Brain Body Connection - Frank Engel #1

Professional and emerging dancers are welcome to attend either in-person (please register as such) or the online zoom platform-based Brain-Body Connection Professional Development Series hosted by Free Flow Dance Theatre free of charge. If you would like and can afford to make a donation to support the future of the company please do! We are pleased to host this series of workshops with the support of the Community Initiative Fund, City of Saskatoon, and Sasktel.

Introduction to Mime Technique

Mime Technique is based on four elements, each of them is a subject of study on its own.

*  The geometry of the body

We will look at the various axis, levels and planes in which our body can move 

* Isolation

Isolation training enhances our ability to move different parts of our body independently from each other within the geometry of the body.

* Countermovement

By moving two parts of our body in opposite directions using isolation, we turn an invisible line into a visible line. It defines the three-dimensional qualities of not just an imaginative object, but also the World we are creating during our act.

* Toc

Toc refers to the different kinds of impulses around the centre of our body that are used to initiate, accompany and identify not just imaginative Objects, but also the actor’s/dancer’s relation to them and their environment.

It is the use of the Toc that binds the previously mentioned elements of Isolation, Geometry and Countermovement together. It is the use of the Toc that gives life and meaning to what – without it – could be seen as empty gesture. 

By using simple examples and exercises we will get an understanding of how to use those four Elements together as a basic alphabet of our body language.