Practitioners

Iliev, Alexander Lubenov

Practitioner

Dr. Alexander Lubenov Iliev was born in Sofia, Bulgaria, in 1956. One of the most celebrated mime artists in the world, he has professorial expertise in Tibetan and Nepalese Buddhism, dervish Mevlyaana dance, Balinese wayang kulit andtopeng, Royal Nepalese dhime nrittya dance, Tibetan Cham mystery, kathakali dance, traditional theatre of Kampuchea and Thailand (lakhon), traditional Chinese theatre and opera, traditional Vietnamese thuong nam theatre, Brechtian theatre, martial arts of all kinds, and over forty years of experience as a professional pantomime. A student of Jean-Louis Barrault and Marcel Marceau, he has headed workshops on pantomime, physical theatre, Eastern traditional theatre, Commedia dell’Arte, clowning, and puppetry all over the globe. He has forty years of professional experience as a mime, actor, and director, and is in demand as a field guide for locations across Europe, Asia, and Africa. He is the author of several popular texts on history, performance, and Bulgarian culture. He is currently Associate Professor at the National Academy in Sofia.

Iliev is the author of Towards a Theory of Mime (Routledge, 2014).

00:06:26
Bird Thumb
Bird
Bird is an etude from Alexander Iliev’s one man show Alter Ego.
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00:03:33
Chair Trap Thumb
Chair Trap
Chair Trap is based on several gags from Mack Sennet’s slapstick comedies, and on Adam Darius’s pantomime The Chair.
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00:03:40
Concertissimo Thumb
Concertissimo
Concertissimo is based on a sketch by the clown Oleg Popov, and on Miklosh Kölö’s pantomime Concertissimo.
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00:06:07
Fish Thumb
Fish
Fish is an etude from Alexander Iliev’s one man show Alter Ego.
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00:05:03
Fishing Thumb
Fishing
Fishing is based on Jean-Louis Barrault’s style exercise Fishing, and Evgeniy Lebedev’s sketch Fishing.
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00:04:58
Horse Thumb
Horse
Horse is inspired by the novels of William Faulkner, and by Jean-Louis Barrault’s interpretation of a horse.
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00:04:55
In The Park Thumb
In The Park
In the Park is based on Leonid Engibarov’s interpretation of a classical sketch by the clown Bambino.
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00:04:52
Pantalone Tells Thumb
Pantalone Tells
Pantalone Tells is an etude in the Italian style of Commedia dell’Arte style in Italian, but understandable by every human being.
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00:02:50
Pantalone Tells 2 Thumb
Pantalone Tells (for TV)
Pantalone Tells (for TV) is an etude in the Italian style of Commedia dell’Arte style in Italian, but understandable by every human being.
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00:04:57
Sunflower Thumb
Sunflower
Sunflower is based on Milan Sladek’s pantomime The Sunflower, and Velyo Goranov’s interpretation of it.
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00:07:55
Surgeon Thumb
Surgeon
Surgeon is based on a 15th-century sketch by Andrew Borde, and Jean-Louis Barrault’s interpretation of it in his one man show, Body Language.
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00:04:57
Torture of a Shirt Thumb
Torture of a Shirt
Torture of a Shirt is an etude that demonstrates how an object can be imbued with a human soul.
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00:04:12
Weight Lifter Thumb
Weight Lifter
Weight Lifter is based on several classical clown sketches and a part of Marcel Marceau’s pantomime Bip – King of Sports.
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