Greetings from Barcelona, I mean Barthelona, by many reports the coolest city in Europe. And arguably cooler now that it is the home of the Nouveau Clown Institute, an international clown school started just this past year by Jango Edwards, who is amazingly energetic for someone who may or may not be as old as me. I'm running away from administration and he's starting a school. Go figure.
I'm doing a physical comedy workshop this week for students taking a month-long clown
intensive, and I hope to do several blog posts on our work here. There are forty participants from eleven different countries, most of them already working at a professional level, and it is an exciting mix of very creative talent. While many performance academies espouse a particular method (Stanislavsky, Lecoq, Decroux, etc.), these students are being exposed to a wide variety of styles and approaches to clownesque performance. Every few days a new teacher with a new angle. It may get overwhelming at times, but from an educational point of view I like the idea of them getting to play with so much. Plenty of time to sort it out and use what works for them — starting in April.Here are a few pics of the space at the Roca Umbert Fàbrica de les Arts, a former factory complex being transformed into a formidable arts center.
Today was a good day. As far as I know, we only broke four chairs (here's two of them) and one table. Don't tell Jango until after I get paid.
Jango's Office:
The café, just steps away from the main classroom space.
And here's Jango (not to be confused with his long-lost cousin, Django Reinhardt) doing the classic but deadly headfirst dive into the cup of water, proving he's no slouch when it comes to physical comedy.
Stay tuned for more posts from the NCI...
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