The Art of Mime

The primary focus in the workshop will be to understand how we can go beyond technique to create an organic presence that speaks beyond the word and engages the spectator.

It is obvious that we want the spectators, on some level, to understand what we are doing but understanding is not enough. At the highest level we want the audience to experience our performance. Understanding is a cognitive function related to thinking, whereas experiencing something involves the total being. A total being experience affects you both emotionally and physically.

Mime technique incorporates a myriad of elements that all come together to create a movement. Since Mime is a silent art your movements create the art. Like dance in that it is movement that creates dance. In Mime when we talk about movement we are talking about a change in body position. This change in body position involves a change in Energy, Breath, and Emotional Content (EBEC). A change in EBEC results in a change in experiential content. You cannot move before there is a change your EBEC. This change in EBEC causes you to move, so the result is that you are being moved by an experience that is continually changing. Movement becomes a result of changes in experience. I refer to this as experiencing and Living Through Your Movement (ELTYM). 

The workshop will explore the elements involved in ELTYM and how they are related to EBEC. The elements include:

1.      Breath

2.      Counter movement

3.      Energy (Expansive and Contractive)

4.      Movement in Stillness

5.      Stillness in Movement   

6.      Impulse (Centered created Movement)

7.      Transformation

8.      Identification (Physical and Emotional)

9.      Full Body Experience (Corporeal mime)

This workshop is designed to open you up to a new way of thinking about movement and Mime as an Art Form.

                                                                                              Terry Press