Character Movement Work

While flipping through my movie collection the other day (I didn’t feel like being overwhelmed by the paralysis of choice that is streaming options these days), I stumbled across a film I’d forgotten I owned.

Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari).

Ah yes, the ultimate German Expressionism experience. 

It’s the story of an evil hypnotist who uses his skills to direct a sleepwalker (or somnambulist) named Cesare to commit murder.

Fun stuff.

Released in 1920, it’s a silent gothic horror film delight.

Now, Expressionism is easily one of my favorite movements in the history of theatre and film.

Especially for character movement work. 

The gothic, distorted, exaggerated movements the actors employ to release their emotions through the screen or beyond the stage have always struck a chord with me. 

Perhaps because a great deal of the time, we’re taught not to express our emotions in society. That it’s impolite. Don’t be a Drama Queen, right?

And art mirrors society.

So, the balance of portraying a character that works really hard to keep their emotional dams up until the levee breaks is more common these days.

Therefore, Expressionist performances can at first glance seem overly emotional. 

But, they simply embrace the extremes. The highs and lows of human emotion. 

And, hey, the dark eyeliner is always a plus.

So, what is Expressionism exactly?

Glad you asked. 

Expressionist art was a modernist movement originating in the early 20th century in Northern Europe.

The dictionary describes Expressionism as “a theory or practice in art of seeking to depict the subjective emotions and responses that objects and events arouse in the artist.” 

To put it simply, it’s art designed to express intense emotions and meanings behind them, rather than focusing on reality. 

Think Edvard Munch’s painting The Scream

This is probably my favorite definition of Expressionism relating to the film and theatre world: “It was not that different from Symbolism but with darker lighting, more screaming and way more emotion.” 

So, for film and theatre, elements such as scenery, costumes, and makeup were used to distort and exaggerate (often with odd angles and heavy shadows) to deliver these emotions and ideas.

Basically, if you’ve seen anything Tim Burton has ever produced, you’ve seen Expressionism. 

Other art forms, specifically in paintings, may include odd shapes and vibrant colors that wouldn’t usually appear. 

Such as Rehe Im Walde (Deer in the Woods) by Franz Marc in 1911.

But film and theatre are the focus for this post and what that means for character movement work.

So, let’s take a look at the film.

Now, for me, the best examples of Expressionism in film come from Germany.

German Expressionism in film

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror, and Metropolis are three pinnacle films released during the 1920s in Germany that immediately come to mind when I think of German Expressionism. 

Two horror and one sci-fi, these three films include countless incredible character movement performances.  

Seriously, I could probably write an entire book about it.

But, this is not a book.

We’re just here to get our feet wet.

To many, this performance style may come across as ridiculous, overly emotional, over the top, chewing the scenery…you get the idea. 

And that’s precisely why I think it’s so beautiful.

A quick note: I’ll be referring to some of these performances using Labanotation. 

Labanotation is a dance notation system created by Rudolf Laban that is often used by actors to create distinct movement signatures.

If you’re not familiar with the work of Rudolf Laban or Labanotation, check out my intro post to get acquainted with this excellent building-block method for creating physically diverse characters.

Dr. Caligari

As mentioned earlier, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is about a hypnotist who uses his skills to influence a sleepwalker to commit murder. 

The sleepwalker is a man named Cesare. 

The film is available to watch on youtube if you haven’t seen it.

Now, Dr. Caligari and Cesare each have incredibly distinctive ways of moving. 

But for me, what’s most impressive is their facial movement work.

The hunched, slow stepping, top hat, and cane bearing Dr. Caligari is always plotting, and you can see it in his eyes. The often slow, at times sudden shifts in his eyebrows, eyes, and lips tell a story.

You can almost hear the gears turning in his mind as he continues his calculating control. 

This is, of course, accentuated by his makeup.

Then there’s Cesare’s facial movement work. When he first wakes, it’s definitely ‘how wide you can get your eyes’ goals. Which leaves us with this iconic image. 

It’s also simply a beautiful moment of awakening into a new state of conciousness. 

Or when he stalks into Janes room, stepping lightly, leading with his toes, one foot in front of the other almost as though he’s walking a tightrope. A methodical hesitancy as he sleepwalks forward, knife drawn.

Lil Dagover’s performance as Jane is a fantastic example of the extremes of Expressionism. 

In receiving the news that a friend, Alan, has been murdered, her juxtaposed movements of sustained and sudden are jarring and add to the distorted elements of the film.

