As usual, we left Toronto in May last year and in June, we traveled to Switzerland for the 16th summer!  

In the beauty of the Swiss alps, we teach, give performances and connect with students from all over the world.  Steve and I teach the doctoral students together in the core sessions and we also teach separate courses in both the doctoral and the masters programs.  

The first period is usually rather small and intimate and the second period is much larger.

A highlight of the summer is an original clown show which we write and direct together, involving students as well.  We always perform the show after the graduation ceremony.  This summer, as usual, Max and Sadie returned to Saas Fee and created a bit of chaos and confusion!

Just a year ago, we were teachers in the Spring Symposium again.  The Symposium is a yearly, international gathering of teachers, trainers, students and participants who are involved in expressive arts.  There are four studios taught by leaders in the field.  This year, the teachers included:  Steve Levine and Isabelle Schenkel (Geneva) teaching clown opera, Ellen Levine and Jacques Stitlemann (installation),  Markus Alexander and Margo Fuchs-Knill (poetry), Greer Essex and Andreas Meyer (dance).  Participants spend one full day working with the teachers in each of the studios. 

This year we were hosted in Lisbon by Carla Ferreira ( an expressive arts coach and trainer) who arranged for our workshops to take place in the Gulbenkian Museum in the center of Lisbon.  Part of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, it houses a magnificent collection of Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Islamic, Asian, and European art.  

The theme of this Symposium was taken from Fellini’s film, E La Nave Va (And the Ship Sails On).  In the film, a luxury liner leaves Italy in 1914 with the ashes of the famous opera singer Tetua. The boat is filled with her friends, opera singers, actors and all kinds of exotic people.  There also happens to be a sick rhinoceros in the bottom of the ship!  All kinds of crazy things happen. 

One of the great features of the museum was the large garden surrounding it.  In the workshop led by myself and Jacques Stitlemann (leader of L’Atelier, training in arts therapies, in Geneva), participants made small group structures with rope and fabric and materials in the garden.  After constructing their “homes,” they used the structures as sites for performances involving theatre, sound and movement. 

The community art sessions, led by Paolo Knill, involved ships and a rhino.....


As a finale, Carla arranged for us to travel around Lisbon harbor on the Principe Perfeito, a tall ship.  On the ship, we had our rhino and we danced and sang in the ballroom.

Next year, the Symposium will take place in Istanbul!!  The dates are:  
April 2-7, 2013.  Steve and I will be teaching Clown together there.  Here is the poster.