The Well-Tempered Body: Expressive Movement for Actors, Improvisers, and Performance Artists

Physicality is the basis of performance. It is hard to argue otherwise: yes, voice is important, costumes are important, scenery is important, but rapport with the audience is established primarily by what performer is doing and how it is being done. The reality of the body - the way that it moves, and the way that it reacts to context (real or imaginary) – engenders a sense of presence, especially in the absence of dialogue.

One need only think of the great actors of the silent screen to know that characterization does not require a word to be spoken. Beyond this, a skilled improviser has the ability to suggest a mood or a place, a status relationship or an enduring friendship, simply by relying on our ability to “fill in” the background to the behavior we are witnessing. And the performance artist can create a powerful experience, transforming private vision into feeling and physical action. Even in the wildest experimental theater, where the inner logic of the scene is initially baffling, the presence of the actor’s body can be enough to lend structure and coherence, and to encourage the audience to give the presentation a chance.

In this fragmented age of ours, the genres of conventional acting, improvisation, and performance art may sometimes appear to be worlds apart, but they are linked inextricably by reliance on the expressive power of the human body. The reason is simple: theater in whatever guise is fundamentally a stylized social exchange, and the “decoding” of movement is always a part of the dialogue we establish with other people.

This process of nonverbal communication is actually a very familiar aspect of everyone’s life. Whether at home or at work, at rest or at play, we are continuously gauging personality (i.e. long-term temperament and short-term moods) based on holistic appraisals of physical presentation. We know when the boss is unapproachable even before he opens his mouth, just as we know if a first date is going well or badly. And the reason is our innate sensitivity to subtle (and none-too-subtle) behavioral cues.

For the actor, mastery of stage presence is thus intimately connected with the investigation everyday action as a communicative device. Nonverbal dialogue shapes all of our lives, and appreciating the way in which behavior clashes with or conforms to context is part of our heritage as a social animal. But as the consummate physical performer, the actor needs to take this process to a new level, harnessing the nuts and bolts of “impression management” and applying them to artistic ends.