A CLOWN'S MIND

training course

12 - 23 MAY 2024

This Erasmus+ training course will take place from 12 to 23 May in France.

A Clown's Mind is an Erasmus+ training course, consisting of 10 days of program and 2 travel days.

The objective of this training course is to explore the potential of clowning, movement and mindfulness, employing diverse approaches and modalities, as methods for enhancing the skills and abilities of youth workers.

READY TO DISCOVER THE CLOWN INSIDE YOU ?

Throughout the training, activities will take place both indoors and in the beautiful natural surroundings. The training will heavily rely on non-formal education methodologies that encourage active participation and cultivate an atmosphere of acceptance, trust, openness, and non-judgment within the working group. Operating frequently in small workgroups will promote more reflection, feedback, as well as the inclusion and free expression of all participants. The program includes various activities designed to cover the entire learning spectrum as defined by Kolb: experience, reflection, abstraction/conceptualization, planning/transfer.

This project aims to assist youth workers in developing the skills and confidence required to create safe, inclusive, and enjoyable learning environments for young people. Incorporating clowning, movement, and mindfulness practices into the project will enable participants to foster their social and emotional skills in an entertaining and engaging manner. Through these practices, participants will learn how to connect with young people on a deeper level, build trust and rapport, and facilitate positive change. We aspire to establish a learning environment where participants can develop crucial abilities and skills that they can leverage in their future personal and professional lives through this project.

Who is this training for ?

The training is designed for youth workers, volunteers and anyone working with people and seeking to refresh their skills and habits in their job and personal lives.

Participants must be over 18 years and must be able to understand and communicate in English, so they can participate fully in a program that will be held in English.

You can apply to this training if you are resident and traveling from (and to) France, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Greece and Germany.

This training course is about:

The ability to play, be, and move with reality, mixing it with fiction, and walking like a tightrope walker on the edge of paradoxes.

Playing, especially in groups, to collectively create something different from reality, while remaining anchored by it.

Improvisation frames that push us to "throw ourselves" with the body and the voice, as well as with the mind.

The discovery of our own "Clown's mind," an attitude of being, way before acting and doing, lightly in balance in the presence.

Improvisations (with some different "themes," constraints, directions), in which to explore the dimension of "meeting" oneself as a creature free to play, move, express and create with what is available (body, emotions, environment). The clown reveals oneself like an open book (becoming a novel, detective story, poem, or comic strip as he pleases).

We will attempt to repeatedly open the door to the unknown, to find (and find ourselves in) something new every time, to experience how reality, even personal reality (character, cultural background, education, everything that has contributed to making us become what we are...), comes to be more or less consciously the material, the nourishment, or seasoning of the theatrical event itself

This training is for you if you are willing to:

spend time outdoor, move, play, walk and dance.
go out of your comfort zone and challenge yourself.
improve your facilitator/trainer skills.
acquire new tools and ideas for your job and your daily life.
open yourself in order to share your own skills and learn new ones.
commit to this work during the whole duration of the project, dissemination and follow-up included.
empower yourself with the support and the care of the group.

Working methods

You will learn by doing ! This will be a collective experience in which everyone will have to invest. The course will be anchored in the sharing of ideas, opinions, experiences and practices. Joining us will be an opportunity to share and gain confidence in your own skills and experiences.

Also, bear in mind that previous experiences with clown, dance, theater and singing practices are not needed to attend the training.

Practical Information

The training course will take place in the OASIS DES AGES. We will be accommodated in this beautiful venue in Chartrier-Ferrière, in the region of Corrèze, at 20 minutes to the city Brives La Gaillarde. There, you will share rooms with other participants and we will enjoy different activities rooms and places for relaxing. We will be surrounded by the fields and the forest, in the middle of a preserved nature.

"Le hameau des âges is a collective place, open to the world and anchored in its territory, organizing and hosting training, workshops, retreats, etc.. This committed collective intends to offer and create spaces to transform our relationships to oneself, to others, to the territory, to our representations and models, to the living and the invisible, to take care of it, choose what is right and create new models, of a united, vibrant and committed society, to preserve the Earth and the Living."

Check the Website

How to travel ?

More detailed information about the travel arrangements to the venue will be provided to selected participants and will be assisted by the project coordinator.

To check your travel options, please, look for connections that take you to BRIVE LA GAILLARDE. From there you will be further guided to the venue.

