“ClownEncuentro provides an opportunity to be in community and connect with other passionate clowns, to have necessary conversations about the art of clown and its purpose in present-day culture, and to forge relationships and connections. These are seeds that will grow into fruitful collaborations, bringing more clown-goodness to the world.”
-Hannah Gaff, CWB artist and workshop leader
Tour Overview:
CWB – USA will participate in ClownEncuentro in Cali, Colombia. ClownEncuentro supports clowning in Latin America through artistic learning, research, and audience development.
Clowns Without Borders will lead a workshop to share tools for creating a CWB-style show. This includes non-verbal physical comedy, keeping the audience safe, defining a performance space in a conflict zone or refugee camp, and raising an audience. The workshop culminates in a street show.
Tour Context:
CWB – USA’s partnership with Clown Encuentro provided the springboard for our collaborations with CaliClown, and recent CWB programming in Colombia. CWB partnered with the 2nd Clown Encuentro in 2010. Partnering with local artists and organizations is essential to CWB’s work, and Clown Encuentro is an opportunity to deepen relationships with existing partners while expanding CWB’s network.
In addition to participating in Clown Encuentro, CWB and CaliClown will spend four days performing for marginalized communities in Cali. These communities include Colombians who are internally displaced due to armed conflict, and Venezuelan refugees seeking safety in Colombia.
Team:
CaliClown is a humanitarian clowning organization based in Cali, Colombia. They works in hospitals, favelas, and rehabilitation centers. CWB started working with CaliClown in 2013. The organizations most recently collaborated in August 2018.
Clown Encuentro is an international artist collective focused on supporting clowns and developing new audiences in Latin America. Clown Encuentro focuses on artistic learning, dialogue, research, networks, and developing new audiences. Moshe Cohen started CWB’s connection with Clown Encuentro in 2010.
Hannah Gaff joined CWB on its 2018 and 2017 tours to Lebanon. She works as a clown with the Medical Clown Project and teaches at the Clown Conservatory at Circus Center SF. Hannah will be leading a 4 day intensive about CWB performance techniques. Then, participants from the workshop will join Hannah on tour.
CWB – USA follows United Nations naming conventions for all countries, nations, and territories, along with the Declaration of the Rights of the Child and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. To read more about our Code of Ethics, click here.
