This film is part of the Project of Knowledge Sharing “Learning to see – Ten lessons in Theatre Anthropology” by Eugenio Barba, Claudio Coloberti and Julia Varley. Theatre Anthropology is the study of the human being in a situation of organised representation. In the film Eugenio Barba indicates and comments the shared technical principles aiming at building the performer’s presence in different acting and dancing traditions.
The film is dedicated to the Balinese dancer I Made Pasek Tempo who was part of the artistic staff at the first session of ISTA, the International School of Theatre Anthropology, in October 1980, in Bonn, Germany. During the ISTA session in 1987 in Salento, Italy, Eugenio Barba comments: “We can speak of daily technique or extra-daily technique, and of daily behaviour or extra-daily behaviour. What is professionally essential for us is to realise how the actor implements this transformation, that is, this transition from a behaviour that does not attract attention to a behaviour that can attract attention.” Examples of daily and extra-daily behaviour are examined in the film with many different demonstrations, amongst whom Stina Ekblad from the Royal Theatre in Stockholm, actors from Théâtre du Soleil, Lydia Koniordou from National Theatre in Athens and the Colombaioni brothers, renowned Italian clowns.