Training

I am committed to my continued learning and professional development. It makes me a better teacher, facilitator, performer and director. I am lucky enough to have worked with an incredible practitioners from all over the world. Some fabulous trainings I have attended are listed below:

TRAINING
2023 The Anatomy of Play with John Wright (UK)
2023 Clown & Bouffon with Nicole Kehrberger (DE)
2022 Circle of Idiots with Lucy Hopkins (UK)
2022 Mask and Movement with Peta Lily (UK)
2022 The How of Performance Activism with The Eastside Institute (US)
2022 Clown Studies with Jon Davison (UK)
2022 Devising with the Ensemble with John Wright (UK)
2021 Bouffon with Eric Davis (US)
2021 Dark Clown with Peta Lily (UK)
2021 Bouffon with Philippe Gaulier (FR)
2021 Clowning & Ritual with Zuma Puma (UK/CAN)
2021 Feminist Clowning with Maggie Irving (UK)
2021 Bouffon with Jaime Mears (AUS/PT)
2020 Devising Clown with Jon Davison (UK)
2020 Trickster Academy with The Yes Men (USA)
2019 Naked Comedy with Deanna Fleysher (USA)
2019 Devising with the Red Nose with Igne Barkauskaite (Slovakia)
2019 Intro to Clowning with Holly Stoppit (UK)
2018 Integrating Clowning and Circus Disciplines with Jon Davison (UK)
2017 Acting the Puppet with Gavin Glover (UK)
2016 Moving in and out of Contact with Janis Claxton (UK)
2016 Clown and the Comic Universes with Andrea Jimenez (Spain)
2016 Animating the Inanimate with Julian Crouch (UK)
2015 Games Exchange with ENCI (Belgium)
2014 How to Teach Clowning with Joe May (UK)
2014 Show in a Bag with Pablo Volo, Karen Bell & Dafe Bullock (UK & France)
2014 Theatre in Pictures, Clown Chorus with Jose Piris (Spain)
2013 Devising Forum Theatre with Active Inquiry (UK)
2013 Facing the Artist, performance art with Pablo Volo (France)
2013 Mentor your Show, Improve your Character with Loco Brusca (ARG & Hungary)
2012 Embodied Theatre with Al Seed & Alex Rigg (UK)
2012 Social Circus with Theatre Modo (UK)
2012 Freestyle Theatre with Arek, Let's Circus (UK)
2012 Making Worlds with Francis Gallop, Scenehouse (UK)
2011 Sign Mime & Bouffon with Ramesh Meyyapan and Al Seed (Singapore & UK)
2010 Bouffon with Tim Licata (UK)
2010 Ensemble training with Ewan Downie from Song of the Goat (Poland & UK)
2010 Characters in Transition, Sign Mime with Ramesh Meyyappan (Singapore)
2009 Conflux teacher training (UK)
2009 Physical Performance & Space Engineering with Derevo & Akhe (Russia)
2009 Neutral Mask to Red Nose with Giovanni Fusetti (France)
2007, 09 & 10 Clown training with Tim Licata (UK)
2008 Event Safety Passport
2008-09 Butoh with Lindsay John (UK)
2007-10 Contact Improvisation with Janis Claxton (UK)
2007 Fool Workshop with Jonathan Kay (UK)
2007 Clown Retreat with Alan Clay (NZ)
2005 Commedia dell’Arte (NZ)

EDUCATION
2017 - 2018 Circomedia, Masters in Directing Circus, (UK)
2008 - 2009 Adam Smith College, Diploma of Physical Theatre Practice (Scotland)
1994 - 1996 Auckland Institute of Technology, BA in Communication Studies - Major in Film and Television (New Zealand)

FURTHER TRAINING & EXPERIENCE
Acro-balance, Butoh, Capoeira, Contemporary Dance, Fire spinning, Hip Hop, Hoola Hoop, Reiki, Stilt-walking, Theatre Sports, Yoga

ABOUT ROBYN

Robyn is a Bristol-based director, teacher and performer. With over 20 years experience she is a passionate practitioner of clowning, physical theatre, circus and street arts. She has a MA in Circus Directing, a Diploma of Physical Theatre Practice and trained with a long line of inspiring teachers including Holly Stoppit, Peta Lily, Giovanni Fusetti, Bim Mason, Jon Davison, Zuma Puma, Lucy Hopkins and John Wright.
Over the past five years she has been exploring the meeting point of clowning and a deep desire to address the injustices in the world. This specialism has developed through her Masters Research ‘Small Circus Acts of Resistance’, on the streets and in protests with the Bristol Rebel Clowns and in research residencies with The Trickster Laboratory.
Robyn’s Activist Clown research has led to collaborations with Jay Jordan (Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination, France), Clown Me In (Beirut), LM Bogad (US), Hilary Ramsden (Greece) and international Tricksters; ‘The Yes Men’ (US).
During the pandemic in 2020, Robyn set up The Online Clown Academy with Holly Stoppit and developed a series of Zoom Clown Courses. Robyn’s research, started during her Masters, has been exploring the meeting point of clowning and activism, online, in the real world and with international collaborators. With this drive to explore political edges of her work she has also dived back into the world of the Bouffon; training with Jaime Mears, Bim Mason, Nathaniel Justiniano, Eric Davis, Tim Licata, Al Seed and the grand master Bouffon-himself; Philippe Gaulier.
Keen to explore the intersection of clowning and politics, Robyn is driven to create collaborative, research spaces, testing and pushing the limits of the artform to create new knowledge and methodologies for her industry and strengthen partnerships for future work. Some of her most recent collaborations and teaching projects have included the Nomadic Rebel Clown Academy (5-day Activist Clown Training), The Laboratory of the Un-beautiful (Feminist Grotesque Bouffon Training for Womxn Theatre Makers) and the Clown Congress (annual gathering of clowns, activists & academics collectively exploring what it means to be a clown in this current era)

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Photo by HeardinLondon Photography