filamentosmovimentos

"Artaud describes the technique of movement, dance and vocal inflections as a new language based not on words, but signs which emerge through the gestures, postures and cries using the whole of the stage space:

"Our theatre has never grasped this gestured metaphysics nor known how to make use of music for direct, concrete, dramatic purposes, our purely verbal theatre unaware of the sum total of theatre... In Western theatre words are solely used to express psychological conflicts peculiar to man and his position in everyday existence... In Oriental theatre, with its metaphysical tendencies, forms assume their meaning and significance on all possible levels. "

Artaud in "Oriental and Western Theatre", 1935, p.40
in "Physical Theatres, a critical introduction" by Simon Murray and John Keefe,Routledge 2007, p. 195

"Bharata Natyam originated in the temples of southern India. The strong lines of the dance are embellished with intricately expressive hand gestures. (...) Mudra is the elaborate hand and finger language found in Indian art and dance. The positions of the hands and fingers have a precise meaning"

in V&A museum site: article on South Asian Dance 


"There are many intricate hand, finger, and wrist gestures to help express the drama of Chinese dance, a form highly influenced by acting and mime as found in the Peking Opera. These gestures are different from those used in other forms of Asian dance. In Indian dance, for instance, the gestures carry meanings. In Chinese dance, the hand gestures are simply used to emphasize and dramatize; they are not the only carriers of the message. The dancer must use his or her entire body to express the complete message or idea."

by Nai-Ni ChenNai-Ni Chen Dance Company


"Lecoq says that the term 'mime' has become so reductive that we have to look for others. This is why he sometimes uses the term 'mimism'... which is not to be confused with mimicry. Mimicry is a representation of form, 'mimism' is the search for the internal dynamics of meaning."

David Bradby, note in Jacques Lecoq (2000:22), "The Moving Body", Methuen   
in "Physical Theatres, a critical introduction" by Simon Murray and John Keefe,Routledge 2007, p. 53