Imaginative Embodiment: Michael Chekhov and Jacques Lecoq Open space hosted by The Chekhov Collective and Embodied Poetics with Cass Fleming and Amy Russell
Location: Goldsmiths, University of London
This workshop will investigate the synergies between Michael Chekhov Technique and the Lecoq Pedagogy. Cass Fleming draws on Chekhov Technique and also the play principles and methods developed by Suzanne Bing in France, which later fed into Jacques Lecoq’s pedagogy. Cass has explored these synergies in her practice and scholarly research (Fleming, 2013) for over 20 years. We are delighted to welcome Amy (Pedagogic co-founder of LISPA in London, more recently founder of the School of Embodied Poetics, London) to join us for this session. Amy was trained as a performer and as a pedagogue by Lecoq has been working with this practice for over 20 years in different parts of the world. Amy is also a qualified Gestalt psychotherapist and is currently developing therapeutic uses of Lecoq pedagogy. She is also undertaking doctoral research into Lecoq’s pedagogy at the University of Tasmania. Cass and Amy will teach in playful partnership exploring the rich overlaps and differences between these two imaginatively embodied forms of practice.
The workshop will be of interest to performers, actors, dancers and directors, especially those interested in approaching performance through the body and through principles of play
Led by Cass Fleming, director of The Chekhov Collective and Amy Russell, director of Embodied Poetics
Amy Russell is the Founder and Pedagogic Director of Embodied Poetics, a school for intensive trainings in devised physical theatre based on the Lecoq Pedagogy. She is a senior teacher in the lineage of Lecoq/Bing/Copeau, having trained with M. Lecoq as a pedagogic student. She was Pedaogic Co-Founder of the London International School for Performing Arts (LISPA – London) and Chair of the Naropa MFA in Actor-Created Physical Theatre. She has taught trainings and workshops internationally, independently and for theatre schools and universities.
Amy is also an award-winning playwright, an accredited Gestalt psychotherapist and group facilitator, and a doctoral researcher in Critical Spatial Practice. Her research into Lecoq’s Geo-dramatic territories explores the possibilities that devising holds for understanding the social practice of space and the revolutionary potential of collaborative creation.
