Body Alphabet

The Body Alphabet, also know as Molik’s Alphabet, forms the core for the Voice and Body training method developed over 48 years of research by Zygmunt Molik and designed to open up the body and voice. It consists of a set of precise physical actions that can be used to build a body language.

“You must learn these actions by heart and then improvise a ‘life’ with them. […] There are around thirty-five actions, including a number of intermediate actions necessary to move from one exercise to another. […] Some are more complicated, and everything is conceived as a resource serving the voice. […] All these exercises have been created to serve the voice.”

Zygmunt Molik

“Zygmunt Molik first told me of his desire to make me the successor of his method in 2006 in Lisbon. But it was only in 2010, after his death, that I asked myself questions about responsibility, my willingness to take up the baton and what it would mean to me. Today I can say with pride that this work has become my own and I call on practitioners to willingly and greedily explore what Zygmunt called the Body Alphabet.

What is Body Alphabet? It is a series of physical actions which, just like an alphabet and its letters, invites us to write our own history – at once emotional, creative and relational. In fact, it is an invitation to take action, to go on a journey, an invitation to meet oneself, others and the Unknown.”

Jorge Parente

The 24 “letters of the Alphabet” were first recorded in 2006 by Giuliano Campo (with technical assistance from Heather Green) to be included on a DVD with the book Zygmunt Molik’s Voice and Body Work: The Legacy of Jerzy Grotowski (2010). They were presented by Jorge Parente, Zygmunt Molik’s successor, except for three exercises performed and recorded separately by Giuliano Campo. The book includes 27 exercises.

A second Polish edition of the book is in preparation. It will include a DVD with 30 fundamental Body Alphabet exercises performed by Jorge Parente. The exercises were recorded with three cameras by Maciej Mądry on 10 and 17 March 2013 in the Laboratory Space of the Grotowski Institute. Jorge Parente provided assistance editing the material.