Theory for Theatre Studies: Movement

Rachel Fensham is Director of the Digital Studio at the University of Melbourne, Australia, where she is Professor of Theatre and Dance. Her key publications include To Watch Theatre: Essays in Genre and Corporeality (2009); and Dancing Naturally: Nature, Neo-Classicism and Modernity in Early Twentieth Century Dance (2011).

• Series PrefaceAcknowledgementsMovement: IntroductionMovement of vital beings: AristotleMovement as bodily technique: MaussRhythmic movement: LefebvreCase Study: Pina BauschThis bookSECTION ONEMovement as HistoryMovement of the chorus: Ancient Greek theatreMovement of ‘the flower’: Noh aestheticsCase Study #1: Satoshi Miyagi’s Antigone (2017)Gestural movement: Roman rhetoricCase Study #2: I Am My Own Wife (2003)Movement as style: The NatyasastraCase Study #3: Zero Degrees (2005)Processional movementHostility to movement: The anti-theatrical prejudiceRenaissance movement - from the vernacular to the cosmosCase Study #4: The Tempest (1611, 2016)Movement of the automatonCase Study #5: War Horse (2007)ConclusionSECTION TWOMovement Systems and Embodied ActionHolistic Systems: Craig, Delsarte and DalcrozeCase Study #1: Operation Orfeo (1993)Movement vitality: PhenomenologyMovement plasticity: Stanislavski and IbsenCase Study #2: Hedda Gabler (2005)Movement mechanics: MeyerholdCase Study #3, part a: The Constant Prince (1915)Movement dynamics: LabanMovement arrangement: BrechtCase Study #4: Mother Courage and Her Children (1949, 2006)Movement somatics: GrotowskiCase Study #3, part b: The Constant Prince (1965)Movement assemblage: ButohMovement Sociology: CrowdsConclusionSECTION THREEMovement in Contemporary TheatreSpeed: Attempts on Her Life (1997, 2007)Slowness: The Artist is Present (2010)Animation: Blackie Blackie Brown (2018)Force: World Factory (2014), Made in Bangladesh (2015) and World Factory (2016)ConclusionNotesReferencesFurther ReadingIndex

This book convincingly demonstrates why a focus on the kinaesthetics of theatre—and theatrical embodiment more generally—is as important as the study of dramatic writing, acting, and scenography. The author writes with considerable erudition about the topic, but in a way that is almost always immediately accessible.