Jacques Lecoq is one of the most influential theorists and teachers of physical theatre. Published in France in 1987 'The Theatre of Movement and Gesture' is the first English language translation of his book 'Le Theatre du Geste'. The book sets out his philosophy of the human movement and the manner in which it takes expressive form in a wide range of different performance traditions such as the history of pantomime and the Commedia del'arte. His ideologies challenge a different pathway to Stanislavski as Lecoq emphasized physical movement, mime and the use of non-text based acting style. An important part of Lecoq's method, which he focuses a lot of attention to, is the definition of mime and the components of it. He also discusses the explosion of physical theatre in the second half of the twentieth century.
Lecoq developed his training methods over thirty years but still encouraged his actors to discover their own style rather than merely have it imposed on them. He refuses to allow an academic distinction to be made between the text and the performance as he insists that the actor 'writes with his body in the space' and compares it to the way in which an author 'writes with black lines on white paper'.
In his interview with Jean Perret he explains that his earlier career began as a sportsman not as an actor, director or practitioner. Thus his first and most important interest was always in the ability of the human physique and the manner in which every action, every movement that a human being makes carries meaning, whether intended to or not. The explorations of movement is therefore always practical and can and should be only experienced through the body however he was still searching for the way to incorporate the imagination and a sense of the poetic into the movement.
An essay on the universal practice of imitation introduces the play. In this Lecoq draws attention to the fact that it is simply by mimicking movements that children are able to learn about the world around them, and this simple copying of gestures is continued into adulthood subconsciously and consciously. He explains that everyday gestures are conditions of time, place, class and fashion, thus affecting each individual differently, however he also question the aspects of physical expression and whether there are some gestures that are shared by all. His aim was to find the physical impulse, which he believed, would show the thinking, emotions and the expression of the actor.
Lecoq has been a huge influence on many directors and theatre practitioners such as Ariane Mnochkine, Robert Wilson and peter Stein hence the contributions in the book from those that were influenced by his methods.
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