Download Workshop Theatrical Biomechanics of Meyerhold

'Workshop Theatrical Biomechanics of Meyerhold'
By Tony De Maeyer
Language: English/German/French/Dutch
This international introduction workshop of Biomechanics is for all actors and
performers who want to discover the ethics and principles of the Theatrical
Biomechanics developed by W. Meyerhold in the early 20's.
During this workshop the performer will acquire a greater understanding of his
material (his body) and of the possibilities of his physical expression on the stage
through a contemporary approach of the Biomechanical principles.
TRAINING:
Using the specific dynamic biomechanical training, the physical conscience of the
actor is strengthened, so he can start to think more and more with his body. We will
focus especially on balance, rhythm, space and observation, the musicality and the
poetic expression of the body in motion. Our goal will be to learn how we can involve
the whole of the body in every single movement we make as an actor on stage.
ETUDE:
We will learn to understand the basic principles of the biomechanics and put them
into practice by working on the authentic etude ‘The Throwing of the Stone’ which
was created and developed by W. Meyerhold and his students in the early 1920's.
We will use the original music from F. Chopin used by Meyerhold when he first
presented this Biomechanics Etude to the world.
W. MEYERHOLD:
“Constructing theatre on the dogmas of psychology means to build a house on loose
sand, it will collapse one day.” - W. Meyerhold
In the 1920s the theatre-visionary W. Meyerhold brakes with the naturalistic, and psychological based theatre of
his mentor K. Stanislavski. W. Meyerhold developed a new body language for actors that he called
‘Biomechanics’. K. Stanislavski created the basis of the modern western theatre by defining the inner principles of
the actor. W. Meyerhold searched for the movement principles of the actor.
Both masters often are played out against each other in a quit simplistic way, while speaking that the actor works
either ‘from the inside to the outside’ (Stanislavski) or ‘from the outside to the inside ’ (Meyerhold).
I am convinced that we should not speak from either one or the other, but that we should speak of Stanislavski
plus Meyerhold.
The question arises though, where lays the beginning.
The actor that can combine both principles in his acting-performance will be able to shift the identification of his
character to the audience, rather than within himself/herself.
Only in this way will the audience be able to achieve a true catharsis.
An artist cannot possible long for more.
TONY DE MAEYER:
“A good actor, is a flexible actor who knows how to organise his body with the
uttermost attention.”
De Maeyer studied drama at the Royal Conservatory in Antwerp (B). In 1996 he met Gennadi N. Bogdanov in
Berlin. This is the beginning of a very intense collaboration in which De Maeyer gets trained and educated in the
Theatrical Biomechanics of W. Meyerhold by G. N. Bogdanov.
Gennadi N. Bogdanov is one of the last living exponents of the Biomechanics and was blessed with the
opportunity to learn from Nikolai Kustov, one of the last instructors from W. Meyerhold himself in the 1930s.
Thanks to many international performances throughout Europe, some of them directed by G. N. Bogdanov,
De Maeyer has had the opportunity to put the Biomechanics into practise as an actor. He is probably one of the
few actors worldwide who have achieved the perfect assimilation of the Biomechanical principles in his acting
work on stage as well as in film.
In November 2004, both De Maeyer and G. N. Bogdanov were invited to the International Symposium of the I.T.I.
‘The Actor, the Athlete of the heart’ in Ghent, where they performed Meyerhold’s most famous etudes and
fragments of Biomechanics-presentations. In 2006 he contributed to the creation of ‘Kazakov’, where he
intensively coached the graduates of the renowned “Hochschule für Schauspielkunst Ernst Busch” in Berlin, using
the biomechanics principles. In 2009 he trained the Ensemble of the Wuppertaler Bühnen, directed by Christian
von Treskow. In the same year he assisted the actor Max Hopp for his leading role as Prometheus directed by
Dimiter Gottscheff at the Volksbühne am Rosa Luxemburgplatz in Berlin. Since 2011 he is permanently appointed
at “Die Etage, Schule für die Darstellende Künste” in Berlin, where he currently coaches actors. In 2014 he
started to teach the actors students of the ‘Universität der Künste’, better known as the ‘UdK’ in Berlin.
For his acting he was honoured in 1993 with the ‘Best Actor Award’ at the International Filmfestival in Brussels,
Belgium
Since many years now De Maeyer is coaching theatre companies and giving workshops in Biomechanics through
Europe.