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Film and theater movement director, he is on the faculty at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. He has worked with actors on numerous films including W. with Josh Brolin, SEABISCUIT with Elizabeth Banks and BEE SEASON with Juliette Binoche. He is currently working on Ang Lee’s LIFE OF PI.Programme Events at the Talent Campus:
Jean-Louis Rodrigue
Jean-Louis Rodrigue is an internationally recognised move-ment coach in Los Angeles whose specialty is helping actors bring the gracefulness and fluidity of dance to their performances. A combination of acting coach, choreographer and physical therapist, Jean-Louis Rodrigue uses techniques that have much in common with dance training. Dancers are taught to rely on movement and gesture to convey the personalities of characters, an idea he stresses to all the actors he coaches.
Born in Morocco, raised in Italy and originally an actor himself, he was inspired to study the body when, as a boy, he saw some of Leonardo da Vinci‘s drawings in Milan. “He depicts the body as a place where creation happens and imagination lives,“ he says. “That idea stayed with me.“ It also led him to the Alexander Technique, a method which explores the basic impulses of human movement – how we interfere with our own coordination – offering a means to change. Through mental and physical processes, the master class will allow actors and directors to expand their level of awareness of themselves, in stillness and in movement, teaching them to transform into their character roles.
Jean-Louis Rodrigue
Actors master class.
Voice, energy, breath and the ability to embody their character are the fundamental tools that actors need, and these are also what they most often lack. Jean-Louis Rodrigue’s unique approach to acting coaching and to improving levels of performance in film and theatre has brought him international recognition. Born in Morocco and educated in Italy and France, he is the combination of an acting coach, choreographer and physical therapist. His work as a movement specialist can be seen on a number of films such as W., Bee Season, and Seabiscuit to name just a few. He has worked with a number of prominent actors such as Juliette Binoche, Hilary Swank, Keanu Reeves, Kirsten Dunst and Jonathan Pryce. He is also the foremost teacher of the Alexander Technnique as applied to stage and film acting. The Alexander Technique is a method of self-discovery which explores the basic impulses of human movement, how we interfere with our own coordination, and it offers a means to change. As Larry Moss, US American acting coach puts it: "One of the most important things actors can possess is a relationship to their own body and breath. Jean-Louis works with actors in such a way that they immediately understand from deep within themselves their true impulses."
Through mental and physical processes, the master class will allow actors and film directors to expand their level of awareness of themselves, in stillness and in movement, focus on connecting the body and breath to performance and creating characters. Helping actors gain access to themselves and teaching them to transform into characters requires an atmosphere free of fear. Jean-Louis promotes an environment that is both playful and daring. As Rodrigue emphasises, "when performers make the physical component of their work as important as the intellectual", he said, "they become far more convincing.
