Mime & Movement: Corporeal Music Course

Igor Stravinsky, influential Russian composer of the 20th Century, once said: “It is not enough to hear the music, you must see the music.” In this course, through a series of Mime/Movement techniques and exercises, world-class Mime Theatre artists, T. Daniel and Laurie Willets, will share their extensive knowledge and classical music experiences to teach music students how they can hear what the music is saying and how they can see the music. Through Willets’ and Daniel’s years of
developing and performing their own style of movement with music, the students should be able to become better players, better musicians, able to hear more in the music and to see the music filling the space. This, to Willets and Daniel, is the core and the foundation of the Music. 

Both Laurie Willets and T. Daniel began training in certain art forms at a young age: Willets at age five in ballet, tap, puppetry, percussion and guitar, modern and jazz dance, theatre, and mime, receiving her B.A. and MA degrees in French Theatre; Daniel at seven in ventriloquism, magic, circus, theatre, and mime, receiving his B.S. and MA degrees in Theatre; both attended Illinois State University. They both studied at length in Paris, France, and in the U.S. with world-renown Mime Masters (who later became dear friends) Marcel Marceau and Pierre Verry; and with Father of Modern Mime for 20th Century, Etienne Decroux. They create highly-artistic original staged mime productions (World of Mime; Fantasmia; Structures On Silence; The Color of Magic; WILDlife!; Christmas Wonderment, etc; and concerts (L'Histoire du soldat, etc.) that have toured around the world and still do. Tours in Canada (3), Puerto Rico (2), throughout Europe (17), Istanbul, Turkey, Singapore (2), Hong Kong (2), Taipei, Shanghai, etc. and many, many tours all over the USA. For their Mime and Live Music project founded by Willets, INnOvaTionS ProJecT, they create stunningly inventive, eclectic original Mime and Music collaborations.

Laurie Willets and T. Daniel were honored for their own extraordinary artistic contributions to the Art of Mime and to the American culture by First Lady Laura Bush at a stunning reception at The White House, Washington D.C. Since their careers began, they worked with orchestras, starting with Chicago Symphony Orchestra (16 years); CSO and Ravinia Summer Festival (5 summers); Hong Kong Sinfonietta (a three-city HK & China Mainland tour); Minnesota Symphony Orchestra; Omaha Symphony; and more, plus numerous performances and tours with Chicago Pro Musica (CSO musicians); with Orion Ensemble. For 2010 and 2012 summers, Ravinia Festival and CSO invited Willets and Daniel to perform their two full-stage pantomime scenarios (casts of 8), “Le Boeuf sur le toit” (Cocteau/Milhaud) and a new Ravinia commission for a new scenario to “Magical Night” by Kurt Weill, receiving overwhelming acclaim. A new touring concert is with Willets and Kathy Pirtle clarinetist.