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I am beginning today, to describe the process I am embarked upon:
How I am moving towards making a short documentary of my work.
She and I talked about the innovative processes we each have been able to develop and teach, she - The Dark Clown and me - Transformation and Imaginative Improvisation.
I also talked about the importance of honouring the fragile lineage of which I am part.
Transformation and Imaginative Improvisation has its roots in work conceived by Jacques Copeau (1879-1949). In England, Copeau’s influence came through his nephew Michel Saint -Denis who, with George Devine and Glen Byam Shaw started Old Vic School after the Second World War. Michel Saint-Denis and John Blatchley developed Copeau’s work into a series of exercises. Cathérine Clouzot taught and developed this work with her husband John Blatchley and after his death, alone. My actor training (at Arts Ed), brought me into first contact with her and her body of work. Some years later, Cathérine invited me to become her apprentice. When she felt I was ready, she promptly stepped away from teaching. I have been doing it ever since!
If for no other reason but that I am the sole inheritor of this approach to actor training in the UK, I must document the work.
"It takes years to become conscious of what you already believe and to be capable of putting it into question, because so much of what we believe our body to be has been learned very early on. And it affects how we choose to act and stand and sit later on- the subtleties of stance have to do with what we believe"
Taken from Body:Language #6 The Transformative Body: Guy with Dana Caspersen,
6 December 2010,Lilian Baylis Studio,Sadler's Wells London.