Please, as our project is taking care about sustainability, try to choose the most environmentally friendly form of transport with bus, train or carpooling. We can help you to find the best options.

Note: Your travels cannot be further than 2 days before or after the training course due to the rules of our financial grant.

Travel reimbursement

As well, more detailed information about the travel reimbursement will be provided to selected participants and will be assisted by the project coordinator.

The travel costs of the participants will be refunded, after the training course, once participants will have complete all the mandatory tasks (sharing all their travel documents, filling the Erasmus survey, sending proof of dissemination and follow-up activities).

Maximum amounts:

France : 210 €

Germany, Italy, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, Romania, Portugal : 320 € (275 € if traveling by plane)

Greece, Latvia : 360 €

DON'T FORGET TO KEEP ALL YOUR TRAVEL DOCUMENTS AND RECEIPTS, we will need them to reimburse your transport!

Participation contribution : we offer the opportunity to self assess your contribution on a sliding scale between 120 - 250 euro (to be paid in cash upon arrival).

The contribution fee for our "A Clown's Mind" training course ensures a premium experience at the exquisite OASIS DES AGES. This fee covers high-quality accommodation, vegan/vegetarian meals, and enriching programs. We strive to create a supportive and transformative environment, and your contribution helps maintain these standards. We offer a sliding scale to accommodate diverse financial situations, emphasizing that finances should never be a barrier to participation.

This course is co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme, Mobility of youth workers.

If you wish to learn more about the programme and its opportunities, have a look here.

Please, inform us as soon as possible, if you have any food allergies or special dietary requirements so that we can inform our cooks and find out if they have the possibility to prepare meals that are suitable for you.

If you have any other allergies, need to take regular medications or foresee a need for general medicines (for example bug spray, headache tablets, travel sickness pills, etc.) please arrange these yourself as we are unable to provide them for you.

Likewise, if you have any health conditions, disabilities or mobility issues that you feel we need to be aware of or that may affect your participation in the training course activities, then please let us know what they are and how best to assist you.

Meet the Team

Spaces Holders

(FR)

Flore Pineau

Flore Pineau is a youth leader, facilitator, dancer. She studies dance therapy. Movement is her way of expression, committed to an eco-feminist vision of the world. She is always aiming at the creation of new safe spaces in which to develop sensitive ways of being. She is learning about cooperation, collective intelligence and nonviolent communication and she is developing projects about body/voice expression, somatics, contact improvisation and dance therapy.

https://www.instagram.com/floraison_dansee/

(IT)

Antonio Cargnello

Antonio is a passionate trainer who loves to craft experiences for self development, group awareness, creative expression and pursuit of a wise and joyful freedom. He facilitates workshops, for teenagers, students, youth workers and adults, using and mixing his expertise and experiences from theatrical improvisation, contemporary dance, martial arts and contact improvisation.

www.teatroinvisibile.it

https://www.instagram.com/antoniocargnello/

(IT)

Gemma Paganelli

Gemma Paganelli, bachelor of arts, works as dancer, movement teacher and educator using non-formal learning and holistic methods, creating space for new approaches to movement, embodiment, meditation, creativity and self-development.

In this project she will lead practices of emotional movement, learning to recognise and deal with emotions, leading self-development through embodiment and deep listening sessions.

(FR)

Claire Hiegel

Claire Hiegel is a singer, vocal coach and facilitator of Body & Voice practices. She travels in the polyphonic and polyrhythmic music (circle song, percussion, konnakol rhythm) as a way to find pleasure, playground and confident in our voices. She's inspired by the traditional music from all over the world, and find peace in vocal improvisation.

www.claire-hiegel.com

Food

The delicious food will be vegan/vegetarian, prepared with love and care by our cook Andréa.

"My name is Andrea Mendizabal, and I will be cooking for you vegetarian meals during the training course. The meals I prepare are carefully designed to be easily digested by each one of us, with our own caracteristics and imbalances. You will be eating plenty of colors and lot's of love. If you are curious, you can find my creations here : www.panakeiacuisine.com. And you can also find me at my restaurant Tiers-lieu Pachamama's in Strasbourg! "

In order to provide and keep a safe and focused atmosphere for everybody we invite you to agree with an alcohol/drugs-free policy during the whole training course.