He was best known for his teaching methods in physical theatre, movement, and mime which he taught at the school he founded in Paris known as École internationale de théâtre Jacques Lecoq.
While Lecoq still continued to teach physical education for several years, he soon found himself acting as a member of the Comediens de Grenoble.
[2] This company and his work with Commedia dell'arte in Italy (where he lived for eight years) introduced him to ideas surrounding mime, masks and the physicality of performance.
[4] In 1956, he returned to Paris to open his school, École Internationale de théâtre Jacques Lecoq, where he spent most of his time until his death, filling in as international speaker and master class giver for the Union of Theatres of Europe.
The building was previously a boxing center and was where Francisco Amoros, a huge proponent of physical education, developed his own gymnastic method.
As students stayed with Lecoq's school longer, he accomplished this through teaching in the style of ''via negativa'', also known as the negative way.
Lecoq believed that this mask allowed his students to be open when performing and to fully let the world affect their bodies.
[4][8] The larval mask was used as a didactic tool for Lecoq's students to escape the confines of realism and inject free imagination into the performance.
[5] Three of the principal skills that he encouraged in his students were le jeu (playfulness), complicité (togetherness) and disponibilité (openness).
He emphasized the importance of finding the most fitting voice for each actor's mask, and he believed that there was room for reinvention and play in regards to traditional commedia dell'arte conventions.
[5] Lecoq's pedagogy has yielded diverse cohorts of students with a wide range of creative impulses and techniques.
[5] In collaboration with the architect Krikor Belekian he also set up le Laboratoire d'Étude du Mouvement (Laboratory for the study of movement; L.E.M.
The documentary includes footage of Lecoq working with students at his Paris theatre school in addition to numerous interviews with some of his most well-known, former pupils.