Giovanni Fusetti
| Mime is not an imitator but a creator.Marcel Marceau (1923-2007) |
THE PEDAGOGY OF BOUFFONS
3 February, 2020 → 7 February, 2020 - Melbourne, AUSTRALIA
A seminar on the pedagogy of
Bouffons and Grotesque Theatre
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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.
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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.
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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.
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The Contents 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.
States of consciousness and states of awareness. Play as a non-ordinary state.
The Bouffons as the state-shifter: flocking as collective trance.
Collective games and the Satyric States.
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.
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PRACTICALITIES
LOCATION
2 Elm St, North Melbourne VIC 3051
SCHEDULE
Monday February 3 to Friday Feb 7th, 2020
from 9:30 am to 5:30 pm
Please note that the workshop is a pedagogic continuum so it is not possible to attend it only in parts.
LANGUAGE
The workshop will be taught in ENGLISH
ENROLLMENT
The aim of this seminar is to explore the foundations of the pedagogy of Bouffons from the perspective of the teacher.
It is addressed to theatre practitioners
- with previous experience in Bouffon, Clown, Mask and Movement based theater;
- who have already trained in Bouffons in one of Giovanni Fusetti's workshops or trainings, in Australia or elsewhere
- who are actively teaching theatre and/or though theatre;
- who wish to explore the theoretical ingredients of this work, as well as to develop their own teaching style and perspective.
Please read the page on Giovanni's Pedagogy as well as Giovanni's bio and the page My Roots, to review the essence of his approach to clown and theatre.
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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.
To confirm the enrollment, a deposit of AUS$ 400 is due.
Please note that the deposit is non-refundable.
The workshop will be confirmed as soon as the minimum number of 10 participants will be reached.
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.
TUITION
Early Bird registration: AUS$ 800, if full payment is sent by DECEMBER 15th, 2019.
Full Price: AUS$ 900, if payment is received after DECEMBER 15th, 2019.
A reduction in the tuition is offered to particiapants to both Bouffons workshops taught by Giovanni in Melborune
BOUFFONS AND THE ECSTASY OF MOCKING + PEDAGOGIC SEMINAR
Early Bird Tuition: AUS$ 1.300
Full Tuition: AUS$ 1.500
Please note that tuition does not include accommodation and that participants will be responsible for organizing their staying Melbourne.
The sum generated by the seminar will fund the Helikos School and the setting up of its new pedagogic program.
For further information about the content of the workshop,
please contact Giovanni Fusetti at
For application, enrolment and practical enquiries please contact
KIMBERLEY TWINER
ktwiner @ gmail.com
Tel: 04 68664466
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PHOTO CREDITS
(1): Bouffons, by Jessie Ngaio, 2019
(2): Pablo Picasso, MUSICIEN, DANSEUR, CHEVRE ET OISEAU (1959)
(3): La Danse Macabre, 15th Century
(4): Bouffon Workshop, Melbourne, 2017
5): Bouffon Intensive, Melboune, 2019
(6) Bouffons Training, Dell'Arte School of Physical Theatre, Blue Lake, USA, 2007
(7): Dell'Arte School of Physical Theatre, 2007