Facilitation is a key area of my practice working with children, in order to create space for them and to capture their authentic voice in a multidisciplinary and playful way: through physical theatre tools, creative dance, movement. The aim is to help them build awareness of themselves, build a group listening and open their senses to explore their own creative process. This can be achieved with the pedagogical approach of “feeling”, not “showing” developed by Viola Spolin. My primary goal with children, even before the creation of an artistic piece, is to create more spontaneity than invention, more feeling than showing and to be sensitive to each other. Using some techniques as a game, children are able to improvise without thinking too much, but rather by following their impulses, and to be more open to the reality around them. I believe in “le jeu” (playing) as the activity that children do naturally, and it is exactly the generous opening to playing that triggers creative processes. 

With the children, I use the body mimesis to work on the observation of reality and imitation, to be aware of the environment and open the senses, in order to express emotions and actions. Through creative dance and movement, using also contact improvisation games, I aim to work on the relationship with the other, on the respect and attention to physical contact, and to the interaction in space and time. My research in the clown pedagogy led me to use clown’s tools to work on the sincerity and genuineness of being oneself and being able to share and connect with the audience, discovering the freedom and the playfulness to be ourselves. 

This work can be also an integration of current program activities running in schools, like an exploration of a theme using a creative approach and new skills; and also in communities or youth theatres in order to enrich their activities through embodiment.