Individual and group lessons | Game management | Courses and workshops
Theatre ► Improvisation ► Performance
Public concerned :Any performer who wants to feel free on stage and more broadly, anyone who is worried, simply intrigued or already fascinated by this incomparable medium.
Description
Nudity in public has a strong fantasy power over all of us. Irrepressible attraction for some, it is a haunting for others, when it is not an irrational phobia.
What is so powerful about the unveiling of our bodies in the eyes of oneself, of others and, more broadly, in the collective unconscious?
Getting naked is the most familiar "costume" we can put on. There is a hidden power behind this act of seemingly natural simplicity. The power to assert a casual freedom in the face of our social laws. Of course, to show oneself naked is always transgressive, but to play in this apparatus is even more so, for in doing so we are saying much more than we are showing.
Playing nude is a speech in itself.
The undeniable strength contained in this act is a source of immense benefits for self-development and intense joy for the mind. The goal of this workshop is to understand nudity as a powerful scenic tool.
Nudity promotes deep truth and sincerity, as well as light entertainment. It is a mirror of who we are. Is there a gender difference beyond physiognomy and social conventions? Can one live naked in one's head, under the skin?
How do you keep the vigour of what was found there in your daily reports? How does psychic nudity give confidence to the body once it is dressed?
Programme of the " Play nude " course
The objective is to help everyone to understand and feel how nudity, the body and the attraction it creates, can be an asset to express oneself, to free oneself from preconceived ideas about one's relationship with oneself and with others and thus be more creative.
1st day (duration: 8h)
Approach - "From social to animal" Work on the passage from "costume" to nude, associated with progressive situational settings: letting oneself be seen, approached, felt, touched, appeared. Practicing the text, the voice, the song and the cry, by playing with one's naked presence in the midst of others. To dance and make the flesh move. What changes? What can be said and made to be heard better? Exploring states of childhood and animality. Overcoming gender differences. Express eroticism and sexuality in a playful way. Like the clown, after impressing, the nude liberates.
10:00 am - Warm-up Apprehension of the others blindly. Dressed dance. Brief meeting of the participants, out of the game. Dance and sweating. The body sweats. Undressing, a simple act related to everyday life. Make it a scenic act by its link to emotions. Work on the text and the voice. How does a naked being speak?
13:30 - Lunch break ½ time
2:00 pm - Physical strength at stake. Construction of a human interlock.
Break ¼ time
Resume: Give yourself away. The skin scrutinized with a magnifying glass. From the spectator's gaze to the implicated gaze. The light and comical nudity of childhood. Why undressing is also a joke? From the humour of the nude to the staging of lasciviousness. Spontaneous eroticism. First improvisations.
18h - End of the first day of the course
2nd day (duration: 8h)
Improvise and play naked. Creative elaboration and disruption of daily agreements between beings based on collective improvisations. To truly immerse oneself in playfulness and powerful self-expression, nudity, considered in all its aspects, promotes deep truth and sincerity, as well as light fun. It is a mirror of who we are. Back to the social: masked nudity. How to keep the vigour of what has been found, in one's daily relationships? Why does psychic nudity give confidence to the naked body.
10:00 a.m. - Warm-up. Timed leaf removal. Wrestling. Unbridled improvisation on various themes. Using nudity without restraint. Accepting to put oneself forward.
13:30 - Lunch break ½ time
Automatic writing and formatting.
Break ¼ time
Resumption: Easing. The deep word from sex. Being human in everyday life. Desacralizing the body and the fears linked to it. Is there a gender difference beyond physiognomy and social conventions? Living naked under the skin. The strong actor/actress of her/his exhibition. Text, improvisation, acting in public. Keeping the free essence of nudity beyond the social costume. Proclamation of self. Putting on each other's clothes.
6pm - End of the course
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Summer Body Workshops
A consciousness and a body: nudity and performance under the sun. Eight workshop sessions devoted to the body exhibited through performance.
Totally naked
Some objectives of the " Totally Naked " workshop: Risking oneself in a body bath. Allow yourself the freedom to stay there. Tranquilize your fear. To confront desire.
Of the truth of men
A day of participatory naked or dressed performance led by David Noir, to try to bring a little truth to the game, if not to life.
Ballad post "Iconicum"
A walk backwards towards the birth of a collective improvisation based on the participatory performance Iconicum given to the Generator.
Everything has to go.
"Everything must go" is intended to make its participants perceive this total eclipse of self-confidence that makes the interpreter in true research.
