Meyerhold's Biomechanics

Vsevolod Meyerhold (1874-ca.1940) was a Russian actor, director, and theorist - one of the most famous pupils of the great Stanislavski, and a major theatrical mover and shaker in his own right. He was widely recognized as a driving force in the Russian Symbolist movement, with which Stanislavski also experimented quite broadly. Much like Stanislavski, Meyerhold was uninterested in the naturalistic theater of the 19^th century, seeking instead (in Edward Braun’s words) a theater that could reveal “inner dialogue by means of the music of plastic movement.” He saw movement, gesture, space, rhythm, and music as the true “language of the theater,” focusing his energies on a relentless search for “form” onstage. Ironically, when Meyerhold was invited back to the Moscow Art Theatre to pursue his experimental ideas (several years after leaving the company of actors in 1902), his plays went unperformed because Stanislavski hated his work.

In the decades following his departure from the Moscow Art Theatre - especially in the wake of the Russian Revolution in 1917 - Meyerhold expanded his theoretical views, categorically rejecting “art for art’s sake” and fervently endorsing the popular constructivist view that art should always serve a political and social function. After founding his own theater in 1922, Meyerhold had greater freedom to develop his particular approach to actor training, known as Biomechanics (only loosely related to the current scientific use of the term), which he saw as a stage in the evolution of a new, modern theatrical reality beyond the reach of the Stanislavskian actor.

Biomechanics, which took cues from Stanislavski’s work and especially from the over-the-top physical performance traditions of the Commedia dell’Arte, is based on the idea that psychological and physiological processes are inextricably linked. Meyerhold argued that one could call up emotions in performance through the use of movement and gesture, and he developed a strictly codified system of choreographic sequences (known as études, or “studies”) used to express specific emotional and physical scenarios. The result was a highly stylized manner of performance - a “Theater of the Grotesque,” as Meyerhold called it, which indulged Meyerhold’s symbolist view that art and life are entirely different, and should not have to imitate each other.

A Biomechanical étude is a miniature storyline made up of three parts - intention, realization, and reaction. Each of these parts, in turn, comprises four stages of movement: otkas, posyl, stoika, and tormos.

Otkas - literally, “the refusal” - is a set-up or preparation for the main movement of the sequence, enacted by a movement in the opposite direction, like a spring.

Posyl - literally, “the sending” - is the main action of the sequence - the execution of the movement set up by the otkas.

Stoika - literally, “the stance” - is the completion of the movement - a stop-motion pose that serves both as the closure of the posyl and as the starting point for the next stage of the étude.

Tormos - literally, “brake” or “resistance” - is the element underlying the other three parts of the movement sequence - the physical control which allows fluid, precise completion of the action.

Biomechanics develops balance, strength, coordination, agility, and flexibility through rigorous, athletic training in skill-areas such as tumbling, acrobatics, partner-work, and work with objects. Ideally, Biomechanics will not stand alone as a method of actor training, but will help students integrate various aspects of other approaches to acting they may have studied by “teaching the body to think.” American Biomechanics instructor Kathleen Baum explains that, “even the simplest, seemingly ordinary physical exercises are really embodiments of fundamental principles of acting such as concentration; awareness of self, of one’s partner, and of the space; listening; give and take; and moment to moment life in a scene.”

Interestingly, despite his constructivist views and his Bolshevik sympathies, Meyerhold was ardently opposed to socialist realism, which sought to restrict art to its use as a tool for the furtherance of the Communist state. The Meyerhold Theatre was closed by Stalin’s government in 1938, and Meyerhold himself was arrested a year later. He was tortured and finally executed sometime around early 1940 - but his legacy as a performance theorist and a pioneer in the world of physical theater survived the Stalinist regime, and maintains its influence in the world of actor training to this day.

The Russian Academy of Theatre Arts (GITIS) in Moscow offers summer and winter short-courses in Biomechanics, and expert instructor Gennadi Bogdanov (who also teaches at GITIS) tours the world offering workshops and master-classes for various theater companies, conservatory programs, and universities. Kathleen Baum - an adjunct professor to the drama department at Syracuse University, who has led classes in Biomechanics at a number of top-tier universities and theaters - is also available for a variety of workshops and short residencies.

The Russian Academy of Theatre Arts (GITIS)
http://www.gitis.net/eng/info/shtml
6 Maly Kislovsky Pereulok
Moscow 103888
Russia
Phone: (+7) 495-291-9192
Fax: (+7) 495-690-0597
E-mail: info@gitis.net

Kathleen Baum
http://web.syr.edu/~kjbaum
Fax: (315) 445-7039
E-mail: Lafkath@aol.com

Further reading:

Braun, Edward
Meyerhold: A Revolution in Theatre

Gladkov, Aleksandr with Vsevolod Meyerhold
Meyerhold Speaks/Meyerhold Rehearses
(translated by Alma Law)

Law, Alma with Mel Gordon
Meyerhold, Eisenstein and Biomechanics: Actor Training in Revolutionary Russia
(currently out of print)

Leach, Robert
Vsevolod Meyerhold

Meyerhold, Vsevolod
On Theatre
(edited by Edward Braun)

Pitches, Jonathan
Vsevolod Meyerhold

Schmidt, Paul (editor and translator)
Meyerhold at Work

Note
The following are common misspellings of Vsevolod Meyerhold's name: Vevolod, Sevolod, Zevolod, Vesvolod, Vesvolad, Vesvoled, Vsevoled, Vsevolad, Vseveled, Vsovolod, Meyerhald, Mieyerhold, Meiyerhold, Miyerhold, Meyarhold, Mayorhold, Mierhold, Meirhold, Myerhold, Myarhold, Myorhold, Mieorhold, Miearhold, Meirarhold, Mieyerhald, Meiyerhald, Miyerhald, Meyarhald, Mayorhald, Mierhald, Meirhald, Myerhald, Myarhald, Myorhald, Mieorhald, Miearhald, Meirarhald, Mieyerheld, Meiyerheld, Miyerheld, Meyarheld, Mayorheld, Mierheld, Meirheld, Myerheld, Myarheld, Myorheld, Mieorheld, Miearheld, Meirarheld