THE IMPORTANCE OF CONSIDERING A STUDENT’S GENDER IDENTITY WHEN TEACHING STAGE COMBAT AND MOVEMENT TRAINING
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Authors
Hunter, Aliya
Issue Date
2023-05-01
Type
thesis_open
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Keywords
stage combat , gender identity , movement training , physical socialization , gender-based discrimination , Theatre and Performance Studies
Alternative Title
Theatre Thesis - Written Thesis
Abstract
An actor’s training is essential for the development of their craft. This training can be offered through schools, classes, or conservatories, cover interdisciplinary fields, and allow students to gain a solid foundation in their art. Among many components of acting training is movement training, which teaches students to recognize and relearn physical patterns in the body. Gender identity has been shown to affect people’s movement, postures, and physical habits through the process of socialization. This has not formally been taken into account during theatrical movement training. Stage combat, which is usually a component of theatrical movement training, requires its students and practitioners to adopt an aggressive and strong physicality while also remaining safe and connected with a partner or partners. More often than not, movement training and stage combat have not officially taken the gender identities of students into account when structuring classes. Both types of training require students to take on various and sometimes strong and assertive physicalities; people who have faced gender-based discrimination, harm, or violence may be slower to learn these physicalities because of the way socialization has physically affected them. Movement class teachers and curriculum developers need to formally take gendered, physical socialization of students into account and continue allowing its students to explore movement within stage combat in a way that counteracts gendered and physical socialization.
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