Clowndance Syllabus
Game: Bubbling with Pleasure
In preparation for this game I will ask everyone to bring with them a short phrase of movement that they know well enough to repeat. This could be a short piece of choreography, an exercise from technique class, a mime, a kata, or whatever is appropriate to your own practise.
First I will ask everyone to perform their phrase of movement to the group, just as they have learned it.
Then…
Get into pairs and spend a few minutes chatting with each other. You don’t have to talk about the work, you can tell jokes or anecdotes, and you can be as silly as you like. The goal is to make each other smile, and laugh, to ‘bubble with pleasure’
I will then ask everybody to repeat their solos bringing that bubbling feeling with them. The rest of us as audience will observe any changes between the first and the second performances of the solos.
Reflection
What differences did you notice as an audience member?
What differences did you notice as a performer?
First I will ask everyone to perform their phrase of movement to the group, just as they have learned it.
Then…
Get into pairs and spend a few minutes chatting with each other. You don’t have to talk about the work, you can tell jokes or anecdotes, and you can be as silly as you like. The goal is to make each other smile, and laugh, to ‘bubble with pleasure’
I will then ask everybody to repeat their solos bringing that bubbling feeling with them. The rest of us as audience will observe any changes between the first and the second performances of the solos.
Reflection
What differences did you notice as an audience member?
What differences did you notice as a performer?
Inspired by a passage in Athene Seyler’s book The Craft of Comedy, written with Stephen Haggard, 21st Century Edition edited by Robert Barton (2013).
Seyler coined the phrase ‘bubbling with pleasure’.
Seyler coined the phrase ‘bubbling with pleasure’.