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The Clown in Me Clown Rules: No one should ever see you put on the nose. Never talk about the nose. Never mention being a clown. “Be aware of the stories that are going to happen,” Vivian says. A playful gentleness arises from the broad, generous features on his face. Ten of us are moving as Vivaldi sounds from the portable CD player on the
linoleum floor. My partner is a tall, athletic woman with searing blue eyes
that cause me to tilt back a bit, but her smile is so welcoming that I
inevitably lean closer again. I move to the music while she stands still,
watching my eyes. Then as Vivian instructs, the standing person becomes the
mover and the mover holds still.
I freeze in motion and she dances near me a short distance away, among the others in the room. Always, her eyes return to mine. “I am taking you through the different ways of looking,” says Vivian Gladwell, slow-dancing himself among us. “Look at yourself: your hand for instance, and look at your partner. Sometimes images appear. Follow the image.” He teaches "Beta-clown" and is an English instructor at the University of Social Sciences in Toulouse, France. Look at each other, repeat what you see, make sounds,” he says. “Show everything. You cannot deny what imposes itself upon you. If you’re bored, show us you’re bored in a large way, then move on. It’s not what you do, it’s how you live through the image of what you’re doing.” When the exercise is over and we sit down, one woman says, “I was afraid,” and her partner says, “I was, too.” I feel silly taking a clowning workshop amidst a few hundred intellectual types at the annual Rudolf Steiner Institute. But here I am.... For more writing like this, click here. Or learn about Vivian and the beauty of clowning. _________________________________________________ Sheridan Hill writes about Vivian Gladwell and the rules of the clown. Copyright © renewed annually Sheridan Hill. |
