Creating Communities through Clowning
Nomadic Rebel Clown Academy in Valencia
Monday, Day 1
People start to arrive in the Espai de Circ, we are a group of 22, including Robyn, myself and Didi from Valencia who has organised and managed to gather us all in this wonderful collective circus space, a project of Associació Valenciana de Circ (AVC) that has been in this location for the last 15 years. This is our 6th Nomadic Rebel Clown Academy since we began in 2023.
Clowns and activists from Brazil, Chile, Spain, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Germany, the US, the UK welcome each other, shyly, slowly, converging to create our own temporary community in the different spaces we have for the week - in the upstairs red rehearsal area, around the highly important food table, and in the airy outside yard for lunch breaks...
Carefully, all together we reach to the ceiling to bring down the Golding Ring, stepping into the safe space we will create each day for experiments, playfulness, risk-taking, relaxing, explorations and investigations. Investigations and experiments that combine clown, bouffon, street theatre, situationist détournement & the politics of public space and producing a creative activism that can become more a part of our lives and work in our different parts of this globe.
After introducing ourselves we begin to explore the state of clown, allowing us to wonder and release our curiosity, approaching others with the simplest of games: how to walk in a straight line along a piece of tape on the floor; what can happen when a group of clowns play with a roly-poly piece of gym equipment, or consider the movement of dust motes on the floor….participants revelling in the freedom of not-knowing, in the i-don’t-know-and-it’s-ok space…
After lunch break, with new awareness, clown wonder and knowing friends are with us, we venture into public space. The task is to observe and take in the worlds around us, both human and non-human, to feel the atmospheres and ambiance. We watch & listen: what are the rules, the invisible cultural assumptions of how to behave in public space, who is doing what and where? And the clowns? We're not 'doing anything', not trying to be anything, except trying to observe with new eyes, what is happening around us....
We release the Golden Ring up to the sky and walk to a local cafe where we relax with horchata together in a nearby cafe. Laughing, releasing the energies of this first day....getting to know each other better through jokes, and a mix of casual and some intense conversation. Day 1 is done, we have begun......
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Tuesday
Four of us cycle together to Espai de Circ from our accommodation, through the streets between Poblets Maritim and Cabanyal, along part of a fantastic network of 183 kilometers of bike paths started by a leftwing government of Valencia City Council in 1982. We pass grand beach apartment buildings behind rows of tall palms, past the beach promenade and the early morning swimming group, past dog walkers, street cleaners & rubbish trucks. We head towards Alboraya, our surroundings now carefully & geometrically ploughed fields, laced with irrigation channels for the fields of cabbage, potatoes & beetroot, and - the symbol of Valencia agriculture - artichokes.
DAY 2 and we continue with development of the clown starting with the exercise of fixed point and clocking (focusing on something with a simple head movement to the left or right). We move, stop, look and then move in the direction of our look - directing potential audiences attention to where we look. The combination of movement, pause and movement again provides a further training of body and peripheral awareness.
Grandma's Footsteps game accentuates this attention to fixed point, stillness, shapes and body choreographies - the focus on winning the game provides a deliberate misdirection - as participants we are more intent on getting to Grandma first than caring what bodies look like, and it is this focus which releases our own censorship of what might 'look good' or 'beautiful' which in turn creates the most intriguing and beautiful choreographic shapes. If we were asked to make interesting shapes with our bodies we would never come up with anything as interesting and surprising as what we see in playing Grandma's Footsteps. We also have the photographs of Mara Stacca (also an activist clown) (Photos@marastacca_photography) that confirm the power of the visual and embodied images we are creating.
We try and make sure that we maintain the energy with a combination of physical games and exercises, reflection times with a partner or group and then some more thinking work, discussing what's moving us at the moment, what's our current political passion. Didi, Ita, Xavi, Nuria are the Valencian clowns who tirelessly translate for others, and it is quite comforting to hear the murmur of these other voices, which force us to slow down, take more time and space in our explanations and conversations together.
Up on our hind legs again we play quick-decision-making games, improvise on specific themes to create moments, stop-motion like images and tableaux that we can use in our actions.
Afternoon work takes us outside once again: we feel how different the outside space is to being inside...how energies disperse and how we become at once visible yet invisible....how does the clown work here? What opportunities are there in public space? How might we interrupt or even disrupt behaviours, patterns, actions? We watch each other...what works out here? How different is it to what works inside in the rehearsal room? Do we risk more? How do we interact with and relate to our environment? To the beings around us, the passers-by?
