Movement vs Dancing

This image is not of the play that I attended, but merely to promote the theme of this post which is my dislike of Movement theatre. It was scoured from Google, as were most of the photographs from the plays during Fest, as photography was not permitted in most of the venues.

I have never been particularly fond of physical theatre, or Movement as I have come to call it over my years at Rhodes, my vocabulary influenced by the Drama students that I befriended. I find it strange that I am not fond of it, because I love dance. I love going to the ballet, I adore ballroom dancing and a grin spreads across my face whenever I see dancing of almost any form. So why do I not enjoy Movement?

I figured it out tonight. Watching Quarted, I figured out what it is about Movement that I don't like. Movement is to dancing as walking is to running. The process is the same - put one step in front of the other - but the method is completely different. Where dancing is graceful, I find Movement to be clumsy. Where dancing steps are subtle, I find Movement steps to be all too obvious. Where the meaning behind dancing is often obvious and motives are hardly ever hidden, I find the meaning behind Movement to be obscure, hidden from the audience so that they are left in the wake of the show trying to figure out what it was all about. You never wonder, after a ballet, what it is that you just witnessed. You just know.

I watched four pieces of Movement theatre tonight - four separate pieces, brought together by what I found to be a weak storyline. But I suppose I should be grateful - most Movement pieces don't have storylines to them at all. The actors (or should I call them performers) performed well, the moves were well choreographed, but it was still Movement. You could tell by the physical exertion, the way that the characters threw themselves around the stage rather than leaping with grace; the vicious way that they seemed to attack the moves rather than embrace them.

You have to understand that when I write this, I am not saying that Quarted is bad. Not at all. I am writing this to express my dislike of Physical Theatre in general, and Quarted is just a means to an end. If you do enjoy Physical Theatre, and I know many people who do, I would highly recommend watching it. It is well choreographed, as I mentioned earlier, and I am sure that you will appreciate it more than I did.