What is your character’s relationship to gravity? 

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.