The Moving Body : Le Corps Poetique

by Jacques Lecoq, Jean-Gabriel Carasso, Jean-Claude Lallias

Until his death in 1999, Jacques Lecoq taught indefatigably at the International Mime and Theatre school he founded in 1956. Here, for the first time in English, and in Lecoq's own words, are his philosophy and his teaching methods - probably the greatest influence on world theatre over the last thirty years. In chapters entitled Personal Journey, The World and its Movements, The Road to Creativity, & New Perspectives, Lecoq sets out his unique architecture of the body in space and explains his most famous techniques such as neutral mask, acrobatics, bouffons and the grotesque and play, and discusses the actor's approach to situation, character, environment, emotion, physical and vocal preparation and of course movement."In life I want students to be alive, and on the stage I want them to be artists." Jacques Lecoq

Genres: Theatre, Nonfiction, Art, Drama, Plays, Theory, Reference

186 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Jacques Lecoq is regarded as one of the twentieth century's most influential teachers of the physical art of acting. He was born 15 December in Paris, France and participated and trained in various sports as a child and as a young man. During World War II he began exploring gymnastics, mime, movement and dance with a group who used performance to express their opposition to the German occupation of France. After the war, Lecoq then studied mime with Jean Daste, (a former pupil of the acclaimed teacher of mime, Jacques Copeau) who introduced him to masked performance and Japanese Noh theatre. He left Grenoble and spent six months teaching mask work in Germany, before accepting another teaching position at the University of Padua in Italy. He spent eight years in Italy teaching and working as a creative practitioner and discovered the traditional and popular Italian theatre style of commedia dell'arte as well as the tradition of masked chorus work developed in Ancient Greek tragedy. He returned to Paris in 1956 and opened his own school, the Ecole Internationale de Mime et de Theatre which has had many homes in Paris over the years but has continued to attract large numbers of students from all over the world. Lecoq also toured with demonstrations of his physical art of the actor and periodically conducted classes in Britain that had an enormous impact on the development of British theatre. He was awarded the prestigious Legion d'Honneur in 1982 and continued to take classes at his school right up to the day before his death on January 19, 1999.

Reviews

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

The great French actor Jacques Lecoq describes his 2-year program for actors and some of the philosophy behind it. What interested Lecoq was finding the drama in movement and gesture. He distinguished between mechanical and meaningful gesture, and of course was in favor of the latter. He said that meaningful gesture could indicate (like pointing something out), it could take action (like trying to stop somebody from entering a room) or it could represent attitude (a head bowed in grief). These insights have much wider application; public speakers, for example, take note. Eliminate all your movement that doesn't fit into one of these 3 meaningful categories and you will greatly increase your presentation firepower.

[J.F. Ramirez · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been watching a lot of 8 1/2, and I keep on thinking of this book, Proust, Fitzgerald, House of Leaves and just get this feeling that this stuff works together or is related or something like that.

The first time that I saw Fellini's 8 1/2 my mind immediately raced back to this book and to its focus on a total body way of making, or in this case expressing, art. 8 1/2 had that same feeling that lingered around it's edges, in its dark places, and in its jests. It was a total experience, something that not only broke and re-broke a line, or a rule, but that formed this line after breaking it and was self aware as the process was occurring.


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from The Free Dictionary

infinite loop - (Or "endless loop") Where a piece of program is executed repeatedly with no hope of stopping. This is nearly always because of a bug, e.g. if the condition for exiting the loop is wrong, though it may be intentional if the program is controlling an embedded system which is supposed to run continuously until it is turned off. The programmer may also intend the program to run until interrupted by the user. An endless loop may also be used as a last-resort error handler when no other action is appropriate. This is used in some operating system kernels following a panic.

A program executing an infinite loop is said to spin or buzz forever and goes catatonic. The program is "wound around the axle".

A standard joke has been made about each generation's exemplar of the ultra-fast machine: "The Cray-3 is so fast it can execute an infinite loop in under 2 seconds!"

See also black hole, recursion, infinite loop.

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Except that in this case, sadly, the loop ends.

[MK · Rating 3 out of 5]

You're getting Lecoq talking about his philospophy of stage movement. It's not a textbook or exercise book but a grounding in the elements of the Lecoq method. A must read if you're interested in his school of thought.

[Blanca Jordà · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hay cosillas interesantes, pero me gustaría haberlo leído con más tiempo y calma.

