ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the student’s simple yet profound response provides the basis for examining the tableaux as evidence of energised brains grappling with abstract ideas and representing key concepts through the use of the body. It focuses on role and gesture as the embodied devices used by the students to make abstract concepts concrete and thereby show their understanding. The chapter considers the integration of narrative structures in the tableaux as supporting key concepts and highlights the role of creativity in going beyond the ‘humdrum’ of classroom life and making learning memorable. In contrast to the iconic representations of the sun as an all-powerful force, the Earth was often portrayed as an inferior, sometimes comical object, subject to the whims of the sun. In a tableau about the gravitational force between the sun and the Earth, students used positioning in ways that reflected iconic representations of villains and victims.
