In Verscio, a small Ticino village, the school of the famous clown Dimitri has become one of the four national high schools of the scene arts. The ambition has grown up, the spirit remained the same: that of a community of artists who cherish a physical theater where the body counts as much as words.
From French -speaking Switzerland, you must first go under the Alps and then snap with a tortillard through the Centovalli between Italy and Ticino. When we finally arrive in the small Verscio station, we immediately tell ourselves that there is something magical to come so far to reach the Accademia Dimitri. It is not Hogwarts castle, but this train journey is well worth the Harry Potter Express Hogwarts and his friends.
Verscio is an inspiring nest. In the mid -1970s, this Ticino village hung between river and steep mountains inspired a tale to the writer Corinna Bille: Marietta, a small wooden puppet in love with freedom, dreams of playing here at the Dimitri theater. With his family, the most famous clown and mime in Switzerland holds a small school nestled in the cobbled alleys of Verscio. Today Dimitri is no longer. The clown and death, Evivva the clown! His theater still exists and his school survived him.
ACCADEMIA’s physical theater
In 2025, ACCADEMIA Dimitri celebrated its 50th anniversary. She grew up well. It is now high school, linked to the specialized high school in Italian Switzerland. Over the seasons, 700 students lived and in Verscio and in its immediate vicinity. With Zurich, Bern and Lausanne factory, it is one of the four Swiss schools that offers a training as a bachelor and master in the scene.
In Verscio, a word often comes back: physical theater. Or a form of expression where the body is the first engaged. This does not prevent speech or song. It is not circus even if we also practice it. And it is no longer just pantomime, even if the latter, a beautiful inheritance of Dimitri, still appears on the course program. To find out more about this academy which brings together each semester a good thirty students from all over Europe, the Vertigo program pushed the door of classes and joins the benches of this school which is now deployed throughout the village.
>> Listen to the subject of the vertigo program devoted to the 50th anniversary of ACCADEMIA Dimitri (3/3):
From clown art to Plato’s rhetoric
Here, we speak Italian. Italian Dimitri. A sort of frank language where scraps of French, German, English, Spanish and more if understanding. A language lesson welcomes first -year students and very quickly each each one immerses themselves greedily in this teaching. It begins with a warm -up before cheerfully from the art of clown to Plato’s rhetoric through dance and the preparation of a show to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Academy in Verscio, then Urbi and Orbi through Ticino and Switzerland.
All clowns, Dimitri? What not! Just see the work of Bachelor presented last March. There is a question of the 14-18 war, the Médée infanticide trial, the evocations of Heidi or the female figures of the vampire. It is also enough to think of the very long list of ex-dimitri, which also includes the contemporary choreographer Nicole Seiler that the filmmakers Stéphanie Chuat and Véronique Reymond, the circassian-dancer Marc Osterhoof, the duo Clownesque Diptik, the musician Olivier Gabus or the actress of theater Michèle Gurtner, to name a few names Romande.
An united artistic community
After a few hours spent in Verscio, we understand the spirit that reigns here. That of a community united in a small space where everything circulates from Ruelle to Ruelle. It is not a college lost in the middle of a city, but an art center between countryside and mountain where artists and their teachings are immediately spotted in this village population.
Some will judge the place too withdrawn from the urban scenes in which the contemporary arts of the scene rush. Others will appreciate solidarity and the global artistic network which is woven from Verscio. The dream of the clown can continue.
Thierry Sartoretti/ld
Spectacle des Diplômes de Bachelor au theater Dimitri, Verscio (TI), 9 Never 2025
Show with the Orchestra of Italian Switzerland, Lac, Lugano (TI), from May 5 to 7, 2025.
“Everything is Going to Be Fine”, on tour, Nighthony theater, Villars-sur-Glâne (FR), May 22, 2025, Circo Bello, La Chaux-de-Fonds (NE), May 29 and 30, 2025.
