Art of the Fool Workshops for
⇒Simple Fools ⇒Leaders and Educators ⇒Children ⇒Artivism
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Simple Fools
Specific games and exercises rule our TO DO list of activities unil we learn to Play with them as spontaneous creative acts (see school for more). It is like preparing a feast; every meal is unique and depends on the ingredients, the artistry of the cooks and the needs of the guests. The workshop progresses as does the experience of the Self. It is always the same and always different, offering a lifetime of study. This is the alchemy, and when grace is upon us, we celebrate the substances of Hope, Love and Joy for the world! Under the right guidance, this takes suprisingly little time. Our play is guided by the following educational methods:
Educational Methods
Consciousness studies
Sense and imaginal awareness
Empathic Learning
Intuitive creation and improvisation
The transformation of experience in to Art
(See Art of the Fool for more on philosophy)
(See Fooling Around for one participant's description)
Leaders and Educators
With humor, we move onto the path toward dreaming. Although we remain completely conscious, moving toward humor is the beginning of the path to dreaming. - Rudolf Steiner
Exploring the dream world of the Fool helps leaders and educators to develop the imaginitive capacities necessary for enlivening their calling. By experiencing the childlike instead of the childish, they encourage the genius that creates, that wise and playful spirit that spontaneously merges person and culture, so that teachers and leaders can educate and guide out of an inspired and authentic source. This same genius manages authority with a playful, compassionate smile, teaching us to maintain reason and order in a human, not mechanical, manner.
Workshops for leaders and educators last from one hour to several days. They follow the Art of the Fool process, but include exercises and discussions specific to those who lead. These workshops are developed in consultation with the people or organizations involved. For example, teachers may find ways to create inspired lessons and develop spontaneous creativity for the teachable moment, while business leaders may wish to explore how to create a more playful (flexible) work environment so as to foster innovation and productivity. Learning to work with more ease, comfort, joy, and success as a group serves everyone!
Children
When I work with children, many of the exercises and games are similar to those in a Simple Fool workshop, but everything is adapted to the age of the participants. These workshops are really about learning how to play with others and to become confident. For younger children, costuming and performing are most fun. For adolescents, remembering how to play and transforming that capacity into the creative production of art takes on a greater role.
Artivism
Artivism is art and action for social and spiritual transformation. We are artivist when we use the Art of the Fool as our medium for activism.
In the artivism workshop, we first consider the spiritual implications of how we as Fools can help to safeguard a human future by becoming mirrors and potential vessels of inspiration for our communities. To be mirrors, artivists must learn to empty themselves in order to reflect as objectively as possible what has been observed. The artivist's reflection is essentially a selfless act of love. Only from this base can we develop the discernment to interpret what we have seen and the courage to speak it.
This ever-challenging process of fool-as-artivist represents the High Art of the Work. Through exercises, games, improvisations, and feedback, we train our abilities to objectively mirror, and ethically discern. If we are graced by new inspiration for the future, we celebrate with gratitude!
Fooling Around
A participant's Experience
By Niek Scheepens, botanist
Blog entry, Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Lately I have been fooling around... Just one day though... That was a lot of fun... and insightful too.
It was on that hill south of Basel; in a safe space, protected from the outside world, where I could be free, being simply foolish. There were some other fools; there were five of us. I did not know them at first, but at the end of the day I knew them well. We did not speak too much but we did move, limbs, eyes.
Even the slightest inter-human interactions become strong when your consciousness is fully awake and present. Our initial dance of exploration of the physical, the space, the floor, the ceiling, the other moving bodies, with the goal to observe it all with our gaze, transformed into an attention for the particular, the feet, the legs, the body... the eyes, shock! A reaction to flee, looking away, a pumping heartbeat! Sigh ... Because the safe space ... Interesting.
We get used to our faces; we start to intensify expressions. Follow me, follow you; it goes in circles. It exaggerates, it becomes so big! Expressions all over, there is too much to pick up, so let go of some, take on others, magnify them, pass them on, communicate. Waves go through all of us, reflecting, transforming; there is no initiation; we are in the midst of the current that drags us to all emotional corners of the mind. Laugh, cry, jump, sit still; we move the current and the current moves us. There is everything, constant through time, and that is all there is, and that is enough, fulfilling.
Serious expedition follows. Another shock: the outside world! While playing with curtains, while playing hide and seek, while pursuing interest in the world outside our safe space, we end up behind the windows. Is it the transition to another atmosphere, the warm sun, the bright light? Or is it the vulnerability in the real world, in society; the daily filters in front of our eyes, our mouths, our smiles, our laughs? What kind of filters are they and when are they active? What role do they fulfill? What obstacles do they form and for what purpose?
Some theatrical improvisation; some tasks to play with instant ideas, with ideal instances. Tabula rasa while entering stage. What to do? No idea; no, actually full of ideas, but let them go, let things happen, do them, act! And the audience? Am I not afraid? Who is the audience? Perhaps it is me staring at the actors while playing myself? Roles reversed? Where is that invisible threshold of desire? The sides are interconnected.
If I only could bring some of these insights and practice into daily life, consciously but hauling from deep down. A tap of creativity, of joy, of learning. It may bring failure as well as success, but the ultimate gain is experience, full life, fully living.
This reminds me of one of my favorite quotes, from Don Juan in Castaneda's book The Second Ring of Power: "If we are going to die with the totality of ourselves, why not, then, live with that totality?"