What is Stage Movement?
Stage Movement (not to confuse with Dance) is a subject in actor’s education summoned to develop specific psycho-physical Faculties, Habits, and Skills. Unfortunately, many theatre practitioners still believe that dance class would accomplish the task. Expressly intended for a dramatic actor, a class in Dance is surely important. But the Dance deals with primarily stylized movements. The Stage Movement must incorporate mainly natural, inborn movements. This subject is still not fully recognized as being essential in educating a well-rounded performing artist.
The Essential Stage Movement is focused on developing the student’s natural Faculties as a basis for the attainment of Habits and Skills necessary for the actor. Exercises include simple acting techniques, such as objectives, given circumstances, etc. to make the physical training exciting and captivating. As the subject itself is artistic, all its elements must be the same to induce the student’s imagination.
The mandatory training in Stage Movement should be reduced to the following:
1. The future actor must recognize the capabilities of the extensive use of his body for expressive stage action. Perhaps, acting is the only profession where a person is facing a necessity to learn his body’s facilities so particularly.
2. As natural human capabilities could be improved only with subsequent training, the future actor must develop these capabilities in the right direction.
3. The future actor should bring these capabilities to a level of semi-automatic skills, and some of them even to routine habits. Perfectly shaped habitual physical actions, or automatisms, when transferred to the stage involuntarily, would create superior production results.