Cours Florent School of Drama

Cours Florent, one of the largest acting schools in Europe with over 1000 students, has been considered for decades as the most professional drama school in France. Its monopolistic position, comparable to the State Conservatories, is lately threatened by a constantly decreasing quality of the courses and a larger number of competitors.

Cours Florent was founded by Francois Florent. It has gained its image thanks to the media attention and its famous alumni. Present at the television show at Canal +, Cours Florent starts to attract a number of students, from the age of seven for children’s workshops, teenager’s workshops and the conservatory three- year program. The famous Free Course has hugely contributed to Cours Florent’s image, especially by the time Francis Huster, a famous French film actor was a part of it.

Most of the students go to Cours Florent because they don’t know any other schools actually exist. If anyone who has no relationship to the theatre or drama training is asked if he knows a drama school, in absolute majority of cases, Cours Florent would be the only one named.

Today, such facts as Cours Florent having over one thousand students, the average number of the students in each group attending 30 or 40, the classes being limited to three hours compared to the common four hour courses with the majority of competitors; the individual approach to each student being difficult to accomplish; Cours Florent is loosing its monopolistic market position, giving place to innovative drama schools that have much to offer to a young actor.

The Cours Florent offers classes for students beginning at the age of seven, and offers children's works, teenagers' works, and a three-years program to learn acting. The school also has a specialized class to prepare students for the competitive examination of the prestigious Conservatoire national supérieur d'Art dramatique de Paris (CNSAD). But the Cours Florent is above all famous for his Classe libre (Free class) where many French actors and actresses have studied, with teachers like Francis Huster, Jean-Pierre Garnier, and Antonia Malinova.

For forty years the Cours Florent has trained the greatest french actors: Francis Huster and Isabelle Adjani among notable others. At the origine of all the great names, François Florent.