The Moving Body (Le Corps Po?tique): Teaching Creative Theatre

In life, I want students to be alive and on stage I want them to be artists' Jacques Lecoq Jacques Lecoq was one of the most inspirational theatre teachers of our age. In The Moving Body, he shares with us first-hand his unique philosophy of performance, improvisation, masks, movement and gesture, which together form one of the greatest influences on contemporary theatre. Neutral mask, character mask and counter masks, bouffons, acrobatics, commedia, clowns and complicity: all the famous Lecoq techniques are covered in this book - techniques that have made their way into the work of former collaborators and students including Dario Fo, Ariane Mnouchkine, Yasmina Reza and Theatre de Complicite. The book contains a foreword by Simon McBurney, a critical introduction by Mark Evans and an afterword by Fay Lecoq, Director of the International Theatre School in Paris.

Jacques Lecoq (b. Paris, 1921) was an actor, mime and acting instructor. His physical theatre and movement methods, taught at L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq, made him famous throughout the world. An early interest in gymnastics made him very attuned to the movement of the body, an understanding he adapted to his teaching practices. As an actor he performed with Dario Fo in Italy. As a teacher he was widely regarded as a master in his field, and his school remains an unrivalled centre for the art of physical theatre.

Simon McBurney is one of Britain's most acclaimed theatre directors as founder and Artistic Director of the multi-award-winning Theatre de Complicite.

David Bradby (b. 1942) was one of the great pioneers of theatre studies in Britain. He had a strong interest in French theatre, modernist and postmodernist theatre, the role of the director, and the Theatre of the Absurd, as well as translating several works. He was Professor Emeritus of Drama and Theatre at Royal Holloway and was made a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French government in 1997. He died aged 68 in 2011.

David Bradby (1942 – 2011) was Emeritus Professor of Drama and Theatre Studies at Royal Holloway, University of London, UK.