Collective Creation in Contemporary Performance pp 111-124 | Cite as
Lecoq’s Pedagogy
Abstract
Both a product of his native Paris and an outsider to its mainstream theatrical community, Jacques Lecoq (1921–99) developed a pedagogy that included sustained, collaborative work called auto-cours, or “self-course.” The pedagogical power of the auto-cours resides in the way it refuses to prescribe collaborative styles, tools, or models but instead induces an urgent creative collision through which students are forced to envision and produce their own theatre. The pedagogical potential of this collision rides on the productivity of unfixed power dynamics. In this light, destabilizing power dynamics within the creative act becomes a pedagogical obligation. Three important strands of influence converged in Lecoq’s work to shape auto-cours as a unique collective practice: his relationship to the legacy of Jacques Copeau, his formative years in Italy, and the 1968 student uprisings in Paris.
Keywords
Theatrical Tradition Creative Power Italian Theatre Movement Phrase Student ProtestPreview
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