Since 1987, Magda Thielemans has taught LAB to drama and music students at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp. She has also taught at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel (Waterloo) and the International Opera Academy (Ghent).
These movement classes prove extremely valuable to (beginning) performing artists for artistic development and building a sustainable artistic career. And this through classes that provide better knowledge, control, and training of one’s own body.
To pass on her 40 years of practical experience, Magda researched her own teaching practice and is starting a living archive. Living because Magda is now no longer the only one giving the lessons. It has become a LAB team within Royal Conservatory of Antwerp.
This LAB-O offers practical examples, lessons and exercises in addition to basic information. Want to view the full LAB-O with practice examples? Request access here.
“My own method has grown over the years from practice, influenced by time and feedback, supported by research and colored by my personal artistic expression.”
Magda Thielemans
Relaxation, awareness, activation, playfulness, togetherness. A look inside the LAB-MT lessons
Skills
In the LAB lessons you learn
to listen to your body
to stay connected to your body
to use your body ergonomically
to use your body as an expressive instrument
to relate with the theatrical space in which you move
to relate with the other person in the same theatrical space
to relate with the spectator
Why
Your body is the main bearer of your artistic message in the presence of the spectator. Your body is your first instrument. Knowing this instrument and taking care of it are important to build a sustainable career.
Basic principles of LAB
Everyone and therefore each body is unique.
You are your body: the lessons start from a holistic belief. Easily accessible: everyone works at their own speed and level. Safe: everyone works within and at their own limits. Artistic and playful: while dancing and playing we learn naturally.
Lessons are process rather than product oriented. Working individually within a group lesson: each person follows their own unique path.
Pedagogy is the teaching method:
The context of the lesson is always the first requirement: for whom? Why? How?
Lesson structure is an ever changing puzzle using “fields”.
“It helps to understand that body awareness is the most important. Observing and analyzing the body helps to better use its potential. “
Alum. Bachelor Dance
foto Jurgen Delnaet
About Magda Thielemans
Magda Thielemans (1964, Leuven-Belgium) started dancing at the Leuven Conservatoire at the age of 8. In 1984 she graduated from the Hoger Instituut voor Dans (present Dance Teachers Department of the Antwerp Royal Conservatoire, AP University of Applied Sciences and Arts / degree in Contemporary Dance and Education).
From 1987 on Magda has been developing physical awareness programmes for singers and actors at the Royal Conservatoire Antwerp.
The Thielemans Physical Artistic Awareness Method (LAB MT) is implemented to help students familiarize themselves with their body and to train them in using it well, with the double aim of reaching their artistic goals and building healthy, long-lasting careers. LAB MT also focusses on the body’s spatial impact and its relation to co-players.
Her field of work expanded from 2000 to the IOA (International Opera Academy, Ghent) and the MuCH (Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel, Waterloo) where she conducted workshops for many years. She regularely hosts workshops and masterclasses at home and abroad.
In 2008, Thielemans teamed up with physiotherapist Anne Schütt and associate professor Nathalie Roussel in a research project, developing an injury prevention training for musicians playing an instrument. From then on, physical prevention training is implemented within the curriculum of every music student at the Conservatoire.
As part of the CORPoREAL research-group, Magda Thielemans co-launched Resilient Artist, a research programme on mental pressure and coping strategies for artists (with the department of Applied Psychology of the AP University). From 2022 on, the mental prevention programme is included in the curriculum of every Bachelor 1 student at the Conservatoire.
Thielemans is currently teaching and coordinating the physical awareness and movement training programme at the drama and music department of the Antwerp Royal Conservatoire. She is artistic coordinator of the educational dance programmes at the same institute.
She engages to build a learning network around the performing artist’s instrument.
