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Associació Escola de Clown, Pontós, 17773 Girona, España escoladeclown@gmail.com +34 693972230
Student experiences...
2021, Street Clowning Course
"Clara my dear!! You have no idea what those days on the street with you meant to me. Since then I have been going out to the streets to clown much more and I was even able to attend rallies, protests or risky activities as a clown and I have always felt protected by that love that you helped me to contact and taught us to radiate. The street clowning course of yours is something super valuable! Congratulations"
2020, September one-week course
“The course with Clara Cenoz was full of gifts and surprises, I feel happy and grateful, I wanted to explore and deepen my clown (I had previously had a few experiences), the course is full of ways to play, to assimilate, and to connect with joy. The group was supportive and helpful in the learning. I felt accompanied and guided by Clara and her family of dogs Groucho, Betty, Linda, Osa …in this adventure, inspiring me so much. A safe space which lets you open up and explore clown more. It felt so short … I want more! I will sign up for the next course. Thank you”
“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.”
2020 Online Courses
“Clara is a fantastic teacher for all your clowning endeavours! Why not try something new? Clowning has helped me in all areas of my work and life including support/care work, teaching, people skills and performance. We are all naturally clowns! I learnt so much about myself and it's a lot of fun!”
“Hi Clara. Thanks for yesterday's class. I felt very energized after it. I appreciate that You put a lot of thought and effort into planning the class
It kept us on" our toes ".!! 🥵🤪”
“I was stuck and could not find any more ideas, and the way you work with us is to provide the fire of imagination!”
"I'm loving your classes, they are so nice and fun, and you are so generous"
“I watched the video of last week’s class. Funnier than anything that’s on TV these days. See everyone later today.”
“Thank you for your approach. Although we are online, you give us a very deep sense of the clown through your exercises. As well, you have no judgement, but you are very relevant in your comment.”
“Yes!!! I love this possibility of creation, and to have authorial and personal perspective for my clown. It is a place that gives voice to ourselves, our thoughts, our conflicts. I love this perspective.”
“I thought your class last Tuesday was excellent. It was such a wonderful experience to be in the clown persona. I'm still buzzing after it and I feel it's shifted a couple blocks in my life. Clara you certainly are the best. You been so encouraging to me as I'm quite nervous and a complete beginner.”
Kylie (England) - one-month Professional Course in October 2015)
Cal Clown is amazing! It's such a wonderful open place that really allows you to take from the experience what you need. It is an intense month - living, working and playing with people in such close proximity - but I feel this intensity helped us to strip away our egos, access our clowns and really create some great numbers, and some great friends!
The setting is wonderful. Being in touch with nature is so important, to life and to clowning, and in all honesty I would never have made that connection without Clara and Cal Clown.
I didn't want to leave. And every day since leaving I've wanted to go back! An incredible teacher who goes above and beyond any teacher I've ever known, and a beautiful house/location. Not to mention the brilliant dogs/Gatito the cat you get to share a month with and learn from! I had very little experience of clown before attending the school and the amount I have learned is staggering. Not only did I learn a hell of a lot about what clown is and how to find my clown, but we also put together clown numbers and performed in 4 different clown shows with a range of different audiences, as well as taking our clowns to the street. The experience of doing this was completely invaluable, and I feel like it has helped me enormously in my progression as a performer. I now feel a lot more confident in creating things for myself thanks to the things Clara taught us about making numbers, and I've found the recording and watching of our own improvisations and acts an incredibly useful practice. I know I will continue to use everything I've learned at the school in the future and I thank Clara and Cal Clown so much for everything!! Not just the skills but also the excitement it has generated within me!!
Thank you so so much!
xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Kylie
Sonia (Canada) - one-month Professional Course in October 2015)
My month at Cal Clown was quite interesting. At times I was challenged with adjusting to the new lifestyle, but there were always beautiful strange moments and adventures. I loved the people I met, and feel as though I learned just as much from them as I did from classes, about life and about performance. I loved being in an environment where we were free to sing and dance and laugh all day long. I also loved the interactions that we had with “the public”, our time in Figueres and our four shows. We were just thrown in the deep end, and that experience is really valuable to me now. It was hard for me to just "do", because I am a thinker by habit, and this course really helped create a road towards doing. I also quite enjoyed the study of humor, the introduction to Andy Kaufman and to other performers/humorists/comedians. I found that very useful, and it is something I will continue to study in the future. It was lovely to be encouraged and supported on stage and off stage by my teacher and my fellow clowns! I feel much more confident as a performer, and realize that I have to want to be seen when I am on stage. I also recognize that I have to make more contact with the audience. I was dancing at the bar at the hostel and tried to apply these rules to the dance floor and noticed a difference in myself and the fellow dancers.
