Access to the full text of the entire article is only available to members of institutions that have purchased access. If you belong to such an institution, please log in or find out more about how to order.
The term biomechanics indicates the suite of training exercises used by Vsevolod Meyerhold to train his actors in the new post-revolutionary theatre he pursued.
Drawing on a half century of documenting performance across multiple genres, from post-modern dance to physical theater to body work, as well as site-specific performance, with audiovisual examples from some 53 practitioners, including Eugenio Barba, Tim Etchells, Joan Skinner, Kristin Linklater, and Steve Paxton, Peter Hulton’s “A Digital Essay on Performance”considers performance as a body in operation with imagery and attempts to identify some of its foundational features.
This video captures a typical progression in Levinsky’s teaching of biomechanics, from work with sticks to footwork, balance and simple twirling skills, culminating in a demonstration of solo études.
Drawing on a half century of documenting performance across multiple genres, from post-modern dance to physical theater to body work, as well as site-specific performance, with audiovisual examples from some 53 practitioners, including Eugenio Barba, Tim Etchells, Joan Skinner, Kristin Linklater, and Steve Paxton, Peter Hulton’s “A Digital Essay on Performance”considers performance as a body in operation with imagery and attempts to identify some of its foundational features.
Andrei Droznin was born in 1938 in Poland. He teaches today at the Shchukin Academy, Moscow, where he is Head of the Stage Movement Department. He has taught around the world, especially in the USA.
One of only a handful of active practitioners in the world who were trained by Meyerhold’s collaborator Kustov, Alexey Levinsky is an expert practitioner working in Moscow as a teacher and director.
Vsevolod Meyerhold is remembered predominantly for his courageous personal fight for innovation, his radically stylised theatre productions, and his invention of biomechanics for performer training.