Alex's first post on physical theatre as a hybrid.

In the genre of physical theatre I believe there to be 3 main features. Firstly Physical theatre uses very little language; this is shown by companies such as DV8 and motion house who use predominantly physical gesture to emphasize emotion. Another key feature of physical theatre practice and one that we have been using quite regularly in rehearsals is the technique of body memory, Jasmin Vardimon states with relation to the importance of body in the devising process that it is important ‘try to go further and create the antagonism then go back and see how things happen after you create’ in this she means that it is important to create initial performance actions but they can always be left behind if new physical developments occur and revisited after these ideas have been explored to enrich the initial piece. The final feature that I would like to comment on in the physical theatre genre is that of meaning, by this I mean that every single action in physical theatre has a meaning behind it. This in turn enables the audience to glean a richness and diversity of meaning from a performance that may not necessarily be achievable in traditional scripted theatre.


I believe that when Ana Sanchez-Colberg talks about the ‘hybrid character’ of physical theatre it is her intention to imply that the theatrical form cannot be sourced from one place, for example it can be argued that physical theatre is a mix of drama and dance. Even though there are many cohesive arguments to support this theory, there are equal amounts that are critical. In my opinion Murray explains why physical theatre is a hybrid, and why a hybrid is needed in modern day theatre.

At the same time the heterogeneous diversity of forms unhinges all those
Methodological certainties that have previously made it possible to assert large-scale
Causal developments in the arts. It is essential to accept the co-existence of divergent
theatre forms and concepts in which no paradigm is dominant. (Simon Murray, 2007, 13)

So in answer to the question, is physical theatre a hybrid performance genre? I believe it is, in its experimental nature and willingness to break away from traditional theatre convention. Which particular performance practises physical theatre is a hybrid of, however, is still very much up for debate.

The Dance theatre company DV8 fall under the remit of physical theatre, it has often been said that this company were somewhat of a flag ship for the genre of physical theatre. On their website www.dv8.co.uk one of the frequently asked questions that the company receive is what is physical theatre? They respond with the statement that ‘they are focusing on making the work, not standing outside analysing it.’ However as I am not involved in making the work that they are producing I will try and give an explanation as to why Dv8 are a physical theatre company. Dv8 are a company that fuse dance and traditional theatre, often using their bodies to send messages and give meanings that would be extremely difficult to portray through purely text based theatre. So when Ana Sanchez-Colberg implies the ‘hybrid character’ of physical theatre I believe the work of DV8 and physical theatre companies like them to be a shining example of how physical theatre is experimenting with well established conventions and taking their work in new directions in the genre of theatre as a whole.



Bibliography:
Simon Murray And John Keefe.; Physical theatres; GB;Routledge Ltd; 2007; page 13

http://www.dv8.co.uk/about.dv8/LN_TBSWY_Q+A.html
23.02.09


http://www.dv8.co.uk/about.dv8/artistic.policy.html
23.02.09