Movement Symposium on Saturday 18th April 2020 at Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London
RADA invites you to submit proposals for contributions to a One Day Symposium on:
Why Movement Matters
We are holding a one day Symposium with Industry Professionals and Movement Practitioners, directors, teachers and educators, to offer opinions, experiences and ideas about “Why Movement Matters”.
The aim of the event is to raise awareness about the vital contribution movement practice and movement direction make to the industry. We intend to explore movement’s past and its future as a creative maker of meaning in the theatre and hope to create the opportunity for open discussion and professional networking. On a practical level the event will generate opportunities for emerging and established artists to share their work with the possible option to write about and to interrogate questions around practice through journals and other publication outlets.
The idea for this event came from a panel discussion at the Dorfman Studio at The National Theatre in November 2018 to discuss the legacy of Jacques Lecoq and to launch The Routledge Companion to Jacques Lecoq. What emerged from this event was how wide ranging the influence of movement is but how little is known about any of the details of its development and about the variety of practices now available. This event provides an opportunity to share, to interrogate and to celebrate this powerful aspect of how theatre is made and how it continues to shape developments in production and in training.
We invite proposals for contributions (papers, workshops, demonstrations, etc.) that might seek to address some of the following themes:
- What is particular about the Lecoq training that has changed our understanding of theatre and acting?
- Who are/were the important movement ‘influencers’, those people whose work with movement, physicality and making theatre that has affected theatre practice today?
- What is the relationship between emerging and non-canonical movement practice and the needs of the theatre industry in all its current forms?
- What do the theatre/film and related industries find in movement that is useful and relevant to contemporary acting work today?
- How is movement taught in Drama Schools and on acting courses and how does it change students’ perception of theatre making and of acting?
- How does it sit in relation to other models of actor training in the UK?
- What is the craft of movement training in Drama Schools and how is it best nurtured and developed?
- How can movement training practice engage with contemporary issues such as: equality and diversity; class; and digitisation (performance and motion capture).
- Movement and the Body Politic. What radical movement practices have challenged the status quo and how can we best understand the work and thinking that came out of that? Where and how is this radicalism being re-ignited today?
- Who do you see in the performing space? How do they move? Is their movement authentic/imposed/a construct? How can the actor’s body reflect what is in society?
- The Invisible Voice: Movement Teachers. Why are so many movement teachers female or identify as female? How can this best be celebrated and recognised?
To submit your proposal please complete the following online form (deadline 1 November 2019):
(https://www.cognitoforms.com/RADA1/MovementSymposium)
(Copy & past link in to your server)
Best wishes,
Shona Morris (RADA’s Lead Movement Tutor)
Mark Evans (Professor of Theatre Training and Education, Coventry University)