Back inside we end the day with Robyn's lovely Death of a Flower exercise where one clown 'moves' a friend to laughter and possibly tears with their superlative interpretation of a flower dying. Using clocking and the 'drop' the clown interrupts their performance with frequent check-ins to their friend - are they getting it? Do they feel the tragedy? Do they experience the poignancy? Look how I'm dying!
As we cycle home participant Davva comments on the route we usually take...we both laugh...this is only the second day but it feels that this way of life has already become 'usual'. Time expands and Day 1 feels like a week away.....
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Wednesday
Suddenly.... it's already crunchy, creaky DAY 3 - maybe we're a little tired, a little later arriving, a little in need of a short 'hello' massage before we get down to deeper play - exploring bouffon, adding knowing, cunning and the spirit of the collective to the individual curiosity and innocence of the clown which makes what we do 'rebel clowning'.
We play Let's all... a chance to do what others suggest....going along with it even if you don't really want to ...or do you refuse the offer and turn away...that's ok too! How much discomfort can we play with, live with?
We experiment with different choreographies to move through space. Socking, Flocking (or is it Fishing?) Yes and...
Robyn and I have discussions in the small moments between - did we do the exercises in the right order? Would it be better to have done XXX first and then YYY or did this order work? How would doing XXX first then YYY have affected the way participants responded to the next exercise? Conversations and topics which we will unpick more when we prepare for the next day, and then later, before the next Academy, in July in Lucerne.
How do todays actions with costume, red nose and ensemble choreography differ from yesterdays interruptions in the same location of the small park area opposite the Espai de Circ? Finding the balance between the form and structure of the choreography and the game we are playing, the emotion we are working with, the theme we have chosen to explore....the more we get into the latter elements the more we are likely to lose the form....the more we are conscious of only the form the more we might lose the things we are burning to say, to reveal, to highlight.
Yet even the form at its simplest - a group of costumed clowns with red noses moving through space as one - can be a massive interruption in the atmosphere and habitual choreographies of behaviours and lives in a neighbourhood.
Heightened performing persona, more attention from potential audiences: cars hooting, passers-by smiling, taking risks to approach, encounter and meet others, the Other, An-other....and today in particular: what Lewis Hyde calls the Lucky Find - he suggests that finding rather than searching is what we need to do: to let things come to us; a chance encounter can spark our curiosity, and, all at once, give us ideas for making, creating, collaborating...in this case it was the gift of a sweet, lovable dog who after encountering the clowns didn't want to leave their playful attention & warm embraces.
Our audience of clowns write their individual reflections about each action on 4 large pieces of paper, each group then takes these responses to reflect amongst themselves on their action . What worked? What was surprising? What made people laugh? What moved people? Was I worried at any point? What moved me as I was working, playing?
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Thursday
Espai de Circ is already buzzing with the dedicated participants in the Handstand Festival which began yesterday. Our DAY 4 is their Day 2 and they're warming up for another day of being...well... mostly upside down. The concentration is palpable and the enthusiasm infectious. How I love being in this atmosphere of passion for finding other ways of behaving and being in the world, whether it's shifting the tiniest sinews of a shoulder muscle to find the steadiness in a handstand, sewing extra long pants for a stilt-walking walkabout in a fancy Valencian hotel or getting excited about the ways we can bring our clowning into our political and work and worlds.
Today reveals another Lucky Find: “Timber!” - taking the well-known drama falling game and renaming it after the game that a group of clowns played yesterday in the park. Adding this cleverly silly layer gives the familiarity of a new group understanding to this game. And another important lesson for us - old and familiar games will be changed and adapted, revealing new meanings and understandings each time we do them.
Robyn and I have laid out on the floor creative activism related resources - photos, newspapers, manifestos, stories, pictures and reports of actions created by others....to fill our imaginations and to get Inspired by....everyone is reading and concentration fills the space.
In small groups the rebel clowns begin to explore ideas and options for creating actions in Valencia city-centre. Robyn and I write instructions on the wall: Who is/are your audience/participants? What’s the structure of your action? How will the audience/participants engage with your work? And the all-important logistics - how will you travel to the location, what about your costumes & props, don't forget WATER!
Each group travels into Valencia city centre and plays for about 30 minutes on their own in a specific location, which like many big cities is full of tourists, workers working and resting, hundreds of people passing by and through labyrinths of streets between imposing architecture of museums, churches, trees and squares, shops and cafes buildings....we're out in huge public spaces far away from what feels like the cosiness of Espai de Circ.
