Convergence of Art and Science: Formation and Establishment of Biomechanics

This paper argues that Meyerhold's biomechanics, completed in the early 1920s, is essentially a continuation and evolution of the traditionalist period of the 1910s. He sought to bring theater into the scientific realm of learning and research rather than relying on mystical inspiration or naturalistic material. To achieve this, he explored various acting skills that existed within the theater system and turned to the acting skills of numerous craftsmen that have been passed down throughout the long history of theater. Starting from his treatise “Balagan”, Meyerhold considers the acquisition of techniques and skills of the traditional theater of the past as an alternative for the development of Russian theater as a top priority. To put this into practice, he opens a studio on Borodinskaya Street and conducts rigorous training that turns actors into commedia dell'arte actors, mimers, magicians, and acrobats. The goal of the training was to acquire spatial self-awareness, 'raccourci', and grotesque acting techniques. After the revolution, Meyerhold, who opened a stage directing course (КУРМАСЦЕП), encountered medical biomechanics for the first time. And he completed his own unique acting training system, biomechanics, by going through the National Higher Directing School (ГВЫРМ) and the National Higher Theater School (ГВЫТМ). In this process, the experimental achievements and the educational contents of the traditionalist period served as theoretical arguments for biomechanics and the basis for biomechanics training. I hope that through this research, errors and prejudices related to biomechanics will be eliminated and new interest in biomechanics will be revived.