A meeting of like minds: Marcel Marceau and Bill Irwin bring the grace of dancers to the world of mime.

One recent wintry day in downtown Manhattan, the high-ceilinged studio of photographer Tom Caravaglia was the site of the meeting of two renowned mimes, Marcel Marceau

Bill Irwin. Despite their having successful careers in a relatively small field, the two artists had never met. Sensing some awkwardness in the occasion, Caravaglia put them directly to work. "It is, for me, a little intimidating" murmured Irwin to a spotlight.

Despite their differences in style and age, these great mimes clearly think alike. Immediately after the first flash went off, they instantly clowned being killed. Marceau then began suggesting some photo subjects: "I'll do pride, arrogance, vanity, courage, fear, and melancholy," he said, getting into position for pride. In order to see Marceau from the camera's angle-and to avoid leaving footprints on the swatch of oversized paper that had been unrolled as a backdrop -- Irwin responded with a flying leap out of camera range and made a deadpan request to watch.

Marceau quickly adopted the role of teacher, explaining to Irwin the importance of a solid supporting leg in a photo, as opposed to the rubbery legs of a clown. "He's a great talent, we know that," says Marceau of Irwin. "But he hasn't learned the mime of Marceau."

"It was entirely appropriate," Irwin says later about Marceau's instant assumption of the role of teacher. "We had to do something quickly in front of the lens, and I must say I learned a lot. I suppose there wafted through my mind a sort of a feeling like, `Well, excuse me, but I ...' Then I thought, `Oh, what did he say?' Because I wanted to know what he'd say. He breathes a certain way, and hits certain masks with his face. I can do a lot of things with my face but I can't do that exact thing, and I want to know about that. Some of it I fell into kind of naturally, but a lot of it I didn't."

The two ran through the different emotions one by one, and each time Irwin closely studied Marceau. Though the two mimed basically the same thing, they didn't look at all the same. Marceau's mime is sweeter and sillier. Irwin has more of an edge; when he does anger, he looks somewhat deranged. After several attempts, Irwin paused once more to regard Marceau's lionlike rage and laughed. "We'll never be the same, Tom," he said to Caravaglia.

With this cheerful admission, Irwin relaxed and the photo shoot took off. "I'll fait comme il sent," noted Marceau approvingly. "It is much better, because it has to be you." He turned to the camera. "He does it his way, and I do it my way." The two clowned around A deux. "You play piano, I'll play violin," said Marceau, and they started to play their imaginary instruments. "You draw the saber and I'm receiving the saber," suggested Irwin.

After fifty years in the business, Marceau's talent is still undeniable, and he lit up the room as brightly as the flash. "I'd love to get the feeling that I'm marveling," said Irwin, positioning himself behind Marceau.

The camera brought out both the similarities and differences between the two artists. Marceau's name, a household word ever since he introduced pantomime to the United States and the world with tours of his one-man show in the 1950s and 1960s, is more synonymous with the art of mime. "Mr. Marceau is the truest mime living and practicing the art," says Irwin.

Like Irwin, Marceau embraces mime as physical theater. He says, "I make the invisible visible, and I sculpt space. I have been called the magician of the invisible world, which I make visible. What I liked about the American critics is that they did not label me; they did not say, `He is only a special kind of theater -- mime.' They really put me in the real ground of theater -- of silent theater of course, but they said that I brought a new world in the world of the theater. They said, `Marcel Marceau is in the theater what Charlie Chaplin is in films.'"

Irwin, who quite often does speaking roles in which his physical vocabulary adds to the character development, thinks of himself as an actor first. "I'm not sure, especially standing in a room with Marcel Marceau, that I'd call myself a true mime," he admits. "I get called a mime a lot but I think I am really a physical actor. I don't think people know quite what to call me because I often do work without words, and within a certain sense that makes one a mime. My orientation and my training are not the same as his: I've admired him always and imitated him on occasion, but if you look back at all the work I've done, I think I'm an actor who chooses not to speak -- to work physically -- or sometimes an actor who chooses to work as a clown."

The two artists have not ruled out a collaboration, although none is currently in the works. "If the fates threw us together then we would and could have an amazing time coming up with something," says Irwin. "It's not the kind of thing that I think will ever happen unless the theater fates push us together; but, of course, they do much stranger things than that."

Both have busy schedules. Currently, Marceau is touring the U.S. once again with his one-man show: "Now I have the second or third generation who come to my shows," he explains. "For the new generation, if young people come they have never seen Marcel Marceau, and it is better to see him on the stage." Irwin, in addition to a myriad of freelance gigs is directing a production of the Feydeau farce A Flea in Her Ear, scheduled to open this month at the Roundabout Theatre in New York City.

Marceau and Irwin are optimistic about the future of mime. Marceau continues to teach in his school in Paris and has set up the Marcel Marceau Foundation to advance the art form. "I want mime to become a very strong art form beside Marcel Marceau," he says. "This is why I have my school. America has wonderful modem dancers, but mime is not as strong as it is in France now. Because with our school, the roots are still in France. But now mimes who have studied with me start also to create mime dramas in America, and this is why it is time to have now created this mime foundation."

When asked whether mime has a future, Irwin says mischievously, "Good question. I'm not sure that it'll look in fifty or one hundred years like what we think of when we say the word today, but -- yes. Because the physical language of the body is more powerful than words. We don't tend to think of it that way, but it is much more powerful than words. There will always be a theater aside from the spoken word."