Accademia Teatro Dimitri

FEDEC member since 2025

The Scuola Teatro Dimitri was founded in 1975 in Verscio (Canton Ticino, Switzerland) by the clown Dimitri, his wife Gunda, and the Czech actor and mime Richard Weber. The school is the realization of a dream shared by its founders: to build an innovative theater where bodily expression would be the primary means of communication.

Together, they created a specific pedagogy based on the interaction of a wide range of disciplines such as pantomime, dance, theatrical improvisation, acrobatics, rhythm, clowning, vocal training, and theater history and theory. Today, Accademia Teatro Dimitri is a higher education theater school, affiliated with SUPSI (Scuola universitaria professionale della Svizzera italiana), offering multidisciplinary programs focused on physical theater and its various dimensions (body, movement, dramaturgy, performance).

The unique features of its study programs (bachelor’s and master’s), as well as its research and continuing education activities, make the Accademia Teatro Dimitri a reference point in theater education, both nationally and internationally, and a center of excellence in the arts. The university campus, nestled in the greenery of a Ticinese valley, combines a familial atmosphere with an international dimension, creating a learning and working environment rich in artistic stimuli, encounters, and interpersonal interactions.

Training offered

Accademia Teatro Dimitri offers 2 training programs: 

Bachelor of Arts in Theatre

The Bachelor of Arts in Theater at Accademia Teatro Dimitri is a 3-year program that focuses on preparing the body as a narrative tool and developing performance techniques in order to train versatile and independent artists in the field of physical theater. During their training, students gain practical experience and theoretical knowledge through regular classes, intensive teaching sessions (in-depth study of specific topics), and productions presented in Switzerland and abroad.

Objectives:

• acquire a variety of expressive languages through multidisciplinary training combining teaching from the arts of theater, dance, and circus.
• develop the ability to work in a team, contributing one's skills and inventiveness, and to invest in personal creations.
• acquire the tools necessary for creation through moments of experimentation and occasional mixing between the disciplines that make up the program.

Master of Arts in Theater

The Master of Arts in Theater program focuses on the body in theater, but also on the dialogue between theater and other arts as well as with society. The body is the foundation upon which artistic and social practices develop.

Objectives:

• support the artistic and personal development of each student.
• provide specific practical and theoretical input related to the field of physical theater and its interdisciplinary forms;
• acquire the ability to initiate, plan, and carry out a theater project;
• be able to build fruitful collaborations in the field of artistic research;
• develop a confident and thoughtful artistic position regarding the potential of theater and its applications in today's society.

Disciplines taught

• Acrobatics

• Acrobatic creation

• Dance

• Pilates / Deep muscle training

• Folk dance

• Dance creation / Laban

• Acrobatics–dance collaboration

• Movement project

• Theatrical improvisation

• Non-verbal theatre

• Pantomime technique, pantomime style

• Mask performance

• Vocal education

• Body and voice

• Rhythm

• Sound design / soundscaping

• Choir

• Theory / general culture

• Clowning

• Commedia dell’arte

• Makeup

• Mask making

• Collective & individual work

• PAKT

• LIFF (written and practical)

• LCFF

• Variety

• Artistic Biography

• Immersion Puppet/Objects

• Carnivalesque Body

• Applied Theatre

• Composition

• Stagecraft

• Artistic Research Project (individual & group)

• Manifesto

• Project Management

• Dramaturgy Directing

• Staging Devised Group Projects

• Master Project & thesis

Learn more about this member

Founded in 1975

Management team

• Operations Director: Veronica Provenzale
• Artistic Director and Head of Basic Training: Anna Gromanova
• Head of Research: Demis Quadri
• Head of Continuing Education: Daniel Bausch

Teaching language

Italian & English

Location

Stradòn 28
6653 Verscio
Switzerland

Contact

accademiadimitri@supsi.ch
+41 (0)58 666 67 50
www.accademiadimitri.ch

Instagram: @accademiadimitri
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