Published in France in 1987, this is the book in which Lecoq first set out his philosophy of human movement, and the way it takes expressive form in a wide range of different performance traditions. He traces the history of pantomime, sets out his definition of the components of the art of mime, and discusses the explosion of physical theatre in the second half of the twentieth century. Interviews with major theatre practitioners Ariane Mnouchkine and Jean-Louis Barrault by Jean Perret, together with chapters by Perret on Étienne Decroux and Marcel Marceau, fill out the historical material written by Lecoq, and a final section by Alain Gautré celebrates the many physical theatre practitioners working in the 1980s.

"...this is an important addition to the growing body of scholarship treating Lecoq's work, and any student of 20th-century theatre or the use of movement in performance will find this book invaluable." --TDR

Jacques Lecoq founded l’École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq in 1956, developing teaching methods that have inspired numerous practitioners of physical theatre, in which gesture is at the basis of the performance. David Bradby is Professor of Drama and Theatre Studies at Royal Holloway, University of London. He was the translator of Jacques Lecoq’s The Moving Body (Methuen, 2000).