about us…
“What is unknown to the ignorant schoolmaster is the inequality of intelligence”
welcome
We are the “ignorant schoolmasters” of Embodied Poetics, experienced in devising our past adventures into new journeys. What the voyagers will “learn” is what they will themselves translate from experience into knowledge.
““There are three masks: the one we think we are, the one we really are, and the one we have in common.”
Embodied Poetics is based on the pedagogy of Jacques Lecoq and those who inspired him, among whom we also name Jacques Copeau and Suzanne Bing. It is an intensive curriculum that provides the performer-creator with skills, tools and a technical language, as well as experience and orientation within a universe of devised physical theatre. Our two voyages introduce performers first to physical imagination - to the performer's ability to create theatre from physical inspirations - and then to big theatrical "territories" - classic styles that serve as reference points for further invention and creation.
This well-established curriculum provides guiding lights, yet we are sailing into the unknown. We guide according to these reference points, however they are no one’s possession, only theories to be verified, disproved, adapted or transformed.
Jacques Lecoq’s enigmatic statement is one of these reference points.
What is the mask we think we are?
- When does our idea of what we are performing not cohere with what others see? If this is a disappointing experience, can it become a creative form of failure?
What is the mask we really are?
- When does the audience respond to our performance, proving that the mask and the performance cohere? What happens when we try to hang on to the coherence…?
Do we have a mask in common?
- When does the performance touch on an even deeper coherence, uniting performer and audience in a shared experience? What is it, to find ourselves in others...?
These three masks accompany us on our journey...