Prologue

Finally. I've made it.
I'm here and I can't quite believe it!
After a lot of thought, many conversations, not one, but two lots of bad news concerning funding followed by my family's incredible belief and generosity I'm finally here.

But where is here I hear you ask.
Well let me enlighten you.
Paris.
Oui.
Je suis en Pareeeeeeee!

Etampes to be precise.
Etampes, a small suburb in the south of Paris, 500 m wide and 3 km long.
Etampes, residence of my wonderful french hosts, Christine and Francois Blanchot and their loving family.
Etampes home to the recently relocated Ecole Philippe Gaulier and the reason why I'm here.

The Ecole Philippe Gaulier.

Philippe is the school and students travel from all over the world to learn from Attilla the Clown.

To be provoked by the man whom, depending on how you see him, is either a theatrical genius whose astute eye (he is blind in the other) and wonderfully non-p.c. humour helps students to dig deep to discover the light within themselves and eventually, freedom on stage.

Or else a sexist, racist bigot (I've heard him called this by a german writer in a berlin workshop in 2010) whose jokes belittle his students and stifle them preventing them from learning.

Whichever camp you sit, in one thing is for sure Philippes teaching and ergo this type of learning is at total odds to the majority of formal education.

Watch out anyone coming from a school system where the emphasis is on remembering facts and re-assembling them in a formal context to achieve those long fored A*'s.

Avec Monsieur Gaulier there is no lying back with mouth open waiting to be spoon fed information or routines of dance steps to be remembered all in preparation for the ever so important exams.

Non!

If this is what you expect, then do your homework.

This attitude is Merde.

Merde Total!

We come here for Freedom and Freedom can not be drip-fed into you as you lay comatose on the classroom floor.

Non!

Freedom comes from work and discovery of spirit.

For this a teacher can not make your discoveries for you. He can only create the conditions for you to make them yourself.

True freedom as taught at the school comes from discovering the light inside yourself.

The light that may only be the twinkling of an ember and barely bright enough for you to see.
So what do you do? 
You go on searching.
And through the teachers provocation and observation of your peers you see the embers dance and flicker in and out of the corners of your periphary.
But slowly you begin to focus in on them and you begin to understand where they live.

And then you go there every day to fan the embers so they grow.

And grow.

And with care and attention the flames start to lick up and the fire cracks and pops and you work to continue feeding them and one day, if you are lucky, you burst ablaze and light up the stage with the brilliance of your soul having found the freedom to truly play.

Then all that you want to do is be on the stage and play with your friends for the audience.
Why would you want to do anything else.

To open the box of their imagination and set them free too, even if only for the hour and a half of the show.

You have to be free so that they can be also.

This is what I hope to begin to achieve here in the little town of Etampes at the little school on the corner.

Freedom.