TEACHING
TEACHING
My teaching specialisms include:
- Movement training
- Devising
- Mask-work and making
- Tragedy
- Commedia dell’Arte
- Melodrama
- Greek Chorus
- Clown
- Object Theatre
- Site-specific performance
I have a diploma in leather mask making from the Centro Maschere e strutture Gestuali, Italy (2003). I have also worked with the movement teacher Monika Pagneux in Barcelona, developing a particular interest in the Feldenkrais approach to movement for actor training.
In 1995, I co-founded La Mancha International School of Image and Gesture
with the Chilean/Norwegian director Rodrigo Malbrán (Santiago, Chile). The School offers professional training in contemporary theatre making, as well as postgraduate courses in acting, directing, teaching and theatre in Human Development.
My roles as Co-Director and Principal Lecturer involved writing the School’s degree and postgraduate courses and contributing to the architectural design of the purpose built premises.
Underpinned by the Lecoq tradition, the La Mancha School is unique in South America. Students come from all over the world to study with us and graduates have gone on to form many innovative national and international theatre and dance companies, as well as create successful careers in theatre, film and television.
LA MANCHA INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF IMAGE AND GESTURE
Established in 1995 by the La Mancha Theatre Company, the La Mancha School
is situated on the edge of the Andes in Santiago, Chile and offers a Two Year Diploma and a range of postgraduate courses.
The Two -Year Diploma Course begins with silence in an empty space. The performer’s body is understood as a structure within that space, an instrument for the communication of ideas, emotions and appetites, an intelligent machine and model of organization. Based upon the observation of nature and the physical laws that govern it, the student is guided on a somatic journey of creative discovery in contemporary performance making.
Through play (imagining, creating in the moment and developing relationships with other performers and materials), the students develop not only a responsive body, but also the capacity to be open and imaginative.
Students come to La Mancha from Latin America, U.S.A and Europe. Graduates have gone on to work in film, television and to form national and international theatre and dance Companies. They are also teaching and directing workshops in schools, local communities, hospitals, prisons, and indigenous communities.
Postgraduate diplomas in Directing, Acting, Pedagogy and Theatre in Human Development are available to Diploma graduates from the La Mancha School. These courses are designed to develop and extend the theatre practitioner’s professional skills in the making or teaching of contemporary performance.
