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STAY TUNED FOR HELEN'S SPRING/SUMMER TEACHING SCHEDULE
*UPCOMING WORKSHOP: VISITING TEACHER*
Francine Cote teaching in January!
CLOWN 1: RESEARCH OF CHARACTER
with Francine Côté
January 22, 23, 24 & 26, 27 2009
4 :30 to 9:30 pm - total of 25 hrs
Price - $500.00 (includes tax)
where :
Queen St East Presbyterian Church, 947 Queen St E.
(at Carlaw)
registration information:
Class limited to 12 students with performance background - artistic resume required.
Deposit of $125.00 required after acceptance
Please email info@helendonnelly.com
or call 416-536-4323 to register
You don’t create your clown; you simply let it out to live in front of others. This is a workshop for artists who wish to discover and/or develop their clown character by working on: simplicity, sincerity, lightness and vulnerability of play. Using Francine’s unique method, the work proposes a series of exercises that develops openness, pleasure, creativity, rhythm, physical precision and being able to listen to your own emotions and impulses.
Ideal for the clown artist with Pochinko-influenced training who wishes to explore a complementary approach to clown as well as artists new to clown who wish to discover their unique clown persona.
Francine Côté is a clown/teacher/director from Montréal who has more than 30 years experience in the creation of comic, physical and clown characters. She has played on the International scene (Circus, Cabaret, Variety’s, Festivals), taught in a diverse range of schools (National Theatre School of Canada, Ecole National de Cirque, Ecole de l’Humour (Just for Laughs) and the University of Montreal), and has worked as a stage trainer for different companies (Cirque Éloize, L’Aubergine, En Piste...etc). While touring with Le Cirque du Soleil in London and Paris in 1990 Francine met her partner in clown and life, James Keylon, and this was the beginning of a long-term international career as the duo, “Alfredo et Adrénaline”. Pushing in the direction of the modern clown, but inspired by the traditional, these two lovable characters in the throes of their own “Battle of the Sexes” have touched thousands of spectators around the world.
Francine has developed a method of clown training for the professional milieu based on her years of experience as a performer and her early training in Paris with Phillippe Gaulier and Monica Pagneux. Since 2002, she has taught more than 15 workshops a year and continues to train clowns at theatre schools, abroad, and through special coaching.
Francine is also the primary clown trainer for Dr. Clown, a company that brings professional therapeutic clowns into hospitals and long-term care facilities in Montreal, Quebec City and Toronto.
More information at: www.formationclown.com
Helen Donnelly
Teaching bio
Helen returned in 2002 after clowning with Cirque du Soleil for 1.5 years, performing over 400 shows all across the United States. She is a professional circus, theatrical and therapeutic clown. She has been teaching clown workshops and physical theatre to teens and adults in the US and Canada for over 10 years, including at Second City (Toronto), Puppets: the Animation School (Toronto), the Living Arts Centre (Mississaugua) Fleming College, Durham College and the Haliburton School of the Arts as well as high schools all over Ontario.
Her independent workshops Discover Your Clown and Flex Your Clown Muscle are offered a few times a year: for more info, please enquire.
Helen is a graduate from the University of Toronto with an Honours B.A., Specialist in Drama. Helen is currently studying clown with Francine Cote (Cirque du Soleil, international scene), and has learned from David Shiner (Fool Moon, Cirque du Soliel), Roch Jutras (Cirque du Soleil, Cirque Eloize), John Turner and Mike Kennard (of Mump and Smoot fame), Theatre Smith-Gilmour and Grindl Kirchaka. Helen has been clowning and acting for over 17 years. She continues to perform her own shows and to clown for special events worldwide.
CLOWN WORKSHOPS: Discover Your Clown/Flex Your Clown Muscle
Discover your inner clown!
Clown goes beyond the realm of entertainment, and does not stop at being the idiot or the wit. We see them in hospitals, theatres and the street as part of political movements. The power of the clown is in the ability to hold a mirror up to society, reflecting the truths of humanity in all its imperfections and beauty. Clowns reveal these truths through vulnerability, empathy and direct contact with the audience. This intimate connection separates clowning from acting; a magic space is created between the clown and the audience. Clowns defy time and space— reality is elastic, anything is possible.
“Clowns are born when society has a need for them. Remember that Chaplin and Keaton were most popular during the Depression. And that the Indians say that clowns appear when the leaders get out of hand!
What we need is a clown for our time. A clown… that celebrates our humanness, our animalness, and the times that we can touch each other in a moment of laughter."
-Richard Pochinko
Uncover what lurks beneath the surface: get at the heart of all that you are—that playful, impish, contrary, curious, tragically delicious YOU!
I offer Discover Your Clown workshops for beginners, and Flex Your Clown Muscle! for intermediate students. For information on the next workshops, please contact me.
For groups and schools, please print out the workshop brochure:
