Movement Theatre: Features of the Dutch Mime Culture

The purpose of the article is to describe the features of the Dutch mime culture of the second half of the 20th century based on the analysis of the activities of the Movement Theatre under the direction of F. Vogels. Research methodology. The author of the article applies the historical and cultural method and the method of system analysis and synthesis to study the peculiarities of the development of mime culture in the Netherlands; the comparative and historical method to carry out a comparative analysis of the artistic and aesthetic principles of pantomime by E. Decroux and the mime culture of F. Vogels; the method of biographical reconstruction to reproduce fragments of creative biographies of representatives of the Dutch mime culture J. Bronk, W. Spoor and F. Vogels; the genre and typological method to identify the features of the performances of the Movement Theatre and the method of theoretical generalisation to sum up the results of the study. Scientific novelty. The preconditions for the formation of a mime theatre in the Netherlands have been investigated; the activities of the leading Dutch mimes in the context of the national mime culture have been analysed; the activity of the theatre group and school Movement Theatre has been considered; the artistic and aesthetic principles of mime theatre according to F. Vogels have been theorised. Conclusions. The performances of the Dutch Movement Theatre have had a great influence on changing the perception of mime culture in many European countries, expanding the creative horizons of the theoretical and practical heritage of E. Decroux. The performances of the theatre group presented to the audience the opportunities that arise as a result of undermining the boundaries between theatre and other forms of art. Movement Theatre has become a unique interdisciplinary phenomenon that has contributed to the ambiguous intersection of theatre with other arts to create hybrid means of aesthetic bodily transmission of messages. The concept of F. Vogels laid the foundations of the modern mime theatre, in which the mime is not so much an actor with a virtuoso technique of movement, but a mimeographer — the author and director of his performance, all elements of which arise in the process of improvisation.