The Art of Mime

Mime is a silent art, characterized by acting or expressing feelings with gestures and facial expressions. Mime as entertainment dates back to the ancient Greeks and Romans. After that, mime was popular in Italy before it reached France. The rising popularity of mime in France gave way to schools of mime and consequently, traditions of great French mimes followed. American mime today is very different from the French version.

The ancient Greeks wore masks and performed mimes of everyday activities, as well as dramatic character-centered mimes called “hypotheses.” The Greeks performed in front of thousands of people at the Theater of Dionysus in Athens. When the Romans conquered Greece, they brought the art of mime to Italy. In 1811, the son of a Bohemian touring acrobatic family named Jean Gaspard Batiste Deburau brought mime to Paris. Deburau remained in France and developed the ancient art of mime into the more polished and expressive version that exists today. The 1945 French film titled “Les Enfants du Paradis” told the fictional tale of Deburau’s mime work from his beginnings in Paris.

The two main types of mime are abstract and literal. Abstract mime often has no plot or main character, but is rather an expression of feeling used to provoke interpretive thoughts about a serious subject. Literal mime, on the other hand, is often comedic or is used to tell a story. Gestures and visual expression show a clear and typically funny tale of the conflict faced by the main character. Combinations of both types of mime are possible, and pantomime movements are common, as well. Pantomime is the use of movement and gesture in the telling of a story, such as the ancient Greeks and Romans used in their mime.

American mime combines acting, play-writing, and pantomime dance, and is quite unlike the French version. Paul J. Curtis founded the American mime art form in 1952. Curtis was impressed by the silent aspect of French mime, but wanted acting and dance to be more pronounced. He is the founder and director of the American Mime Theater in New York City.