Moveo and Corporeal Mime: Approach and Vision
At Moveo, dramatic corporeal mime is at the heart of everything we do. It is a bridge between different performing arts, uniting the precision of circus, the fluidity of dance, visual and object theatre, and the emotion and storytelling of drama. We are not aiming to create a space where all disciplines are blended, but rather a specialized environment where dramatic corporeal mime serves as the framework connecting artists from different backgrounds.
This technique demands discipline and physical control, inviting artists to express emotions and narratives through their bodies. It is especially appealing to movement-based artists—dancers, actors, circus performers, or professionals in visual and object theatre—as it allows them to go beyond their own limits. Dramatic corporeal mime helps explore new forms of communication without relying on words or external visual effects. Its precision brings a different depth to performance, opening doors to working with the subtleties of movement, gesture, and physical presence.
Physical Theatre: 20th Century Evolution
The idea and project of physical theatre emerged in the 20th century with artists such as Étienne Decroux and Jacques Lecoq, who reimagined performance by placing the body and movement at the center of the theatrical act. Decroux, with his development of dramatic corporeal mime, proposed a radical shift in how we perceive theatre, moving away from text and prioritizing the body’s ability to express ideas and emotions without words. While this perspective allows for a more universal form of storytelling, free from language barriers, the goal was something else: to restore the actor’s role as central in the creation and interpretation of theatre.
What Decroux proposed in his famous manifesto “Words on Mime” was a Copernican revolution of modern theatre, through a process of searching for the essence of theatre, gradually reducing it to the indispensable—the interpreter’s body on stage. From this foundation, dramatic corporeal mime was developed, and if this manifesto is sometimes seen as a final point, we believe it should be understood as a beginning—a birth of a new way to work with the body and theatricality.
At Moveo We Are Inspired by This Tradition
At Moveo, we are inspired by this tradition to explore how the body can be a medium for creativity, both individually and collectively. We pursue this exploration pedagogically through our training programs, creatively through the work of Cia Moveo, and socially through projects such as “the gesture and the relationship“.
Alongside this work, we are also committed to supporting an artistic community that needs favorable conditions to develop new projects and their professional path.
Residencies at Moveo: A Space to Create
Our residencies offer artists working with movement a space to explore, create, and refine their projects. While dramatic corporeal mime is key to Moveo’s identity, the residencies do not aim to impose a specific methodology. Instead, we provide a focused environment where artists can dedicate themselves to their own practices, whether from dance, physical theatre, visual and object theatre, or circus.
We believe artists need time and space to experiment, make mistakes, rethink, and find their own voice. That’s why at Moveo, we offer a supportive space without rigid requirements or directives. If someone needs guidance, our team is available to help, sharing our experience in movement and mime—but it’s never an obligation.
The main thing is for artists to follow their own creative path. By offering this space, Moveo creates an environment where artists can push the boundaries of their work, take risks, and dedicate themselves to the creative process. The residencies reflect our belief in the importance of movement as the core of performance.
Dialogue and Exchange
Although Moveo and corporeal mime are connected in our as a specific practice, we are not closed to dialogue—on the contrary. Collaboration and exchange with other artistic forms enrich our specialized work. We do not define ourselves as multidisciplinary, but as a center open to new ideas, always rooted in dramatic corporeal mime.
In our productions and workshops, these exchanges often lead to unexpected results, bringing different movement practices into dialogue. These surprises help us grow, raise new questions, and continue working creatively and originally. Nevertheless, at its core, Moveo remains a space dedicated to dramatic corporeal mime, an art form that guides our understanding of physical theatre and its capacity to tell stories and move new audiences.
