The theatrical body – in the tension between between discipline and play

Abstract

In this article, I examine how selected basic exercises in drama and theater practice activate the theatrical body – in the tension between the disciplined and playful body. The study examines the student's experience and the drama teacher's own practice. The data is from the research project "Democratic and aesthetic space", which consists of videotapes of basic exercises, student interviews and a research journal from fieldwork with two groups of 7^th grade students. The concept of embodied literacy (Frambaugh-Kritzer et al., 2015) is discussed and Foucault and Gadamer's theories are used in perspectives on the disciplined and the playful body. The study shows that activating the theatrical body involves training in presence, interaction, response and receptivity with the body as meaning-creating tools and communicative idiom. At the same time, some basic exercises can result in caricaturing of already stereotyped ideas about role categories. Further, the fictional framework of the basic exercises through the "theatrical gaze" gives students opportunities in the "playspace" to activate the theatrical body. Focusing on spontaneity and reducing blockages is important for strengthening students' practices of the self. I want to expand the discourse and place drama and theater practice into an expanded physical activity perspective.