Session Information
Contribution
The study is about risk, ethics and creation. It is the result of a Phd in Education and Arts. The two fields offer altogether a philosophical approach combined with an ethnographic education point of view. Circus is a risky practice that makes the person amazed and then reinforced to become conscious of her physical and psychological balance. The contemporary art (E. Wallon 2002) adds theatre for instance to its traditional techniques and creates a privileged situation that exposes the self to an even more self-image risk. In that meaning, this artistic practice is a powerful self-creation process as the circus practitioner continuously deals with the risk and the unbalance (P. Goudard 2004). This activity provokes a challenge that each human being is in charge of passing through, that is to say : Living. Vivre makes people suffer but also allows joy. Besides, ethics is precisely situated “when we have to face our life” (P. Audi 2010), which means facing the reality of our possible to day death, and work within ourselves to wake up and create ourselves. H. Arendt therefore says that “the artists are the only ones to love the world”, as they tend to create a form out of their life. Finally the specificity of circus is to provide us with the feeling of living through the existing risk of falling. If practicing circus makes discover the living potentialities kept deep inside of the person, does it work with teenagers, specially when some of them are considered as “at risks”? What do they think and learn about it ? Is there any evolution in their behaviours from the beginning till the end or one year after the project ?
The objectives of this study are to understand the different meanings that the students give to the activity they practiced together, that is to say: Building up a big-top, juggling, walking on a tide rope, doing trapeze, acting, creating a show and then putting down the big-top. The first aim is to reach a deep understanding of the context (school, family or personal history ) so not to let any crucial information out of the interpretation of their personal experience. The second aim is then to get a better understanding of their behaviour during the workshop and how they deal with it : physically and psychologically facing the risk in relation with others, creating and offering a show to a public.
The theoretical framework has been constructed through the analysis of the interviews and observations. We ended up with three conceptualized categories constituting the framework of the grounded theory. Through a challenging circus process, the youth experience a renewed relationship first to the body (taking risk into account and facing how to deal with it), then to the others (bodily and socially sharing the same circus life-experience), and finally creating altogether a public show (to express themselves to the world). Overcoming this uncomfortable situation, they learn the pleasure of living and the joy of well-being.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Audi, P. (2010). Créer. Introduction à l’esth/éthique Lagrasse : Verdier. 839 p. Arendt, H. (2002). Condition de l’homme moderne. Premier chapitre, la condition humaine. Paris : Nathan. Barré-Meinzer, S. (2004). Le cirque classique, un spectacle actuel. Paris : L’Harmattan. 251 p Castoriadis, C. (2002). La création humaine. 1 Sujet et vérité dans le monde social-historique. Paris : Seuil. Haroche, C. (2008). L’avenir du sensible : les sens et les sentiments en question. Paris : PUF Garcia, M-C., Vigneron, C. (2006). Le cirque à « l’école des banlieues ». In Agora n° 41, p 32-48. Jacob, P. (2001). Le cirque, un art à la croisée des chemins. Paris : Gallimard. Goudard, P. (2004). Le changement de paradigme. In Wallon E. le cirque au risque de l’art. Arles : Actes Sud. Kohn, R-C., Nègre, P. (1991). Les voies de l’observation. Repères pour les pratiques de recherche en sciences humaines. Paris : Nathan. 227 p. Laplantine, F. (2005). La description ethnographique. Paris : A. Colin. Meirieu, P. (2008). Pédagogie : le devoir de résister. Paris : ESF. 155 p. 1ère édition 2007. Münch, M-M. (2004). L’effet de vie ou le singulier de l’art littéraire. Paris : Honoré Champion Pain, J. (2010). La souffrance à l’école. In SpécifiCITéS n°2. Nanterre : Matrice. pp 85-102 Rosemberg, J. (2004). Arts du cirque. Esthétiques et évaluation. Paris : L’Harmattan. 249 p. Stiegler, B. (2008). Prendre soin de la jeunesse et des générations. Paris : Flammarion. 339 p. Strauss, A. & Corbin, J. (1990). Basics of Qualitive Research. Newbury park: Sage. 259 p Wallon, E. (2002). Le cirque au risque de l’art. Arles : Actes Sud Winnicott, D. (2002). Jeu et réalité : l’espace potentiel. Paris : Gallimard. Winkin, Y. (2001). Anthropologie de la communication : de la théorie au terrain. Paris : Seuil. Woods, P. (1990). L’ethnographie de l’école. Paris : A. Colin
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