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Description
Movement teachers, from outliers to pioneers, have changed theatre and physical expression for ever.
In recognition of the movement pioneers, this book is part-memoir and part-historical research as author Shona Morris traces the roots of her own pedagogy for movement training in drama schools from these radical beginnings. She acknowledges some of the shadows, which affected her own practice, the provenance of Laban in particular, and the current need for discourse to review these approaches, through practice-based research.
The book includes exercises and approaches developed by the author in the classroom and the studio that illustrate how actors can link their physicality to the craft of transformation and interpretation. The exercises accessibly cover both technical and expressive work, and offer principles for transformation through animal study, mask work, and character work.
The book also includes numerous practical examples, interviews and cases studies of how to teach and apply movement to theatre making. It also offers ways to facilitate your own vision and actor's movement course in response to the present moment.
Lively, imaginative, critical and investigative, this book mirrors Morris's classes and her approach to theatre. It is an essential read for anyone interested in how actors are trained in movement and how theatre is made.
Table of Contents
PART ONE
Introduction - What is Actor Movement Training?
Chapter 1 - How to Use This Book
Two Strands of Movement: Pure and Expressive Movement
Chapter 2 - The Elastic Body
A State of Readiness
Technical and creative foundation work for Actors - the body
Pure Movement- First Classes
Chapter 3 - Expressive Movement
First Classes – core principles
Working together, listening and responding using space.
Technical and creative foundation – the ensemble
Chapter 4- The Swings
The Liberators
PART TWO
Chapter 5 - Stories of adaptation and transformation
Creative Expression and Play through Matter, Animals, Shapes and Movement Qualities Expressive Movement developed
Chapter 6 - Breaking away
The other
The Neutral Mask and the Mask
Chapter 7 - Working with the elements and how to apply them to theatre-making and complex text
Chapter 8 - The Chorus: Ancient and Modern and the democratic space
PART THREE
Chapter 9 - Rehearsing with movement and how to make innovative work
Chapter 10 - How to make your own system using these fundamental techniques
Further reading
Bibliography
Index
Product details

Published | 19 Mar 2026 |
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Format | Ebook (Epub & Mobi) |
Edition | 1st |
Extent | 256 |
ISBN | 9781350369160 |
Imprint | Methuen Drama |
Illustrations | 12 b&w |
Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |