| Prof. Paul Allain: A Short History of Movement in the Theatre |
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[Krótka historia ruchu w teatrze] 20 września 2013 {piątek} 18:00 Sala Kinowa Wstęp wolny Wykład w języku angielskim W ramach seminariów letnich OUP This lecture’s historical perspective will begin briefly with ritual movement and how this has inspired contemporary performance practitioners crossculturally, ranging from Jiri Kilian’s Nederlands Dance Theatre to Poland’s own Jerzy Grotowski. My main focus will, however, be on contemporary practice, exploring how American dance in the 1960s wanted to move away from specialisation towards ‘democracy’s body’, which has evolved into the recent trend of a highly energetic focus on actor training, physical theatre and the virtuosity of new circus. The lecture will be amply illustrated and will also draw on my own practice in three movements: training initially with Gardzienice Theatre Association and exploring Tadashi Suzuki’s method; then as movement director in the UK at the National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company, and the Royal Court, exploring how to dynamise the body and challenge a particularly British textual bias; then in Russia, examining Andrei Droznin’s rigorous remedies for the new malaise of what he calls ‘desomaticization’. It will end by asking two things: are we really losing touch with our bodies and its movement; and if we are, does this matter for the theatre and the contemporary performer? Paul Allain is Professor of Theatre and Performance at the University of Kent, Canterbury and the Faculty of Humanities’ Director of Research. After collaborating with Gardzienice Theatre Association from 1989–1993, he worked extensively as Movement Director, mostly with Katie Mitchell, at the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal National Theatre and the Royal Court, as well as on the fringe. He has written extensively on Eastern European and Russian theatre, including Gardzienice: Polish Theatre in Transition (1997) and the co-edited Cambridge Companion to Chekhov (2000). He also wrote The Art of Stillness: The Theatre Practice of Tadashi Suzuki (2002; revised 2nd edition with DVD, 2009), and co-authored The Routledge Companion to Theatre and Performance (2006; 2nd edition forthcoming 2014). He has recently led AHRC- and Leverhulme-funded research projects: the former on Grotowski, and the latter on actor training in collaboration with the Moscow Art Theatre School, with whom he has developed a collaborative MA in Physical Actor Training, based at Kent and Moscow. As part of the British Grotowski Project, he edited and coedited Grotowski’s Empty Room (2009), Peter Brook’s With Jerzy Grotowski: Theatre is Just a Form (2009), Ludwik Flaszen’s Grotowski & Company (2010), Grotowski’s Collaborators: Voices from Within (2014), as well as working on exhibitions, practical seminars and a large conference for the 2009 UNESCO Year of Grotowski. In 2009 Paul received an award for services to Polish culture. |