MTL Clown Fest - Artist Talk -We're Looking for a Feeling

MTL Clown Fest

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Free event! At the MainLine Gallery!

WE are proud and honoured to have Megan Hyslop share with us her talk on....

We're Looking for a Feeling: A Study of Relations Between Clown and Mask and Land Connection

As a Euro-Canadian settler living on Indigenous land and slowly recovering my own earth-based cultural heritage, I began to receive spiritual guidance four years ago in the form of dreams and messages that linked clowning, theatre, sexuality, storytelling, and ecology. While mysterious at the time, I now see the working idea of my research as an experiential investigation into Clown and Mask (also known as Canadian Clowning or Pochinko Clowning) as a way to learn about and share Nature as a World View from a non-Indigenous perspective.
Clown and Mask blends European theatrical clowning with certain North American Indigenous philosophies and some Jungian psychology; it aims to expand our creative playgrounds as artists by exploring the feelings of directions (expressed through masks, or shadow aspects of self) and colours expressed through our bodies and by welcoming honest emotional reactions on stage. Nature as a world view, or interconnection and fluidity for the wellbeing of individuals, communities, and the land and all its elements, is held by many Indigenous cultures, including the old European ones of my ancestors, as paramount. Communication with land takes place through listening as well as through a sensory and emotional plane (Watts, 2013; Buhner, 2004; Abrams, 2010) that engages our hearts, minds, and bodies. It situates humans in a learning place as the youngest, most stumbling beings in creation (Geniusz, 2015). I believe that art, or specifically clowning, is a powerful way to connect with the dynamic, interconnected core concept of land and all its relations.

Bio
Inspired by my love for the natural world and a dream-invitation to clown as a healing practice, my doctoral research is about my experiences and relations in body and land-based theatre, Clown and Mask (or Pochinko Clowning/Canadian Clowning), and land connection as a woman of mixed European ancestry. I have recently returned from two wild weeks of play and folly with John Turner and Michael Kennard at the Manitoulin Conservatory for Creation and Performance in Ontario. With an upbringing on the prairies and west coast of Canada, I feel grateful to be living well with six others in beautiful Mi’kmak’i / the Annapolis Valley in Nova Scotia. (Megan Hyslop, Individualized Doctoral Program, principle advisor Patrick Leroux, Concordia University).

At the MainLine Gallery!

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Founded in 2016, the mandate of The MTL Clown Fest is to create space for all levels of performers to showcase original works that fall under the Clown, Bouffon or Physical Theatre spectrum. Included in the mandate we welcome people of all genders, but are making an effort to increase representation of women-identified, gender-non-conforming and trans performers. With this in mind, we will make an effort to strive for equal and proportionate representation in our space. We are dedicated to cultivating a multi-cultural program, welcoming French, English and Nonsensical Clown Language, as well as a vast multitude of other cultural Tricksters.

HORAIRE / SCHEDULE

  • Sunday 17 September 2017 / 14:00
  • Sunday 17 September 2017 / 14:00

120 minutes
Pour âges / For ages 0+
Retardataires / Latecomers : 120 minutes

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"Tango in fusion est une œuvre qui combine l’art du tango avec différents styles de danse. Ceux-ci permettent de visualiser par le mouvement et la dramaturgie, certains conflits socioculturels et émotionnels auxquels nous sommes tous confrontés.

Les artistes de tango in fusion s’expriment à travers d’histoires personnelles une extase de la danse du tango dans son essence. Ce qui permet aussi avec la diversité des autres types de mouvements et musique. une connexion avec le spectateur afin de visualiser et briser différents stéréotypes socioculturels."