I loved the evenings by the fire watching funny shows, and the talks during dinner! :)
Thank you Clara for everything!!!
I hope you are well!
I miss the strange Dali landscape!!!!
Thank you for recommending the clown shop! I bought some really cool noses there.
How is Blanca?
Sonia
Inga (32, from Germany) - one-month course in October 2014
Her gift for helping people to find their clown is amazing. Thank you Clara!
When you drive to Cal Clown, through the woods in the dark along small paths, you don`t know what is expecting you and perhaps get even a bit scared. But than Clara welcomes you, shining and inviting you into her house and you know there is nothing you need to be scared of.
I didn’t have high expectations of this course. I just wanted to try out clown, to have another access to stage as actress. But I wasn’t very ambitious I must admit.
Then we went on the streets, just on the second day of the course and were all surprised that Clara thought we were able to be clowns, just like that. This trust of her in us was great. As I put on my red nose, wearing a funny costume, people started to call “Payaso, Payaso, Clown!” I could see a sparkle in their eyes, I have never seen when I was just acting. So I really wanted to please the people as Clown. From this day on, I was totally motivated to become a clown.
Clara offered so much to us to become a Clown, we were new born in the nature, played by the river, discovered our voice and our body in a new way. We played games on stage, that were not only really funny but also helped us to learn how to keep the energy high and the intelligence low. We also learned that Clowns can even do monologues, which I enjoyed very much.
The environment of Cal Clown is so beautiful and living with the cat and the dogs in the nature, helps so much to open up and enjoy. Showing love through the things you do at Cal Clown, when you cook and clean all together, is really fun. You feel at home and loved, especially when it is your hugging day.
I have never been so fearless on stage. Clara encouraged us to go on stage without having much ideas and a plan what to do and it worked for me so good to just have fun on stage and enjoy offering play to my partner or the audience. We learned that you don’t have to be a good juggler or mime to do a good number. Clara managed to find something funny and good in all our ideas for numbers. It was magical how she created shows with us in very short time. So we could perform and experiment with our numbers in front of different audiences. And all this in just one month.
Her gift for helping people to find their clown is amazing. Thank you Clara!
Laura (21, from Lille, France) - courses between October 2013 and May 2014
An experience that I will always remember, discovering what is Love, Joy and Pleasure, and so much more!! A life experience, a Clown & Soul growth- Here it's magical, the Clown, Nature, Energy...To open to the Universe, to the sky, to Innocence, to Earth and Life!!
Rafael (Brazil) - one-month course 2012
Now I know what I want with my work
I am delighted with the days I spent here. The school taught me great things. My expectations were surpassed in everything we did.
I enjoyed immensely the performances we did in public, it was good for all of us to see how what we did in class made sense.
The exercises and games were also very good, both the technical work and the personal work, which complemented each other well.
Before coming here I had been thinking about doing performances in different kinds of places. What we did in Social Clowning almost read my mind and the wishes I had. I enjoyed it a lot as I could see how I could work in these kinds of places, and sharing this with my classmates was even better.
With the numbers I was able to work on the same thing happened. They were numbers I had been thinking about doing before arriving. The same with the clown character work.
The exercises were a gift of new things to reflect upon in my work. The pleasure, the look, the timing.
Also this place. Enchanting. I was able to ponder my life, and to really know what i want with my work. It was like a strengthening of my ideas.
The daily walks, the river, the tent, here was spent a month which I will take with me with much affection.
Many thanks for doing what you do. I love people who love their work. I don’t the word, but I am more than delighted with everything.
Many, many thanks.
Amber (Bristol, England) - one-month course 2012
Being here feels like coming home, to myself, in a strange kind of a way. It’s what I’ve been looking for for a long time, but in all the wrong places.
It’s an amazing thing to be surrounded by people playing and expressing themselves, because that gives me the permission to express myself too. I have turned my knowledge into wisdom and my ideas about clown are no longer just ideas but a real and tangible
experience that has alchemised me, and I can use as a point of reference.
