Samuel Avital
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Samuel Ben-Or Avital was born in the small town of Sefrou, Fes near the Atlas Mountains in Morocco. He was born to a modest Kabbalistic family of Sephardic Jews who trace their Sephardic Kabbalah tradition in a direct lineage back to the 15th Century, after the 1492 expulsion of the Jews from Spain (see the Alhambra Decree).
In 1949 Avital immigrated to Israel, and in 1958 he traveled to Paris, France to study dance and drama at the Sorbonne as well as to study with the masters of mime, Etienne Decroux and Marcel Marceau. Avital was later to perform in the Compagnie de Mime under the direction of Decroux' son, Maximilien Decroux. Avital attributes his initial interest in mime to attending a screening of Charlie Chaplin's Limelight (film).
In 1964 Avital moved to the United States of America. In 1971 he founded Le Centre du Silence Mime School in Boulder, Colorado, USA. Over the years, Avital developed his unique method of body work called: BodySpeakâ˘. It is as a teacher and theorist of mime that he has had his greatest influence.
In addition to numerous articles, Avital published Mime Workbook (1975) followed by the German edition Mimenspiel (1985), The Silent Outcry (1985) and The Conception Mandala: Creative Techniques for Inviting a Child into Your Life (1992), which Samuel co-authored with Mark Olsen.
Avital's pedegogy differs from Decroux' in that Avital treats mime as both a theater art and a meditational practice akin to yoga and tai chi, as opposed to Decroux' modernist, academic approach. Samuel's peers and students praise him for his innovative approach to personal and professional creativity.
