CLARA CENOZ: I have been living for Clowning during the last 30 years, learning it, performing it, analysing it, teaching it and finally creating and running the Escola Internacional de Clown “Cal Clown” in Girona, Catalonia (Spain) in the middle of nature for the last 14 years, with students from all over the world learning and creating shows in record time! 5 years ago I started teaching and directing numbers online and I have created a series of 11 videos to learn Clown, with tasks and feedback included.

What is my joy in teaching and what do I focus on?

What I most enjoy in teaching is trying to "see" the student as much as I can, in order to help them "be" who they really are, without any self-judgement or self-denial. Once that is done the person can express their uniqueness, geniality and vulnerability, which not only makes them very happy, but the audience too. The student guided with enough reassurance and positivity can do this pretty quickly. It' s a natural process, and even if we have buried our inner joy and our true heart expression under tons of negativity or prejudices, the heart is always willing to express itself and has an enormous amount of energy available.

Who we really are is always beautiful, but we have been taught to think otherwise, and we have created much uglier structures to cover ourselves up.

So, by doing this "peeling" process, we will learn to feel safe showing ourselves in front of the audience, and that is healing for everybody in the situation.

When the student finds that safety in being vulnerable, and starts enjoying it and playing with it, is when I feel happy 😁.

From there, we find the ways for our light to shine more, and in which kind of activities. And we will start exploring how humour works and what its function is.

One of the reasons that made me say "yes" to clowning a long time ago, was the freedom found in truly laughing at myself, and at all the conditioning related to being a woman. I thrived in being "allowed" to be silly, stupid, gross or "not pretty or sexy". I think that there are few pleasures in life as liberating as laughing at our silly thoughts or silly emotions, if done from love and embracing our human absurdity. For me, that IS love. Even more: loving laughter takes the issue at hand and elevates it, creating something beautiful that wasn’t there before.

A true Clown elevates people’s vibration. It reflects the audience’s humanity, with all its pain and struggle, and by embracing it with acceptance, love, heart and humour, takes it to a higher place of Joy. Joy and Presence destroy immediately any negativity. This process shows people that there is nothing wrong, we are ok, everything is ok. It' s profoundly freeing and beautiful, and humour is the Clown’s ally to achieve success in this.

The only thing a student needs to do is to achieve some awareness of all this, and then put it into practice. It actually is very easy to do, and once you’re there and you get how easy it is, your creativity starts flowing! You realise that, as long as you follow your heart, you can do anything as a Clown! Even if you don’t know how to do it!

Observing reality and finding a loving and funny way of representing it, showing the absurdity implied in it with innocence, and offering a positive and enlightening solution to it, is one of the most stimulating creative processes you can go through. The challenge is to not focus on the negative, and to transform it into light. How do you do that? Ah, that I must show you in practice, it’s something that needs to be done, not explained 😂

I can' t think of a better thing to do for people than to help them get out of limiting structures, and reminding them of the solutions they have forgotten 😉. That' s my job as a teacher, and that will be your job as a Clown 😉.

The Clown happily holds the torch of hope, and lights the audience’s hearts with it.

I could go on for hours about this 😂. If you want to hear more, you can wait for me to write a book (no idea when that will happen 😂) or come to my classes.

Love, Laughter & Freedom for us ♥️

“Clara’s student-centred approach combines her deep intuition with decades of practical experience as a clown and teacher, enabling her to guide you, whoever you are and wherever you are at, along your own unique path to the joy of clowning, all the way to finished performances if that’s where you are heading.” (Jon Davison, London Clown School)

To read and see more about Clara' s teaching:

https://escoladeclown.wixsite.com/escoladeclown/claracenoz

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cGnf2_hdGI

“The course that I had the luck to take part in at Cal Clown was full of emotions, play, fun, friendship and a location where doing exercises in nature was wonderful. A great experience for me and my clown. If you want to give your clown a good time … Cal Clown is a unique opportunity.” (Alex)

Find more comments of students on her teaching here:

https://escoladeclown.wixsite.com/escoladeclown/student-experiences

To see pictures of the school and courses:

https://escoladeclown.wixsite.com/escoladeclown/fotos-photos

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1393656594161036&type=3

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1716560111870681&type=3

To read about conditions for staying at Cal Clown:

https://escoladeclown.wixsite.com/escoladeclown/staying-at-cal-clown