Nosferatu

Count Orlok or Nosferatu was based on Bram Stokers Dracula. Also known as “The Bird of Death,” he’s a vampire residing in Transylvania. 

Now, the film was never granted the rights to Dracula itself, and it was technically a film that was illegally made.

It’s also available to watch on youtube.

They changed Dracula, Harker, and Mina to Count Orlock, Hutter, and Ellen.

Now, Count Orlok, originally portrayed by Max Schreck, is simply perfect nightmare fuel. 

Seriously, his hand work alone is phenomenal. Those long, slow, and steadily closing in to grasp you fingers always send chills down my spine.

If I were to break down Count Orlok’s movement signature, I’d say he was bound, sustained, and direct. 

There’s a gravitas to him even though he’s light on his feet. Especially when he’s carrying his coffin around England in the middle of the night. Just casual like…

Though, I have to say one of my favorite movement moments in the entire film is when Hutter discovers Count Orlok’s vampiric secret and collapses in horror on the stairs. 

How he then slinks his way quickly up the stairs is a sight to behold. By use of fancy footwork and grasping hands, he manages to crawl up the stairs sideways with his back to the wall. 

It appears as though his limbs are the only things moving. 

Metropolis

The character movement work in Metropolis is German Expressionism on a grand scale. 

Metropolis is a sci-fi drama that premiered in 1927 and focuses on the efforts of Freder, the son of the wealthy master of the city, and Maria, a spokeswoman for the working class. 

The goal: to lessen the gap between classes. 

It’s a dystopian masterpiece and speaks volumes still today.

You can see it on youtube.

The depiction of humans as machines working within larger industrial machinery is a huge focal point of the film. It’s an image we get a glimpse of right at the beginning. 

It’s the shift change between workers at the factory. Their movements are subtle, drone-like, and exhausted. 

Even the workers who are just beginning their shift are tired, slowly and mechanically shifting one foot in front of the other in time with the group.

The mechanical, rigid coordination of the workers while they’re at their machines, is incredibly impressive as well. 

However, the performance that stands out the most for me is that of Brigitte Helm. She plays Maria, the woman who brings hope to the workers. 

Maria is kidnapped by a scientist working for the city master and transfers her image to a robot (also played by Brigitte) to cause chaos among the workers. 

The robot’s behavior is the opposite of Maria’s, and it’s a delight to see the transformation Brigitte undergoes to bring us both Marias. 

I delve a bit more into her performance here.

Experiencing emotion through story

Most of us, I’d argue, are taught from a young age to stifle our emotions in one way or another. To not take things too seriously. To not be ‘melodramatic.’ 

Expressionism, from a character movement perspective, is all about exaggerated emotions. But are they really THAT exaggerated?

The arts exist to help us express emotion.

To experience emotion through a story.

And Expressionism, German or otherwise, for me, is a style to not forget.

Now, this is simply scratching the surface of German expressionist film, and I’m in no way an expert in Expressionism. 

I didn’t even touch on Expressionism in theatre. That’ll be a post for another day.

Expressionist movement performances, in all of their over-the-top glory (to our societal standards, mind you), create a space for the expression of emotion through motion. 

It can be both uncomfortable and cathartic. 

Often at the same time.

Which is precisely the point.

I’ll leave you with a quote from the delightful YouTube channel: Cinefix regarding Expressionism: “The goal was to make the inner-outer, to render the invisible visible by throwing it on screen.”

Happy moving! 

Currently, my body is like a long string of tiny knots. 

This long fiber of thread seems to be weaving along the tip of my left shoulder, cascading down my spine. 

Suppose I were performing a super relaxed character both physically and mentally right now. In that case, my body may find it a challenge to work against its current natural state.

Stress sucks.

It’s everywhere, and oh, does the wrong amount of it wreak havoc on our bodies. 

To be fair, stress is incredibly natural and a crucial element in our lives if we ever have to run away from a lion.

But, most people don’t have to run away for lions anymore.

And the stress of modern living is on a whole new level.

We all carry stress in different parts of our bodies. For me, it’s the neck and shoulders.

So, where am I going with all of this?

To put it bluntly: you most likely have some kind of unresolved physical stress residing in your body.

Therefore, each character you play also has unresolved physical stress in their body. 

And where you carry your stress may not be the appropriate spot for your character to carry theirs. 

As our levels of stress change from day to day, situation to situation and conversation to conversation within our own lives, it also shifts for our characters.

