Dates:
Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd February 2015
Time:
10am – 5pm
Cost:
£90
Email info@jondavison.net to
secure your place.
This
workshop will look at the fundamentals of clowning, learning to feel and
enjoy our own ridiculousness. Converting our habitual fear of ridicule into the
pleasure of laughing at ourselves, we can use it to make others laugh and
experience the freedom of the clown.
When you really look, most things are
ridiculous: our bodies, our movements, our ideas, our emotions, our words, our
relationships, the universe. The only aim in clowning is to turn failure into
success, fear into laughter, suffering into joy. We don’t need to change
ourselves, just look at everything from another perspective. It’s a human thing
to do, so anyone can do it. Although only a few will choose to dedicate their
lives to it, anyone can experience the clown.
This course is suitable for anyone
interested in exploring clowning, with or without experience.
Jon
Davison is a clown performer, teacher, director, researcher,
writer and musician with 30 years experience. Co-founder in 1993 of Companyia d’Idiotes, he has toured
festivals, theatres, tents, streets and bars throughout Europe from Sicily to
the Arctic. He trained at the École
Philippe Gaulier and Fool Time Circus
School (Bristol). As well as performing solo, he is part of the four-person
clown/circus/pantomime company, Stupididity,
currently touring Not A Real Horse.
He was co-founder of the Escola de Clown de Barcelona, one of the world’s leading centres offering
comprehensive clown training programmes covering both practical and theoretical
aspects of the clown arts. He previously taught clown, impro, and acting at the
Institut del Teatre de Barcelona from
1996-2006, and was a Research Fellow investigating clown training at Central School of Speech and Drama
(University of London), where he is now a visiting lecturer as well as
working towards his PhD on clown performance.
He is the author of Clown Readings in Theatre Practice published by Palgrave Macmillan, a rich
collection of readings offering a wide-ranging and authoritative survey of
clown practices, history and theory, from the origins of the word clown through
to contemporary clowning. His second book, Clown Training, a practical guide
for teachers and students, is due out later in 2015.
For more information about Jon
Davison:
