Towards a probody aesthetics: ageing and occupationally damaged bodies in performance

ABSTRACT

Through this reflection on ageing and occupationally damaged bodies in performance, I argue that a probody aesthetics is fundamental to generating and sustaining care in community-engaged theatre projects. Such aesthetics is concerned with adopting a body-centric approach to making community-engaged theatre and arts, which insists artistic creations and acts of creation could be a form of care provision. Informed by the medical sciences, probody aesthetics consciously highlights care at the level of anatomy and biomechanics. In this article, I propose somatic ergonomics, physical ergonomics and collaborative ergonomics as ways of advancing understanding of probody aesthetics towards implementable practices.

KEYWORDS:

• Shigang Mama Theatre
• care
• aesthetics
• ageing
• ergonomics

Acknowledgements

For your unfading and generous support, my gratitude goes to the Shigang Mamas, my collaborators Lee Show-shun and Chen Shu-hui, and my Research Assistant Daniel Sim Yong En. This study is sponsored by the National University of Singapore.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Peilin Liang is an assistant professor of Theatre Studies at the National University of Singapore. Her research interests include performer training, interculturalism and applied theatre. Her works have appeared with Theatre Topics, Contemporary Theatre Review, Research in Drama Education, Theatre Research International, Performance Research, and Inter-Asia Cultural Studies. Her current monograph project is titled Transformance: Bodies in the Contemporary Theatre of Taiwan.

Notes

1. The first in Taiwan’s recorded history is the 1935 Shichiku-Taichū earthquake.

2. Nidhi and Padmaja (2018) also observed similar musculoskeletal impairments in an Indian context.

3. The detriments of aesthetic labour are prevalent beyond the performing arts, as well. See Elias, Gill, and Scharff 2017.

4. ‘A Home on the Island (3): Bodies and Labour’ was carried out in Shigang, Taiwan from 24–28 February 2018. Parts 4 and 5 are scheduled for 2019 and 2020.

5. For further reading on Boal and the body, see Auslander 1994.

6. The Feldenkrais method is a type of structural bodywork. There are other types that have not been applied in the field of performance. Smith (2005) defines structural bodywork as ‘ a “hands-on” somatic practice that attempts to enhance posture and flexibility, and to encourage more efficient movement patterns by inducing relatively long-lasting changes to the body’s structure and educating clients into embodying these changes functionally’ (25). For more on the application of Feldenkrais method in geriatric care, see Broome, Shamrock, and Alcorn 2015.

7. The ideas I discuss here were generated in discussion with my research assistant, Daniel Sim Yong En.

8. Family can be defined in terms of blood relation or by choice.

9. The tension and dichotomization between art and healthcare is well-documented in scholarship on disability in performance. See Gee and Hargrave 2011.

10. The ideas I discuss here were generated in discussion with my research assistant, Daniel Sim Yong En.