Welcome to Cours Florent
a world class drama school, training international performers for 60 years
Cours Florent offers professional training in the fields of theatre, film, musical theatre and music.
Founded by François Florent in 1967, and currently under the direction of Simone Strickner, Cours Florent has established itself as France’s premier training program for artists and performers for over half a century.
With classrooms and rehearsal spaces in the 19th and 20th arrondissements of Paris, Cours Florent is a school located in the heart of a vibrant international artistic hub.
The school offers courses in English, French, German and Spanish. Students have the opportunity to train in several languages to prepare sufficiently for an international career.
OUR HISTORY
Tradition with an
international perspective
François Florent founded Cours Florent in 1967. A man of the theatre and an avant-garde teacher, he created an innovative approach to artistic education, envisaging a new way of teaching performing arts and pioneering a training approach to acting for the screen.
Alsatian in origin, François Florent was raised in a bi-cultural environment, speaking French and German. A number of his family members lived in the United States. This multinational upbringing shaped and imparted a global perspective to Florent's teaching style.
From the moment he founded the school, he sought to extend the traditional French pedagogic approach, to embrace an international perspective. Cours Florent was the first school in France to offer training in English and to introduce texts and methodologies from all over the world.
Fifty years on, the school is run by Austrian-born Simone Strickner and continues to reinvent itself in training tomorrow's artists from all over the world.
OUR TRAINING APPROACH
OUR ARTISTIC AND EDUCATIONAL GOALS
At Cours Florent, we strive to give our students all the tools they need to discover their unique talents and flourish.
Our ambition is to provide not only the necessary skillset to develop a solid technique, but to create a space where students are safe to risk and experiment. Through a process of exploration and experimentation, we encourage our students to reach their full creative potential. We believe in a ‘hands-on’ approach, learning-through-doing, strong classical and theoretical underpinnings, rigorous and regular assessment, and highly personalized instruction by theatre and film professionals. We embrace identity-based exploration, and inclusive practices.
Due to the ever-evolving nature of the arts, Cours Florent consistently strives to adapt its teaching methods and support pathways in response to the requirements of our students, the industry and the present moment. This fast-paced, challenging approach encourages every student to make a personal commitment to artistic excellence. While concentration on personal development is paramount, the program also emphasizes ensemble work, and the collaborative nature of the art form(s), stressing the individual’s responsibility to the group, and the group’s responsibility to the individual.
The training is delivered via:
- a structured and demanding program to identify and develop the unique artistic personality of each student. The academic calendar is punctuated with regular assessments and presentations (known as échéances). Vocal and physical training lay the groundwork for a solid classical technique.
- a faculty staffed by professionals working in theatre and cinema – each member of the pedagogical team brings unique, real-world experience as practitioners into the classroom.
- a wide variety of courses and teaching methods, offering students the opportunity to discover different methods and traditions which speak to their individual training journey.
- professional networking opportunities, in conjunction with regular performance opportunities.
- masterclasses, workshops and theory sessions to develop critical thinking skills, as a supplement to the practical courses.
- a project-based pedagogy with opportunities to create personal projects, to refine acting technique and become fully-realised artistic creators and producers.
- a rich student life, artistic and festive events are organised to encourage students to keep stepping out of their comfort zone.
It is incumbent upon us to train actors who are viable candidates for the wider workplace by offering a transferable skillset that includes interpersonal communication, keen time management, empathic awareness, psychophysical expressivity, critical thinking, creative problem-solving, and working in teams. To discover and secure one’s niche in the modern theatre and film industries, aspiring artists must be resourceful and creative, disciplined and versatile.
COURSE ORGANISATION
FLEXIBLE TIMETABLES
Cours Florent has a flexible timetable of classes. We appreciate that some students have commitments beyond their actor training and do our best to accommodate that by offering everyone a choice of time slot (morning, afternoon or evening) for the core acting technique classes. This allows room for a student job (35% of our students have part-time student jobs to finance their studies) or to pursue a parallel university degree.
Pursuit of outside artistic projects is encouraged and supported. However, commitment to studies and preparation is paramount and necessary to succeed. Academic supervisors in each year group are available to advise students on their curricular choices.
