The project The Body’s Journey is the fruit of more than 20 years of experience in the theatre field (training, university research, teaching, devising). It concentrates on the fusion of two contemporary techniques for the actor/dancer training: The Organic Lineage research initiated and developed by Jerzy Grotowski and then by Eugenio Barba and his collaborators (theatre anthropology); and the Corporeal Mime of Etienne Decroux. These different techniques find a commonplace in that they both develop through the actor/dancer the sense of scenic presence and autonomy as an author/performer/creator.
The exercises of the organic process liberate the energetic flux from the spinal column, and propagate to transform the physical body. The actor/dancer thus develops a concentration and identifies with his physical, emotional, and mental centers. Instead of searching for a specific expression, the actor/dancer plunges into a real process of organic research, which in turn becomes an artistic expression. The corporeal movements are initiated by impulses that are germinated from the interior of the body and develop within and throughout it. The research in theatre anthropology draws its inspiration from traditional theater from diverse parts of the world.
In the practice of Corporeal Mime, the actor/dancer finds the possibility of creating his or her own personal compositions in isolating different parts of the body, in mastering its articulations, and in playing with varying speeds, resistances and designs of corporeal movement.
The play and the joy of playing, and the improvisation are part of the listening and of the sharing. The research with puppets and materials, the acrobatics, the voice work, and the exercises of awareness and awakening the interior are also part of our training work, research and creation.
Our project, The Body’s Journey, will guide actors/dancers on a road to self-discovery in order to explore new corporeal paths through the listening of impulses, abandoning of stereotypical and mechanical behaviors, and through the discovery and the respect of a genuine organicity inherent in the body. A corporeal work conducted with attention and sensibility allows the actor/dancer to develop an original language capable of communicating to a larger audience and to cultivate openness to one’s self and to others, recovered through the artistic training of theatre and performance throughout the ages and across cultures.
Pratice – with Leela Alaniz assisted by Won Kim
• Exercises of the Organic Lineage – research of organicity, energetic flux, opening the blockages of the body, and of the release.
• Exercises of attention and interior awakening
• Stage Presence
• Acrobatics, Contact improvisation
• Corporeal Mime – Technique Etienne Decroux – articulations, counterweights, dynamo-rhythm, intra-corporeal and inter-spatial causalities.
• Alexander Technique – relaxation and liberation of the articulations
• Work with objects
• Voice – corporeal resonators, text
• Improvisations, play
• Compositions, structure
• Final Project – Presentation
Practice – with Eric de Sarria – Philippe Genty Company
The actor’s play and manipulation of marionettes and objects
Research involving the manipulation of marionettes and materials:
- Some basic principles of manipulation of carried marionettes (“Bunraku” style) and the differences when concerned with the manipulation of materials (paper, cloth, and clay).
- Disassociation, axes, impulses on one side, and conviction, concentration and personal memory on the other side.
- Work concerning the consciousness of being outside and inside the action, in the present and the past at the same time!
- Final Project – Devised presentation
Theory – with Marc Duvillier
A retrospective of the history of theater will be proposed through two conferences, in the perspective of the actor/dancer, creator and material of art:
• History of the body in theater.
• Historical perspective of three grand reformers: Edward Gordon Craig, Antonin Artaud, Etienne Decroux.
