ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to provide a distillation of some of the key principles of Jacques Lecoq's approach to teaching theatre and acting. It discusses two specific, but fundamental, Lecoq principles: movement provokes emotion, and the body remembers. The chapter also provides an educational journey from basic movements through emotional states into territories of theatre or drama. It describes the driving forces – the movement dynamics – of tragedy, melodrama and commedia dell'arte. The chapter presents a sequence of practical exercises designed to offer both student and teacher a distilled, but nonetheless physical and somatic, experience of Lecoq's teaching. The school believes in a strong link between movement and emotion, and avoids any separation between movement technique and acting classes. Lecoq's work on tragedy focused on the experience of the chorus and a very physical approach to text. The physical preparation exercises and improvisation would normally be taught in the first year of Lecoq's programme.