I've really had to remind myself about the 'we're all in a different moment' thing, at different points in our lives and to not compare myself to other people and put myself down...
All my regrets and things I’ve got hung up about are really just not trusting myself and my clown intelligence, and being scared to show myself.
I think one of my richest learning experiences happened in my giant giant flop, I just wished I'd had that experience sooner so I could put into practice more what I learnt from it! (i.e. in the 1st week rather than the 4th week)
I’m also learning about control and the fact that I can’t control how people view me, how an audience view me, really I can’t even control myself. But I try to... however I’ve realized it’s just too tiring all the time, to be trying to control myself... and so letting go into that is terrifying and also awesome.
Everything I have learnt here feels like a new lens to look at my life through, and I’m excited about the future and how I will integrate everything we have shared together.
I will never have a bored day again! I want to try doing EVERYTHING in as many incorrect ways as possible.
I think the biggest jewels that I take with me right now are the power and validity of innocence, and understanding the upmost importance of personal pleasure. That’s the scariest bit for me, finding my pleasure because I have always been better at creating it or finding it for other people, and forgetting myself...but I’m bored of that now...
Realizing that in innocence there is no guilt!...
Being silly has helped me and given me the courage to knock on my own door and step inside a bit more. Being here has made me realize maybe inhabiting MYSELF could be a fun and interesting place!!!!!!!!!!! I’m interested in being committed to presence and intimacy with myself and life / (the audience)
Thank you all of you from the bottom of my heart, thank you for sharing your wisdom, your home, Clara, and all of you for sharing yourselves.
Claudia (Brazil) - one-month course 2011
I liked the length of this course, the fact that it wasn’t just a short workshop without the possibility of following the students’ process. The one-month course does allow for this attention, and the students are required to attend to their faults, permitting a gradual evolution of the student.
Also of great value for me was that the learned practices are put to the test in real-life situations that allow for a wider understanding of clown performance and of what is in reality required for it to work. The opportunity for sharing with people from different places opens up your awareness of your own notions and views on clown. Different outlooks on the world always offer alternatives to our own sociocultural assumptions.
I experienced some personal problems, among which was an extreme state of nostalgia and a gradual loss of self-confidence. I had moments when I didn’t feel able to do some of the activities.
But in spite of this, I have a positive vision of my experience, since these little personal earthquakes allow for the disintegrating of mistaken or useless ways, in order to leave room for new foundations for an understanding and experience whose real dimensions will only be visible with time. Everything experienced here must pass through a period of ripening and settling in before real knowledge can flower.
I think I have learned much, now I have to assimilate it and integrate it into myself.
Ricardo (Brazil) - one-month course 2011
The first day I arrived in Cal Clown, somebody asked me: what does it mean clown for you? The truth is that I didn’t really know, but, after two weeks I can assure that clown is my own life.
Min my experience it was not just a course to prepare a number or a show but it’s been an opportunity to confront my own problems, the way I interact with the rest, to discover my dark side and know me deeper, to be a little bit “more me” and choose to be happy wherever the circumstances are. The important thing is not to act correctly but to do it with the heart.
Jon, thank you for your continuous games and for taking out a lot where i thought there was not so much. Thanks for the respect you show to everybody and thank you for doing everything possible.
Clara, thank you for show me the need I have to share my life, for letting me experience the happiest moment in my life and it was also the saddest one. Thanks for showing me all the aspects I still have to improve and for increasing my desire to grow up. Thank for transforming the situations into something special, different and funny, even if the world is how it is. Thank you for creating Cal Clown for all the people who want to be aware and to give the opportunity to the people to change if they want to.
