The emergence of Physical Theatre in South Africa is a long and storied tale. To give a brief history in this essay, I will engage with its roots in choreographic practice, its aims and how it has developed as an art form in the county. To begin this journey, we shall look at a few definitions and explanations of the concepts that will be dealt with here and then look at how South African physical theatre emerged from different practices and physical theatre movements into its own art form that challenged the narratives of the past in postmodernist ways that reflected a plurality of truths. To illustrate these ideas, we shall examine the works of different South African physical theatre practitioners, with particular focus on works by Gary Gordon, Gregory Maqoma and Nomcebisi Moyikwa.
To begin with, we should first make clear what is this term of Physical Theatre. As the name suggests, it is theatre that is heavily to do with the physical, that is to say, the body. This may seem a trite observation, but it is a vitally important one when you consider what makes physical theatre distinct from the traditional Western theatre that existed before its emergence. In brief, physical theatre can be said to be that theatre that has an emphasis on the body, movement, and physical interpretation to tell a story or reflect themes. Being a combination of dance and drama, it is storytelling through the performance of physical actions. Physical theatre falls under the broader discipline of choreographic practice. The Oxford Dictionary of Sociology describes choreography as “the act of composition and dance writing that is composed of three main dimensions: choreography as notation (writing); choreography as a social model (moving together); and choreography as a language (communicating)” (Scott & Marshall, 2005, p. 463). From this we can see that the movement that is present in physical theatre is intrinsically tied in with the idea of communicating an idea. The final concept I would like to clarify is that of Postmodernism. The Oxford Paperback Dictionary & Thesaurus describes postmodernism as “a movement in the arts that features a deliberate mixing of different styles” (Hawker & Waite, 2007, p. 701). I would expand this definition to emphasise that postmodernism is characterised by the idea that there is not only one single defining truth but a plurality of truths, whether this is in art, culture, or sociology. This point is important as I believe that physical theatre, particularly in South Africa, is embedded with the postmodern ideas that challenge previously accepted ideas of Western thought, heteronormativity, patriarchy, and many others. We can observe this as we follow the development of physical theatre.
Physical theatre can trace its roots to the 19th and 20th centuries, having begun as a challenge to the realist and naturalist theatre of the time. In the book Contemporary Choreography: A critical reader, Butterworth and Wildschut give us an idea of this when they observe three choreographers: Boris Charmatz, Meg Stuart, and William Forsythe. They note that they each challenge conventions in their own ways, stating that: “Charmatz strives for illegibility; Stuart wants to reduce ‘danciness’; Forsythe explodes ballet vocabulary into an effect of disappearance” (Butterworth & Wildschut, 2009, p. 614). A wonderful articulation of this bucking of tradition can be found in, American co-founder of the Judson Dance Theater, Yvonne Rainer’s famous 1965 “No Manifesto”, which explicitly rejected established conventions. Other avant-garde performers like Isadora Duncan, whose loose and free style opposed the strictures of ballet, and Merce Cunningham, who was less tied to ideas of narrative, also emerged.
In South Africa, this postmodern physical theatre was about to bloom. In 1949 Professor Elizabeth Sneddon the Speech and Drama department at the then University of Natal. The department, the first of its kind in the country, adopted some of Rudolph Laban’s Laban techniques in its teachings (Sichel, 2010, p. 41). This is relevant because the founder of the First Physical Theatre Company, Gary Gordon, was trained there and as such these influences can be found in the company as well as those of the Graham technique. Founded in 1993, the First Physical Theatre Company was a pioneer in South Africa. Based in Grahamstown out of Rhodes University, the company has produced works and practitioners who engage this critique and challenging of established norms and conventions. In South Africa, this postmodernist element presents itself in collapsing hegemonies and historical structures that exist in South Africa, specifically. Gordon’s work illustrates this: for example, in the lauded Shattered Windows, which focused on “an outpouring of white angst and desperation to survive against the looming catastrophic odds” amidst the 1994 democratic elections (ibid. p 42). This phenomenon of South African physical theatre challenging hegemony is not uncontested: Hayley Kodesh, looks at the work of Gregory Maqoma and how the choreographer was ostensibly excluded from the, politically palatable, 2000 World Summit for Sustainable Development in contrast to his piece, Virtually Blond: an interrogation of the concept of a new democratic South Africa and all the neat, sanitised ideas that come with it. Kodesh situates artists like Maqoma as social commentators who exist as measurers of social injustice (Kodesh, 2006, p. 49). One final South African practitioner I would like to look at is First Physical Theatre alum, Nomcebisi Moyikwa and her 2019 work titled Imvuselelo. This author had the privilege to witness this piece and I found it of note that the piece was difficult to pin down into one neat category, making use of music, sound, performers movements (both singular and as a group) as well as some dialogue. Evoking strong emotions of traditional and spiritual ties: Moyikwa (the director of the piece) allowed the audience to make their own connections with the work and I, for one felt that it was deeply rooted in the South African experience.
We can see that Physical Theatre has come a long way from its roots in the 19th and 20th centuries and its future seems bright in South Africa and ripe for development. Having had its own listing in the National Arts Festival Fringe since 2014 and its ability to amalgamate varied disciplines and art forms to create a theatre wholly unique and always developing, physical theatre is a postmodernist gem in this country.
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