Étienne Decroux

Étienne Decroux (1898–1991) was a French actor who developed the style known as corporeal mime, a highly disciplined form of movement emphasizing the expressive potential of the actor's body. After enrolling at Jacques Copeau's Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier in 1923 as a student of Charles Dullin, Decroux began reimagining mime, creating an original, personal movement style. His early work, termed "statuary mime," recalled the sculptures of Rodin, while later, more plastic forms evolved into what he called "mime corporeal" or corporeal mime.

A theoretician as well as a performer, his training drew partly on isolations—where body sections move in a prescribed sequence—and partly on the physics of compensation needed to maintain balance when the center of gravity shifts. When the Vieux-Colombier closed in 1924, Decroux taught at Dullin's acting school, the Atelier, where Jean-Louis Barrault joined him; the two collaborated closely for two years, producing corporeal mime pieces individually and together. In the late 1950s, Decroux taught in New York at a studio on 8th Avenue and 55th Street, eventually requiring full-time commitment for performances as The Mime Theatre of Etienne Decroux. Pieces presented at the Cricket Theatre included "The Factory," "The Trees," "All The City Works," and "Evil Spirit." Returning to Paris in 1962, he opened a school in Boulogne-Billancourt, teaching there almost until his death.

Among his better-known students were Marcel Marceau, Jessica Lange, Ingemar Lindh, Luis Oliva, and Annie Stainer. His writings, including Paroles sur le Mime (Words on Mime), remain in print. In that work, Decroux proposed a radical "cure" for theatre, arguing for a temporary ban on ordinary speech and vocal sounds to force actors to master physical expression, with a gradual reintroduction of voice and text controlled by the performer.