The sources and origins of motion creation in Gardzienice Theater

Włodzimierz Staniewski is a reputable director of the recent years with a style of his own, and also the founder and artistic director of the Polish Gardzienice Theater Company, whose performances such as "An Evening Performance" 1977, "Sorcery" 1978, "The Life of Archpriest Avvakum" 1981, "Carmina Burana" 1990, "Metamorphoses" 1997, "Elektra" 2002, "Iphigenia at A…" 2007, "Iphigenia in Tauris" 2010, and "Pythian Oratorio" 2013 have captured the attention of many artists and researchers in the field of performing arts from all across the world. According to many theoreticians and researchers in the field of theater such as Paul Allen, the significance of Staniewski's creations is most of all latent in the movements of the actors and the forms of motion in these creations. Identifying the components, resources, roots, and origins that form the movements of the actors in the Gardzienice theater company, as well as the quality of the arrangement of these motions for theatrical performance and their accomplishment in connecting with the audience throughout the performance process can add to the knowledge of actors, directors and artistic motion designers and result in the production of higher quality performances for those that strive to base the creations of Staniewski as a model for their artistic creations. According to the research conducted in well-known national libraries and internet citation databases, there are not any documented books, theses or articles regarding the subject of the present article. However, a number of books, articles, theses, and interviews are available which have considered and investigated other dimensions of the Gardzienice Theater such as Staniewski's opinions and comments, the interactions between members of the Gardzienice group, the history of the formation and development of Gardzienice Theater, the relationship between Staniewski's Theater and Grotowski's Paratheater, Staniewski's biography, etc., all of which have been used as previous literature for the present article. The present article has attempted to present suitable, sufficient, and referable answers to the question that: From where does Gardzienice Theater provide the raw material for its movements and what elements does it use as raw material? Along with this main question, other secondary questions are also answered that each beneficially contribute to increasing the knowledge of those who read this article. The method used in this study is of the descriptive-analytical type and the required data were collected from library references and valid internet databases. The most important achievements of this research consist of the Greek "Cheironomia" and "Gesticulate", the Indian "Samaweda", the behavior of Mexican "Tarahumara" Indians, and the body language of Polish gypsies as part of the origins for the creation of movement in Staniewski's theater. However, these resources are not utilized separately and in an unprocessed state, and the execution team of Staniewski's theater dedicates most of its rehearsal time to forming and developing the motions of its performances while improvisation and native, national and international music assist the Gardzienice group.