~The
Benefits of Sacred Clowning~
We can dissolve into hilarious laughter as we poke
fun at ourselves, act out our shadow personas, our repressed actor,
our fears, hopes and dreams. We can switch roles and cultural norms
within the Magic Theater Space, allowing all the parts of us to emerge.
The
Clown dissolves forms and brings the individual, company or team to
a higher resolution. As the Clown, we can challenge our created worlds
of rigid forms, and dissolve self imposed boundaries--freeing our
spirit in the high play of folly. When drama or clowning is deeply
effective, it often brings us to a kind of "seeing" that
makes us aware of the relativity of things. When we see how easily
it is to destroy forms (in clowning) we come to understand how easy
it is to recreate and expand our lives anew.
"The Great Therapist & Guru" Psychology
Retreat 1994
~Shadow
Work~
Sacred Theater can be an opportunity to work with our
Shadow so we can identify where we get stuck, or go unconscious, to
come to an understanding of what triggers us and why. The healing
comes from moving our wound, story or issue out of the silence and
giving it voice in front of our community.
We
all have a double, a shadow, a repressed self. Within Sacred Theater
we can take a look at our Shadow who we have created by suppressing
talents, troubles, and emotions. If we can laugh or cry at ourselves
and not reject our shadow double we can bridge the Good & Bad
Critical voices within ourselves and use the information from the
Shadow to inform our issues of health, relationships, sexuality, right-livelihood
and spiritual practice, combining the wisdom of the conscious and
unconscious selves--moving toward wholeness.
~Clown Skits,
Games and Group Work~
• Someone who feels they are just "people
pleasers"might devise a skit of;
a. Sing a song that exaggerates the pattern
b. Acting out a Loud Aggressive Bully type
c. Working with a group of people where they set up the "scenario"
and play with its forms
•
A person in the "helping professions,"who is burnt out from
giving too much, may act out their own sense of neediness in a skit
in order to release pent up emotions, and come to a inner state of
balance again.
•
A body worker, healer or counselor might be experiencing fear of setting
up a business practice, might design a Shadow Healer skit who charges
thousands of dollars, in order to allow the fear a voice and to move
it out of the body.
This
kind of performance can allow us to identify our patterns, see how
they restrict us, what the gifts might be, and show us ways to make
creative choices of change.
~Gender
Work~
Clowns point to the shadow side of social
norms, gender roles, sexuality and fertility issues within the culture.
Clowns in many traditions reversed gender roles; women can dress up
as men, and men as women in order to challenge, teach, and play with
how repressive values can birth sexism, racism and limiting roles
for men and women.
Kristena
West as Mae West,
"I was just a Girl, ahead of my Time. Oh!, What a Time it Was!"
Sex, Love & Relationship Addicts Workshop 1994
Kristena has developed
a Mae West persona, which she performs at various therapeutic
or psychology workshops, AIDs benefits, auctions, and other organizational
events. Mae West was a classic female Clown challenging restrictive
sexual mores of her time-she also was a teacher of fertility magic--waking
women up to the power inherent within the Feminine forms through her
sharp wit and humor.
~Kristena
West Performance Education & Training ~
Kristena comes from parents who loved the Arts--her
father is in the black and white photo, there with the large eyes,
in the far back.
Her fondest memory
of him when she was a child: "On saying goodnight, he would tuck
my sister and I in, and then would turn around sauntering to the door,
and somehow he would miss the open doorway and walk straight into
the wall, bumping his nose! We howled! How funny he was, though we
felt sorry for him as he couldn't ever manage that doorway. We kept
rooting for him to make it through on the first time, but he never
did."
Carrying
on the clowning tradition on the West side of the family, is her great-grandfather
(in suspenders) with her Aunt (left) and her Mother (far right) hauling
in the Big Catch on Alameda island.
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Kristena
in the Clown Troup in the Santa Barbara Summer Solstice
Parade of 1980.
The annual solstice
parade draws crowds up to hundred thousand. Kristena was
staff costumer in 1992 & Ensemble Artist.
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She trained with internationally recognized
Master Clowns; Sigfrido Agular and James Donlon at the first
International Clown Institutes summer 2000 intensive in Santa
Barbara, Ca.
Sigfrido
has a annual winter Clown Retreat in Guanajuato, Mexico from
Jan-Feb-contact him at miclownteatral@hotmail.com
James is a drama coach and can be contacted at U.C. S. B.
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Sigfrido (top) and James
(far left) were the first two clown instructors hired at
Barnum & Bailey Clown College; they are world class
performers.
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First Annual Santa Barbara International
Clown Institutes Summer Intensive 2000
Kristena uses clowning
techniques combined the artistic process in her workshops &
trainings to open people to the possibility and power inherent in
assuming new forms. Her philosophy can be summed up as follows...
The
moment when Bottom awakens from this dream is the supreme moment
of the play. .... For what Shakespeare has caught here in perfection
is the original miracle of the Imagination, the awakening of the
spiritual life in the animal man. Bottom is an ass. If Bottom can
be redeemed, matter itself and [humanity] in all it's materiality
can be redeemed also.
~ Harold C. Goddard~
To see Kristena's complete Resume
please Click:
Kristena's Performance,
Artistic and Educational Training