Yann (Brittany, France) - two-month course 2010
About the 2-month Professional Clown Course in the Escola de Clown de Barcelona... Well, definitely an experience of a lifetime! I've learned so many things here. About Clowns, about myself, about everything. Imagine: Two months in a beautiful house in the middle of the forest, living full time with the other Clown students and the Clown teachers. Learning, creating, trying new stuff, sharing. That's so unique, I loved it.Before coming here I was a bit worried about the shows that we would have to do. I WAS (?) a computer guy, didn't know anything about clowns (neither about acting or about creating Clown numbers). Well, shouldn't have worried: everything came out so naturally. Here in Cal Clown, even the smallest tiny idea can turn into a great clown number, because we think Clown all day, and because we always have the teachers around to help us and to make sure that we go in the right direction.So we created original numbers, and then we performed them in different places: in a restaurant, in the tent of Cal Clown, in a bar, in a children's shelter, in the hospital, in the street. That was so interesting! I discovered that I love to analyze how humor works, so it was great for me to be able perform my numbers with different type of audience, and see what works best, and why... Trying things, and trying again, and experimenting, and discovering. That's what I came for.
When I think about it, we did so many things in only 2 months! I know that every course here is different, because Clara adapts the teaching to the specificities of each group of students. That's also what makes it so unique. Who would have told me that during the Clown course I would talk to horses, or that we'd have a stand-up comedy class? It was great for me to try all those things, to experiment and to discover what I like most. And Who knows what surprises she will prepare for the next students?
What did I learn in Cal Clown? It's hard to answer, because I feel that I've learned so many things! I started to make a list, but it doesn't make sense, I don't want to "reduce" what I've learned here to a list of concepts. So let's just talk about the most important thing for me: I've learned that clowning can give me great pleasure.So to finish I'd like to thank Clara for everything. She created this school because she deeply loves Clowning and she wants to share it: that's really something you can feel here. That was the best gift for me. Thanks so much!Now I feel great, and I want to keep on Clowning and creating new numbers and performing them to spread the magic of the Clown! See you guys out there!
Arjav (London, England) - one-month course 2010
Well, the course essentially was a once in a lifetime experience for me. As an actor, i try my hardest to take roles and parts which excite me for being different and eccentric. Coming to Spain, a foriegn country, and learning clown, was something which excited me because i knew before I even did clown at uni, that it would be difficult. But i didn't relaise how difficult it would be.
To delve into clown was one thing, but for me the task of using it in an alien envrionment was such a thrill. I love to try new things, to experiment, and that was what the course allowed me to do. Everyday, I was able to go from one extreme to the other. To try everything; see what worked, but also learn what didn't work and why.
The best aspect was to work with like-minded people from different countries. In my course, I studied and worked with 7 people from different countries, all bonded with the love of clown. The chance to learn from them was amazing and not only did it help me in terms of socialising, but also provided key skills for all of us to use in later life.
My favourtie thing though, was the performances. Ii love performing, and to create my own sketches and numbers for an audience who spoke another language was incredible. To make someone laugh, even when you both don't speak the same language, is that special connection, where you both communicate through humour, a universal language. that is what i'll take from the course; the understanding of true comedy and how audience/performer relationships work......if the performer believes, really believes in what he/she is doing, and if his/her passion and love for the art shows, the audience will repsond, regardless of language, custom, or any social division.
Didac (Spain) - one-month course 2011
I am very happy with what I have discovered, found and learned. Knowing people like these has opened a path of hope and desire to continue on this way, with new reasons to enjoy that fill my heart and change the course of my life that I had. In the past, I was living party to party and even if it was hurting me, I was not capable of getting out of the loop. Now I feel the urge to move and delight to enjoy, without harm. I learned to get an audience, looking into his eyes, interact with them without shyness and I'm very thankful for it, it’s really nice to connect with the public and see their faces of happiness, wonder, curiosity, pleasure, joy, and find the limits of how far I can go with each. I am very pleased with the numbers we have achieved together; being more than a team, for me we became a family. I’d like to do more numbers by my own, but I don’t care cause I have no hurry. I prefer all I experienced learned and shared with you and I will not exchange them for anything in the world. It was very nice, I say it with open heart. The clown, I don’t know if I know it properly yet, but I think now it’s the pleasure of playing with others and with yourself, breaking the established schemes, give love from the honest and sincere game, laugh at yourself, deep, giving energy to others through the game and expression. I think it is the way I could describe what it is to be a clown, I might miss something and I'm quite sure there's a lot more to learn. Thanks to you all for these two weeks in the paradise of smiles and joy.
Chiara (Switzerland) - one-month course 2011
A month in Cal Clown! The time has passed so quickly that I can’t believe the course has already finished! I enjoyed so much being in the middle of nature and having space where I could concentrate totally on learning Clown, living with clowns from all over the world.