Iconicum
The principle of the "Iconicum" workshop is to improvise from compositions reconstituted live from master paintings or photographs.
Look away
"Looking elsewhere" is the very principle of theatre, without which it would be impossible to play a situation that clashes with our codes and morals.
Performance
In this performance workshop, it is a question of being totally actor and fully spectator, artist, everyday individual as well as researcher.
The scream, the text and the physical impulse
It is not easy to produce a free scream, authentic enough to find its natural place in the voice and without scratching the throat.
Mixing of genres
The mixture of natures that shape us and the contradictions that knead us are the guiding threads of this day of training.
Improvise freely
Starting from almost nothing, learning to improvise freely allows one to extend the playful potential of each individual to the dimensions of his or her own imagination.
Inventing an identity
Using various disguises, masks and accessories, this day-long workshop offers everyone the opportunity to develop a distinctive identity.
Play nude
Playing naked is in itself a speech. The aim of this workshop is to understand nudity as a relational, playful and scenic tool.
Nudity(ies)
Sunday, November 24th, late morning. I'm on the set of our little working room, naked, and so are my partners. For probably more than an hour, we have been engaged in a great work of improvisation, enveloped by the music and images projected on the back of the room and on our bodies. Sounds, words, sentences and, hovering above us, David's voice, calm and calm, sometimes guiding our games, sometimes escape from us. Bodies, sexes, boys' bodies, girls' bodies, in the exploration, in search of what is, of what the nude means in the theatre.
I've always been interested in nudity on stage. When an actor is naked on stage, it is much more than just his physical nudity that he offers. There is nothing to hinder the theatrical act, between his body, the essential, not to say unique, vector of the act, and the spectators, receivers of this act. The first time I had the opportunity to experience nudity on a stage, I was twenty-five years old. Although my relationship to my own body or to that of others has never posed any particular complications, a first time remains a first time. I knew from the beginning of rehearsals that I would have to be naked for part of the show and this moment was felt by the whole team as perhaps a little more difficult than the others, to the point that I myself had finally become convinced of it. And this moment of the rehearsals finally arrived, almost without anyone noticing. I remember that we all experienced this rehearsal with emotion, the feeling of offering my partners something that I had never before offered in theatre. The transition to the performance afterwards was nothing more than the continuity of the rehearsals. Since then, I have experienced, in other shows, this theatrical nudity, and in other shows I have directed, I also wanted to offer actors to experience this on stage.
"The only difference between theatre and life is that in theatre, everything is always true". This phrase by Peter Brook has always guided me in my career as an actor and director. As if (real) life were only made up of a series of pretences and pretences, each one playing as he or she can his or her role in social, love or professional life, and that, on the contrary, theatre would not allow any arrangement with the truth. This sentence takes for me its full meaning in nudity. I know that I like to play naked. It is in this nudity that I feel totally free, that I know that there is no possibility for me to cheat, to "pretend". I don't ask myself any questions and especially not the classical, pretentious and absurd question of any actor, to know if "I play well or badly", because I know that, inevitably, what I do, say and live is exact, true and sincere, the question of "good" or "bad" having no meaning.
However, I am very wary of nudity in the theatre. An instrument of freedom and sincerity, it can also be a hiding place. A naked actor on a theatre stage is always a strong image. And this strong image can thus compensate, in the same way as the beautiful sets, the pretty costumes, the careful lighting, the much sought-after soundtrack or the excessive sophistication of the actor's direction, for the weaknesses of a dusty and superficial staging concept, without imagination or desire.
If nudity in the theatre remains a strong image, this image is however no longer very original, as it is very present in many theatre or dance shows. In fact, it unfortunately looks more and more often like an exercise in style, a compulsory figure, as in figure skating or horse riding, when one performs a free dressage routine, but in which freedom nevertheless imposes a few imposed figures to show the jury one's skill and talent. None of this will be found in David's theatre. The naked bodies he displays on stage are by no means fashionable concepts, but are the very foundation of his theatre, in its relationship to directing, acting and the simple meaning of an actor's presence on a stage. Naked bodies, isolated or mixed, are theatrical toys at the service of a dramatic action in which we find certain constants such as violence, blood, sex, childhood, cruelty, religion, music and video, but also a lot of love. David's theatrical universe requires a lot of commitment from both the actors and himself, but also a lot of mutual trust and respect. In his work, nothing is obligatory, but everything is allowed.
