Shift the Shape
Shape your world
We now have Google Maps to guide us seamlessly from A to B, freeing our travel experience from the need for directional details. So, on a recent trip to Copenhagen with my navigation apps in order, my mind was able to wander and ponder the big questions. What, I mused, while gliding along those wide Danish bike paths (and when not scheming ways to relocate to Denmark immediately), was the purpose of dressing up, stuffing foam into my clothes, painting my face, and making fun of myself, others, and everything in between? Not my usual thoughts, but I'm not often heading to Comedia School for a three-day workshop in Bouffonery.
This fringe art form originated in medieval France alongside jesters, fools, and carnival performers. Although often confused with clowning, it differs. Where the clown seeks laughter and empathy, the bouffon courts discomfort, mocks anyone or anything, distorts the body, and delves into the shadow side. They ride the line between truth and discomfort and the gleeful dismantling of whatever we hold essential or sacred. They are clever, tricky, insightful and at the same time vulgar, extreme, rude and impolite.
“Sometimes”, said nobody, “you need to do a little Bouffoning to navigate these crazy times!”.
I was in Copenhagen with my good friend Christine, whom I wasn’t able to convince to take a “normal’ trip together (nature, meditation, movement, rest). No, she insisted, let’s try this! We spent our evenings under cozy blankets with tea (Denmark being the home of Hygge after all), wondering how we might integrate what we were learning in our personal or professional lives. Is any of this kookiness applicable anywhere? Neither of us is in a theatre, or has a stage, audience, or community to dress up and play with. What can one do with newly acquired bouffoning skills? Is there anything relevant for us modern folk?
I gathered this:
Weaknesses, strengths, and power became apparent in a simple task, such as moving with our Bouffon pack from A to B. Here, with no navigational app for guidance, things felt very vulnerable. Being so close together, it required simultaneously attuning to group energy, individual behaviours, and one’s own experiences. How does the dynamic shift when someone takes the lead, or when it’s you? What’s going too far or not far enough? What is socially acceptable? What are your triggers? How does the reaction of an audience impact you and the group? What mask are you wearing?
There’s no time to mind wander with your Bouffon people.
It is a mindful practice in action.
For those who don’t connect with the awkwardness of the bouffon, think Dadaist art characters that jumped off the page. Like bouffons, they used chaos, nonsense, collage and costumes to protest meaninglessness and mock the polished seriousness of the art world. Their work wasn’t about beauty or tradition; it was about dismantling both through laughter and absurdity.
Don’t knock nonsense. Absurdity is wisdom (they may have said!).
So the answer to the quandary of relevance is an unconditional yes. Although not as popular (yet) as yoga, it shares the same inquiry. Patañjali describes yoga in the Yoga Sūtras as Citta-vṛtti-nirodha, the quieting of the mind’s fluctuations so you can perceive your true nature. This could also be a definition of Bouffoning, where one is required to be so present in the moment one’s conditioned tendencies surface. While I didn’t expect my yoga and meditation practice to connect to bouffoning, they are both shapeshifters of consciousness. One seeks stillness through breath and embodied movement, while the other seeks it through attention, laughter, and play.
Both, in their own way, are just trying to wake us up.
Let your fool and your yogi meet.
Bow and wink at each other and notice what happens next.
A new Podcast with Sebene Selassi, Cosmic Clowns
Shape Shifting to Expand Consciousness with Padma Menon
Clown Therapy is Community Psychiatry in Disguise by Carl A. Hammerschlag, MD
The Red Bastard with Eric Davis- loose in the city!
Jamie Mears, our teacher in Copenhagen.
What is Bouffon by Kimberley Twiner
Mirror, Mirror on the World: A Bouffon Seduction in Catalonia
Janet
This really made me smile! Thinking about how I can join in the fun!!!