Cognitive schema.
A schema is a set of rules or conditions in which a situation typically follows. For example, when you enter a restaurant you naturally are greeted by a host, shown to your table, and are introduced to your server.
Those actions are part of the restaurant schema.
Everyone automatically understands and creates different schema for different situations. This ability frees up processing space by allowing our minds to autopilot through what is expected. When something violates these set expectations our attention is grabbed and we have a reaction ( if you are seated by the host and no server arrives you may get upset and walk out. Or if they arrive quicker than expected you may feel happy and at ease).
Violent situations are filled with schema that are universally understood by audiences. When two people puff up their chests and start talking heatedly at each other, we expect some sort of altercation. What the audience knows of the outcome or how attached they are to the characters will determine if the audience is relieved when the fight is prevented or happy when the violence starts (or disappointed and angry respectively).
The schema can also represent stereotypes. Men vs. Women. Tall vs. Short. Big vs. Small, etc. Although these do exist across a wide range of audiences, these stereotypes are often the easiest to violate or fulfill and garner a reaction from the audience.
A fight between a dangerous, strong man and a small, woman can get a positive reaction by violating the expectation that she will lose.
This concept is something you may have already known and many of us have used long before science caught up.
The point now is that science has caught up. There is a language now for what used to be anecdotal. In a funny way, there is a schematic for dealing with schema.
Taking the time to explore the rules of the violence onstage will allow you as a fighter or choreographer to more effectively tell the fight story and elicit a reaction from the paying customers.
Greg
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