The Clown: a journey of discovery of the innermost nature of the Self
The figure of the clown - whatever name we give him - cuts across eras and civilizations. He is seen as a character who denounces and satirizes the absurdities of his society, because that is the true nature of comedy: it puts us in confrontation with our contradictions and makes us laugh at them.
The clown as we know him today materialized in the 19th century, in the context of the circus. Although the word clown derives from Pagliaccio, a character from the Italian Comedia dell'Arte, the English term clown has been adopted in several languages as a term with its own autonomy.
Jacques Lecoq's contribution to the contemporary clown
Jacques Lecoq was one of the great promoters of clowning in the 20th century, combining in a rare way the practices of theater with the knowledge of sports and motor articulation. For him, mime is one of the most instinctive expressions in all of us, because it is one of the first things we learn from birth. Lecoq's pedagogy therefore crosses the mimetic expression of emotions with the abstract poetry of body movement, in a game of exploration and self-discovery that seeks to go deeper than the conventions generally assumed in the practice of clowning.
In this sense, the clown's nose is actually the clown's mask reduced to its minimum, relegating the performer to a pure state, free of traditions and judgments, in the search to achieve a genuineness of Being and Here.
“ There is a child in us who has grown up and whom society does not allow to appear; the scene will allow it better than life ”
Jaqcues Lecoq,
in “Le Théâtre du geste”
photo: © Sara Camilo
The clown in EIPÁ!'s
Itinerant School
This is our legacy and starting point for a journey of discovery of your Comic Universe. It is an invitation to explore your own fears and insecurities, in a process of genuine impulse and openness to error, disappointment and laughter at yourself.
Working with the clown technique is to reach a state of pure curiosity, joy and pleasure just like a child, but also to pierce the energy of the various clowns that can coexist in each of us.
Be flexible and don't take
yourself too seriously.
You don't need to have anything,
you just need to be totally ready.
The clown is in the present,
not preoccupied.
See with your face,
listen with your arms,
breathe with your belly,
talk with your legs.
Never say "May I?"
You can do anything!
The universe is always generous
and objects are always right.
Pleasure, rigor and listening,
Cycle, circle and circus.
Luciano Amarelo