Moving with Care: a critical/historical review of the practice of movement training for theatre in relation to physical education and care for the self

This article draws principally on the author's research into movement training and physical theatre (Evans, 2009; Evans, 2011; Evans, 2016; Evans and Fleming, 2019; Evans, 2020; Evans, 2021). It explores the historical and current intersections between movement, physical activity and health/well-being through examining the ways in which practitioners such as Jacques Copeau, Suzanne Bing, Jacques Lecoq and Monika Pagneux drew on their understanding of physical and movement education in the twentieth century. It also asserts the importance of female practitioners such as Suzanne Bing and Monika Pagneux. Bing introduced Dalcroze’s Eurhythmics and Montesorri education practice into Copeau’s School, and Pagneux drew on European dance and the work of Moshe Feldenkrais in her teaching at the Lecoq School and beyond. The article speaks to the growing recognition that movement practice needs to either harmonise with or offer resistance to the context in which it is taking place – socially, politically, culturally and in respect of gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, disability and age, thus new practices can be developed that offer to tell the truth to power about our bodies and their possibilities.