Viewpoints

Viewpoints is a movement-based pedagogical and artistic practice that provides a framework for creating and analyzing performance by exploring spatial relationships, shape, time, emotion, movement mechanics, and the materiality of the actor's body. Rooted in the domains of postmodern theatre and dance composition, the Viewpoints operate as a medium for thinking about and acting upon movement, gesture, and the creative use of space.

The Six Viewpoints was originally developed in the 1970s by master theater artist and educator Mary Overlie, later conceptualised in her book Standing in Space: The Six Viewpoints Theory & Practice (2016). Overlie's Viewpoints and practice are seen to contribute greatly to the postmodern movement in theatre, dance, and choreography, grounded in its opposition against modernism's emphasis on hierarchical structure in performance creation, fixed meaning, and linear narratives.

A key principle of the Viewpoints practice is horizontalism, a distinct focus on a non-hierarchical organisation of the performance elements, meaning shared engagement with elements like space, body, text, time, shape, and emotion. The practice subsequently constitutes a shared agency of creation amongst performers and creators in working through the individual body and its surrounding material environment as part of a collective ensemble. The Viewpoints thus encourages the performer to incorporate their own bodily impulses and personal experiences in the act of creation.

The Six Viewpoints theory was adapted by directors Anne Bogart and Tina Landau, ultimately resulting in the delineation of nine "physical" and five "vocal" Viewpoints. Bogart and Overlie were on the faculty of the Experimental Theatre Wing at NYU Tisch School of the Arts in the late 1970s and early 1980s, during which Bogart was influenced by Overlie's innovations. Overlie's Six Viewpoints are considered to be a methodology to examine, analyze, and create performance in non-hierarchised and deconstructed way, whilst Bogart's Viewpoints are considered practical in creating staging with actors.

The Six Viewpoints is a philosophical and practical approach to articulate a post-modern perspective on performance. The practice involves deconstructing the physical stage and physical performance into its six Materials of composition: Space, Shape, Time, Emotion, Movement and Story. These six elements have existed historically within a rigid hierarchy which gives prevalence to story and emotion in theatre, and shape and movement in dance. The Six Viewpoints releases the Materials from this fixed construct into a fluid non-hierarchical environment for re-examination. The act of deconstructing performance into its Six Materials invites the performer, director, and artist to engage with the individual materials "allowing these elements to take the lead in a creative dialogue".

For Overlie, this shift in attention re-defines art and the role of the artist from a "creator/originator" mindset to what she called the "observer/participant," which centers on "witnessing, and interacting, ... working under the supposition that structure could be discerned rather than imposed". Overlie observed this redefinition of the artist's endeavor to correspond with the artistic shift from modernism to post-modernism.

The theory and practice of the Six Viewpoints are organized in two parts: The Materials and The Bridge.

When working with the materials, the artist is instructed to turn off the impulse to control or own the material, and is challenged to work very specifically with each material as an independent entity. Overlie recommends the artist to gather as much "useless" data as they can and to take time to explore.