Workshop: Bouffons and the Grotesque

TDM is thrilled to host this one time workshop at the intersection of Physical Theater, Clown and Butoh taught by international theater artist and teacher Sophie Amieva. Descending from the ancient traditions of the fool and the trickster, Bouffons use grotesque humor as a tool to mock and to speak truth to power.  As outcasts, they take no sides and rejoice in conflict.  

Come reveal your inner fool on stage! Bring your silly, your joy, your fears and fearlessness... and some comfortable clothes to move in. 

RSVP early! Enrollment is limited to 18 attendees. 

ABOUT SOPHIE AMIEVA

I’m Sophie, a Brooklyn-based French/Spanish theater-maker, teacher, and producing artistic director of notAmuse Theater. I am also a physical actor, clown, and butoh dancer; I blend forms like Bouffon and Butoh in order to challenge the age-old power structures in our societies. 

I am driven by a fascination with how the past informs the present and how patterns of power, violence, indifference, and fear perpetuate across time. I wrestle with how those patterns organize our society and shape our interpretations of our experiences.  I ask (tiny) questions like: What is human nature? Are we destined to perpetual ideologies of human dominance? Of Darwinism? Of patriarchy? How do we disrupt the cycles? I teach and create theater in an effort to help do so. 

As a teacher, and creator, I use a wide array of tools (clowning, Butoh, physical comedy, mask work, movement, etc.) to help students and ensembles confront our fears and uncover new impulses towards greater creativity and liberation. 

I began my career as a performer with what the New York Times has deemed “a fine talent for comedy.” I’ve studied art since the age of 15 at schools such as the International Jacques Lecoq School (clowning), Carlo Boso of the Piccolo Theater of Milan (Commedia Dell'arte) and La Sorbonne (Art History). I have been training for 10 years in Butoh with Vangeline and the New York Butoh Institute as well as with Mari Osanai, Yumiko Yoshioka, Tetsuro Fukuhara and Atsushi Takenouchi.

I’ve performed with renowned companies like Philippe Genty Company, National Theater of the United State of America (N.T.U.S.A), Josh Fox’s International Wow, Bindlestiff Family Circus and 600 Highwaymen, as well as toured with the French grotesque and masque street theater collective “La Grappe de Bouffons.” You may have seen my work in France at the National Stage des Louvrais, Espace Rive Gauche, le Théâtre de l'Aventure, le Théâtre 95, le Samovar, la grande Galerie de L'évolution, le Théâtre d'Edgar, le Théâtre du bout, les Douches or in New York at HERE Arts Center, La Mama Annex, the Bowery Poetry Club, the Palace of Variety of the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus, the Ontological Hysteric Theater, Happy Lucky no1, Chashama, and Galapagos Art Space, Theater for a New City, MAAS ( Philadelphia), the Brick.

I’ve taught Bouffon clowning internationally, including at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, for over 20 years. Previously, I co-founded and directed Brooklyn Beanstalk, a French and Spanish immersion program for children that used clowning and theater as a tool for language acquisition.