clown performer,
teacher and
researcher
Jon Davison teaches in his home city of London and all around the world
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After two years when we weren't able to get together and share clowning in person, there are new in-person workshops coming up in 2022 around the world. See below for workshop contents.
July/October 2022 in Europe
One-Week Workshop in Brussels
18th-22nd July 2022
Time: 10am-5pm Monday-Friday
Cost: €300
Venue: The Open Space, Chaussée de Vleurgat 15, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
To book your place, email info@jondavison.net for details on how to enrol
Maximum: 16 participants
Workshop taught in English
Weekend Workshop in London
22nd-23rd October 2022
Venue: Limehouse Town Hall, 646 Commercial Road, London E14 7HA
Cost: £130
Time: 10am-4pm Saturday and Sunday
To book your place, email info@jondavison.net for details on how to enrol
Maximum: 16 participants
Payments
Please send an email to info@jondavison.net (or the workshop organiser if stated) and I will send you details of how to pay.
Cancellations
I do not refund payments made (either whole or part payments) but I can offer you the chance to use your payment towards a course or workshop at a later date within one year of the original courser. This can only be done once and must be requested at least 48 hours before the start of a course or workshop. If you cancel within 24 hours or do not turn up without notification then you should pay any outstanding fee.
This policy is to protect the viability of courses, whose costs and numbers of participants need to be confirmed in advance.
I try to keep all prices as low as possible (I haven’t forgotten how difficult it can be to be a student). That’s why there is a single price, with no discounts or concessionary rates.
September/October 2022
in North America
Weekend Workshop in
Asheville, NC, USA
24th-25th September
Time: 10am-5pm Saturday-Sunday
Venue: Story Parlor, 227 Haywood Rd, Asheville, NC 28806
Cost:
Early bird price (before August 31): $200
Regular (from September 1): $250
To enrol, please follow this link:
https://storyparloravl.com/calendar/clown-workshop-with-jon-davison
Workshop in
Savannah, GA, USA
28th-29th September
Time:
Venue:
Full details coming soon
Weekend Workshop in
New York City, USA
1st-2nd October
Time: 10am-5pm Saturday-Sunday
Venue: Clinton Cameo Studios,
307 W 43rd Street Studio A
in Midtown Manhattan
Cost: $200
Register here: https://forms.gle/YCyiTK7YVq8KJzk76
For more information: info@jondavison.net
Maximum: 16 participants
5-Day Workshop in
Vancouver, Canada
5th-9th October
Time: 10.30am-5.30pm Wednesday-Sunday
Venue: Studio A, Arts Club Theatre Company, BMO Theatre Centre, 203 - 162 West 1st Avenue, Vancouver, BC V5Y 0H6
artsclub.com
Cost: $550
To book your place, email Priscilla Costa: savagecreampuff@gmail.com
For more information: info@jondavison.net
Maximum: 16 participants
Clown Workshops with Jon Davison – Method, Aims and Objectives
What happens when you clown in front of others, alone or with others?
The workshops are aimed at all students, teachers, and practitioners of the performing arts whether or not you specialise in clowning.
The workshops are mostly about relationships, between you and others, whether you or they are clowning, or witnessing the clowning. The relationships form dynamically and change rapidly in real time, buffeted about by actions, responses, laughter, the absence of laughter, and our feelings about ourselves and others.
The workshops are concerned with laughter, and the unique relationship the clown performer has with it - when it is present and when it is absent. But it is not concerned directly with the question of HOW to be funny. Nor is it concerned with the question of WHY something is funny. These are not inane questions but they are dealt with amply by others elsewhere.
Laughter is the fulcrum upon which clowning balances. Laughter does amazing things to us, physically, emotionally, spiritually, intellectually. Whilst we are immersed in it, it seems to relieve us of the burdens of norms, expectations and even meaning itself. What a relief!
But it is never under our control. To pursue such domination is a pointless task. But neither is it advisable to discard it, out of fear of not attaining it. Clowns who MUST be funny and clowns who DON’T HAVE to be funny are a turn off.
In workshops we will focus exclusively on what we do and how we feel about it, and we respond to our own and others’ actions. When you really look, most things are ridiculous: our bodies, our movements, our ideas, our emotions, our words, our relationships, the universe. We don’t need to change ourselves, just look at everything from another perspective. It’s a human thing to do, so anyone can do it.
The exercises we will use are my latest attempt to condense the training into the simplest and most accessible form I can. My concern has always been to simplify. Clowning is sometimes spoken about in mysterious tones, with allusions to depths of meaning. Those may be valid conclusions to draw. But they don’t, in my experience, serve as starting points on the journey. We cannot aim directly for such grandiose or abstract goals.
The exercises might sometimes seem so simple as to appear mechanical. By focusing on the simple tasks, we can become more aware of our responses on all levels. Simple meditation techniques work in a similar way. Furthermore, these emotions, sensations and thoughts will make up much of the content of a clown performance, in the absence of an authored, fictional character or narrative (and mostly I regard clowning as inhabiting this ‘fiction-less’ world). Once we start to come to grips with this material, we can see how clowns can create many different kinds of dynamic relationships between themselves, and between themselves and the public.
We will experiment with how you, as a performer, respond to that response from the onlooker. How do you behave, feel or think when the spectator laughs, or does not laugh? Indeed, how do you behave, feel or think upon the mere appearing in front of that audience whose expectations are already formed? Such self-explorations are at the heart of any genre of performance. Focusing on how you, as a performer, respond to your own presence in front of a responding audience, can enrich your work in whatever direction, style or genre you choose, and enable a coming to terms with some of the common struggles that many performers will face throughout their careers.
The workshops are suitable for anyone interested in clowning, whatever your experience. Clowning is something many of have done throughout our lives in informal or social situations, and our experiences will differ widely according to our backgrounds, cultures, and identities. We already know a lot about clowning before we ever set foot in a class or on a stage. All of this knowledge is welcomed into the workshop, without the need for aesthetic unity or discipline.