I had already taken part in some weekend workshops before and decided to do a one month course in order to clarify what Clown is for me and its importance in my life.
The first thing I learned at Cal Clown is that I really didn’t know anything about Clown. And that to learn it and understand it I would need a lot of time and effort, perhaps my whole life!
The most amazing thing of the four weeks was the process of opening up as a person and as a Clown. Little by little removing the layers in order to be able to share what I feel. Opening up to the audience and revealing myself as transparently as possible. Understanding and feeling the “zero” state of the Clown.
I enjoyed so much relating to my fellow course-mates, with Clara and Jon, with the workers and with the dogs, through playing and emotions... and not through words like usually happens.
Now I am really keen to keep training in Clown and I feel very grateful for having been able to share this time with everyone who makes up Cal Clown.
Thank you for so much love and joy!
Let’s Clown the world!
Marie-Claire, 2019, one-month clown course
When I came to Cal Clown I had a desire to overcome my fears of playing with and for an audience and found difficulties in creating my own clown numbers.
Clara turned out to be an excellent coach in overcoming these fears and difficulties.
Her approach was very personalised and made us understand and value our own strength and possibilities.
In her teachings, besides guiding us into the right state of mind and openness she gave us tools and lots of personalised material to use for performance. The focus being on this rather than merely on clowning techniques or exercises, combined with the different performances we prepared for healthcare facilities, the streets and a local bar, the course really empowered us to put our first baby steps in the world as clown performers.
For those already performing or those in the process of finding their own power as a performer, I think Clara can be the perfect director or guide (or midwife haha). She knew how to accompany me towards more daring, more craziness, more foolishness and more confidence in my own clown.
Clara has many passionate insights to share about the clown as an art form but also guided us to the most powerful teaching of all: the interaction with an audience.
Being surrounded by nature, animals, plants and near a beautiful river was the perfect setting for me, offering regeneration, healing and inspiration. Not to mention wild, edible and medicinal plants!
Amy (28, from England) - one-month Professional Course in October 2014)
So it's 4 weeks since leaving clown school and it already feels like it was a lifetime ago even though I have done very little since coming back. Maybe it was a dream? Did I dream it??
Let's say it has been on my mind, pretty much every day since being back. The clowns, the tent, the animals, the beautiful countryside, the river....oh just to think about it makes me a little sad - what a fantastic experience we all had!! (Rhyme) We really were a happy little family of clowns studying and laughing away at Cal Clown clown school not too far from Barcelona in Spain.
I would say I learnt a lot. If you want an intense clowning experience and if you like nature then this really is the place for you. Oh the laughter! Oh the silliness! Clown school is something I have been thinking about for a few years now, after seeing a 'discover your inner clown' course advertised in Berlin when living in Frankfurt. I very nearly went...except I didn't. Since then I have been thinking more about it, but sometimes it's just not possible to take time out from real life and do these crazy things, is it? Luckily for me after the wedding (to the Vittorio) I found myself with no job, little French knowledge amounting to few job prospects and decided to bite the bullet and to take life by the (juggling) balls and just go. (In fact before leaving I went to a cheap shop to buy some juggling balls thinking about how all clowns definitely have to juggle and how I would return after 1 month a juggling genius!! Sadly, this did not turn out to be the case and in fact I made a clown number out of how shockingly I can juggle.)
But interestingly I think there is a lot about clowns that people misjudge or just don't know. Let's face it sometimes they have particularly bad press. When returning to Paris after my course a friend told me "Oh gangs of people wearing clown masks have been murdering people around France." Great. Just when I wanted to tell people how great they are as well. Well I also didn't know what to expect from a real 'live' clown course. Will I learn to make my face up or to make a balloon animal? What a silly girl. Clowning is much more!
Firstly we were situated pretty much in the middle of nowhere in the Spanish countryside. Surrounded by trees, fields, insects a plenty. One of the other clowns got so many mosquito bites on her legs in the first few days that I was convinced we should play dot to dot on her! I got my fair share. We went every morning for a walk in the woods and often to the river and it was wonderful. We would play silly games along the way and get to know each other. The afternoons were mainly spent back at the base often in the tent doing exercises finding our clowns or rehearsing for shows.
To find our clowns we were taught to connect with nature, opening various body parts which seemed a little strange at first. However once you are connected you can start to find your pleasure as a clown and to cut a long story short missing a lot of things out a clown is born (I never was very good with technical explanations.)
