Dramatic Body Language

Dear Students:
Moshe Feldenkrais chose to use movement as a vehicle to help people learn how to transform their ways of thinking, feeling & behaving. I believe one of the reasons he based his method on teaching “awareness through movement” is because body language reveals volumes about the soul of a person.

This is why I share with you the silent movie, Metropolis, so you can become familiar with what (non-verbal), expressive human beings look like. One of my students, Greg Sipe enthusiastically told me about this 1927 classic picture, and motivated me to check it out.  Greg is a ballroom dance instructor so I had lots of fun sharing my thoughts about it with him the past few weeks. 

The film instantly caught my attention with the first act, Shift Change because of the pure physicality of the actors, (view at 0:4:11). I can honestly say it is one of the most intriguing performances I’ve ever seen and the actors were only walking as a group on & off the set.  They were able to portray the slight & profound difference in the way factory workers carried themselves when entering the “depths of earth” compared to the ones exiting it.  Look closely to see if you can tell what the men were feeling & thinking by how they moved at the beginning versus the end of their shifts.

I wish to point out some other scenes that left me marveling at the main actress’s ability to fully express her state of mind & emotions. Words like actor, artist, dancer & pantomime only touch lightly upon how to describe her.  She played herself as a saint-like leader at the beginning of the story (view at 0:52:19 & 0:56:43), and later as an evil imposter of herself, (view at 1:46:36).  She contrasted the good & wicked behaviors of the characters she played by softening her gestures & motions and then by turning them into sharp, chaotic movements.  Her facial expressions were so precious that I can find no words to help you imagine how capable she was in creating them.

I was also delighted to see this actress precisely embody terror, (view at 1:04:15).  You might mistakenly think she physically over exaggerated her reaction in this scenario, but I assure you she did not.  She masterly demonstrated how terrifying feelings shake up the entire nervous system.

Metropolis was considered to be controversial when it opened & I believe it’s message has just as much relevance today as it did back then.   I hope this post inspires you to watch the entire movie.  I viewed it in 15-30 minute intervals and was surprised by the unfolding story-line & the exquisite movement of the dramatic actors, each time! Peace!
~Donna