[Mad · Rating 3 out of 5]

El cuerpo es la fuente de creación teatral. Una guía que básicamente inspira al actor a moverse, observar y crear desde la presencia.
El autor explica cómo el teatro empieza en el gesto antes que en la palabra.

[Emily Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's great to get the word straight from the horse's mouth. It's not the most engaging writing in the world but it is cool to get a sense of what he was really about. The resource of exercises he used over the years makes it all worthwhile. After years of hearing his ideas second (or third or fourth hand) it seemed important to know what he really meant to say.

[mac ireland · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was told that I was too young to understand this book, but I took my time and really dove into this book and it is truly amazing. I hope to get my own copy soon and read it again and leave notes for myself. This is why I love theatre.

[Sinbad · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dans 'Le corps poétique', Jacques Lecoq nous dévoile les secrets des techniques enseignées à son école de théâtre physique.

Le livre commence avec une introduction du parcour artistique de Jacques Lecoq, la transition de sa vie sportive à son arrivée au monde du théâtre.

Dans la deuxième partie du livre, il parle du chemin à suivre pour que l'artiste arrive à une expression théâtrale alignée avec la nature et avec soi même. Il parle du silence avant la parole, la découverte des elements, de la nature, la découverte des mouvements du corps grâce aux masques (neutre, larvaire, expressive...). La poesie, les couleurs de la peinture, la musique... sont sources d'inspiration, car elles relient les individus dans un fond culturel collectif.

Le coeur du livre, la technique des mouvements, parle des différentes approches pour libérer les mouvements qui permettent une expression naturelle, vraie.

Finalement, le livre introduit les grandes territoires dramatiques: les langages du geste (pantomime, pantomime blanche, bande mimée), le mélodrame, la commedia dell'arte, les bouffons, la tragédie et les clowns.

Certes un ouvrage à lire et à relire et mieux encore, à pratiquer, car il contient des informations et des conseils avec une profondeur telle qu'il faut les travailler avec le mouvement du corps et en groupe pour bien absorber leur richesse.

"Tout bouge.
Tout évolue, progresse.
Tout se ricochette et se réverbère.
D'un point à un autre, pas de ligne droite.
D'un port à un port, un voyage.
Tout bouge, moi aussi!
Le bonheur et le malheur, mais le heurt aussi.
Un point indécis, flou, confus, se dessine,
Point de convergences,
Tentation d'un point fixe,
Dans un calme de toutes les passions.
Point d'appui et point d'arrivée,
Dans ce qui n'a ni commencement ni fin.
Le nommer,
Le rendre vivant,
Lui donner autorité
Pour mieux comprendre ce qui bouge,
Pour mieux comprendre le Mouvement."

J. L. Belle-Ile-en-Mer, août 1997.

[Greg Talbot · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Everything Moves" ('Tout Bouge') Lecoq wrote in his lecture/demonstration. Whether it was the liberation of France or the student protests of 1968, the expressive clowning of Jacques Lecoq has been an expansive force of expression and cultural renewal against cultural stagnation and defeat.

This last spring, I began my own exploration to "find my clown" through the sterling instruction of a professor with deep ties to Lecoq's work. At the "Theater Unspeakable" in Chicago, a school for the unteachables, we began the discovery of our clowning. And though we did not use the provisonal masks Lecoq described. We explored similar exercises of discovering an audience, communicating through baffonery or collaborating as a chorus/ensemble.

Of course with COVID...our class was cut short, and almost mythologized as a the dispurtion of joy itself. And yet our troupe continued...smaller and frazzled...but through camera lens exploring movement, and building a show later this year in August. Never losing the human touch, as Lecoq states of his students, they were looking for simpler rooted ways to emotion (p.171)

There is nothing I miss during this pandemic than the community of theater, and the joy of expression. After this dim coronavirus passes, we will find our bodies and passions again, with room for tragedy, comedy and always clowning.

[Caelan♡ · Rating 1 out of 5]

We studied this book at school and I have nothing to say but what?

There were many jokes about him being on LSD, and the pronunciation of his surname certainly was not overlooked, either. Sorry Jacques.

Just to be clear, I'm sure he wasn't on LSD. But seriously, the exercises that go along with this material were like walk like the colour yellow. And move the way 'maroon' sounds.

I have a very good drama teacher, so I can only put the fact that I found little to no substance in his techniques down to the techniques themselves. Again, sorry Jacques.

