Jaime Mears - Bouffon & Shadow Work

Expectations and Reality - an embodied and playful dive into hoe out expectations, assumptions and our narratives shape the way we show up to our lives and relationships and impact our capacity for connection with ourselves and others. This workshop was born out of an unexpected shit hitting the fan like series of events. Our response was to create something new in all the mess and fall out. And what a creative, profound and deep workshop we made out of that mess! Thanks to Alyona for producing this last minute and special thanks to Dasha Zueva (co-creator/facilitator psychologist extraordinaire and fellow alien).

Moscow, Improvisation and all I can say is wow!! Thanks to all our participants for being so magnificent and failing with me so generously!!! Thanks to Alyona for producing, and Dasha Zueva for her amazing translation, fabulous translation and all manner of emotional, edible and psychic support!!!

Thank you st Pete for a rowdy and wonderful few days with the gorgeous crowd of clowns, psychologists and improvisers you gathered. Special thanks to Lena for making this happen!! We love you Lena, you know who you are!!! And Natalia for stepping in and helping in every way, and Dasha Zueva for the amazing translation at lightening speed!!!

For the last two weeks I have been teaching in st Petersburg and Moscow. I have been spending time with my dear friend and colleague, the wonderful therapist and most extraordinary Dary Zueva - staying with her and her family in St Petersburg, constructing a new workshop; Expectations and Reality. We wanted to create an experiential workshop, a mix of psychology, expressive therapy, body work and theatre to examine the way, expectations, assumptions and narratives shape the way we show up to our lives and relationships. We had no idea how this would all work, so naturally, we had to do all the exercises ourselves. We spent many a night, talking till late, laughing, crying, sharing, arguing, trying to find ways to translate words and concepts into Russian and in doing so rigorously discussing the very different cultures from which we come. She has also been translating along side me as I took two groups through improvisation intensives. What a rich time we’ve had. With love from Portugal, to my Russian sister.