Theatre of Movement and Gesture (Jacques Lecoq, David Bradby, ed. , 2006)

Ch. 1 Imitation: from mimicry to miming (P.1 - 5)

• P.1 Children gain their understanding of the world around them by miming it: they mimic what they see and what they hear. They reply with their whole body those aspects of life in which they will be called on to participate. In this way they learn about life and, little by little, take possession of it.
• Children's mimicry is a game: they imitate out of pleasure, partly believing themselves to be the object imitate out, like the actor, knowing that it is not altogether true. Children imitate for themselves, actors for an audience whom they will persuade of the truth of his character; but the audience, too, knows that it is not entirely true.
• As a phenomenon, imitation may be purely voluntary - a deliberate decision to make others believe one is what one is not for one's own advantage.
• P.2 Imitation is not necessarily a deliberate act: people who live together come to imitate one another without realising it.
• P.4 Miming differs from mimicry (模仿) in this respect: it is not imitation but a way of grasping the real that is played out in our body.

Lecoq, Jacques, and David Bradby. Theatre of Movement and Gesture. New York: Routledge, 2006.