Fever dream material, I'm telling you.

[Daniel Romero · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lo leí según mis intereses, no por completo, pero los fragmentos que recopilé no solo funcionan como partes de una pedagogía teatral, sino, que son extrapolables (de forma poetica) a la mayoría de actividades artísticas. Este libro es contemplativo o por lo menos yo lo viví así. Tiene citas, no muy profundas, pero súper existantes sobre el cuerpo y su movimiento. Lo más interesante para mi, es comprender que todo su pedagogía viene de un cuerpo del deporte y que entiendo el silencio como accionador.
Volveré algún día para releerlo entero

[Jonathan McPherson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve been training under Lecoq pedagogy for the last year and a half and only wish I had read this sooner. The book is very clear cut for those who’d want to attempt some of the exercises with a group of actors/movers. However, I don’t think you could train yourself in this style of movement without someone who had been formally trained to oversee due to some of the complexities of the work. It takes an instructor with a good eye to aid the performer in the discipline.

[Nima ُShoa · Rating 5 out of 5]

کتاب ژاک ل کُک در مورد شاعرانگی تن، درست دیدن و تجربه کردن صحبت می‌کنه. بیشتر از اینکه در مورد کارگاه دو ساله بازیگری نویسنده باشه، سعی در انتقال نگاهی داره که می‌تونه رو کل زندگی هر کسی تاثیر بذاره. به شدت کتاب دلچسبیه. مثل شروع مسیری میمونه که مرحله به مرحله آمادگی لازم برای ادامه راه رو کسب میکنی و به عمق مطلب نزدیکتر میشی.

[Oleon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Siempre me han gustado las conversaciones inteligentes, que tratan temas específicos y se llenan de referencia externas. A lo mejor referencias es lo que queda a deberme Lecoq, de repente es tanta la información que se vuelve sobre sí misma, que llega a cansar. Otra impresion Que me deja es que creo que dio referencias puntuales para aplicarlas a sus ejercicios de descubrimiento y desempeño.

[Luna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Empecé a leerlo en 2-3ero de carrera de teatro físico. He de decir que es interesante leerlo a la vez que estás haciendo los mismos ejercicios en clase. En mi caso lo he terminado un año después de terminar la carrera y me ha gustado leerlo todo lo que aprendí en la práctica, lo veo más claro. Quizás leerse durante y después es una buena forma de fijar la técnica y las ideas de Lecoq

[Paula · Rating 5 out of 5]

Este libro me ha acompañado durante meses porque requería de una lectura atenta, tomando nota de todas las ideas y dinámicas que ofrece Lecoq, desde un enfoque basado en el movimiento, la verdad y el cuerpo.

[Danny Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book, but kinda boring to read. Had to skip between pages sometimes.

[Lucyrallen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I throughly enjoyed this book it gives an in-depth idea into the way acting is learned and I’d recommend it to any aspiring actor or actress!

[Billy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A staple in any theatremakers bookcase. Inspiring thoughts from a man that helped shape the physicality we see in theatre today.

[Matteo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just love Jacque Lecoq's theatrical work! Inspirational to the point that I wanted to go down to Ecole Jacques Lecoq

[Alyssa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it. Describes perfectly the School's teaching and Lecoq's point of view.

[H. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A poetic treatise where physicality and philosophy meet, where sensibility marches and reason curtails.

[Irene P. O. · Rating 3 out of 5]

En si es muy interesante pero como era para un trabajo de clase tampoco lo he disfrutado mucho

[Daisy Frame · Rating 2 out of 5]

this is literally going to save my coursework but no mention of seven levels of tension :(

[Noj · Rating 5 out of 5]

This review or comment is not about this book,is about what´s inside this book.. .. Lecoq was already extraordinary on what he had already created,his style and technique I believe is something that many of us are hoping will last until at least the end of our time but on top of that he left a legacy in writing, his teachings.

Thank you Jacq,there are not enough words to thank you for what you have left us. . .

[Héctor Toledo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Buen libro. Le falta ser un poco más minucioso en la descripción de ejercicios y argumentar un poco más sólidamente las bases de sus teorías (es decir, no limitarse a decir lo que hace, sino por qué hace eso y busca eso). Si uno tiene ya una cierta base teórica y conoce un poco este tipo de teatro, es productivo. Si no, quizá sea mejor empezar por otro autor.

[Bradley Mcdevitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

from the master. great reference.