Physicality, awareness of space

Read up on the works of Rudolf Laban and Jacques LeCoq. To what extent do you think their works can help an actor to be more adept in the use of space and their own physicality as an actor?

Rudolf Laban, as one of the pioneers of modern dance, has elevated dance as a form of physical theatre. He discarded all traditional dance rules and movement, and instead depend on the music to imbue emotions into the performer’s body, thus to spike a certain inspiration of movement according to the dancer’s inner vision and interpretation of the music, and hence improvising his own steps on the stage to interact with the audience. This method is effective in telling a story using mime, and the actors are totally in the emotions of the character.

However, according to my personal experience, the way is only effective for the actor himself to immerge in the emotions, but ineffective sometimes to the audience because dance is such a process of self-fulfillment and expression, it is difficult to connect with the audience to convey what the character feels unless the audience join in the movement too which some choreographers attempted.

On the other hand, Jacques LeCoq believed in using physical action as a dynamic dramatic instrument and the use of the theatrical space to influence the audience. In his theories, he demanded high discipline on the movement of the actors, and he required his actors to experience again how everyday action will affect the body. This is because when we had carried out a certain action too many times, our body will tend to habituate with the action and will ignore the details on how our body feels, therefore by rediscovering these action, the actors will have to recall upon and remember the body tension. Such tactics will provide preparations to the actor to get ready for a certain events or situations, provoking the imagination and be able to improvise on the spot on everyday movement. This is similar to Stanislavski’s emotion memory, but on a physical aspect.

I think that this method is effective in recalling a certain action, and to interact with the audience using physical gestures. However, it takes more time to convey a certain emotions as it can only be interpreted through gesture, therefore movement to be subtle and clear to the audience.

Posted by Cheng Hung