Staging Movement: On Architecture and Dance through the Work of Adolphe Appia, Émile Jaques-Dalcroze and the Halprins

Despite their apparent opposition, movement—a fluid, ephemeral act—and architecture—the crystallization of immobile space—intersect in the works of four pivotal figures: Adolphe Appia, Émile Jaques-Dalcroze, and Anna and Lawrence Halprin. Through their work, Massarente examines the abstraction of the ground plane into horizontal platforms for the design of the stage in its capacity to evoke the interaction between the audience and performers. From Appia and Dalcroze’s rhythmic spaces to the Halprins’ non-formal stages, Staging Movement explores how these architects and choreographers make theater and landscape into experiences that are practicable in everyday life through bodily movement. Only through this process can the ritualistic aspect of life be recovered.