Quick questions on Movement and physicality: HSC Drama

A typical pre-rehearsal movement warm-up runs 10 to 20 minutes:

The carriage of the body. High status, low status, age, energy, mood are all communicated through posture. Trained performers choose posture for character and sustain it.

Movement of arms, hands and head used to communicate. Specific exercises:

The way a character moves through space. Specific exercises:

The ability to hold a still body fully present. Specific exercises:

The performer's relationship to other bodies and to the playing space. Specific exercises:

The total physical identity of a character. Built across rehearsal through:

French actor-trainer. Lecoq's school in Paris (founded 1956) trained many of the major figures of contemporary physical theatre. The Lecoq method uses neutral mask, the seven levels of tension, the four elements (water, fire, earth, air) as physical approaches, animal work, and clowning.

Hungarian movement theorist. Laban Movement Analysis identifies four "effort actions" (punch, dab, glide, slash, flick, wring, press, float) that combine three qualities: time (sudden or sustained), weight (light or strong) and space (direct or indirect). Laban's framework is the standard vocabulary for movement analysis in many theatre training programs.

French mime artist. Decroux's "corporeal mime" trains the body for precise, articulate movement.

Russian director. Meyerhold's "biomechanics" combined physical training with theatre, producing a stylised acting style. Meyerhold was executed in 1940 by the Soviet regime; his work was rediscovered in the late twentieth century.

American contemporary practitioners. The Viewpoints (described in their book The Viewpoints Book, 2005) identify nine physical viewpoints (kinaesthetic response, tempo, duration, repetition, shape, gesture, architecture, spatial relationship, topography) that performers can use to compose movement.

Japanese director. The Suzuki Method of Actor Training emphasises rigorous physical discipline including specific stomping exercises that build core strength and grounded presence.

Movement looks natural, but is in fact carefully designed to look natural. A character's gait, posture and gesture are deliberate even when reading as ordinary.

Movement is deliberately non-naturalistic. Gestures may be enlarged, paces may be choreographed, postures may be held for dramatic effect.