co.uk/about.dv8/artistic.policy.html)

DV8 are a company whose practise falls into the remit of ‘physical theatre’ they use the whole concept of the ‘hybrid character’ in all of their work combining dance with theatre. This enables them to start with an idea for a piece and work on it making it become more stylised and pushing their own personal boundaries. DV8 believe that by pushing these boundaries within the piece they can push boundaries on the story enabling the audience to have more of a discussion on what they were watching and a connection to this story.
This is why DV8 fit into the ‘physical theatre’ genre so well because they use real day life subjects that any person in the audience may have gone through but by working with dance elements and physically stylising them it creates more of an atmosphere on the audience.


Bibliography:
DV8 physical theatre (2008) [Home page] [online] [February 23, 2009.]
( www.dv8.co.uk/about.dv8/artistic.policy.html )

Callery, D (2001) Through the body. New York: Routledge

Keefe, J & S Murray (2007) Physical Theatres: A Critical Reader London: Routledge