ABSTRACT

This chapter looks principally at The Paper Canoe: A Guide to Theatre Anthropology, written in 1995, and also at A Dictionary to Theatre Anthropology: The Secret Art of the Performer, co-written with Nicola Savarese in 1991. The recognition of a common posture formed the first principle of theatre anthropology: that is, an alteration in balance that is different from our everyday balance; the balance is not one that we use or need in our everyday behaviour but an altered balance. A second principle observed by Barba in the different traditions he has encountered is the 'principle of opposition', which he says all performers use 'consciously or unconsciously'. Another term that Barba introduces in the chapter is equivalence. It is equivalence, Barba argues, that distinguishes art from everyday behaviour. The final term that Barba introduces is that of the 'decided body'. Barba reminds us that 'terminology is taken from practice'.