August 23nd → 27th , 2022
BOULDER, Colorado, USA
THE PEDAGOGY OF BOUFFONS
A SEMINAR ON THE PEDAGOGY OF BOUFFONS AND GROTESQUE THEATRE
Bouffons, by Jessie Ngaio, 2019
Welcome to a unique event celebrating the art of teaching movement based theatre.
This seminar follows the pedagogic process of BOUFFONS and GROTESQUE THEATER, as devised and taught by Jacques Lecoq and further developed by Giovanni Fusetti.
Deeply rooted in ancient Greek Theatre, the Bouffons are contemporary descendents of Satyrs, minor gods of ecstasy and fertility.
The Bouffon State is an extreme state of play, a mime gone wild, a shapeshifting actor who can imitate everything and amplify it until its grotesqueness. A band of Bouffons is a shapeshifting chorus of wild creatures, who mirror society by playing the games that we all play. The imitation becomes mocking and the mocking will trigger the community to review its own ethics and possibly figure out better solutions to play.
Far from being a mysterious and ineffable state, the Bouffon play is based on rigorous movement technique and specific improvisation skills. As a theatrical territory or genre, Bouffon has a unique poetic potential because it allows the authors, the directors and the players to explore and play with hotspots of the community and provoke laughter, outrage, political and social awareness and a shared reflection on the ethical dilemmas that any human community has to face.
Pablo Picasso, MUSICIEN, DANSEUR, CHEVRE ET OISEAU (1959)
A PEDAGOGIC SEMINAR
A WORKSHOP is essentially a practical exploration of an art. The focus is on the active practice, there is very little theory and it is always related to the unfolding of the exercises.
In a SEMINAR the practice is integrated with a strong focus on the THEORY that stands behind it. This creates a space of reflection and intellectual elaboration: a field of discussion, analysis, examples, questions and synthesis. It gives food for the mind, references, history of ideas, articulation of principles.
Etymology tells us that the word theory means something you observe, a spectacle, and it has the same root of the word theatre. A theory is a choreography of ideas and principles. An intellectual performance to attend and enjoy.
This seminar will include different ingredients:
– Lectures on pedagogic theory
– Core exercises
– Pedagogic analysis of core exercises
– Discussion on the questions from the participants
– Pedagogic practice in groups
– Supervised teaching sessions: the participants teach an exercise and receive feedback from the teacher and from the group.
The Content of the Seminar
THEORY
– History of Satyric Drama and Grotesque: theatre as a ritual of collective ecstasy.
– Bouffon work within the context of Jacques Lecoq’s Pedagogy
– How Bouffon relates to Tragedy, Melodrama and Clown.
– Expression, excitation, excitement, jubilation: the somatic of Joy.
– Playing with the wound: the excitation of The Hurt.
– Altered states and extreme states as non-ordinary states of perception.
– Play as a non-ordinary state of awareness.
– The Bouffons as the state-shifter: flocking as collective trance.
– Collective games and the Satyric State.
– Mocking oneself, mocking others, mocking the world.
– Playing with human wilderness: amplification as empowerment.
– The non dualistic mind dance: the Psyche as a band of roles
– Amplification, deformity and grotesque imitation.
– Death as a Trickster.
– Mocking as knowledge: the political power of Bouffon Theater.
– The teacher as a Bouffon.
– Teaching and playing at the edge between the Personal and the Political, the individual and the collective.
PRACTICE
Pedagogic analysis of Giovanni Fusetti’s approach to Bouffons
– Play, action/reaction and fun
– Flocking and collective movements: the shapeshifting chorus
– Engaged Madness
– From children playing to Bouffon games
– 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.
– Writing in the Grotesque Mode.
– Staging and Devising Bouffons acts. Levels of expression and levels of playing.
Helikos School, 2014
PRACTICALITIES
LOCATION
The training will take place in Boulder, Colorado, at the BOULDER CIRCUS CENTER
SCHEDULE
The workshop is an intensive 5 day Masterclass, from Tuesday August 23rd to Sauday August 27th.
Tuesday August 23rd: 9:30am to 6:00 pm
Wednesday August 24th: 9:30am to 6:00 pm
Thursday August 25th: 9:30am to 6:00 pm
Friday August 26th: 9:30am to 6:00 pm
Saturday August 27th: 9:30am to 6:00 pm
ADMISSION
HOW TO APPLY
There is no application form. To apply to the Seminar please email a letter of motivation sharing the essence of your story, vision, dream, desire, fear or un-explicable intuition that leads you to this seminar. Please include in your letter
– your experience teaching movement based theatre;
– your experience in performing and/or teaching Bouffons.
Giovanni will contact you after receiving the application. Once accepted, places will be given in order of email submission.
Once Giovanni has selected 16 students, the workshop is full, and a waiting list will be created. If you intend to participate, we encourage you to apply as soon as possible.
The workshop will be confirmed as soon as the minimum number of 8 participants will be reached.
Please send your application to giovanni.fusetti@helikos.com
TUITION
Early Bird Tuition: US$ 600, if tuition is paid by June 1st, 2022.
Full Tuition: US$800, if tuition is paid after June 1st, 2022.
A reduced rate of US$ 450 is offered to the participants who also wish to attend the BOUFFON INTENSIVE, happening in Boulder just before the Seminar.
Once accepted, to confirm the enrollment, a deposit of $300 is due.
Please note that the deposit is non-refundable. Once the application is accepted, spots in the class will be given in the order the application was received.
Please note that the tuition does not include accommodation and that participants will be responsible for organizing their staying in Boulder. You can find some useful information about housing in Boulder in the document: Boulder Information Kit.
Please note the workshop is a learning continuum, so it is not possible to attend the class only in parts, or to miss any session of the work.
Once completed the enrollment, participants will receive a message containing further practical details about the workshop, as well as the most updated details of the anti-covid health and safety regulations that the group will agree to comply with.
LANGUAGE
The workshop will be taught in ENGLISH and a basic understanding of this language is required.
Bouffon Training at the Celebration Barn Theatre, 2017
INFORMATION AND APPLICATIONS
For further information about the content of the workshop and for applications, please contact Giovanni Fusetti at
A SAFETY MESSAGE IN TIMES OF PANDEMICS
The training will happen in the rigorous respect of the Federal, State and Local anti-Covid guidance and restrictions, as well as the rules applied by the venue that will host the workshop.
All participants will have to agree in engaging with these rules.
Given the extraordinary circumstances of the coronavirus global crisis as well as the current geopolitical turmoil, the training will be confirmed ONLY if the scenario will allow the safety necessary to travel and to practice. In case of cancellation due to force majeure, all paid deposit and tuition will be refunded.
See you in Boulder, under the gentle and powerful spell of the Rocky Mountains !
Giovanni Fusetti 