A
mime artist is someone who uses
mime as a theatrical medium or as a
performance art, involving the acting out a story through body motions, without use of
speech. In earlier times, in English, such a performer was referred to as a
mummer. Miming is to be distinguished from
silent comedy, in which the artist is a seamless character in a film or sketch.
The performance of pantomime originates at its earliest in ancient Greece; the name is taken from a single masked dancer called Pantomimus, although performances were not necessarily silent. In Medieval Europe, early forms of mime such as mummer plays and later dumbshows evolved. In early nineteenth century Paris, Jean-Gaspard Deburau solidified the many attributes that we have come to know in modern times — the silent figure in whiteface.
Prior to the work of Etienne Decroux there was no major treatise on the art of mime, and so any recreation of mime as performed prior to the twentieth century is largely conjecture, based on interpretation of diverse sources. However, the twentieth century also brought a new medium into widespread usage the motion picture.
The restrictions of early motion picture technology meant that stories had to be told with minimal dialogue which was largely restricted to intertitles. This often demanded a highly stylized form of physical acting largely derived from the stage. Thus, mime played an important role in films prior to advent of talkies (films with sound or speech). The mimetic style of film acting was used to great effect in German Expressionist film.