I loved the nature. Coming back to the hustle and bustle of Paris after being a tree hugger was very upsetting. I loved the sense of community that I felt with my fellow clowns, even though I’m never the biggest talker in the group it's really something I took for granted until it had gone, spending time with such a lovely group of talented people. I loved the laughter and the late night rehearsals in the tent. I loved the puns (of course) and I’m always happy to pass a bit of pun knowledge on, if you hadn't already noticed. I loved the dogs and lovely little gatito. I loved making everyone laugh even just for a while and I think maybe tears were involved once or twice? (I win one point!) I loved the dinners all together, washed down with a bit (a lot) of Cervesa. I loved so many things including wearing the nose with pride, however most importantly I loved feeling like a clown for a little while
Isa (from Granada, Spain) - one-month courses 2012 and 2013
Staying here has given me more than I expected,
or… “who hopes despairs”!!
The build-up of nerves before embarking on this great journey to Cal Clown evaporated as soon as I met my companions for this adventure and our guide (and friend) Clara. Right from the first moment I felt at home. The unique place surrounded by life, the home warmed by the energy emanating from it, all this makes you disconnect from reality and you feel like you’re living a dream.
This was the first time that I had done any clowning. I get very shy when I have to act in public, but the exercises which our guide proposed us made you become uninhibited without even realising it, you can let yourself go towards your own interior and you can look into the eyes of your own clown. Intense exercises which leave you exhausted and feeling like you’ve taken a great step. If you try and give everything, you feel very proud of yourself.
The aim that I was pursuing when I went there was to offer a hand out to my inner clown, get to know her, see myself reflected in her, give her life, discover her, discover myself … Objective accomplished in full. It is a long inner journey and I knew that I had to begin it in this way, in a magical place, sharing intensely with my companions, surrounded by people with the same concerns; all of which has brought to me a beacon on my path
It has only been five days, squeezed to the last drop, following the rhythm we could all (teacher and students) feel, without pressure, without nerves, letting ourselves go and working hard in order to give our best. The timetables adapted themselves to us. Five days which flew past although I feel that it’s been like two weeks, due to the passion with which I lived every moment. 24 hours of laughter, profound conversations which make you think, talking about everything and nothing, of comradeship, of contact with nature...
When I first saw on the internet what Cal Clown was offering, I knew that this was how I wanted to begin this long journey of personal growth. I did it to get to know myself, without expecting to be a great clown, or to perform shows. Now, having done it, I want to make a show, though I’d have to work a lot in order to do that.
Clara gives her all, and im not saying that in order to get a free course, I say it because anyone who has set foot in Cal Clown knows it, I’m just stating what is already common knowledge, since so few people give so much in their work. More than a good teacher, she has become a good friend. Not to mention her life companions, Groucho, Alma, Cua (the dogs) and Yann the cat…
I could describe in more detail every day, but I’d rather each person lived it with fresh eyes and be as surprised by it as I was.
I recommend this experience to anyone who wants to go on an inner journey in search of their clown. What more could you ask for? Ah! Perhaps to live there forever!!!
Niklas (Kassel, Germany) - one-month courses 2012 and 2013
My experiences at Cal Clown have been really profound. I stood at the gate to heaven and I went to hell - but I came back to learn more. I connected to an old lady in a retirement home and we became one. I made the world vibrate by laughter and I transformed many cries into laughter. It is funny that love and laugh not only sound the same...
Clown is to "normal” human life what Quantum Physics is to the Theory of Relativity.
Thanks Cal Clown!!!
Veronica (Italy) - two-week course 2011
This course has been my first clown experience. I have learned a lot .. about myself and about what it is to be a clown.
At the beginning I was a bit blocked doing the exercises and enjoying myself like a clown. I learned how I can look a person into the eyes, laugh with my eyes. I also have learned that I can find a special pleasure when I break the rules in a particular logical way. I learned not to think too much when I’m on stage… to find my pleasure and the pleasure of the audience.
I have learned how to behave on stage, how I can fall and not be injured. I have learned to find pleasure when I work with others.
I have learned to approach people in the street. I have learned to express my emotion when performing. I have learned that in a simple way I can do funny numbers.
