ABOUT CLOWN SPIRIT
Would you like to feel more comfortable with your own flaws, your ridiculousness, your anxieties and your self-doubt? Would you like to be able to have fun and be playful with those flaws?
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We are all flawed. Anxiety is built into our DNA. And the demands and expectations of our society and culture only make it worse. And yet we beat ourselves up when we don't live up to the ideal. That's the root of shame and it causes untold suffering.​
Clowning is the key to freeing ourselves from that shame. Not by denying it, but by accepting all directions and sides of our selves and laughing at the beauty of our own ridiculousness.
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That's why I created Clown Spirit.
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I believe the world needs clowning and it needs it now.
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Clown Spirit Village is a growing global movement of people who are recognizing that we are at a turning point, a fork in the road. We can stay stuck in our story of shame and suffering or we can embrace the clown and connect in truth and playfulness.
WHAT IS CLOWN SPIRIT VILLAGE?
For the first 2 years of Clown Spirit I taught online courses like THE CLOWN CONNECTION and CREATE YOUR CLOWN MASTERPIECE.
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With the addition of CLOWNVERSATIONS, a weekly live interview with clown leaders, I found there was a rapidly growing appetite for clown. People wanted more of this in their lives.
But something was lacking. A space where people could come regularly and get filled up with clown juice, get their clown needs met, not just a course or an interview but a welcoming, nurturing space for participation and growth in clowning.
That's why I created CLOWN SPIRIT VILLAGE, which included the FOUR elements I thought a person would need to deepen, broaden and enrich their clown practice >>>>>
Supportive Community
Barnaby King
FOUNDER & CEO
Over the past 15 years Barnaby has impacted the lives of thousands of people through his teaching, writing, performing and coaching.
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Originally, from the UK, Barnaby began clowning in 2000 with mentor and teacher Sue Morrison and soon went on to tour clown shows in festivals and arts centers internationally.
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While also teaching workshops he was always drawn to producing and organizing events that helped to nurture clowns, and in 2009 he founded the Clownencuentro International, an annual festival of clowning held in Colombia from 2009-2018.
In 2013 he completed a PhD in Performance Studies at Northwestern University, with a dissertation on clowning and social change in Latin America, later was published in book form as Ridicule and Resistance (2017) by Bloomsbury Methuen.
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After spending 6 years as a university professor ​in the UK, teaching clown, circus and phyical theatre, he moved with his family to Oregon and founded Clown Spirit in 2021 at the tail end of the pandemic. His life's goal is to pass on the spirit, energy and vitality of clowning to others, whether in person or online.
Dan’s journey to clowning has been unusual. In 2019, at a crossroads and seeking to deepen his meditation practice, he approached a teacher to study at their ashram in India. Instead, the teacher, a self-proclaimed trickster, encouraged him to explore flow arts and circus, opening Dan’s door (heart/mind) to clowning.
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Inspired, Dan quit his job, honed his juggling skills, and planned to join a circus Ecoversity in Brazil. However the pandemic redirected him, and unexpectedly he found himself in a monastery for a 3 month apprenticeship, which turned into a 2.5 year residency. At the monastery Dan continued studying clowning - including taking Barnaby’s Clown Connection course! - and offered workshops and performances for the monastic community.
This unique space crystallized his vision for Unified Playfulness, blending contemplative practices and clowning into an embodied methodology. After leaving the monastery, Dan sought ways to continue clowning while earning right livelihood. This led him to start working with Barnaby and Clown Spirit, integrating his passion and his skills in event organizing, strategic design, and systems change.
Now based in Montreal, Dan is continuing to evolve Unified Playfulness, and is constantly seeking more ways to weave clown in, both subtly and explicitly, into his life and work.
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