CONTEMPLATIVE CLOWNING

A workshop and retreat in Silves, Portugal with Jaya Härtlein and Amy Russell

May 2 – 9, 2025

We all participate in life, and it matters how we show up.

This is true of our participation in the liminal spaces of performance, improvisation and meditation. Curiosity about who we are in these practices can bring a return of freshness and insight into our daily lives. We can learn to participate more fully on stage, in the studio and on the cushion, and by extension, we can let ourselves be called forth to be present in the rest of lives as well.

In our workshop, we propose that “clown” is a verb that describes this emergent process of participating and showing up, and that we all can and do “clown” as part of our daily lives.

Clowning might be seen as living on a threshold - of inner and outer, of self and world. Instead of assuming the position of the expert, who asserts ‘I know’, to clown means to be present with life as it unfolds along this edge, in all its strangeness, wonder and unexpectedness. In this practice of clowning, we practice feeling and sharing the experience of discovery directly, as it occurs.

Childhood is often a reference in clowning. A child, seeing a pigeon, might flap their arms. They are simply imitating the world without being aware of different selves, and their own sense of themselves doesn’t yet impede their participation and discovery of the unknown. Adults, however, are more self-conscious. In a new situation, we might feel awkward, unsure of which ‘me’ we should show. We might nervously rehearse lines of something important we want to say, unaware that another, watching us, is secretly laughing at the difference between the performer and the self they think they are performing. When we are caught out, these moments can make us cringe. We might wish to return to a childlike, naive idea of “clowning” as a refuge from this embarrassing complexity.  

However, we will consider these awkward moments to be precious: there is a gap in the armour of our egoic self-knowledge, a banana peel beneath the shiny new shoes of our self-confidence. We will invoke these experiences in order to stay curious, to find awareness within them.

This is based on a hunch that even when we are self-conscious, we are involved in some form of playing. What if these moments of - what we might call “failure” – are all based in a fundamental confusion about what it is to be a self in a world that we can’t help but imitate, even a self that can’t help but imitate our ideas of ourselves? If we imitate everything, even ourselves! even our ideas of ourselves! despite ourselves! can we become aware of this play? If our self is so porous, and our bodies mime other bodies before our self-vigilance can prevent it, perhaps this imitation is the most authentic verb. To clown is to play the illusion of a solid self, and if we become aware of this play, the solid particles of identity can turn back into waves.

In this way, we can explore with great curiosity moments of fluidity and play, as well as the moments that the ego intervenes in its own playing and tries to freeze it. If others do laugh at us, there might be applause, but this does not have to be the goal. Our awareness can become one hand of an audience clapping: the sound of one hand clapping. Clowning can become contemplative practice.

We invite you to join us for a week’s exploration, bringing together performance with all the presence and rigour it requires, with contemplative practices of living and playing from observation and responsiveness.

In her contemplative pedagogy ‘Play of Now’, Jaya brings together inner and outer work. Interactive improvisation exercises can show us exactly where moments of openness lie, or where we hold back – in life or on stage. Then, in meditation, amongst the seeming maze of thoughts, wishes, and fears, we can discover how to release into space. Rejecting nothing, improvisation and meditation feed and support each other. For more information, visit Jaya’s website: https://www.playofnow.com/

Amy works with a performance pedagogy of participatory embodiment, (influenced by Jacques Lecoq’s “mime-dynamic” and “open mime”) by which a mimetic confluence is developed between the sensory world and the performer’s physical imagination. Taking our cue from the child-pigeon relationship, we will open ourselves to explore our sensory worlds with a fluid boundary between inner and outer experience. Based in this practice of miming, we will explore self-conscious clowning without regard for the results, comedic or other. “Process will be the product” in her work with the red nose.

Residing in a serene and secluded location in the small town of Silves, Portugal, and enjoying a communal swimming pool, we look forward to working together with you!

This program is designed is for performers, interested in contemplation and contemplators, interested in performance.

The cost of the Program is €700, which includes a simple daily lunch together. Some partial scholarships are available.

As participants seek and arrange their own accommodation, advice from our local host is available.