To stay in touch with the most current offerings, classes and workshops, sign up for the WhatsApp group:
Community Classes—Sundays in June/2026
@ The Practice Room, 688 Richmond Street West, Toronto
This June only, Embodied Character will be offering drop-in, community classes. You are welcome to attend one or all four classes. We will be moving through a simple progression of the work, so if you are able to attend all four, you will begin to feel the path unfold beneath your feet.
Embodied Character is a creative, embodied approach to acting that explores the experience of being-in-character. Drawing from clown, somatics, character theory, constellation-work, parts-work, shadow-work and channeling. This class is an ongoing experiment in what it feels like to be human: to live at different extremes, in different realities, all for the noble purpose of holding a mirror up to the audience.
We call this work “embodied” because it focuses on using the wisdom and intelligence of the body to inhabit different energies, archetypes, inner parts, and character experiences. Moving away from the “expert model” approach to acting, which is rooted in criticism and ideas of “good” or “bad” acting, Embodied Character offers an approach centred on pleasurably entering the creative unknown.
The work encourages the actor’s ability to intuitively express character experiences within their own body, using their inherent creative intelligence as a pathway into understanding the character’s reality. Embodied Character recognizes that acting is ultimately about the moment to moment experience of being in-character. It supports the actor’s growth not only as an artist, but also as a human being and leader in the world.
The work is physical and held within a spiritual frame that allows the actor to understand their practice within a larger life-path context. We explore our own limiting character beliefs and discover the edges of “character” that keep us from being fully and creatively exuberant.
To register: https://forms.gle/fgmt2YnRnVSyXHq36
Or email: dov.tiefenbach@gmail.com
<(*_*)>
1-1 Work
Whether working on an audition or a booked role, I support actors in creating characters that are exciting to embody while fulfilling the demands of the text. The focus spans script analysis to the embodied performance stage, utilizing a wide variety of modalities including creative dream-work and clown-work.
As a trained Psychotherapist I also work with actors specifically on finding and working through creative blocks that present as trauma in the actors mind/body system. Uncovering these blocks is also part of the actors journey, learning how their own character is manifesting through their instrument and affecting the scope of their work. Therapeutic process-work and creative-work have obvious overlaps and I have found it fruitful for actors to work therapeutically with the specific goal of overcoming blocks in their craft. Both professionally and creatively. This is the hero’s journey.
This work can be done through personalized weekly coaching or goal/project specific sessions.
/( •_•)\
Ongoing Masterclass
Sundays 6pm-9pm, Toronto
This weekly class is designed to bring the actor into deep contact with their inner creative flow. The signal of which tends to get buried with all the noise of the mind/culture/industry.
Cultivating sensitivity to the experiencing self, the actor is introduced to the tools of character structure and is allowed to discover how their inner genius “puts things together”.”The thrust of this class is the actor reclaiming authority on their creative abilities without interference from the teacher.
Using the tools of character structure and clown work, the actor explores their ability to create an infinite amount of character experiences within their own system. This class builds on group dynamics to support the actor in finding confidence in their creative abilities. The actor discovers who they are as an artist and cultivates boundaries and integrity with how and what they create.
≤(^J^)≥
Character Creation Lab
Weekly Zoom Class, Mondays 5pm-7pm
This class is a deep dive into the nature of character and how the actor creates them.
Using prompts based in character theory, the actor moves from their own creativity and spontaneity through improvisation exercises, discovering how characters are born in the fire of their intuition.
The actor integrates their innate ability to understand and BE a cornucopia of characters without preparation and rehearsal. The actor is learning to trust their own instincts and impulses and relies less on control and self-manipulation in creating their work. This is an exploration of what character is, how it manifests in the body, and the actor’s relationship to their creativity.
This class is an exploration of what it feels like to be in character.
≈(+_+)≈
Weekly Foundations
This class is for those interested in the foundational skills of the actor—the energetic and creative ability to embrace the moment and be in character.
Without stifling intuition, this class encourages the artist to let it rip—to unleash their native talents through being-in-character.
Time is spent with embodiment exercises, bringing the actor into the here-and-now, deepening sensitivity and preparing the body to let-go into intuitive-play.
Unlocking the deeper, primal, unsocalized self, inviting more freedom and flexibility in the actors instrument to be able to embody a wide array of character-experiences.
The actor begins to trust their own inner genius as opposed to any method or technique.
This class is fun, deeply creative and connecting.