Technique
Weidman's movement vocabulary was based on gravity. In concentrating on this element, the "fall was rediscovered." The idea was to explore how giving into gravity makes one fall, while balancing your body against gravity could create movement as well. In addition, he emphasized the movements that occurred before and after falling. From these ideas came suspension, or the "body's resistance to gravity"; and succession, or the "progressive unfolding of the body as an impulse flows from joint to joint". This created a whole new phrase of movements, which includes a lot of floor work, a lot of jumping and a lot of falling. In addition to his unique new way of moving, Weidman brought a personal element to the dance world: his dramatic abilities. "Arguably, no one has dramatic skill equal to Weidman". His choreography was very expressive and usually very emotional. His range of emotion went from comedy to seriousness—yet the expression is always important and always present in his choreography.
Read more about this topic: Charles Weidman
Famous quotes containing the word technique:
“The audience is the most revered member of the theater. Without an audience there is no theater. Every technique learned by the actor, every curtain, every flat on the stage, every careful analysis by the director, every coordinated scene, is for the enjoyment of the audience. They are our guests, our evaluators, and the last spoke in the wheel which can then begin to roll. They make the performance meaningful.”
—Viola Spolin (b. 1911)
“The mere mechanical technique of acting can be taught, but the spirit that is to give life to lifeless forms must be born in a man. No dramatic college can teach its pupils to think or to feel. It is Nature who makes our artists for us, though it may be Art who taught them their right mode of expression.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“A successful social technique consists perhaps in finding unobjectionable means for individual self-assertion.”
—Eric Hoffer (1902–1983)