The Nature group catches eyes and smiles (and some avoidance) with their choreographies & tableaux of tree-felling, pigeon walking and the 'Timber!' game.
The Borders group interrupts the flow of pedestrian movement through one of the streets, again earning smiles yet also annoyance and irritation at the disruption of a normal day in the city. At one point the group becomes exasperated at the number of pedestrians attempting to pass without permisson….
Meanwhile a third group cavort loudly and excitedly, exaggerating and mocking the voyeurism and consumerism of Tourists.
Meanwhile our attention is caught by a group in Hi-Viz vests inviting people to jump-rope and do the limbo, helping the rubbish disposal workers with their tasks of keeping the city clean, getting tied up in red-white construction tape, eventually also catching the attention of a police security officer who asks them to move along...away from the government building the group unknowingly chose to play in front of!
Travelling back on the metro to the Circus space offers photo opportunities yet more opportunities to playfully disrupt the afternoon's normative rhythms and behaviours, to reveal new perspectives....
Back at Espai de Circ, performance excitement and tiredness turn into conversations & reflections on what we saw and experienced, how it felt to transgress, disrupt, connect and how people in the city became audiences and participants in our work.
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Friday
For the final DAY 5 we invite everyone to create an individual action, this time in the local neighbourhood of Alboraya. How might a small act transform us, the space and people in it for a moment, a minute, 5 minutes? After a structured creation time with music and writing everyone gets busy, making cardboard signs, gathering props, costumes, looking for tape…Over the next 3 hours we are treated to street corners and squares animated with choreographed walks and short, poignant stories, offers to play where we're not supposed to play, strong images and movements show us glimpses of different possible worlds of risk-taking, vulnerability, surprise, hope, love, connection and communication.
I’m posting here text from Robyn, which reveals the variety of themes, feelings and insights touched on by the participants individual actions’, revealing a collective engagement in working to shift energies and perspectives on our worlds, moment by moment, step by step:
One of the most touching parts of the Nomadic Rebel Clown Academy is our invitation for participants to create individual actions on the final day. It’s a chance to see their political desires and creative expression made manifest on the streets, witnessed by the whole group.
As we cross the town, Alboraya near Valencia, we witness the beautiful scope of how the clown emerges:
As commentator – Ever the optimist, a joyful clown shows us around his new home: a park bench that costs 2,000 euros a month.
Another walks in circles at a crossroads, fixated on her hand as a mobile phone.
As tragic figure – We’re invited to become insects with one clown buzzing between meagre flowers and plants in the village—highlighting the lack of wildlife corridors for pollinators.
As utopian hope-bringer – Demonstrating the Commons, two clowns share conversation, connection, and food with everyone who passes by.
As perspective-shifter – A ladder on a street corner invites us to climb and look around. Participants gain a new perspective of the space. While witnesses enjoy the spectacle and jeopardy as they climb higher and higher.
As performance artist – With the provocation “Move Me,” a topless clown is taped to a barrier. The group moves them across a road and into a park. Unwrapping them risks nudity and vulnerability, creating a dilemma and choice between care and freedom.
As provocateur – A clown invites the group to play football in a square before pointing out the sign saying “No ball games!” He tuts and points out the rules we have broken, despite his role as instigator and transgressor.
As poet – Covering their head and buttoning their coat around a tree, the illusion is of a long-necked tree with arms outstretched, moving in the breeze. It brings many to tears as some go in to hug the tree.
These examples express a spectrum of possibilities: of the clown, of clowning, and of the creativity and heart of the participants.
After final reflections on the actions and the week it's time to leave Espai de Circ. We clear the space of our presence, costumes and props go back in bags, food is eaten or taken home, notebooks and papers are gathered, goodbyes said...but we will meet for a drink later, won't we?
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Sitting on the sofa back at our accommodation Robyn and I look at each other. Robyn says: "Now we have another community of clowns, another network...creating communities…this is what we're doing..."
Yes, this is what we're doing: bringing together, offering, inviting connection and inspiration that can support our work to transform and change our worlds. Clowns are creating communities not only amongst themselves but also, even if only for a short time, in the spaces and places they reveal themselves and carry out their actions….interrupting, intervening, interacting…
[…and I'll always feel a little disappointed that I won't always know the answer to everyone's questions...and it’s ok]
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