It is on these same notions of commitment, trust and respect that these two days of training were based. At the end of these two dense and intense days, a few answers, but perhaps even more questions. Being naked on a stage is obviously not just about playing without a costume. From the moment nudity is the norm, what is different about the game, about our relationship with our stage partners, with their bodies, with our bodies? Nudity probably doesn't necessarily lead to sincerity as long as it doesn't weaken the actor. So many questions and many more to which it is perhaps vain to try to answer, if however answers exist and if we do not already carry them within us.
Thank you, David, for these two beautiful days of work, research and happiness within a great team. Thank you for the gentleness of your approach.
It is difficult to describe better than Jean-Pierre this training course in which I also took part.
Thank you David for this beautiful theatrical experience, it is always a real pleasure to work guided by you.
Thank you very much for that faithful report and your insight, Darrin. More generally, I totally share your feeling of the experience of being naked on stage. It's much more than an experience, but a very specific state of play that opens, in my opinion, the monumental portal of preconceived ideas about the deep identity and the gender of each person. We live in a society that keeps returning the question "why do we do it? "to the poetic approach, whatever it may be, as long as it doesn't tell the story of Walt Disney or Pixar. I have nothing against 3D per se or entertainment, but the "family" clichés often lugged around by stories that carry their "dream" image are only equalled by the tedious paths of the markers they ferociously impose on the imagination. The real question that lies beneath this famous "Why do ..." should honestly be complemented by " ... something other than what society asks of us? "That's the point. The answer would be, "To give ourselves a chance to exist according to our own views, not to follow a set pattern."
The sensation of the nude and the nude being exhibited outside the intimate setting naturally carries this meaning. Curious in truth, that we are not more numerous to ask ourselves concretely the question: "What does the world of men have to hide so terrible behind the civilization that it proposes, to be so condemned and terrified by the raw art of living flesh? ». What does it protect and who benefits from the crime of camouflaging reality? Here, it is no longer a door that opens, but the lid of Pandora's box.
Thank you to each and every one of you for having put your efforts into the service of its opening.
Darrin, I read your comment with interest. If I speak to you like this, it is because I was present at this workshop with Viviane and a few others whose tone I appreciated. I share your words and their meaning about nudity. After 20 days of reflection, funny I still hesitate between two comments:
I came by challenge, in search of "if not strong, let's say unconventional" emotions. The reality of the bodies scratched my fantasies, leaving room for emptiness. In the game I questioned desire! I thought it was more present, I missed it sometimes. Sometimes I looked for my place.
My second comment is my personal pride in having dared to do this improvisation. Unaccustomed to escaping from social conventions because of my professional activity (recently expired), I exploded with maturity by daring to touch the skin of another, the skin of another without changing gender, without fainting, in the pleasure of a shared benevolence.
And if I add that after an improvisation, I had totally forgotten that I was naked, it means that we had succeeded in desacralizing sex.
I would like to take this opportunity to express my deepest gratitude to Viviane (who captivated me) for her unfailing generosity and tell her that I would gladly improvise in her company.
A last compliment for David who knows how to play on this difficult string stretched between the nude (art) and the exhibition (?).
Jean-Louis, for my part, I came to this workshop with the curiosity to confront my nudity with looks, wondering what I was going to do with it theatrically.
Probably also with the desire to assume, even affirm my body as a woman over fifty years old.
Once the stripping was over, I found it incredibly simple, enjoyable, and felt a certain power of play.
It is true that I did so in a rather special context, since, although not initially planned, I was the only female representative in the group. As such, I benefited from a particular, benevolent and, as you can testify, Jean-Louis, a little admiring attention from my theatre partners whom I thank. It was therefore easy for me to share what I was given.
But, even though this group was great, I don't want to take that as a context. I know that David's proposals and accompaniment would have allowed a nice work around nudity also in a different group balance.
The company of which I am a member opens its doors in June and invites anyone who would like to learn more about our work to participate in the weekly sessions.
You're welcome, Jean-Louis.
For Viviane: I still need to know the name of your company. Please answer [email protected]
I discover your answer scandalously simple because it is non-conformist and authentic, even audacious, in the eyes of the unknown, and shaking down the barriers that close us. But hey, maybe I'm the one who sees the scandal and after all scandal is a good emotional spurter. Long live the emotion that awakens human nature, always ready to reveal the best in each of us.
It may be pleasant, but what about the erection? Is it accepted?
Thank you for your comment. Unfortunately I don't have the time at the moment to organise courses. But to answer your question, in my eyes, an erection is an event like any other; a natural arousal, an emotion that expresses itself. It's welcomed in the same way as others in the representation of bodies, but without being given a special place.