I founded the London Demidov Studio in 2018, following a collaboration with Russian acting teacher and director Andrei Malaev-Babel. The studio is dedicated to exploring the work of little-known Russian acting pedagogue and director, Nikolai Demidov, who pioneered a non-analytical, organic technique that enable actors to access their intuitive, subsconscious creativity. The Demidov Organic Acting Technique is rooted in the culture of creative freedom, putting actors in touch with their own creative individuality by teaching them to recognize and follow their artistic instincts.

Demidov was one of the three original teachers of the Stanislavsky System (Sulerzhitsky-Vakhtangov-Demidov), the first editor of Stanislavsky’s An Actor’s Work and the founding director of the Moscow Art Theatre School.  Stanislavsky’s close collaborator for 30 years, Demidov went on to disagree with Stanislavsky on the use of analysis. Demidov’s School approaches an actor’s process as an indivisible flow of subconscious creativity – from the first steps of training. Demidov uncovered the professional secrets of the great tragedians, such as Eleonora Duse, Tommaso Salvini and Ira Aldridge.

Improvisational text etudes, at the heart of the technique, stimulate spontaneity and emotional richness in actors, instigating the free flow of subconscious creativity. Some of the basic principles, or cultures, of the technique include freedom, emptiness and creative calm. The Demidov technique is aimed at developing independent actor-creators, capable of generating their own work, and serving as an equal collaborator to the director.

The London studio organises an annual summer school intensive with Andrei Malaev-Babel, and offers regular etude sessions and workshops. Do get in touch if interested.  Click the button below to stay up to date with workshops and more.