Thespis: Solo Work

Aristotle, in the Poetics, tells us that one of the choral leaders, Thespis (6th Century, BCE), left the chorus, jumped on to the altar, and assumed the role of "the god". Thus, Thespis became the first actor. Thespis was also the first playwright. He won the first Greek tragedy contest in 534 BCE. For theis reason our class honors Thespis by embracing solo work.

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We reviewed the process initiated during the previous class. We started with the warm up, then creative shapes, pedestrian movement and ended with the addition of the text.  The process intended to introduce students to solo work.

The Greek Chorus began to play a secondary role once Thespis, the first actor, began to dialogue with it. This idea was further developed in class by focusing on the students' individual creative shapes, a mix of abstract movement and classic text.

We also alluded to movement expression in reference to pantomime, an art developed by the Ancient Romans. Once the students established their own movement vocabulary, they worked in partners. One partner was supposed to have a conversation with the other through just movement.

Key Words:

Thespis: Thespis of Icaria, according to certain Ancient Greek sources and especially Aristotle, was the first person ever to appear on stage as an actor playing a character in a play. 

Pantomime: this word derives from the Latin word patomimus, which derives from Greek, consisting of  (panto-) meaning "all", and (mimos), meaning a dancer who acted all the roles or all the story.