Breathless

Since 2009, the Seine-Saint-Denis County Council has been backing “la Culture et l’Art au Collège (CAC)”. This project is based to a large extent on the presence in class for several weeks (40h) of an artist or scientist whose mission is to engage the students in a process of research and creation. 

Tutor: Fréderic Blin/ circus performer

Project manager: Mathieu Marion

Objectives: 
This project aims to encourage the pupils to develop an opinion about sport through an introduction to circus arts. The idea is not to produce circus performers but to give them a different mode of interpretation, to help them work out their personal relationship to the concepts of surpassing oneself, performance, exploits or obsession, by practising a creative physical activity.

Workshop:
The workshop was divided into three separate stages:

Initial awareness of the body, but with an emphasis on work. Basic limbering up exercises for acrobatics, centring, dissociation and voice.

The class improvised on the theme of sport. The idea was to develop numerous proposals drawn from the pupils' experience and skills. Work in pairs or threes (handstands and acrobatic lifts). Structuring ideas by introducing constraints, dividing the act into sequences: entrance, preparation, action, conclusion, exit.

The group's ideas were incorporated in the choreography.

Exhibition:
The pupils presented the result of their workshop in the school, followed by a discussion with other pupils, parents, and school staff.

Outings:
- THÉÂTRE LA PÉPINIÈRE-OPÉRA/SHOW "LE OLIVER SAINT-JOHN GOGERTY" BY THE CHICHE CAPON.
- ACADÉMIE FRATELLINI- VISIT TO THE ACADEMY AND AN OPPORTUNITY TO TALK TO THE STUDENTS.

Participating school: 
- CLASS (AGE 13-14) FROM COLLÈGE LÉON-JOUHAUX, LIVRY-GARGAN