21st Century Clown is my attempt to find my own true style. It's been evolvng and devolving for quite a while... probably ever since I started performing. It's been seen in various forms, some successful, some complete failures. Its recent incarnation began with an impro with a deconstructed chair (see the video below), and is now growing... more chairs, food (I van't get away from it), live music... Next outing will be at the Collisions Festival at CSSD at the beginning of October 2010.

"from jontxu...to be..." (2008)

A solo improvised clown performance. My intention is to be with the chair, not to concern myself about doing anything with the chair.

21st Century Clown
was premiered at
Collisions Festival of New Performance and Theory at CSSD
http://www.collisionsfestival.org/jon-davison/

Conceived, written and performed by Jon Davison

Spontaneous/Disciplined
Original/Familiar
Subtle/Grotesque
Anarchic/Formulaic
Idiots/Artists

At the beginning of my 3-year AHRC-funded Creative Fellowship investigating contemporary clown training and practice I asked simple quesitons such as: “What is a clown in the 21st century?” “How can we train them?”  “What is the relationship between clown and actor training?”

Since then we have created a focus for international clown research at Central, attracting students, practitioners, teachers, academics and audiences from around the world.

Now at the end of the project I am asking, “Does it (clown/actor training) work?”

Coining the phrase “21st Century Clown” might sound like a cheap marketing gimmick, but it neatly expresses two facts: that clown has its own history, and that we have our own historical moment. In other words, we can learn from the past but the present is unique. It’s also a way of setting myself apart from the suffocating effects of post-Lecoq orthodoxy which, unbelievably 50 years on, is still leading UK drama schools up the garden path.