Flow

Barbara Sellers-Young writes in her book, Breathing, Movement, Exploration (no affiliate link here)

“Whether you move the entire body at once-simultaneous movement-or as a sequence of parts-successive/sequential movement-you are managing your flow of energy. Thus, you are literally ‘feeling’ the situation and deciding how to act as a consequence of your interpretation of the moment.”

As humans and artists, just like our characters, we constantly react to the world around us. Taking in info, evaluating, and responding. 

And guess what: our body does the same thing. 

In particular, my body has operated on the far side of the spectrum of bound these past two years. 

Now, what I mean by bound is that more often than not, parts of my body that should have a more free range of motion have been stuck. As a result, it’s harder or more painful to move them.

Bound is one of the opposites of Flow within Labanotation, the dance notation system of Rudolf Laban.

The other side of the Flow spectrum being: Free.

If you’re new to Labanotation, check my other post about his work before continuing here, so you’ve got a good foundation.

Flow is undoubtedly what I focus on the most with my students because I’ve always found it to be a superb dial to play with for each character. Plus, it’s rarely our natural state of being. 

So, here’s a few ways to get you thinking about the great giant dial of Flow and how you can incorporate it into either your pre or post-show routine so that you can show up to your character with an open body and give your best performance.

Free

Free has many meanings, depending on the context. It can mean liberating, no longer confined, and you may get an image of a sail of a ship flapping freely in the wind. 

In a movement context, it can also mean indulgent and fluid. 

At its core, free implies a movement that is difficult to stop. 

One way I love to help my body feel more free and relaxed, especially if I’m about to dive into a more lighthearted and free-spirited character, is to simply shake the tension away from my day. 

It could be jumping, dancing, or just shaking my hands. 

My body always feels lighter afterward, it’s easier to stand tall and breathe.

A Healthline article titled Can Shaking Your Body Help Heal Stress and Trauma? Some Experts Say Yes states, “The shaking or vibrating helps to release muscular tension, burn excess adrenaline, and calm the nervous system to its neutral state, thereby managing stress levels in the body.”

Honestly, this is an essential tool in my life. It takes seconds, and I use it both as a pre and post-show ritual as it has allowed me to perform high-stakes/stress scenes and then not bring it home with me. 

Seriously, I’ll get off stage, and as soon as I’m in a safe spot (as in, I won’t hit anything or be in anyone’s way), I shake out my entire body.

Bound

Bound in a movement context is the inhibiting of a free movement. 

It stops all movement in its tracks.

Another word I love to describe it is resistance. 

Now, I’m a big fan of visualization. 

From a movement and body awareness angle, it can be beneficial, as sometimes we don’t notice our right big toe usually. Until we visualize a heavy brick resting on it.

I like to help students work with bound is to visualize an iron ball, variable in size, resting in the specific part of the body. 

It can be just under the surface, like a knot in a muscle, or expand and encompass, say, your entire left knee joint. 

It’s heavy, cold, foreign, and uncomfortable. 

Another technique I like to use is to isolate the part of your body you want to be bound. Simply tense that muscle. 

This can be an exhausting process, and if you’re going to employ this in performance, I would advise doing it only when you have to. 

Also making sure that you have countermeasures in place, like a shaking or stretching exercise planned so that you can minimize the tension in your body long term. 

Managing our movements

The word ‘chronic’ means constant or habitual, something that continues for a long time or recurring frequency.

After developing a character movement signature, something that could be useful is to think about where your character falls on the free/bound spectrum at any given moment.

Because it’s constantly changing. 

In this picture: both free and bound exist at the same time. The legs are free-flowing and resting, whereas the back, shoulders, and neck are bound to remain upright and alert. 

To bring this to a movement signature, let’s say the character you’re playing is overall confident, caring, and free-spirited.

Now, if this scene with their estranged mom, would that be a moment of resistance? Of liberation? A bit of both?

Tie it into the phycological work you’re already doing.

What relationships are at play here? Is this conversation relaxed or full of tension? What does that mean for the body of this character?

Do they start freer, and then throughout the course of their arc, does bound chip away at them?

Are the arms free and gesturing while the legs remain bound, standing their ground?

How can you display their journey physically, regardless of how subtle?

Things to ponder, friends.

Happy moving!

I was flipping through one of my favorite books on movement for the actor the other day, and a quote lept out at me. 

Quite literally.

I was reading while lying down, which I know from previous experience can be a dangerous task. I turned the page, had no idea of my fate, read what I’m about to share with you, lost my grip on the book, and it fell on my face. 

