Sacred Clown: Presence in Play

Sacred Clown: Presence in Play is a weekend clowning workshop at Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, led by clown teacher and integrative medicine doctor Jet Eveleth. It treats clowning as a spiritual practice, and it suits anyone curious about play, improvisation, meditation and movement, with no performance experience required. The invitation is to be soft, brave and available to the moment, and to laugh at our attachments along the way.

What to Expect

The work begins with exercises that help you drop into the body and move out of the thinking mind toward a flow state. From there, inside a held, sacred container, the group moves into primarily nonverbal, physical games and rituals. These draw on improvisation, meditation, altered states and movement practice, and they let organic impulses arise from the child within. There is no pressure to perform. The invitation is to get lost inside yourself, step past your comfort zone and play in the moment.

There is nothing to learn here so much as something to uncover. The workshop is physical, open and accessible for diverse bodies, and the teacher's instruction is simply to come unprepared.

The weekend follows a clear arc:

- Friday: an orientation, "How to Drop Into Esalen," from 5:00 to 6:00 pm, then the workshop opens from 7:15 to 9:30 pm with arrival and opening.
- Saturday: a morning session from 9:30 am to 12:45 pm and an afternoon session of core practice from 3:00 to 6:15 pm.
- Sunday: a final session of integration and closing from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm.

About Jet Eveleth

Jet Eveleth is a clown teacher, a doctor of integrative medicine and a professor of Taoist medicine. She performed as a clown in the cirque show Absinthe and was a professor of comedy studies at Columbia College. She is the creator of Clown Church, and her teaching brings together the comic tradition and a healing-arts perspective on play.

The Setting

Esalen Institute sits on the Big Sur coast, known for its hot springs, ocean views and long history as a center for exploration and personal growth. Participants can come with lodging on-site or stay off-site, and a day pass is also offered. On-site rooms range from a shared sleeping bag space (bring your own bedding) and bunk rooms to standard shared and private rooms, premium rooms with ocean or forest views, yurts, and several named suites. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are provided.

Getting to Big Sur can involve Highway 1 travel advisories. When the advisory was posted, access to Esalen from the north ran through Caltrans convoys at 7:00 am and 5:00 pm only, so it is worth checking current road conditions before you travel.

Before You Go

No prior experience in clowning, improvisation or meditation is needed. The workshop is open to diverse bodies.

On-site stays include the workshop, housing, three meals daily, coffee, tea and snacks, access to the hot springs and other campus features, and classes on the open schedule. Healing Arts sessions such as Esalen Massage, specialty coffee, tea or bar alcohol, and bookstore purchases cost extra.

Jet Eveleth recommends three books for reading beforehand: Animal Joy by Nuar Alsadir, The Inner Game of Tennis by Timothy Gallwey, and Stillness Speaks by Eckhart Tolle. A scholarship application is available for those who need one.