THE PEDAGOGIC JOURNEY

An advanced training in
Theatre Pedagogy

Boulder, Colorado (USA)
September 21st to December 13th, 2009

I am very pleased to announce this new training in Theatre Pedagogy, the first act of the new cycle of Helikos school.

It is an advanced pedagogic training, and it addresses to theatre artists and practitioners that have already experienced “the journey” of movement theatre, either at Kiklos or in other movement-based trainings.
The purpose of the training is to reach a deeper knowledge and understanding of movement theatre and creation, and the art of teaching it.
It addresses to theatre artists that are already active professionally in the art of teaching and share a common background in movement theatre, and want to refine their practice, develop their style and commit to an intensive training time to work on their pedagogic projects.

THE TEACHING

I have devised a pedagogic training program which is the result of my artistic and pedagogic experience of these last 20 years.
It is based on the principle that pedagogy is not only about the content and the method of teaching but it also involves a work of the teacher on her/himself, in order to refine her/his awareness of the pedagogic relationship with the students and integrate the emotional aspects of the pedagogic process.
In other words, as the students go through a form of initiation during their learning process, so the teacher can be initiated into a specific knowledge that is flowing in the background, or “backstage” of the teaching process.

In order to manifest its deep nature of an initiation process, the training will proceed on two parallel levels.

1. Pedagogic Training
The role of the participants will be more the role of pedagogic assistants then the role of students. Pedagogy is the art of accompanying students along the journey. So the purpose of the program will be to nurture and stimulate the pedagogic voice of each “assistant”.
The program proposes a review of the whole “journey” of movement theatre, with a deep analysis of the structure of the training and all the different interconnections between its various elements.
In parallel, the program proposes a permanent “teaching workshop” in which the assistants will be practicing their teaching style using the group as a field of experience and then working on the feedback both from the group and from myself.
The pedagogic training will also involve some creation periods, when assistants will work in practical theatre creations to apply the learning of the program and to keep le jeu flowing.

2. Consciousness work

A good pedagogue is able to process instantly a body of information, perceptions, emotions and knowledge that is flowing at different levels, all interconnected. Symbolic, technical, cultural and emotional level. This requires a particular state of consciousness, which I call the pedagogic state.
Consciousness is “the awareness of the interconnections”: it’s not a static concept but a dynamic process, and it involves both practical experience and intellectual knowledge.
Practically, all through the classes we will keep focused on what is happening within our consciousness and how the pedagogue can reach a deeper awareness of her/his own process as well as the students.’ This will involve some theoretical classes, group work and individual coaching. As well as some specific tools on how to accompany students as they dive into “wetlands” of tears and raw emotions, in order to dig out poetic treasures.

THE PROGRAM

The program is articulated in two phases:

1. PEDAGOGIC TRAINING (September-December 2009)
During this first term of the program the group will work on the foundation of Helikos' Pedagogy, reviewing the whole pedagogic journey of Movement Theatre.

2. PEDAGOGIC ASSISTANCE (January-June 2009)
Later during the season, in January 2010, Helikos will also start the first year of the three-year training. The pedagogic program will continue in an integrated way with the first year of the school and the assistants will follow the unfolding of the first year program.
Once the first year will start, every morning the assistants will be participating or assisting the morning classes of the first year. In the afternoon, during the creation time of the first year students, they will have pedagogic classes.

You can visit the page of the School for more details about the First Year program

THE PEDAGOGIC TRAINING

First Part: THE JOURNEY OF THE POETIC BODY (September-October 2009)

PROLOGUE
Creation of the working group
Rules and founding principles
THE BODY IN SPACE
Body and breath
Body in relation: action reaction and “le jeu”
Le jeu as a state of consciousness
The Neutral State: Bioenergetics of the theatrical body
The Neutral Mask in Nature
The Clown State: Bioenergetics of the individual body
CLOWN
From Neutral to Clown : the actor intimacy with her/himself
Clown and emotions: the poetry of imperfections
Working with emotions as forms in space
Clown writing: emotions telling stories
Emotions and comedy
Creation: Clown monologues

