Helikos | Pedagogy

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HELIKOS PEDAGOGY:

THE JOURNEY OF THE INITIATION OF THE ACTOR-CREATOR

Theatre is PLAY. Imitation, transposition and re-invention of the world. It's a very ancient human expression, based on the pleasure of playing, awareness of the dynamics of life and the rigor of technique.

Theatre is a space in which life is represented, celebrated and transformed through the body. This process requires phenomenological passion and curiosity in the observation of the mystery and wonder of life in movement. The Actor-Creator is a poet who enters the journey of discovering the world and manifests the world's beauty through poetic forms. A poet of ecstasy. Their body is the body of the world.

Helikos’ pedagogic work is, and will be, a constantly evolving process. It's an alchemy in which we distill the best of our findings. The latest version is always the most updated. A fundamental reference is the Theatre Pedagogy of Jacques Lecoq and his lineage, including Jacques Copeau, Suzanne Bing, Jean and Marie-Helen Dasté and Amleto e Donato Sartori. But many are the sources that have nourished and inspired it: Gestalt-therapy, Western Bioenergetics (Wilhelm Reich), Martial Arts, Taoism, the practice of the state of playing (le jeu) as an Altered State of Consciousness, and Process Work (Process Oriented Psychology), as well as Theatre of the Oppressed by Augusto Boal, Community Theatre and Theatre in Education. The integration of different practices has lead to the creation and development of a unique pedagogic tree with multiple roots and branches.

PEDAGOGY OF MOVEMENT

The BODY is the first space of perception, learning and knowledge for the human being, the foundation of the artistic experience and the theatrical language. The experience and study of the body moving in space leads to the progressive discovery of the principles of movement and of artistic creation, as well as of human consciousness. Nature, physis in ancient Greek language, is our master. We are all students of the movements of life.

PEDAGOGY OF PLAY

Before being Homo sapiens, we are Homo ludens. Play (le jeu) exists when the rigor of technique joins with the pleasure of the artist. The "playing" actor represents and reinvents the world, revealing its poetic richness in an ecstatic process. A poet through gestures, working with rigorous fun and disciplined folly. The beginner's mind of the player walks on a path of joy.

PEDAGOGY OF STATES

Play is a particular state of consciousness and each theatrical genre flows from a specific state. The ability to reach this state in order to play and to create from it is the essence of the shape- shifting vitality of the actor. Each form, each character, each mask, each movement, each story, is the threshold to an non-ordinary state of consciousness. To play is to participate in an enhanced state of vitality, to be aware of connections and to constantly re-act to movement. Play is ecology in motion.

PEDAGOGY OF CREATION

The Player is the Creator of their own work. The aim of a pedagogic process is to train creators capable of developing their own artistic voice in an autonomous way (arte). It's a work that inspires not only theatre artists, but any person who is interested in creating their own life journey. Pedagogy is a space of research and practice, where the world is recreated every day. The pleasure of learning and teaching provokes the learners to develop their own unique, poetic identity and theatrical folly. Both the teachers and the students are servants of the creative process.

PEDAGOGY OF INITIATION

The actor, as a poet, player and creator, is a shapeshifter, as well as a stateshifter, journeying in the footsteps of ancestral shamans and working every day to refine and develop their perception of reality and to train their expressive skills. For this purpose, several pedagogical tools are creatively integrated within a unique "alchemical pot." In the journey of the discovery of the world, the artist encounters themselves in a new state of self-awareness and transforms their inner world into a conscious instrument for poetry. The artist faces their own powers and wounds, often merged in a mysterious alchemy of awareness. The pedagogic purpose is not only to train theatre artists, but to accompany them towards a wider state of consciousness and further levels of awareness, in order to work consciously with personal powers: emotions, life experiences, visions, inspirations, dreams, wounds and desires.