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A movement director creates physical vocabularies through actor movement in a variety of production settings that include theatre, television, film, opera, fashion and animation.
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Movement directors work closely with directors and performers, collaborating with the creative team to realise the physical life of work. They propose a physical language to performers and directors, and devise training methods or teach skills that will help facilitate a specific physical style. The movement director may create, and research information about etiquette, (including proxemics, gestural language, social codes, etc.), a character's condition (related to medical conditions within their historical context, and factors such as inebriation, pregnancy, etc.) and personal journey (ageing, etc.), as well as specialist movement (e.g. period dances, dexterity in falling, lifts and acrobatics, animal work, cross-gendered performance) or chorus work. Movement direction has its origins in theatre practice and is now being widely used in other allied performance arts such as opera, film, television, commercials, mass movement events, puppetry, movement coaching, and photography. [1]
Although choreography maybe part of a movement director's skill-set, this does not mean that every choreographer is also a movement director. Specialist movement consultants may focus on other specific areas (e.g. as in the work on primate movement by Peter Elliot in Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes ). In recent years, fashion commerce has looked to develop campaigns, shoots and catwalk shows further with the help of professional movement directors and consultants, such as, Stephen Galloway, Jordan Robson, Ryan Heffington, Ryan-Walker Page and Eric Christison.[ citation needed ]
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The role described by the title of movement director today has been in existence since at least the start of the 20th century, although rarely mentioned in programmes or credits. Movement directors often work at a crossover point, shifting between teaching and directing movement for actors, and have also been termed as a movement coach, theatre choreographer, or movement support.
The National Theatre created the role Head of Movement that was held by Jane Gibson for a period of ten years. Glynn MacDonald has been the long-standing Master of Movement at the Globe Theatre, collaborating with visiting movement directors and choreographers. 2009 saw the appointment of Struan Leslie as Head of Movement at the Royal Shakespeare Company. This was the only official Head of Movement position within a British theatre company at the time.
Many contemporary movement directors have established long running relationships with certain companies, with whom they have created a shared body of work and working methodology. These are for example Jane Gibson with Cheek by Jowl, Kate Flatt and Struan Leslie with Katie Mitchell at the National Theatre and English National Opera, and Liz Ranken with Shared Experience. Other contemporary movement directors include Michael Ashcroft, Peter Darling, Lucy Cullingford, Vanessa Ewan, Leah Hausmann, Steven Hoggett and Scott Graham (Frantic Assembly), Georgina Lamb, Sue Lefton, Toby Sedgwick, Polly Bennett, Ayse Tashkiran, Sian Williams, Anne Yee, Rachael Nanyonjo, Imogen Knight, Paul Harris, Diane Alison-Mitchell, Anna Morrissey, Aline David, [2] Paul Sadot, Shelley Maxwell. [3]
Movement directors today emerge from a rich heritage of movement pedagogues and practitioners. French director and practitioner Jacques Lecoq, [4] and movement theorist and pedagogue Rudolf Laban offer important influences. Many of their students and contemporaries became influential teachers of movement and movement directors in British theatre, often influenced by and interweaving with the lineage of contemporary dance as influenced by Laban, and the heritage of social and cultural dances. Claude Chagrin, who trained with Jacques Lecoq, was the movement person with the National Theatre Company before and while it became permanently resident in Denys Lasdun's National Theatre Building in 1976. She was also the first person to be credited for movement, on the production of The Royal Hunt of the Sun (dir. Peter Shaffer, 1964). Michel Saint-Denis taught movement in London and was an influential associate director alongside Peter Brook at the Royal Shakespeare Company from 1962 until 1966, introducing influences from his work in Paris with his uncle Jacques Copeau. Other notable teachers who have shaped British movement work today are Trish Arnold, Geraldine Stephenson, Jean Newlove, Litz Pisk, Monika Pagneux, [5] Yat Malmgren and Belinda Quirey. [6]
In 2020 Movement Directors in Contemporary Theatre: Conversations on Craft by Ayse Tashkiran (Bloomsbury, Methuen Drama, Great Britain) [7] was published. This is the first book of its kind to illuminate the practices of contemporary movement directors. In 2022 Movement Direction: Developing Physical Narratives for Performance by Kate Flatt OBE, The Crowood Press, Wiltshire, UK (2022) [8] was published.
In 2020 the Movement Director’s Association was established, an industry facing professional guild for working movement directors in the UK. [9]
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Movement directors have sought to be named, in recognition of the existence of their profession, for many decades, and are increasingly gathering recognition. Relevant training for practitioners is now offered through recognized higher education degrees focusing on movements in theatre, such as the Master of Arts (MA) in movement studies at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, founded by Vanessa Ewan and Debbie Green in 2004, and now jointly led by Ayse Tashkiran and Vanessa Ewan, re-titled MA/MFA Movement: Directing and Teaching, and the MA in Training Actors Movement, led by Wendy Allnutt at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Manchester Metropolitan University also offers an MA in movement practice for theatre.
