“Every block of stone has a statue inside it, and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.” — Michelangelo

From clay modeling to plaster molding, from papier-mâché to finishing and color: a handmade process built on precise steps. We’ll refine our craftsmanship to best translate our ideas, allowing creativity to follow the rhythm dictated by the materials.

• Clay modeling
• Plaster mold making
• Paper preparation
• Papier-mâché mark creation
• Cutting eyes and edges
• Filling and sanding
• Finishing and painting

The mask is a powerful engine for imagination. Observing the play between lines, volumes, and proportions awakens sensitivity to what form can communicate. The constant dialogue between creator and material — ever-changing throughout the modeling process — offers unexpected insights and new directions for the vision. The goal is to create a living, three-dimensional object, ready to embody the emotions and states of mind of complex characters.

Some manual skill or prior experience is helpful, but not required — curiosity and a desire to experiment are more than enough.

“Art does not reproduce the visible; rather, it makes visible.” — Paul Klee

A path of learning and experimentation rooted in movement research, nourished by improvisation, and dedicated to exploring non-verbal dramaturgy and the techniques of creation and composition in physical theatre.

• Physical training and partner work
• Proprioception and perception
• Qualities of movement
• Improvisation and physical scores
• Dramatisation of movement
• Creation and composition
• Staging

The body is depth — a place that welcomes, hosts, and reveals. The goal of physical training is to discover and release the connections between its parts, heightening sensitivity and refining perception. Through the exploration of contact with the ground, centers of gravity, weight, impulses, and partner work, we’ll enter into a playful dialogue with body and space.

The body-voice, in relation to a space constantly being redefined and a time to be mastered, becomes the tool to translate ideas into scenic actions — both concrete and symbolic. To dramatize movement means to create a composition that generates meaning and tension, readable and resonant with the audience.

“What is the spark that gives birth to a character, a story, a destiny?”

The second week introduces the actor’s work with the mask. A specific and daily physical training will prepare the body to be more responsive, receptive, and available. By awakening and feeding the imaginative process — activating and developing the connections between tensions, postures, physical sensations, and emotions — we will meet the mask and learn to give it body and breath.

• Physical training (activity/passivity)
• The four elements
• Leading point, trace, tone, and rhythm
• Improvisation and inner monologue
• The half mask and the body-voice
• The full mask and non-verbal expression
• The birth of the character

We will cultivate the sensitivity to recognize and give space to inner impulses and external stimuli, and the trust needed to use them as organic material for creation. Integrating technique and individual creativity, we’ll move in that realm of freedom where everything is in constant transformation. We’ll place all this at the service of the masks — embodying them and allowing them to reveal themselves in a dance both intimate and worldly, sacred and profane.

“Every movement carries meaning; every silence contains a story.” — Attributed to Philippe Gaulier

The third week is dedicated to the creation of original, believable characters, and to exploring the situations in which they can exist and interact — in a virtuous cycle that nourishes the discovery and evolution of both. Continuing to practice and refine physical training and introducing elements of non-verbal dramaturgy, we’ll learn to shape characters with awareness, giving form to the worlds they inhabit — reflections of what they cannot help but be.

• Physical training (activity/passivity)
• The precision of gesture
• Temperaments and states of mind
• Scenario and character
• Relationship and transformation
• Focus and sharing with the audience
• Non-verbal dramaturgy and composition

We will deepen our work on gesture and action, making them measured, expressive, and eloquent. We’ll learn to bring characters to life through the transformation and evolution of their emotions and inner states. We’ll compose for them scenic trajectories and paths where they can act, meet, and reveal themselves — with the intent of letting fragments of their existences resonate in the audience.