History
The Association of Theatre
Movement Educators had its beginning in the 1960s in the University
and College Theatre Association that was a sub-division of the American
Theatre Association. The Voice and Movement Programs
were combined into the Voice and Movement Focus Group, much
like the Association for Theatre in Higher Education's Focus Groups today.
Joint convention programming and pre-convention workshops emphasized
the integration of movement and voice training.
Toward the end of the decade, movement and voice began to emerged as
separate specialties. Positions for a specialists in just one each area
became available. By 1969
there was sufficient recognition for movement training as an independent
specialty to justify a separate focus group.
Lucille Rubin was the first chair of ATA’s Movement Program.
She edited Movement for the Actor, the first collected writings
on theatre movement training by American movement teachers. As movement
became more widely recognized as a training specialty, we sought
to define ourselves more clearly. In the last decade of ATA, there were
numerous panels on the training of movement specialists and their function
within actor-training
programs. In 1986, with the demise of ATA and the launching of the
Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE), the self-definition
of movement specialists took a new form. The leadership decided it was
time to establish an independent organization for movement specialists
that would still be related to ATHE, but would also exist independently
to serve those movement specialists who
were teaching and working professionally as well as in college or
university contexts.
Lin Conaway convened a task force at Miami University to draw up a mission
statement and goals for what became the Society of Theatre Movement Specialists
(STMS). The task force, chaired by Lin, was comprised of Patrice Egleston,
Max Dixon, Loyd Williamson, and Jennifer Martin.
The Society remained a focus
group of ATHE until the Association of Theatre Movement Educators (ATME)
was incorporated in 1993 as a non-profit organization through the efforts
of the Founding Board of Directors: Denise Gabriel, Colleen Kelly, Paul
Lundrigan, Jennifer Martin, and Ron Wilson. While ATME is an independent
organization with its own officers and programs, the connection to the
Association for Theatre in Higher Education is still maintained through
the ATME Focus Group Representative.
ATME is now an independent organization with its own officers and programs.
It maintains its affiliation with the Association for Theatre in Higher Education
through the ATME Focus Group Representative and supports a connection to the
SouthEastern Theatre Conference Theatre Movement Committee, the Society of
American Fight Directors, the Laban/Bartenieff Institute, and other movement
organizations.
The change in name from the Society of Theatre Movement Specialists to Association
of Theatre Movement Educators was a reflection of the continuing process
of defining ourselves movement training for theatre. within actor training. While the
term "movement specialist" described
a person with a high level of expertise in a physical discipline, such
an individual may not have the acting process foundation nor the anatomical understanding necessary
for movement training of actors. The Board regarded these two areas as
fundamental preparation for theatre movement specialists who work with actors
or teach
in actor training programs.
For the past 25 years, a core of movement specialists have (has) accepted
leadership roles and volunteered countless hours of service to their
colleagues. The many services offered by ATME today are a testimony of
their commitment to the support of their colleagues and to their own growth
as teacher/artists.
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