Centro Internationale Studi Di Biomeccanica Teatrale Perugia
Pantomime
La Palestra dell’Attore is a School of Acting and Theatre Company based in Rome and founded in 2004 with an educational spirit inspired by Meyerhold’s Biomechanics and the so-called external acting approach that can be summarised as follows: inducing emotions by starting from the body.
This spirit has not only influenced Meyerhold’s Biomechanics but also the Commedia dell’Arte, pantomime, Michail Cechov’s method, Stanislavskij’s Method of “Physical Action” developed towards the end of his career, Anatoly Vasiliev’s improvisation-based technique with the “etjud” form, Pina Bausch’s Dance Theater, circus arts, clownery and many more.
All these practices that start from the body, performance expression and learning methodologies can be learnt at La Palestra dell’Attore during annual courses, intensive weekend workshops or residential summer camps. Biomechanics is taught in main public theatre schools around the world because it allows the actor to learn the fundamentals of the actor’s art starting from on-stage movement. The body does not lie. Any body position, poise or gesture is an expression of a emotional state.
Biomechanics trains to perceive these functions and to recreate them.
La Palestra dell’Attore is directed by Claudio Spadola, who obtained a diploma at the Gigi Proietti School, was a student and teacher at the Scuola Internazionale di Commedia dell’Arte directed by Antonio Fava, he graduated with a thesis on Biomechanics and wrote many essays on this topic, he specialised at the Russian Institute of Theatre Arts – GITIS (RATI) – in Moscow, established by Meyerhold himself.
At GITIS he studied with Gennadi Bogdanov and Nikolaj Karpov, teachers of Biomechanics and Stage Movement, and he assisted Nikolaj Karpov for a number of years. Other teachers have joined the school: Franco Ruffini, collaborator at the Odin Teatret with Eugenio Barba and President of DAMS (Music, Art and Performing Arts Department) Roma Tre, and Caterina Genta, who received a diploma at the Pina Bausch’s school.
La Palestra dell’Attore, in cooperation with DAMS Roma Tre, Università Sapienza Roma and Teatro Torrino, is proposing a number of initiatives for the 2022 Centenary of Biomechanics including biomechanics courses and workshops, a series of performances by various directors, projection of video clips by Chiara Crupi, historian of Biomechanics and film editing teacher at La Sapienza, and conferences by Professor Franco Ruffini and maestro Eugenio Barba from the Odin Teatret.