Aitchison trained three years full time in corporeal mime at Ecole de Mime Corporel Dramatique with Steve Wasson and Corrine Soum, the two long-term teaching assistants of Etienne Decroux, the founder of the form. His practice-based PhD (Goldsmiths 2007) was based on integrating this performing arts movement discipline with performance art.
He has taught both more orthodox corporeal mime and his own artistic practice developed from it to students and emerging artists in diverse context. Through longer-term courses at Beijing Normal Hong Kong Baptist University, Xiamen University and Nanjing University and workshops in such places as IIFUT Festival Tehran, Goldsmiths College, York St John University, Nanjing University of Arts, Yunnan Art Academy, UCA Zhangzhou, Shenzhen Fringe, AMNUA Museum, G Museum Nanjing, Pengyu Contemporary Dance Company, First Light Xiamen.