Samy Molcho

Samy Molcho was born in 1936 in Tel Aviv

Samy Molcho was born in Tel Aviv on 24 May 1936 and grew up there. He graduated from the acting studio of the Cameri Theatre. He studied mime, dance and movement with Alvin Epstein, Yardena Cohen and Juki Arkin.

From 1952 he danced with the Jerusalem Dance Theatre of Rina Nikova, and in 1956 he began a solo career in modern dance in Tel Aviv. In 1960 he played at Habima and staged a one-man mime show that he toured around the world. His style followed the mime school of Marcel Marceau and Jean-Louis Barrault.

In 1963 he choreographed the ballet Berschit, and in 1964 he directed the German premiere of Jean Genet's The Negroes. He went on to direct plays, musicals and operas in Austria, Switzerland and Germany. In 1977 he began teaching at the Max Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna and founded a mime school there.

In 1978 he married Haya Heinrich and moved to Vienna, and they have four sons. After his last tour as a mime in 1987, he turned to lecturing and writing on body language, and his book on children's body language came out in 1992. He was a professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna until 2004.