I first met Ira in a clown workshop 10 years ago, the 1st workshop of a series. I worked with him during these annual workshops on 10 Core Mechanics, Quantum Theatre, Beckett theatre, discovering the world of very physical clowning. I participated in Ira's creations: clown shows (Will Shakespeare Save Us, Beckett’s Bits, Clown cabaret etc.) showed in Paris theatres. I can say that this has been one of the most nourishing teachers I have met. With Ira I re-discovered what ACTING was about, that was an absolute rediscovery after my years of Stanislavski acting, as it is taught in France: very intellectual theatre, forgetting that most important thing - The Body is the base of acting.
Ira gave me keys that I have deeply integrated and that changed my way of playing theatre for all my life. To be conscious of the totality at every moment of: my moves, directions, clarity in the intentions, the movements, and the shapes. The trainings and exercises I still use every day in my warm-ups and creations. That gave me the basis for creating my own shows; clown and theatre acts; in the using of the body; but, in the imagination too, going from nothing to creation. Today in my singing and theatre shows, I can’t imagine I could work so « effectively » if I hadn’t learnt so much in the diverse collaborations with Ira and all the buddy’s with whom I worked year after year in the workshops and clown shows. And more than using this as a new way of working, it also changed the view I have on the « spectacle vivant » as we say in French. I really felt I crossed steps, year after year and that Ira's method was a « for life » teaching, there is a before and an after. I am now in this after, always developing my activities, giving workshops myself, creating new shows, as an actress, and as a singer, with always the same structuring frame that I learned with Ira.