2000 "The Moving Body" Teaching creative theatre
The teaching
 
The Lecoq School is continuing and is perpetuating the techniques and skills inherited, always in movement and embracing new fields of research – "Tout bouge!" ["everything moves"]. This is being done through the efforts of Fay Lecoq and the teachers supporting her.

The School expresses creative drama in all its different forms.

The teaching at the School brings meaning to an artistic path and has an impact on every field of knowledge. It is not just a method which is being handed down, but also proposes permanent references and values.

The teachers are all past students of Jacques Lecoq and are thus handing on his creative teaching techniques.

The students : the lifeblood of the School
Every year, young actors from some thirty countries enroll at the School, which is a focus of exchange and cross-fertilisation, where the spontaneous blend of cultures contributes its own resonance to the teaching, extending the quest for a shared poetic wealth.
The School leads to staging opportunities, these productions being the work of the students, built on their ideas and ambitions. Indeed, the students are the very lifeblood of the School.

Actors, authors, directors and set designers work here; as do architects, teachers, writers and many others for whom the School is a working reference.

"One of the original features of the School is that it provides foundations, as broad and as permanent as possible, while being conscious that later each person will choose the elements best suited to his or her individual path » Jacques Lecoq.
The teaching method
 
Teaching is based on the dynamics of movement, involving the body as the primary element of recognition of the living being, through the re-enactment of everything which moves, whether in life or on stage.

The universal laws of movement are applied to creative dramatic interpretation and to the art of acting, exploring different areas of drama recognised in the history of the theatre, reinterpreting them in the context of present ideas and values.

The teaching is linked to references, providing students with a live base or anchor point, transcending fashion and connected to the movements of life and the permanent aspects of these references.

The school pursues the quest for a theatre of human nature, through diverse forms of visual expression, language and acting techniques.

The educational experience forms a journey over two years, confronting students with essential obstacles, stimulating creative skills and responses, helping them to develop such skills and forge their own path.
  First year
 

The first year is devoted to observation, of the world and of the movements in it. The process moves from silent psychological exercises to a point where the student builds a character, going through stages of identifying with nature, animals, colours, sounds and words; and discovering the art of acting with masks.

All classes are inter-related and follow the same gradual progress in the work. Together they form a coherent whole, based mainly on the analysis of movements and improvisation.

> First year programme
 
Second year
 

The second year is devoted to creative work, exploring the main areas in drama: melodrama, human drama, tragedy, bouffons and the art of the clown.

"No reference can take the place of true creative work as expressed with original inventiveness at the School every day. Going beyond styles or genres, we seek to discover the driving forces involved in the acting and operating in each domain, so that they in turn provide creative inspiration. It must always remain the work of our own time."

Jacques Lecoq
> Second year programme