Physicality, awareness of space

1. Having not explored the full potential of using my body as a tool of expression, I think it limits me. It limits me in the way that I do not dare to ‘release my inhibitions’, therefore not allowing my emotions/motives to come through. Sometimes I do not embody my character fully, and therefore some of the actions that I take are awkward because I am only assuming the action that I think my character would take, without thinking about the reason or motive behind it. There are also times when I forget to use ‘my space’ – the box - and the actions I take are then not varied. They are simple and lifeless at times, because I do not keep in mind the reason behind it and the believability factor. Action should not be done for the sake of action, which is what I have been repeatedly doing.

To overcome this, I have to, undeniably, apply Stanislavsky’s system of ‘magic if’ and ‘given circumstances’ which will enable me to believe in the actions that I take and the reasons behind it. I also, perhaps, have to forget about the fact that people are judging me, because when I am acting, the spotlight has to be on the character that I am playing and not I. I have to be aware of the space around me as well, and how I can utilize it fully; using different levels, for example, which could indicate a character’s status/power and vulnerability.

2. Jacques LeCoq was most famous for movement and mime. His acting style was aimed at a closer interaction with the audience, an extended use of general space and a focus on the physical rather than the emotional side of the character to impact on the audience by way of social or political comment. In a way, his movements are more expanded and focused on building interaction with physical movement. An actor could use this to break the fourth wall and bring in the audience into the play. Plays that are more centralized towards using movement to convey a message could adopt his acting style. However, because it is not entirely focused on the emotional side of the character, it may lack the kind of connection that an audience might seek to find with the characters.

Rudolf Laban, on the other hand, believes that dance should be extended to everyone. His ideas were influenced by the social and cultural changes of the time and the contexts that he worked in. Laban abandoned the constraints of traditional dance steps, the reliance on music to inspire and structure dance, the need to mime a story to reveal a body and thus freed the body to find its own rhythms and to create its own steps and reveling in the medium of space. From a theatrical viewpoint, this could be used on-stage when actors are doing improvisations, where finding one’s own rhythm helps in to enhance the scene by either, say, making it physically funny or disturbing.

Using dance in theatre also helps to visually enhance the production aesthetically. Choreographed movement does not only extend the ways in which one can express emotion, but it also serves to make the production a little more interesting.


Done by: Siti Suhara