Enacting Lecoq Movement in Theatre, Cognition, and Life

This book examines the theatrical movement-based pedagogy of Jacques Lecoq (1921-1999) through the lens of the cognitive scientific paradigm of enaction. The conversation between these two both uncovers more of the possible cognitive processes at work in Lecoq pedagogy and proposes how Lecoq’s own practical and philosophical approach could have something to offer the development of the enactive paradigm. Understanding Lecoq pedagogy through enaction can shed new light on the ways that movement, key to Lecoq’s own articulation of his pedagogy, might cognitively constitute the development of Lecoq’s ultimate creative figure – the actor-creator. Through an enactive lens, the actor-creator can be understood as not only a creative figure, but also the manifestation of a fundamentally new mode of cognitive selfhood. This book engages with Lecoq pedagogy’s significant practices and principles including the relationship between the instructor and student, identifications, mime, play, mask work, language, improvisation, and movement analysis.

1. Introduction.- 2. Crafting Necessary Temptations and Needful Freedoms: Lecoq’s Actor-Instructor Relationship.- 3. Enacting Cognitive and Creative Foundations.- 4. Lecoq’s Mime and the Process of Identifications: Enacting Movement, Selfhoods, and Otherness.- 5. Significant Practices and Principles: Play, Improvisation, Mask Work, and Language.- 6. Conclusion: “Beautiful, beautiful, but where are you going?”.

Maiya Murphy is a scholar, teacher, creator, and performer. She is Assistant Professor in the Theatre Studies Programme at the National University of Singapore. She has written on Lecoq pedagogy, cognitive science, collective creation, physical theatre approaches, and dance. She also makes theatre with her collective, Autopoetics.