Ecole Internationale de Theatre Jacques Lecoq

The School On 5th December1956, Jacques Lecoq founded the school in Paris. In 1976 the school definitely moved into The Central, previously a gymnasium, which became a well-known boxing center in the beginning of the 20th century. The working space, built in 1876, is located 57 rue du faubourg Saint-Denis in the 10th district of Paris.

The aim of the school is to produce a young theatre of new work, generating performance languages which emphasise the physical playing of the actor. Creative work is constantly stimulated, largely through improvisation, which is also the first approach to playwriting. The school’s sights are set on art theatre, but theatre education is broader than the theatre itself. It is not just a matter of training actors, but of educating theatre artists of all kinds : authors, diretors, scenographers as well as actors. One of the school’s unique features is to provide as broad and as durable a foundation as possible, since we know that each student will go on to make his own journey.

Program

The Lecoq program lasts for two years. Ninety students from all over the world are accepted in the first year, and out of these, thirty will be accepted into the second year. Classes are conducted in French.

Two year program

The first year focuses upon observing movement dynamics in the world and in doing so, rediscovering life anew.

In the words of Jacques Lecoq: To mime is to literally embody and therefore understand better. A person who handles bricks all day long reaches a point where he no longer knows what he is handling. It has become an automatic part of his physical life. If he is asked to mime the object, he rediscovers the meaning of the object, its weight and volume. This has interesting consequences for our teaching method: miming is a way of rediscovering a thing with renewed freshness

Aside from observing the world anew through the study of natural elements, materials, animals, words, sounds and colours, students also discover themselves anew with the Neutral Mask, an exercise which reveals their habits and tendencies and teaches stage presence.

The second year focuses on exploring major dramatic territories, such as melodrama , buffoon , tragedy , Commedia dell’arte clowning and so on.Classes In general, each day students have three sessions:

1. 1. Movement analysis. This includes physical preparation learning and analysing 20 essential movements, acrobatics , juggling , stage combat , etc.
   2. Improvisation.
   3. Autocours. Each Friday, students are asked to work in groups to prepare for a performance upon a certain theme related to their other classwork. The process of collaborative directing is often frustrating at first, but allows students to engage with each other creatively. In this way, students get to know each other extremely well, and also learn to work with others to create a piece of work.

Laboratory of Movement (LEM)

In addition to the two year professional course the school also offers LEM, a course which studies space and rhythm through scenography