Corporeal Mime classesTIMETABLECorporeal Mime Class with Luis Torreão
Since: october 4th, 2010
Monday and Wednesday from 2pm to 5pm
Tuesday and Thursday from 10am to 1pm
Fees:
120 € /month (2 classes/week)
200 € /month (4 classes/week)
Classes at :
Théâtre de la Terre
1 passage du Buisson Saint Louis - 75010 Paris
M° Goncourt ou Belleville.
Luis Torreao Began his study in Corporeal Mime in 1994, before becoming assistant to Thomas Leabhart in 1997 in Paris and in California. Taught at the Seahorse Project (Hippocampe) in Paris since September 2000. Currently, directs the Hippocampe company. As an actor and choreographer, created: La chambre de Camille (2009/2010), Of Men and Women (2005), Traçado (2004), Labyrinth – Prototype (2003)...
PROGRAMBack Exercises:
A combination of yoga, Pilates, Lessac and Feldenkrais, this series of exercises has been developed by Thomas Leabhart over a period of thirty years as a preparation for the practice of corporeal mime. Each exercise is tailored and adapted to the opening of the back, the articulation of the vertebrae, the activation of the area around the sacrum, and the improvement of alignment for the physical actor's optimum performance.
Corporal Mime Technique:
Scales:
Decroux's scales place the external geometry of stage architecture inside the actors' body, making these clear articulations of the body simultaneously luminous and legible. Scales and related segmented movements can be performed on the lateral plane, forward and back, in rotation, and in combining two or three planes. From these basic scales and segmented movements come more complex configurations: undulations, compensations, re-establishments, etc.
Counterweights:
For Decroux, counterweights (work movements) were most distinctive in differentiating mime from dance. This apparent and amplified struggle is the basis of mime. Weight and resistance, posed by gravity and matter, are external forces against which, the actor is continuously and dramatically struggling. Decroux noted that pushing heavy thoughts may entail the same counterweights (and the same physical effort) as moving heavy objects, and that a certain physical gravitas is necessary to depict a corresponding moral state.
Dynamo-Rhythms:
A slap and a caress use exactly the same body parts, and the same trajectory. It is only the contrasting dynamic quality which distinguishes the two. Dynamic exploration was for Decroux an important part of the actor training, which can be applied in any area of corporeal mime, improvisation, and creation of new works.
Figures of Style:
These mini-compositions, many of which are based on paintings and sculptures, help the student to begin to think and move in a dramatic way.
Improvisation:
Decroux taught that the mime must begin like a cinema actor and finish like an acrobat. His improvisation exercises help the actor to have more presence while at the same time exploring a greater range of physical expressivity.
Composition:
The Seahorse Project will encourage creation of new work through a series of composition exercises, which help the actor in creating complex and potentially expressive pieces.
Repertoire:
While the Seahorse project will focus on the creation of new works, certain repertoire pieces by Decroux (Washerwoman) and Leabhart (Table, Chair and Glass, among others) will be taught.