So, here’s the quote:

“Are we resisting gravity, releasing into it, or negotiating with it?”

And yes, the irony is not lost on me 🙂

The book, by the way, is called Breathing, Movement, Exploration by Barbara Sellers-Young, and it is my go-to for character movement work. (Fyi, not an affiliate link)

I could go on and on about the brilliance of this book, but all I’ll say here is it changed how I approached a role 1,000% for the better. 

Now, in that particular moment when the book fell on my face, gravity was playfully reminding me of its existence. 

Gravity, whether we like it or not, is a fact of life. 

And because it’s everywhere in our lives, it’s everywhere for the characters we play too. (Yep, even if you’re in the world of The Expanse and space, things are happening. If anything, you become more aware of it then, right?)

So, how exactly can gravity help us in creating a character movement signature?

Rudolf Laban

First, let’s break this down a bit.

Barbara spends a good chunk of her book guiding the reader through the work of Rudolf Laban. If you’re not familiar with his work, check out my intro post about him.

The short of it is he was a dancer, choreographer, teacher, and dance-theorist born in 1879 in what is modern-day Slovakia. 

His incredible career spanned decades, opened dozens of dance and movement schools, and is often referred to as one of the founders of European Modern Dance.

Through his work, he created a dance notation system called Labanotation, “a clear and concise language for describing human movement.”

One of the four foundational elements of Labanotation is the quality of ‘weight.’

And I don’t mean weight as in the number on the scale. However, it does still play a role.  

Weight, here, is basically gravity.

Weight

Now, the two ends of the spectrum of our relationship to weight are strong or light. (Strong can also be interpreted as heavy. )

To continue to quote Barbara, “A strong movement results from a level of contraction in the muscles that causes a forceful exert in a particular direction…A light movement requires minimal force or tension and counter tension.”  

Performing either of these qualities can get really tiring really quickly, especially if you’re thinking in extremes.

So before diving into extremes, something I really want to stress is the reminder that ‘strong’ doesn’t mean it has to be forceful. It can be rooted and gentle. 

Therefore, light doesn’t literally mean that you aren’t making contact with the ground.

Resisting gravity

A picture is worth 1,000 words, right? 

So, here’s an example of what resisting gravity could look like.

In this pic, the person is using their strength of their body to anchor them so that the umbrella doesn’t fly away.

Again, playing with the dial of extremes, character movement doesn’t have to be fixed firmly on one end of the spectrum to be effective. 

Releasing into gravity

Again, a picture for your eyeballs to illustrate how one can release into gravity.

This little one looks completely relaxed, their muscles completely releasing. Falling asleep/being asleep is probably the easiest way we release into gravity. 

We’re unconscious; after all, we can’t offer gravity any resistance. 

Negotiating with gravity 

This really is the baseline. 

Most of the time, we and our characters are negotiating with gravity to some degree.

The first example that comes to mind, from one extreme, is the work in the sci-fi show The Expanse.

When shooting a scene taking place in zero-gravity, actors have a lot of movement work ahead of them.

Then you often have to add the element of their gravity boots being on. The boots help them resist gravity while the rest of them is negotiating or releasing.

A behind-the-scenes clip of some of their work revealed they worked with a movement coach to help them frame the world of zero-gravity so that they were moving accordingly. 

Now, since gravity is everywhere, I wanted to touch on how we use gravity to interact with objects/props outside of ourselves.  

Extending gravity to objects/props

A huge pet peeve of mine is when I see actors drink out of a cup/mug/glass of some sort, and there’s clearly no liquid in it. 

Especially the Starbucks to-go cups for a hot drink. For some reason, those examples stick out in my mind the most.

When there’s no weight, no resistance in the actor’s performance when picking up and taking a swig from that cup…I want to scream.

It takes me out of the moment so quickly, suddenly, and angrily reminding me that I’m not in the story. They’ve lost me.

And as a performer, the last thing you want is to have your audience get yanked out of the story you’re telling. 

Therefore, it’s essential to extend your character’s relationship to gravity to the objects they then encounter. 

So, what is your character’s relationship to gravity?

Is it a simple relationship? 

Or is it complicated?

Something to keep in your mind when crafting your next character’s movement signature. 

Do they sometimes forget gravity is there and have books fall on their faces?

Maybe they resist gravity as much as they resist everything else in their life.

Or perhaps, I imagine, most of the time, they’re somewhere in-between.

And on that note, thanks, gravity, who knows where we’d be without you.