Helikos Summer School 2027
February 1 st → 27th , 2027
Melbourne, Victoria
AUSTRALIA
BOUFFON INTENSIVE
Bouffon Intensive, Boulder 2024
Welcome to a new edition of the Bouffon Intensive
A wild ride in the world of mocking and grotesque theatre
A radical call for anyone who wishes to develop their satirical mind and body
and feed their poetic world
with the irresistible folly
of the ecstasy of mocking
The Bouffons are buzzing with jubilation
ready to mock the exquisite insanity of human race
It’s Time for Satyric Timing !
Stage picture from the Show We Too Us Too Me Too Too Too, Melbourne 2022
WHO ARE THE BOUFFONS?
The word Bouffon comes from a latin verb: buffare, to puff, to fill the cheeks with air, to deform oneself, to swell in order to provoke laughter. It appears to be a very old human practice. In fact, bouffons are direct descendants of the satyrs from Ancient Greek Satyric Drama, whose task was to balance the Tragic Space through mockery and grotesque play. The actual word “Bouffons” comes from French and it entered English theatrical language through the work of Jacques Lecoq.
The essence of the Bouffon is in the dynamic of MOCKING. The MOCKER is a specific role, existing in all human societies. Bouffons represent elements of their society in an amplified, distorted or exaggerated way, thereby provoking laughter and outrage. Their Mockery doesn’t have an agenda in itself, because the Bouffons don’t have opinions, and they don’t protect any side from their mocking. They just mock everything and everybody. Their purpose is to have fun playing at being humans and therefore they use everything they find, with ferocious ecstasy and jubilation. This is their power: they see and play with everything, they feed on human dynamics in order to play with it. Bouffons never touch on individual or private themes, instead they take on big collective dynamics and roles – involving the social complexity and the very essence of society and culture. Politics, religion, economy, power, money and finances, morality, war and the military, science, gender and race, ecology, family, education and school, cultural institutions…
For Bouffon work to be possible, we need to be very well and precisely informed about the situation or themes that we are mocking, in order to see and then reveal what is hidden, what lies underneath – on the other side, in the shadow or the unspeakable. Nothing can be invented – all the movements and dynamics are documented and are based in authentic behaviors. The actors need to collect facts, not opinions. Bouffons have no opinions or values. Actors, directors, writers and members of the audience do. That’s why, as a theatre genre, Bouffon is often very provocative, because its very nature is to bring hidden things to the surface and to unmask the collective games lying behind events and human decisions. This often includes the fact that the role of oppressor and victim are always intertwined.
Everybody in the audience gets scrambled by a Bouffon piece, which can be often a bit difficult and or even unbearable. It’s not the Bouffons who are unbearable but the truth that they reveal about humanity, what is hidden, what lies underneath, on the other side, the grotesque of human society (grotesque comes from greek cryptos = hidden).
The audience laughs at the Clown.
The Bouffon laughs at the audience.
Jacques Lecoq
THE PROGRAM
First Week: THE BOUFFON FOLLY
– Play, action/reaction and fun
– Flocking and collective movements: the shapeshifting chorus
– From children playing to Bouffon games
– Engaged Madness: the “buzz”
– The Bouffon “state” and the mocking eyes
– The grotesque body: amplification, deformation, swelling and puffing
– The white bodies
– Altered states of play: bands of Bouffons, rhythm, rituals and mocking dynamics.
– The shapeshifting body.
– How the Bouffons see the world: themes of play
– Bouffons impro: non-linear and non local writing.
– The Bouffons mocking the great themes of humanity.
Pablo Picasso: Goat Dance (1959)
Second Week: THE DYNAMICS OF MOCKING
– How Bouffon relates to Tragedy, Melodrama and Clown.
– Grotesque Characters and Grotesque Bouffons.
– Grotesque Writing
– The devising of a Bouffon piece
– Staging of bands of Bouffons
– Rhythmicality and Musicality of a Bouffon band
Third Week: DEVISING WITH BOUFFONS
– Writing, Staging and Directing in the Bouffon genre: participants will work and rework on some acts, which will be presented in a public performance.
– Devising, rehearsing and performing an evening of Bouffons.
Fourth Week: DEVELOPING THE WORK
– The scenes presented on the public performance of week three will be developed into longer forms. The group will be divided in smaller bands, each one of them developing further their work.
– Focusing on the three roles of the player, the writer and the director, each band will develop their piece aiming for short Bouffon Shows that will be presented in two public evenings.
– The core principles of devising in the style of Bouffons will be constantly at work, with the purpose of nurturing and breeding a few band of wild, ruthless and unsinkable theatre bouffons, ready to bring their work and their state of play into the world .
PRACTICALITIES
LOCATION
In Melbourne, Victoria. To be announced.
SCHEDULE
The workshop is an intensive four week Masterclass, from Monday February 1st to Saturday February 27th, with the following schedule:
Week one: Monday 1st to Friday 5th, 9:30am to 5:00 pm
Saturday 6th and Sunday 7th: Days Off
Week two: Monday 8th to Friday 12th: 9:30am to 5:00 pm
Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th: Days Off
Week three: Monday 15th to Thursday 18th: 9:30am to 5:00 pm
Friday 19th: 12:00pm to 10:00pm. PUBLIC PERFORMANCE
Saturday 20th: Day off
Sunday 21st
Week four: Monday 22nd to Wednesday 24th: 9:30am to 5:00 pm
Thursday 25th & Friday 26th: 12:00pm to 10:00pm. PUBLIC PERFORMANCES
Saturday 27th 10 to 17:00
Bouffon Training at the Celebration Barn Theatre, 2017
ADMISSION
This workshop is addressed to theatre practitioners with previous experiences in movement based theatre and in the Pedagogy of Jacques Lecoq. The aim of this course is to give participants professional theatre tools, in order to play and devise in the genre of Bouffon and Grotesque. It is a training based on generosity, poetic ruthlesness and a commitment to exploring extreme states of physical excitement, madness and play.
To apply, you need to email a brief bio, and a letter of motivation.
Please include in the letter the following topics :
-how did you come to know about this work?
-what is your experience with movement-based theatre?
-what is your previous experience with Bouffons?
-for what purpose do you apply for this program?
Please send your application to giovanni.fusetti@helikos.com
Bouffon Performance at Dell’Arte School , 2007
TUITION
Early Bird Tuition: AUD$ 3.000. If full tuition is paid by November 1st, 2026
Full Tuition: AUD 3.600. If full tuition is paid after November 1st, 2026
Once accepted, to confirm the enrollment, a deposit of AUD 800 is due.
Please note that the deposit is non-refundable, unless in case of cancellation of the workshop due to force majeure.
Once the application is accepted, places will be given in order of email submission.
Once Giovanni has selected 18 students, the workshop is full, and a waiting list will be created.
Please note that the tuition does not include accommodation and that participants will be responsible for organizing their staying in Melbourne.
A limited number of scholarships are available in the form of a reduced tuition.
Once completed the enrollment, participants will receive a message containing further practical details about the workshop.
LANGUAGE
The workshop will be taught in ENGLISH and a basic understanding of this language is required.
Helikos School, 2013
INFORMATION AND APPLICATIONS
For further information about the content of the workshop
and for APPLICATIONS, please contact Giovanni Fusetti at
For enrollment and practical enquiries please contact
KIMBERLEY TWINER
ktwiner@gmail.com
Tel: 04 68664466
See you in Melbourne!
Bouffon Training, Melbourne 2017
Giovanni Fusetti 