I offer a warm and friendly space where everyone’s unique clown within is invited to play, dance / move and have some fun. Workshops have up to 12 participants, but no more, so that everyone has enough time. We do fun warm ups and exercises before moving into short guided improvisations, where we get to see your clown.

There comes a time when you forget who you thought you were supposed to be! You find yourself free precisely because you’re not ready, and you don’t know. And in that moment of vulnerability and confusion you can find yourself having a great time! Also when you don’t need to be funny, you end up being funny, though it’s not a requirement of any clown. Clowns are showing us how they experience the world through their naivety, playfulness and openness to whatever comes. There are lots of expressions of this journey that we can share and delight in. I have no more idea than you how your clown will show up, we discover together, and that’s how it needs to be! And the next time it will be different again.

 Finding your clown can bring surprises and even deep learning about yourself, though it’s not therapy, and I’m not a therapist, it is somehow therapeutic! There is time given after each improvisation to listen to your clowning experience and how you as person felt in it. I affirm all your clowning moments and am alongside you in anything else!

My own personal gratitude to the clowns is that in their eyes we are all already marvellous, and from years in this work I absolutely know this to be true, as a clown, as a facilitator and as Angie; and it’s why I can’t wait to meet you.

I run courses for everyone! Some for Businesses and organisations, and some for the general public.

Open to the public

DANCE CAMP EAST

Suffolk, 22-30 July 2023

I will be a contributor at Dance Camp East 2023.

If you’d like to hear about future courses please join my mailing list.

Courses for your business or organisation

Contact me if you would like me to offer any of the following, or a bespoke course, for your organisation. I travel to wherever you are within the UK

CLOWNING JUST FOR FUN – wellness and happiness at work

Clowning can support wellness and positive mental health both at the individual level and through creating a healthy working culture.  

At the individual level we can learn to be more courageous and we can find a new sense of freedom. Unlearning what we’ve been told to be, we start to connect to the person we really were all along. 

At the level of the team and the organisation we learn to celebrate people’s uniqueness; find hidden strengths and qualities in each other; and in those ways support each other’s freedom , happiness and wellness. 

Ongoing weekly or fortnightly sessions.

CLOWNING – BUILDING CREATIVE TEAMS 

“If you want creative workers give them enough time to play.” John Cleese. 

Clowning really works when we say Yes to any idea that emerges, without judgements and without one clown having more status than another. (Sometimes one clown will pretend to have more status, and that’s a great game!). Setting aside our everyday identities we begin to see each other as much deeper, broader, more creative people than we normally get to see  – or than we may believe ourselves to be. We may find a new respect, perhaps even a new affection for each other. It certainly beats another night at the bowling alley. 

 Offering a 3 hour session, or a whole day.

CLOWNING ACROSS THE BOARD

Where a person from each team meets in the (board)room of play.

Meeting in an atmosphere of curiosity and wonder without an agenda we see what courageous fun we can create together, and consider what we’ve come away with in terms of new ways of knowing.

 A day long workshop.

CLOWNING FOR COURAGEOUS MANAGERS

If clowning is an emotional skydive into the unknown the parachute is our clown within and our clown friends. 

A liberating and exhilarating time to experience your creative options, filled with lightness and laughter! 

A day long workshop, or a weekend.

CLOWNING WEEKEND RETREAT FOR EXECUTIVE LEADERS

On the stage of unknowing more is known. There’s nothing that can be explained here ahead of time, because its an experience of letting go! It’s about  liberating a truly fun and creative space, where fears are transformed to trust and limitless possibilities.

A weekend residential workshop

Here are some things people have said about my courses:

Meeting you and being immersed in your class was a very unexpected pleasure. It’s totally changed my perception of clowning and I now feel it’s an important but overlooked aspect of life. I think this practice could offer a broad range of mental, emotional and health benefits for many people. I strongly believe that people should clown around, if only to notice and become more grateful for the smaller things in life. This is because the potential for happiness is more abundant in the present. It is the most powerful position to be in. I can see how offering playful options to an otherwise destructive or negative emotional self can be very liberating and invoke better, more positive outcomes. So – I think your class is amazing and I’m buzzing about it.

