Viewpoints

Viewpoints is a technique of improvisation that provides a vocabulary for thinking about and acting upon movement and gesture. Originally developed in the 1970s by dance choreographer Mary Overlie, Viewpoints theory was adapted for stage actors by directors Anne Bogart and Tina Landau.

Overlie's Six Viewpoints (space, story, time, emotion, movement, and shape) are a more logical way to examine movement and work better for analysis. Bogart's Viewpoints work better in a practical way for creating movement.

It is telling that Bogart threw out emotion and story, since these issues so dominate the thinking of most actors, there was little need to isolate them as Viewpoints. In Bogart's Viewpoint work, actors are invited to work with isolated issues that are outside of the narrative mindset assumed in most acting training.

A key difference between Overlie's and Bogart's thinking about the Viewpoints is that Overlie sees them as a tool for creating art, while Bogart considers Viewpoint improvisation as a training method rather than an artistic end. She feels that while the improvisations may be interesting, the lack of repeatability prevents them from achieving the status of art in itself.

The Viewpoints

Time

Tempo - How fast or slow an something happens on stage.

Duration - How long an event occurs over time; how long a person or a group maintains a particular movement, tempo, gesture, etc. before it changes.

Kinesthetic Response - A spontaneous reaction to a motion that occurs outside of oneself. An instinctive response to an external stimulus.

Repetition - a) Internal: repeating a movement done with one's own body, and b) External: repeating a movement occurring outside one's body.

Space

Shape - The contour or outline of bodies in space; the shape of the body by itself, in relation to other bodies, or in relation to architecture; think of lines, curves, angles, arches all stationary or in motion.

Gesture - a) Behavioral gesture: realistic gesture belonging to the physical world as we observe it everyday. b) Expressive gesture: abstract or symbolic gesture expressing an inner state or emotion; it is not intended as a public or "realistic" gesture.

Architecture - The physical environment, the space, and whatever belongs to it or constitutes it, including permanent and non-permanent features.

Spatial Relationship - Distance between objects on stage; one body in relation to another, to a group, or to the architecture.

Topography - The movement over landscape, floor pattern, design.

Sound

Volume - The loudness or softness of a sound.

Tone - The pitch or frequency of a sound.

Timbre - The quality of a sound.

References

External Links