Study Programme

The main aim of the Diploma is to provide our Moveo students autonomy in the field of Physical Theater.

We want to convey to the student tools, methodologies, technical bases, so they can create their own creative projects or work in companies that require an actor or actress specialized in Physical Theater.

We think that the students attending the Diploma are future artists that one day will have their own company and develop their own style.

The studies should enable students to discover what they did not think they could do and teach them a path into the unknown.

We designed the curriculum of the school to try to meet these objectives.

In the technical part of the class, we study all those elements, which allow us to control our body and its expression: physical articulation, balance, weight placement during the action, orientation in the space, rhythms and qualities of movement, corporal sentences, movements of contradiction, translation and compensation, descents, walks (as well as the combination of these different elements).

The aim is to increase the physical vocabulary of each student, to stimulate his/her imagination, open new physical possibilities and provide him/her with the means to successfully develop stage work, individually and collectively.

We work on improvisation in different ways, investigating alone, in a duet or in a group: starting from a dramatic situation, from a technical rule as a starting point to explore a movement, or by giving an open space to draw a physical portrait of a feeling or a situation. The study of improvisation rules develops the sense of play and the listening skills of the students, putting them in a true creative situation. It gives them confidence and an appetite for risk at the time of starting a creation process.

The objectives of the study of improvisation are:

• To facilitate the integration of technical concepts in an acting situation, experimenting or developing a dramatic situation.
• To understand the necessary conditions to create a stage situation: what are the physical conditions, the implication, the risk, the listening skills and awareness that allow the creation of a “theatrical moment”.
• To work on the creative flexibility of the performer, qualities of adaptation and integration of the present moment on stage.

Thanks to the study of pieces and figures of the repertoire, the student works on the connection between technique and interpretation, and advances towards a knowledge and deeper understanding of the dramatic corporeal mime. As for any other art, the repertoire is an essential point of support for the artistic path of the student. The pieces and figures are studied all year long and lead to regular presentations inside the school.

The objective of the study of classical and modern repertoire is to put the student in a situation of interpretation facing a complex physical writing.

Examples of pieces studied at Moveo: The Carpenter, the Washerwoman, the Factory, the Woman and the Bird, the Combat, the Chair of the Absent One, the Toucher (classical repertoire), the Newspaper, the Table piece, The Chair, Table Chair and Glass (post-modern repertoire).

Composition gathers the study of creation principles, which help the students organising and developing their creative devising processes, whether solo, in duo or in a group. It is a vast field, which embraces the following elements:

1. Composition of a physical sentence
2. Dramatic articulation
3. Combination of various stage elements (text, music, etc.)
4. Relations in the space and causalities
5. Rules of transposition of an action
6. Metaphoric movement
7. Use of propos and costumes
8. Dramaturgy principles
9. Study of transposition

The objective is to stimulate the creativity of each student and to widen his/her field of knowledge of all the aspects of a devising process.

During the third term, and intensively in the month of June, the work of the school focuses on the creation of a show, which allows the practical application and the understanding with hindsight of the principles and elements studied during the year. In the case of 1st and 2nd year students, the show is directed by the Moveo teaching team.

All students are actively involved in the creative process as well as the choice and construction of the elements involved in the show (costumes, scenery, props, etc.)

The show can take different forms: from the physical adaptation of a literary work or film to devising a show from physical research work.

Each level ends with the public presentation of the show in a theatre.

During the show process we propose a work on text directed by the teachers of the school and/or guest teachers. This work aims to investigate the relationship between voice and movement on one hand, and between text and action on the other.

In general, there is also coaching in some scenes by the dance teacher.

We experiment individual physical acting as well as the relationship of each one with the others, with the group and the space, always from the point of view of the observation of everything that surrounds us. We develop listening skills, the availability of the performer and levels of body tension.

We study the following concepts:

– Efficiency of the effort: to get maximum performance with the right effort in the proposed exercise.

– Rejection of useless movements and awareness of effective movement.

– Channelling the right energy.

Through improvisation, we work on stage presence of the characters and their attitudes.

We will use different techniques of movement (Flying low, release, manipulations, etc.) to achieve an open and available body, flexible to changes and adaptable to sharing time and space. We will talk about weight, supports, motors and directions of movement, trajectory, movement and spirals, the centre’s relationship with the ends of the body and mechanisms to facilitate entering and coming out of the ground more smoothly. Through movement phrases, we will implement the mechanisms we found, building itineraries that travel through space, understanding that to cross space, it also crosses us.
We will delve into physical mechanics that facilitate the work in pairs. We will use tools developed by different techniques such as contact, to understand and practice different possibilities for two or more bodies to share their weights, time and space, moving from the meeting of the contact points and listening to the directions of the body.

A variety of exercises and games are proposed, with the aim of multiplying the physical possibilities of the body and finding ways of moving through imagination and play and not mechanically. At the same time, students are guided in the strengthening and agility of the body so that their will to act physically is not limited, while learning to invest the right energy in what is needed.

Finally, the basics of ground acrobatic techniques will be covered.

This subject addresses four different areas:

• Sound and imagination: work on consciousness, on releasing and unblocking to expand the possibilities of breathing (and therefore the vocal and interpretive possibilities).
• Word and meaning: work on presence, relationship and desire to communicate.
• Intention and the creative voice: stage play and exploration of expressive registers.
• The voice and the body at the service of a text: application

The ACET (Catalan Association of Theatre Schools), together with the AADPC (Catalan Association of Actors and Directors) organizes each year an informative session of professional training and guidance, directed by qualified professionals of the legal field and intended for students of schools associated to the ACET, like MOVEO. This session is directed to second year students. Moreover, inside the diploma programme, MOVEO organizes a Post-FOL session to answer doubts that could have emerged, or about particular cases, and about any question with the objective to inform about the legal and professional rights and obligations of actors and actresses in Catalonia and Spain.

We also invite teachers specialized in other disciplines such as, for example, puppetry, object theatre or commedia dell’arte, with the aim of enriching the physical work and provide tools to develop each student’s personal and professional experience.

The training is complemented by theoretical sessions on topics related to corporeal mime and with readings of articles and discussions that allow the students to reflect and understand their learning process.

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