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Embodied exploratory processes in Australian performance training and international influences

2020; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 12; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/19443927.2020.1834446

1944-3919

Melanie Beddie, Peta Tait,

Diversity and Impact of Dance

While Australian training of performers generally reflects the dominant international processes, it also includes exploratory training that encourages innovative ways of working. This article considers the alignment of training in Australian conservatorium tertiary courses with the teaching of approaches to encourage responses ‘in the moment’, and spontaneity and physicality in the training of the performer. The article is based on research tracing the training backgrounds of influential teachers to understand what is being taught. It argues that the five teachers discussed here in detail value these embodied approaches because they also contribute to the process of working with dramatic text. These teachers are: David Latham, Lindy Davies, Robert Meldrum, John Bolton and Kim Durban. The article reveals that while the embodied exploratory training to energise performance greatly expanded from the 1980s in Australia, it has a trajectory back to the stylised work of Jacques Copeau and Suzanne Bing in France in the early twentieth century, and came under the influence of Laban, Jacques Lecoq, Grotowski, Brook and other teachers of physical styles including Mike Alfreds and Yat Malmgren. Embodied exploratory approaches that underpin devised postdramatic works are also used in training to work on dramatic theatre.