International Mime Day

Mimes, those actors who bring joy through silence, represent stories through movements, gestures and corporal expression. Its origin dates back to ancient Greece and this art gradually spread to other regions such as Sicily, Rome and Alexandria.

It was preserved by traveling companies in medieval Europe and resurfaced with the Commedia dell' Arte (popular theater born in Italy between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. It then continued to develop with artists such as Jean-Gaspard Deburau, Jacques Copeau, Ètienne Decroux, Jacques Lecoq and Marcel Marceau. Precisely, the International Day of Mime is celebrated on September 22 in memory of the day of Marceau's death.

Marcel Marceau was born on March 22, 1923 in Strasbourg (France). Of Jewish origin, during his adolescence he had to leave his home with his family due to the invasion of German troops during World War II, settling in Limoges. In fact, his father was arrested by the Gestapo and sent to Auschwitz concentration camp where he died in 1944. He and his brother enlisted in the French Resistance and later in Charles de Gaulle's Free French forces.

In 1947 he created Bip, a character who faced various misadventures and wore a striped sweater, baggy black pants and a hat with a red flower. Bip became an icon of this art and Marceau managed to captivate spectators by mixing acrobatics, ballet, illusionism and genius.

Marcel Marceau died on September 22, 2007 and his remains are in the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris.