Ecole International de Theatre Jacques Lecoq

First act : from physical education to theatre

Jacques Lecoq was born in Paris on December 15, 1921. In 1937 he began studying physical education and sport

which he taught from 1941 to 1945, gaining teaching diplomas from the French athletics and swimming federations. His interest in physical education brought him into contact with Jean-Marie Conty, a master of physical education and friend of Antonin Artaud and Jean-Louis Barrault.

By 1945 Jacques Lecoq had started acting with Gabriel Cousin and the two founded a drama group. He was then taken on by Jean Dasté as part of a theatre company known as the "Comédiens de Grenoble", where he was put in charge of the physical training and body movements of his fellow actors. Here he discovered masks and was introduced to the ideas of Copeau, to the point of later identifying with him as his indirect heir.

Second act : Commedia dell’Arte

In 1948 Jacques Lecoq went to Italy where he settled for eight years. He staged his first pantomimes at the university theatre in Padua, while in the city markets he discovered Commedia dell'Arte. He met the sculptor Amleto Sartori (http://www.sartorimaskmuseum.it) and together they embarked on research into masks, ultimately leading to joint projects including, inter alia, the "neutral mask"

. Invited by Giorgio Strehler and Paolo Grassi, he joined them for the launching of the school at the Piccolo Teatro in Milan (http://www.theatre-odeon.fr/public/liens/europe.html). Later ventures included work as a director and choreographer, working together with figures such as Dario Fo (http://www.nobelprizes.com/ nobel/literature/1997a.html), Franco Parenti, Luciano Berio and Anna Magnani, pursuing the quest for new movements suited to contemporary music, reviews, opera, and devising movements for choruses in Greek tragedy in Syracuse.

In 1956 he came back to Paris and opened his School of Mime and Theatre. At the same time he set up his own theatre company, worked at the T.N.P. (National Popular Theatre) with Jean Vilar, and also on television, but before long the school had expanded and he devoted all his efforts to teaching.

Third act : The LEM (movement research laboratory)

From 1968 to 1988, Jacques Lecoq was a teacher at the French school of fine arts (Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts) where he developed a teaching programme on architecture based on the human body, movement and the "dynamics of mime". In 1977 he founded the stage design department of the school, known as LEM (Laboratoire d'étude du mouvement — movement research laboratory). Jacques Lecoq was a member of the Union of Theatres of Europe (http://www.ute-net.org), touring the world as guest teacher and speaker, giving master-classes and lectures, including the performance lecture entitled "Tout Bouge" [Everything Moves].

Permanent video records were made by Patrick Lecoq in 1983. In 1997 and 1998, Jacques Lecoq worked in close partnership with Jean-Gabriel Carasso, Jean-Claude Lallias and Jean-Noël Roy, ultimately producing the book "Le Corps Poétique" and producing two 45-minute documentaries for French television.

Only a few days before his death, on January 19, 1999, Jacques Lecoq was still teaching at the school.

The International theatre school Jacques Lecoq is now administrated by his wife, Fay Lecoq.