BIOMECHANICS WORKSHOP -An Artistic Way of Thinking - Led by Tony De Maeyer

"The fundamental principle of Biomechanics is very simple: the whole body participates in every movement."

Vsevolod Meyerhold

ABOUT THE WORKSHOP

This workshop explores the principles of Meyerhold’s Biomechanics and puts them into practice through the study of the étude Throwing the Stone, developed by Meyerhold and his students in the early 1920s.

Participants will discover a method of storytelling that is both unconventional and intensely physical — an approach to theatre-making that unlocks surprising and expressive forms of stage performance.

Biomechanics is a system of physical theatre training and performance creation developed by the Russian actor, director and theorist Vsevolod Meyerhold during the politically, socially, technologically and artistically turbulent years of the early twentieth century.

Within this context, a new generation of artists emerged, breaking with established norms and conventions. Meyerhold sought to create the “new actor” and uncover the magic of a non-naturalistic theatre, drawing inspiration from traditions such as Commedia dell’Arte and Japanese Noh and Kabuki theatre, among others.

Following its suppression during Stalin’s regime and its international revival from the late 1980s onwards, Biomechanics is today taught across Europe by the Belgian actor and Biomechanics specialist Tony De Maeyer.

“Form is the means through which emotions are revealed.” (V. Meyerhold)

An awareness of form, spatial coordination, bodily control, rhythm and musicality — as well as eccentricity and the grotesque, understood as the pursuit of extreme physical states — are central characteristics of the performative culture of Biomechanics.

The focus lies on the perception and poetic expressiveness of the moving body. Biomechanics offers an exceptionally broad range of expressive possibilities, spanning from highly expressive artificial styles to refined naturalism, while also embracing slapstick and clowning.

Its fundamental principle is that every movement engages the entire body.

Workshop held at the Aula Magna Auditorium of the University of the Azores, from 4 to 8 June 2026.