Mime Acting

The Department of Acting at Stockholm University of the Arts offers at three-year bachelor programme in mime acting. Auditions are held every second year when 10–12 students are accepted.

The mime actor is a well-trained and versatile stage person who can flourish in almost any performing arts occupation: mime, dance, circus, performance art and narrative theatre. He or she tells stories and portrays emotions with body movements in interaction with an audience.

The profession is characterized by innovation and crossing borders, which create mime’s unique performance. As a fully trained mime actor, you’ll have excellent opportunities to work in innovative contexts with colleagues from different fields of the arts. You become very good at anything that involves physical form, whether you are acting or working as a choreographer or director.

The Bachelor’s Programme in Mime acting

The main subject is called Mime Portrayal where you are trained from the outset to creatively work with scenes and presentations. The historical background of the training is the mime technique by the polish director Henryk Tomaszewski which was developed by mime actor and professor Stanislaw Brosowski. Brosowski’s pedagogy called “The physical thinking actor” is still the base of the education.  Through this you will be anchored in a stage technique, developing a backup that you can adapt to whichever stage you wish. Mime Portrayal involves daily training of your body. You will learn to visualise and embody thoughts and feelings. Technology training interspersed with improvisation and creativity. Texts can be used as a supplement, but is rarely the main focus.

Language of instruction is so far Swedish but from 2021 the programme will be taught in English.

Course content

Mime is complemented with:

• basic acting training
• dance and corporeal mime (Decroux Technique)
• acrobatics
• voice, text interpretation
• dramaturgy, performance creation
• history of theatre and professional encounters

 

About Stockholm University of the Arts

Stockholm University of the Arts (SKH) provides education and conducts research in the fields of circus, dance, dance pedagogy, film, media, opera, performing arts and acting. With our unique composition of education and artistic research, we want to create new opportunities for societal development and knowledge of tomorrow.

Stockholm University of the Arts was established in 2014 when DOCH the School of Dance and Circus, the University College of Opera, and the Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts (former National Academy of Mime and Acting and Dramatic Institute) merged. We have about 500 students and 250 employees.