The Dynamic Tensions Physical Culture Show was performed on 13 October 2017, at the Anatomy Museum, Kings College London. This one-off performance event brought together athletes and artists to explore the history of physical culture on the theatrical stage. This film, documenting the entirety of the performance, was made by Alexandros Papathanasiou.
Credits
Director/Writer/Performer: Broderick Chow
Assistant Director/Performer: Jonathan Hinton
Performers: Philip Bedwell, Daniel Crute, Adam Johnson, Peter Moore, Phoebe Ransome, Jack Robinson
Coach: Kristian McPhee
Musical Director: Sally Goodworth
Technical Manager: Jelmer Tuinstra
Technical Assistant: Jamie Russell-Curtis
Technical Manager (KCL): James Hare
AHRI Producers: Laura Douglas, Vicky Bowman, Madeleine Ryan
Weightlifting Equipment: Courtesy of Kristian McPhee
Wrestling Mats: Get Set Hire (GSH)
Videographer: Alexandros Papathanasiou
Post-Show Response and Discussion Chair: Kélina Gotman
Director’s Notes by Broderick D.V. Chow
On 30 November 1901, the Congregational Memorial Hall in Ludgate Circus, Farringdon, EC1 hosted the Health & Strength Physical Culture Display, which promised to be “the finest and most interesting event of its kind.” The performance featured exhibition wrestling, boxing, musical displays of exercises with dumbbells and Indian Clubs, the strongwoman act of Giantella, a world-record weightlifting attempt by 18-year-old J. Langhorn, and the finale, “a series of Classical Poses in an Illuminated Posing Frame” by Mr. Launceston Elliott, among a total of fourteen turns. Memorial Hall may be gone, replaced in 1969 by British Telecom’s Caroone House, but the influence of such displays can be seen just a few yards away at the Farringdon branch of Gymbox, where boxers, wrestlers and gymnasts train alongside weightlifters, powerlifters, and bodybuilders, and where I find myself training at least five times as week.
The relation across time, even in a single site like Farringdon, London, between the physical culture display of the past and fitness culture in the present, is what drives the Dynamic Tensions Physical Culture Show and my current research. In September 2016 I was awarded an AHRC Leadership Fellows grant to investigate physical culture and the performance of masculinities. I had been involved with Olympic Weightlifting for a few years, and gym c...
Credits
Director/Writer/Performer: Broderick Chow
Assistant Director/Performer: Jonathan Hinton
Performers: Philip Bedwell, Daniel Crute, Adam Johnson, Peter Moore, Phoebe Ransome, Jack Robinson
Coach: Kristian McPhee
Musical Director: Sally Goodworth
Technical Manager: Jelmer Tuinstra
Technical Assistant: Jamie Russell-Curtis
Technical Manager (KCL): James Hare
AHRI Producers: Laura Douglas, Vicky Bowman, Madeleine Ryan
Weightlifting Equipment: Courtesy of Kristian McPhee
Wrestling Mats: Get Set Hire (GSH)
Videographer: Alexandros Papathanasiou
Post-Show Response and Discussion Chair: Kélina Gotman
Director’s Notes by Broderick D.V. Chow
On 30 November 1901, the Congregational Memorial Hall in Ludgate Circus, Farringdon, EC1 hosted the Health & Strength Physical Culture Display, which promised to be “the finest and most interesting event of its kind.” The performance featured exhibition wrestling, boxing, musical displays of exercises with dumbbells and Indian Clubs, the strongwoman act of Giantella, a world-record weightlifting attempt by 18-year-old J. Langhorn, and the finale, “a series of Classical Poses in an Illuminated Posing Frame” by Mr. Launceston Elliott, among a total of fourteen turns. Memorial Hall may be gone, replaced in 1969 by British Telecom’s Caroone House, but the influence of such displays can be seen just a few yards away at the Farringdon branch of Gymbox, where boxers, wrestlers and gymnasts train alongside weightlifters, powerlifters, and bodybuilders, and where I find myself training at least five times as week.
The relation across time, even in a single site like Farringdon, London, between the physical culture display of the past and fitness culture in the present, is what drives the Dynamic Tensions Physical Culture Show and my current research. In September 2016 I was awarded an AHRC Leadership Fellows grant to investigate physical culture and the performance of masculinities. I had been involved with Olympic Weightlifting for a few years, and gym c...