Texture and Movement: innovative forms of nonverbal stage expression

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to analyse the specific features of animating texture through movement and bodily interaction. Research methodology employs an interdisciplinary approach that integrates methods from theatre studies, choreology, performance studies to investigate contemporary puppet theatre. Scientific novelty reveals the role of texture as a stage co-performer, capable of transforming through bodily interaction with the actor within the framework of the puppet theatre performance; highlighting three types of interaction between the actor’s body and matter: as an extension of movement, as an object of animation, as a subject of scenic presence. Conclusions. The performative strategies analyse of contemporary puppet theatre reveals a gradual shift in emphasis from the traditional dramaturgical model of theatrical performance to the dominance of bodily expression, visual imagery, and the material presence of the object. Such a transformation is due to both general evolution of theatrical language and the specificity of metamodernist aesthetic paradigms that gravitate towards synthesis, multilayering, and oscillation between opposing artistic attitudes. Puppet theatre, situated at the crossroads of performative practices, demonstrates a unique capacity for the innovative rethinking the roles of the actor, object, and movement. Based on the analysis of Ukrainian and European performances, three key models of interaction between the corporeal and material have been identified: texture as an extension of the movement, texture as an animated object, texture as an autonomous stage entity. In the first case, the material enhances a bodily gesture, visualises the actor’s internal stage, or creates the stage atmosphere; in the second – it takes on the characteristics of the character endowed with semantic expressiveness; in the third – it emerges as a full-fledged co-participant in the action, not subordinate to the performer’s will, but capable of generating new meanings through its very presence. Thus, modern puppet theatre expands the traditional boundaries of interpreting stage action, where movement, texture, and space function not as secondary elements of staging but as carries of meaning, collectively forming the holistic canvas of the performance.