Words are movement, text is movement, ideas are movement, everything moves.
Helikos is an International School of Theatre Creation based in Florence, Italy where dedicated students from all over the planet participate in advanced professional trainings in movement theatre creation.
The aim of Helikos is to provoke the artistic vision and voice of the students.
The poetic urge cannot be taught. It is the intimate necessity of every artist. It is the call to go on stage and tell stories to the world, bringing all of oneself to the alchemical pot of theatre making. Helikos is a conservatory of creation where student storytellers want to explore, unfold and refine their poetic voice in the field of theatre.
Training at Helikos requires a rigorous excitement to work on-stage, as well as a deep desire to enter a process of self-discovery and personal growth off-stage. Generosity, personal commitment, and the desire to engage in one’s own most unique and truthful humanity and poetic urge is essential.
Theatre is PLAY. Imitation, transposition and re-invention of the world. It's a very ancient human expression, based on the fun of playing, the awareness of the dynamics of life and the rigor of technique. It's a space where life is represented, celebrated and transformed through the body. This is a process that requires observation and curiosity in front of the mystery and wonder of life in movement. The Actor-Creator is a poet who enters the journey of discovering the world and manifests the world’s beauty through poetical forms. S/he is the poet of ecstasy. Her/his body is the body of the world.
Helikos is a Greek word that means SPIRAL. As a symbol, the spiral is common to all ages and cultures and has various meanings, all connected with the dynamic of evolution. The spiral represents the cyclical movement that expands outward from its point of origin and inward towards the center. The spiral expresses extension, cyclical continuity and development, progress in the rotation of creation and perpetual balance between opposite dynamics. It’s the manifestation of the evolution of a state or a force.
The choice of the spiral as a symbol is connected with the vision of a school and its pedagogy as forms in permanent evolution. The spiral is also a metaphor of the journey of the artist/poet through the training of the school, training that is always connected with its beginning but is projected into the future.