The founding of the Scuola Internazionale di Creazione Teatrale Kìklos was the culmination of a long process. The vision of the Actor-Creator guided practice and research into artistic creation and teaching. Many different sources and experiences came together : Street Theatre, Social Theatre, Theatre in Education, Theatre of the Oppressed of Augusto Boal, Taoist Martial Arts, Gestalt, Contemporary Shamanism.
One pivotal event was the encounter with the Pedagogy of Movement of Jacques Lecoq.
The Kìklos Experience was initiated by the creative collaboration between Giovanni Fusetti and Paola Coletto-Kaplan. These two artists, pedagogues and human researchers, both followed actor training with Jacques Lecoq in Paris. After some years of working together, they became pedagogical assistants at the Ecole Jacques Lecoq, where subsequently Giovanni Fusetti became member of the staff as an improvisation teacher. After the death of Jacques Lecoq, in 1999, he returned to Padua to be a co-founder of Kìklos Teatro, alongside Paola Coletto-Kaplan and Sean Kaplan. This was an international theatre center, founded with the aim of creating a place for theatre creation and pedagogy. The two essential aspects were that the school should be rooted in tradition , and free to create e re-create new poetic paths.
The vision of Kiklos is rooted in the re-invention of Movement Theatre, based on the body in space, on improvisation and on play. It is linked to the renewal of the rennaissance experience of a "teatro d'attore" in Commedia dell'Arte, and integrated into the experiences of the Pedagogy of Movement of the 20th century. The ancient vision of the Actor as a Poet and Shaman, who works in altered states of consciousness, is also present.
The Scuola Internazionale di Creazione Teatrale KìKLOS opened its doors on January 1st 2000, as the pedagogical branch of Kìklos Teatro. After the dissolution of the center, the School continued its work autonomously, under the direction of Giovanni Fusetti.
Over these years Kìklos has worked to elaborate its own pedagogy, developing in particular work on the poetical awareness of the actor. At the heart of this research there is the double polarity of the NEUTRAL MASK and the CLOWN. These two forms synthesize the journey of the actor from the universal poetic, to his individual voice.
Kìklos believes in the tradition of a SCHOOL as the "seat of a pedagogical vision". Its project attracts to Padua theatre students from all around the world. It offers them an experience of theatrical and poetical initiation. Unique in its way in Italy, Kìklos so far has welcomed in its courses and workshops students from four continents. The countries represented so far are: Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, England, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Israel, Japan, USA, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, and New Caledonia.
In June 2003, the artistic quality of the Kìklos school won recognition. The show CIRKO MAZURKA, created by the Second Year Students under the direction of Giovanni Fusetti, won the award as Best Show at the ROMATEATRO FESTIVAL, an Italian National Festival of theatre schools productions.
In June 2004 , the show KIRKO was at the second edition of the Romateatrofestival, receiving the Best Costumes Award and Best Voice Award (Cristina Ranzato), and the second position in the nomination for teh best show.
In July 2004, the School concluded its fifth season and ended a cycle. The urgence of a transformation of both the pedagogy and the structure of the school, and the need of relocating it in a place more suitable to its developement , led the school into a sabbatical period. Since fall 2004 the two years training is suspended. The former members of the pedagogical team have followed their reaserch autonomously and Giovanni Fusetti has been travelling worldwide, teaching and directing, both as a free lance teacher and as a guest teacher is Theatre Schools, Companies and Universities. In the meanwhile he has been working to the project of the new school.
The new form of the school , it's a new vision rooted in Kiklos experience as well as in the new insights of the sabbatical period, and has received a new name, Helikos (from greek=spiral). It will start a new three-year training in the fall of 2010.
For all information about Helikos please visit www.helikos.com.
Last Update: Summer 2010