Epistemological Unit: THEATRE BETWEEN ENERGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY
History of the body and history of theatre.
Anthropology of consciousness.
The body and the earth: life and energy cycles.
The ecological body.
Body, consciousness and dreams: dreambody, stories and theatre

THE MIMO-DYNAMIC APPROACH
Le jeu, ecstasy and transe
The mimo-dynamic journey: elements, materials and animals
Mineral life and plant life
Animal life and primordial dynamics: hunger, aggression, sexuality, physical contact, fear and the survival instinct
The flow of energy and emotions in the relationship with the environment: adaptations and dramas
The “mymo-dynamic wheel of internal movements”: the emergence of the character
The Character and the dynamic of play: Neutral State-Ego-Self-Characters-Archetypes
The transposition of the character dynamic and the emergence of the mask

The poetic of polarities and the unity of opposites. Male and Female archetypes
The Earth, the Water and the Mother
The Tree, the Fire and the Father

Second Part: THE JOURNEY OF THEATRE GENRES (November-December 2009)

MELODRAMA
Family histories, genealogical histories, the telling of the drama
“Conteur-mimeur”: the space of “les grands sentiments”
The cycle of melodrama: the victim and the wound, the villain and the drama, suffering, resolution, redemption.
The song of the emotion
Creation: histories of my family

TRAGEDY
From Clown to Neutral: the cycle of physical regeneration
From Neutral to the Chorus: from the individual to the collective
The neutral body and the warrior
Personal tragedy and the hero’s cycle: individual drama, fight against destiny, death and catharsis
The heritage of the ancestors and the founding myths
Creation: the chorus of ancestors

BOUFFONS and SATYRIC DRAMA
Rituals, mocking and trance
The duality God-Devil and the poetry of upheaval
Carnival and social grotesque
Deformities and Obscenities
Grotesque Characters
Grotesque Masks
Creation: personal grotesques

HUMAN COMEDY
Human comedy and the masks of human drives
The wheel of characters and the personal human comedy
Poetic writing with half masks
Creation: a canovaccio about a disfunctional family

COMIC THEATERS
The poetry of unbalance
The journey of laughter
Comic structures and comic writings

FINAL SYHTHESIS AND COMPLETION
The personal drives and the individual pedagogical style
Continuity, discontinuity and pedagogic creation.
Pedagogic biodiversity
Pedagogic commandes: original creation of a pedagogic program

Pedagogic Assistance (optional- January June 2010)

Later during the winter season, in January 2010, Helikos will also start the first year of the three-year theater training. The pedagogic program will continue in an integrated way with the first year of the school and the assistants will follow the unfolding of the first year program.

CLASSES

Classes will take place every day for 6 hours a day
All week ends will be free, for rest and integration.

THE LOCATION OF THE PROGRAM
The first part (Pedagogic Training) of the program will happen in Boulder, Colorado (USA).
The second part (Pedagogic Assistance) will happen in Italy, in conjunction with the first year of the international school of theatre creation.

THE GROUP
Pedagogic Training: Minimum 8 - Maximum 12
Pedagogic Assistance: Maximum 4

CALENDAR
Pedagogic Training: September 21st, 2009 – December 13th, 2009
Pedagogic Assistance Part: January 4th, 2010 - June 20th, 2010

LANGUAGE
Official languages will be English: a good understanding, both spoken and written is required.

ADMISSION

The program addresses exclusively to those who have already followed the two years training in Lecoq based movement theatre and who already have pedagogic experience. Priority will be given to graduates from Kiklos school in Padua.

The training programs that will be accepted as background are:

- Kiklos (Padua-Italy) between 2000 and 2004
- LISPA (London)
- Ecole Jacques Lecoq (Paris)
- Lecoq Based MFA of Naropa University (Boulder-USA) in 2002/2003 in Boulder and susequent years in London.
- Dell’Arte School of Physical Theatre, MFA program

Once each application reviewed, places will be given in order of arrival. If you intend to apply I strongly advice to do it as soon as possible.

Application update on February 15th, 2008: 2 places still available.

For detailed information about the program, the application procedures and the tuition, please contact me and and you will receive a brochure in PDF format.

For further information please email me at:

or call me

Tel: +39-349-7130121 (GMT+1)

You can find me on Skype as

giovannifusetti

Giovanni Fusetti