I have learned many more things, like how to adapt myself to taking group decisions. I have to learn more about clown… I liked it very much and I hope that this experience opened my mind, my heart, my body, my feeling, my soul in a search for my way to be a clown.
I have learned what it is to be in the flop. I have learned how to see the comedy in attitudes and situations, in violence.
I have discovered the history of clown.
I want more.
Thanks!
PS: When I get home I don’t want the clown to stay in Spain, but to stay with me all my life.
Abraham (21, Galicia, Spain) - one-month course 2011
Before arriving here the only contact I had had with the stage had been through theatre and entertaining. I hadn’t had any contact with clown and so I started looking for clown courses. Aft er much looking, I found the school, saw the programme of studies they offered and decided quite quickly.
Once here, you disconnect from the world and learn to enjoy every moment and to take advantage of any situation in daily life. That’s the first thing they taught me at Cal Clown.
During the course you forget about diaries and watches, you only think about being here and wanting to be here. And when you realise suddenly it’s the last day and you say “Is that it? How quickly it’s gone!” Without realising, you’ve learned new things. There are things that I still haven’t realised what I’ve learned and which I am discovering Little by Little, because what they teach you isn’t something that goes in through your head, but something you learn by playing and enjoying every moment.
As the course advances you begin to be able to create your own numbers. This is quite an intense part of the course but later you feel a great pleasure from the work you’ve done.
My passage through Cal Clown was great fun and I’ll miss the place.
Dani (Barcelona, Spain) - two-month course 2010
Living for a time in the Masia gave me the opportunity to study and work with freedom in the incredible world of Clown and to dare to look within myself without fear, sharing emotions and feelings, understanding and, above all, breathing. And going further without judgements. And then getting much further than what I expected or imagined, beyond the apparently impossible, arriving at a point of unmistakable and very pure consciousness. Now my mistakes are jewels, and the few abilities that I did have now have the same importance as an Ethiopian breakfast.
Maybe I will never be a Clown, I don’t know yet. But I take with me a memory,that in its moment, brought me very close to the true Human Being. The essence is still far off, I foresee it, but now I am on the way.
Rachele (Italy) - two-month course 2010
Cal Clown was a new experience in many aspects.
From the point of view of being a less western living experience to that which I am used to… Because here one lives in the middle of nature in close contact with it, finding the way to respect and love it, trying to sabe wáter and eat healthily…
From the point of view of human relationships because living in the same place for two months with the same 10 people far from anywhere sharing nearly everything is almost a kind of “Big Brother” … With its difficulties and worrying moments, dealing with bad days and searching for the way to work in silence when outside all is noise. Cal Clown is like a microcosm… Sometimes you wonder if what’s happening is real or how the rest of the world is getting on… and what Will happen when you go back to it…
From the point of view of the work… Because I had never worked so intensively on Clown. Day after day, with your minded always coloured by the red-nosed soul, I have learned many things. Most of those things Will need me to work on them at length after the course has finished. But above all, passing through all the facets of Clown, I have understood what I like and what I don’t like. I want to continue to be a hospital Clown and a theatre Clown, since the rest is too much for me and is not me…
What Clown is today I would like tos ay with a few words of Gandhi:
“Take a smile and give it to someone who has never ha done.
Take a sunbeam and make it fly to where night reigns.
Find a spring and splash one who lives in the dirt.
Take a tear and place i ton the face of one who has never cied.
Take courage and place it in the spirit of one who knows not how to fight.
Find life and tell it to one who doesn’t understand it.
Take experience and live in the light.
Take goodness and give it to one who knows not how to give.
Find love and make it known to the whole world.”
Harkaitz (Basque Country, Spain) - one-month course 2011
I have worked as a volunteer before in Cal Clown and that gave me an idea of what it could be to study clown there. But I was wrong in some aspects. The course is very intense. Some days you receive a lot of information and it seems that the day never ends. Others, you have the sensation that three days have passed in a minute. It is a very special experience cause it shakes all the cells of your body, even those that were asleep. It is the best course and the best teachers I ever had. The contrast between Clara and Jon makes the course so powerful and gives you more clarity on what it is to be clown. The course has led me to know the clown and his history through time. I learned many things and I could go deeper in the knowledge I have. All this has changed the perception I have of the clown. I learned how to create a numbers, how to explore our clown and break down barriers that we all have in our head, it was fantastic.