I think your teaching is a perfect blend of articulation, professionalism and wacky energy. It allows a safe and grounded space in which people can let go of themselves. There was real change and challenges amongst the other students in the classes, it was fascinating to watch.

Chris, workshop participant 2021

Angie’s clowning classes were great fun, so far removed from my expectations of what clowning is about! I love that actually it’s not about big gestures but about revealing ones authenticity and the hilarity that can come from that exploring that place with curiosity.

Stephen, workshop participant 2021

I couldn’t stop smiling for days after the session. My cheeks ached! It made me feel free to be me and not apologise for it. Thanks Angie!

Workshop participant 2021

It was amazing to see everyone come together and be comfortable doing the activities. We felt like we had this connection afterwards that wasn’t there previously, a shared experience.

Workshop participant 2021

Angie was amazing at understanding the needs of the group, and knowing when to push different ideas and adapt her course to fit those in the room.

Workshop participant 2021

Last week, I had an astonishing experience, all thanks to the enigma that is Angie Wakeman. I simply don’t have the words to describe it, but fortunately my extraordinary friend does. Read on… “Imagine turning up with some colleagues who are also friends, with some strangers too, and three hours later you are going to be cavorting across the room, all eyes on you and your clowning partner, twisting comically, distorting your body to the music of the Pink Panther? Oh yes, and you’ll be wearing a red nose and a ridiculous hat. The more ridiculous, the better. Welcome to the magical, crazy world of clowning coach, Angie Wakeman. A playful, chuckling and delightful woman who reassures you – you’re among friends. All clowns together. Clowning is simple, permissive, spontaneous and deceptivelypowerful. In one exercise, Angie placed a small piece of green fabric in the space and instructed each of us to take the stage and see what happened. I want you to let go of any planning, she said. If you’ve worked something out beforehand, I’ll know, she added with feigned threat. Empty your mind. It’s so powerful because clowning is essentially about being in the moment. Rite large. Clowning switches off the big lever in our heads that tells us to present ourselves to the world as capable, confident, right and clever. And opens up our senses – be here now – see, listen, touch, smell (we didn’t venture into taste, we only had a morning). A clown never puts their nose on in view of others, nor do they fiddle with it, and no clown ever says, I am a clown. They just are. They were born that way. Putting on the mask of the red nose is an invitation to let go of other masks we probably don’t even know we wear. It is liberating to ‘dis-cover’ who we are beneath the grown-up seriousness of our everyday existence. And with our clown friends, we can be courageous together.  There is nothing to fear, but if you do, that’s okay too. Angie would say, show us that fear, be however you are feeling. More than anything though, what I witnessed, was so much joy and laughter and love. An abundance of the stuff, shared, and grown exponentially. Thank you Angie for your loving care of our baby clowns and thank you Jo for herding us together and trusting the magic. Vive le clown!

Di, workshop participant 2023

Angie it was the BEST day – my heart (and voice) is still singing! It takes a very special person to bring people together and free them to make magic like we did today! Thank you beyond words.

Jo, workshop participant 2023

Hello, I’m Angie.

I found myself in clown school quite by accident in 2000, and fell in love with it. After exploring and experiencing many approaches to clowning, I decided in 2006-2008 to train with Nose to Nose to become a clown facilitator. I also continue to go to lots of clown workshops just because I love the experience!

I used to be a staff nurse and briefly a Steiner teacher before adopting my 3 gorgeous children. I have a degree in politics and sociology. All of which come together for me in clowning, because clowning is an intense appreciation of what it is to be human.

Clowning is my passion and my home – the lens through which I see the beauty and the ridiculous in my own life and in the world around me. My real interest in clowning is only really to do with love, which in essence I see as the freedom to be ourselves, which turns out to be funny and beautiful, or not at all funny but still beautiful.

Contact me

I’m based near Norwich, UK.

You can call me on (+44) (0)774 222 0419.

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