Movement director course leader at the Central School of Speech and Drama, Ayse Tashkiran, is researching a comprehensive history of movement direction and creating a platform where movement practitioners are able to share their work and facilitate an understanding of their profession by a wider audience. Industry initiatives to draw out the work of movement directors include the Young Vic and the Royal Shakespeare Company with a variety of workshops, apprenticeships and placements.
The Royal National Theatre in London, commonly known as the National Theatre (NT), is one of the United Kingdom's three most prominent publicly funded performing arts venues, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal Opera House. Internationally, it is known as the National Theatre of Great Britain.
Laban movement analysis (LMA), sometimes Laban/Bartenieff movement analysis, is a method and language for describing, visualizing, interpreting and documenting human movement. It is based on the original work of Rudolf Laban, which was developed and extended by Lisa Ullmann, Irmgard Bartenieff, Warren Lamb and others. LMA draws from multiple fields including anatomy, kinesiology and psychology. It is used by dancers, actors, musicians and athletes; by health professionals such as physical and occupational therapists and psychotherapists; and in anthropology, business consulting and leadership development.
Physical theatre is a genre of theatrical performance that encompasses storytelling primarily through physical movement. Although several performance theatre disciplines are often described as "physical theatre," the genre's characteristic aspect is a reliance on the performers' physical motion rather than, or combined with, text to convey storytelling. Performers can communicate through various body gestures.
Roger William Allam is a British actor, who has performed on stage, in film, on television and radio.
Jacques Lecoq was a French stage actor and acting movement coach. He was best known for his teaching methods in physical theatre, movement, and mime which he taught at the school he founded in Paris known as École internationale de théâtre Jacques Lecoq. He taught there from 1956 until his death from a cerebral hemorrhage in 1999.
École internationale de théâtre Jacques Lecoq is a school of physical theatre located on Rue du Faubourg-Saint-Denis in the 10th arrondissement of Paris.
A mime artist, or simply mime, is a person who uses mime, the acting out of a story through body motions without the use of speech, as a theatrical medium or as a performance art. In earlier times, in English, such a performer would typically be referred to as a mummer. Miming is distinguished from silent comedy, in which the artist is a character in a film or skit without sound.
Allan Leigh Lawson is an English actor, director and writer.
Clifford Williams was a Welsh theatre director and stage actor. He was born in Cardiff, Wales, and died in London, England.
Aikaterini Hadjipateras, known professionally as Kathryn Hunter, is an American-born British actress and theatre director, known for her appearances as Arabella Figg in the Harry Potter film series, Eedy Karn on the Disney+ Star Wars spinoff series Andor, and as the Three Witches in Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth.
Yat Malmgren was a Swedish dancer and acting teacher, born in Gävle, Sweden to Gustaf Sigurd Eriksson and Signe Emma Maria Malmgren.
Richard Digby Day is a British stage director and international professor and lecturer. He is well known for his work in the classical theatre, in particular the plays of William Shakespeare and George Bernard Shaw. He is vice president of the Shaw Society, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and has staged more productions of Shaw's work than any other living director. His productions of Stephen Sondheim musicals have also been notable.
Devised theatre – frequently called collective creation – is a method of theatre-making in which the script or performance score originates from collaborative, often improvisatory work by a performing ensemble. The ensemble is typically made up of actors, but other categories of theatre practitioners may also be central to this process of generative collaboration, such as visual artists, composers, and choreographers; indeed, in many instances, the contributions of collaborating artists may transcend professional specialization. This process is similar to that of commedia dell'arte and street theatre. It also shares some common principles with improvisational theatre; however, in devising, improvisation is typically confined to the creation process: by the time a devised piece is presented to the public, it usually has a fixed, or partly fixed form. Historically, devised theatre is also strongly aligned with physical theatre, due at least in part to the fact that training in such physical performance forms as commedia, mime, and clown tends to produce an actor-creator with much to contribute to the creation of original work.
Justin Chadwick is an English actor and television and film director. He directed episodes of EastEnders, Byker Grove, The Bill, Spooks and Red Cap before directing nine of the fifteen episodes of the mini-series Bleak House, which was broadcast by the BBC in the UK and by PBS in the United States as part of its Masterpiece Theatre series.
Ana Sánchez-Colberg is a Puerto Rican multidisciplinary artist working internationally. She has been awarded Fellowships by the Swedish Research Council, Arts Council of England, British Council amongst others. She has also been a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Award in 2016 and the recipient of the highly coveted MAP Funding (USA) award in 2019, among other awards and recognitions.
Dominic Cooke is an English director and writer.
Annabel Arden is a British actress, theatre and opera director, and one of the co-founders of Théâtre de Complicite.
Ewan Fernie is a British scholar and writer. He is professor, fellow and chair of Shakespeare Studies at the Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham. He is also director of the pioneering 'Everything to Everybody' Project, a collaboration between the University of Birmingham and Birmingham City Council.
Alizia Pisk, or Litz Pisk, was a movement teacher and movement director who worked in British theatre.
Elizabeth Ranken is a British choreographer, performer, director, movement director and artist. She is an Associate Artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) and was a lead performer with DV8 Physical Theatre. Her work encompasses opera, theatre, physical theatre, dance, television, film and art.