Clown 1 -Spring Valley, NY July 8-12 2012

The Courage to Be
An Introduction to Clowning
ONE-WEEK INTENSIVE in Spring Valley NY
co-facilitated by Kirstin Crowley and Laura Geilen
4 SESSIONS PER DAY
9:30-11:00 11:30–1:00 2:30–3:45 4:15–6:00
(Beginning Monday at 9:30am and ending Friday at 2:30pm)


Encumbered by the expectations of ourselves and others, how do we find the strength to shake off the limitations and fears that isolate us and prevent us from feeling free? How do we responsibly summon the Courage to BE?

Clowning is a state of playfulness that allows us to experience a child-like, naïve and vulnerable state of being ... and paradoxically we learn, grow, and are strengthened through reconnecting playfully with what makes us most vulnerable. This approach to clowning is not a technique (tricks, gags and routines), but a personal journey towards finding one’s unique way of being - by listening and being receptive, essential skills for any creative and imaginative endeavor. It is only in letting go of control that we begin to be surprised by the depth of that which is around us and within us.

The word “courage” comes from a root that means “heart.” Through clowning and connecting to our naturally playful and creative spirit, we can develop and sustain, in ourselves and in each other, the heart to be who we truly are, to trust life and ourselves. “Taking heart” is a profoundly inward process, and is an invitation for overcoming the fears that block us and keep us from being fully present in the here and now.

This course establishes the foundation for all our work and is an essential first step before going on to more advanced courses such as Social Clowning and the Facilitators Training planned for 2011. Class size is limited to 12.
Please register early.

Course fee - $490
Please note
You receive a $50 reduction on the tuition, if you do this course as part of the two-year clown training.



Kristin Spaeth Crowley did not come to clowning by choice, but was forced into it by wiser others who knew where she belonged. Her work as a clown and facilitator led her to the fumbling discovery and recovery of a language she knows inwardly, loves, and could have lost. Her specialties include weeping, falling in love, making mischief, and the invisible.

She is grateful for the inspiration and example of those brilliant, talented and generous people she has been privileged to work with or been touched by - artists, musicians, athletes, educators, poets, seekers, thinkers, healers, and other “ordinary” fearful and courageous spirits willing to risk and dare.

She is amazed and astonished by her family, her parents and siblings, her children, and those she has claimed unjustly as her own; by those braver than she, facing the ordinary challenges connected with being alive; and by forgiveness.
She is interested in presences and possibilities.
She is informed by life and living, by beauty, ugliness, music, laughter, poetry, nature, stillness, cruelty, and compassion, by brave souls and tender hearts … by the struggle to realize the impulse that initiated a wish to be, and by the work she has to do.
The mistakes she makes: the limitations she must overcome; the struggles she faces in being and becoming; the gifts she has been given; and her sense of wonder, reverence, and gratitude inform and guide her in her work with others.
She works with individuals, companies, institutions, agencies, and organizations. She still struggles and falls down.


Laura Geilen

Laura Geilen teaches dance, Spacial Dynamics, circus arts, therapeutic movement, acro-yoga and clowning to children, adults, and special needs groups in schools, workplaces, institutions and privately. Laura is a member of Walking the dog Theater's OFF LEASH! Improv Theater Ensemble, and is a facilitator with Nose to Nose. She believes in clowning as a personal practice and journey towards greater truth, freedom and aliveness and also as a social art that can re-connect us to the world and bring healing to our relationships.