I thank all the people that make this project work and keep it running for many years. I also loved the group's strength, unity and the desire to be clowns from each other and I encourage them to go ahead with attitude. Bravo team!
It's beautiful to create things from the game, where things go more authentic.
Gary (Cornwall, England) - one-month courses 2010 and 2011
Wow! So much to say about my experience at cal clown! It all began a few years ago after seeing a performer in the street...he was hilarious and brilliant in what he did...I was bedazzled and wanted to know his secret! He was a clown! Gone were my preconceptions of a clown being someone who wears stupid make up and entertains children badly. A new world of curiosity had opened for me, I wanted to learn! I scoured the internet for courses and found a weekend course at Escola de clown de Barcelona. Little did I know how much this would change my life over the coming years!
So I did the weekend course...the school was beautiful!...a haven of happiness in a beautiful little spot in a forest on rolling hills with the Pyrenees as a backdrop. There was a beautiful old Spanish farmhouse in a clearing and a circus tent nestled in between the trees. I had found a community of people filled with love and good intention, I had found a place where I could grow and be human, and be me. And over that weekend I had my first taste of what clown was, the real me, uncovered and open...or at least a part of it. But the weekend wasn’t enough! I wanted more! I returned to my home in England and carried on with my life. I had no money to be doing anymore clown training though I knew that’s what I wanted to do. So I bimbled on and enjoyed my summer...nearly 6 months passed and then one day I received an email from the school regarding student/work exchange; It felt like the skies had opened! Yes! I saw a possibility/opportunity to continue on my journey in becoming a clown and replied to see if I could do the exchange. I was over the moon when I got a reply saying that I had been accepted!
A few weeks later I arrived and started as a worker at cal clown! I was so pleased to be back there in that place. There was a lovely bunch of students and workers there and I felt welcomed and loved! My experience as a worker at the school was a wonderfilled one! As fruitful and energising in some ways as the clown training itself but different! It felt more like being part of something beautiful evolving than work! As a worker I would cook, clean and do many various jobs in and around the house...allsorts actually!! And it was always a delight as the people there are so nice! Clowns!! There would always be laughter, joy, music and bimbles and on my day off there would be nothing better than a walk through the forest down to the river(so beautiful!) , going for a swim, and collecting elderflower for cordial! It was a truly fruitful experience as a worker and I loved it! But my work finished and the next time I went back it was to begin my training as a clown...to become a student!
Wow it was finally happening! After all the work I began my clown training! It was quite funny to become a student again after working there the times before. I would wake up, there would be coffee and a lovely breakfast on the table ready. We would then go on a little walk through the forest before class; a really nice way to wake up!
The courses were amazing! The classes consisted of lots of games and play! Yes! Finding your clown was the first part of the process and breaking down personal barriers to discover the inner clown and let him out. It’s really quite clever how the series of games the teachers put together draw you out and open you up! And it’s FUN!! After that you go on to develop your clown in many different ways...emotion, character, street, magic, circus, partner/group, stage...to name but a few! There’s so many different angles! And at the end of the course we did a show to the public! It’s amazing to see how myself and indeed everyone else on the course had changed in a short time! It wasn’t just a change in the way we performed either, it was a transformation of self, the opening of something beautiful within; we were different in everyday life too. I felt more love and compassion towards people and more love and light within.
I have also found many new ways to put together numbers; I have learnt many new ways of formula and theory to apply to different situations and scenarios and also completely changed my perception on how to look at things and situations. I have created new numbers much different from my old style and with my new perception I have found much joy and emotion both in my shows and in my soul.
I would like to thank Clara and Jon deeply from my heart for the work they have done with me and for the wonderful change and beauty I feel within. I feel I have received and found something pure and wonderful, perception changing and energising....I feel so much more connected to me and to the essence of being. I came to improve my perception as a performer but have found something infinitely more than I could have ever originally imagined!
The way I live my life has changed, and changed for the better! And now in my homelife I try to live my life as a clown too! Honest and pure.
My only sadness now is that my time at cal clown has finished!! Maybe I'll make a disguise and go back as a new student and start over again....as Dudley Moocoo from Eastern Europe!!
Muchos love and thanks to you Clara and Jon....and all the wonderful characters I met at my time in Cal Clown! xxx
