Leave it to the Berkshire summer arts festivals to open my eyes even wider to the arts. While there this past summer, I was turned on to physical theater in more ways than one.
Physical theater according to Wikipedia is a genre of theatrical performance that pursues storytelling through primarily physical means. Several performance traditions all describe themselves as "physical theater," but the unifying aspect is a reliance on physical motion of the performers rather than, or combined, with text to convey the story. In basic sense, you talk through hand gestures, body language and many more physical features.
The first incredible performance took place at Jacob's Pillow, home to America's longest running dance festival, a recipient of the prestigious National Medal of Arts, and a National Historic Landmark. The performance of "Stardust" was presented by members of David Rousseve/REALITY who explored the world of a young, gay, African-American man through arresting choreography, video, original music by hip-hop fusion composer d.Sabela grimes, and classic songs by Ella Fitzgerald and Nat King Cole.
Next, I went to the Berkshire Fringe Festival and saw "33" presented by a British group called "The Wardrobe Ensemble," an emerging theater troupe. This piece dealt with the August 10, 2010 major cave-in of a mine in Chile. The group consisted of 9 actors, musicians and devisors. They wore miners’ outfits, and used screens, You Tube videos, and their imaginations to make the audience feel the horror and frustrations of the trapped miners.
And speaking of the Fringe, our own executive director of The St. Lou Fringe, Em Piro, describes physical theater as telling a story using more than words. It’s about engaging the body, the architecture of the space, exploring how sounds, sometimes even light and shadow and even taste or smell can play a role in creating a whole theatrical experience.
In many ways the growing trend of physical theater is about returning to some of our most primitive theatrical forms. Cultural dance, mask theater, commedia dell’arte have all been a part of physical theater throughout the years.
Right here in St. Louis, we have wonderful examples of physical theater such as Karlovsy and Company Dance, a contemporary modern dance company dedicated to exploring and nurturing the art of dance with innovative choreography that celebrates the human experience. The company fosters collaborative relationships among musicians, visual artists, and choreographers reaching audiences worldwide.
And Ashleylaine Dance Company specializes in blending modern, jazz and contemporary training with urban street dance.
This weekend, Washington University Dance Theater's "emBODIED LANGUAGE" artistically directed by Christine Knoblauch-O'Neal is about dance-embodied language which speaks in a variety of modes, from movement as meaning, to abstract expression of mood or narrative, or to the precise symbolic language of Bharata Natyam's mudras.
At St. Louisan Tom Brady's last performance, "Zilch" at Sartori, he manipulated original video, sound, lighting and live performance creating a disturbing emotionally based account of Elie Wiesel's compelling account of the Holocaust in his book entitled, "Night.”
Physical theater has been around for ages in one way or another and St. Louis is constantly offering us many venues and troupes to expand our visual, auditory and other sensory awareness in the arts.
Nancy Kranzberg has been involved in the arts community for some thirty years on numerous arts related boards.