MAIN RETREAT (5 days) ~ 13th August to 17th August 2025

FULL EXPERIENCE (8 days) ~ 13th August to 21st August 2025

With Christie Animas and Zuma Puma

How does the Fool’s easeful access to their inner world resource the Clown to reach more possibilities to play into the collective? How does the Clown’s light and dedicated connection with an audience amplify the potency of the solo play of the Fool? And what happens when ritual is blended in the mix? 

Christie Animas and Zuma Puma have been conjuring a new form of Play bringing the complementary elements of both Fooling and Clowning, mixed with rituals and psychomagic into a complete wheel of transformative enlivening potential. 

The Fool masters the Earth and Water elements by its refined skills in resourcing and grounding, by exploring with ease the depth of the psyche. (Alchemist of the internal world). The Fool has no agenda but a curiosity towards any experience. They are fully committed yet not attached which gives them an expansive inner freedom. 

The Clown juggles with Air and Fire – (Alchemist of the outer world). Here, Air represents the connection and relationship to the audience or other, whether turbulent or whimsical the clown endeavors to bring release to tension and comedy to tragedy. Fire represents the life force of the clown, calling on one’s courage, risking showing themselves and their stupidity in order to ignite the spark of collective ridiculousness.

Both Fool & Clown are alchemists, explorers, energy workers, shamans and magicians. They allow us to enter our inner worlds and alchemise our conditionings, permitting us to see more truth. They bring curiosity, aliveness and authentic expression, transforming inertia, stuckness and over identification into a sense of liberation. They explore freely the essence of humanity with all its quirks, mysteries, power games, inner conflicts, collective pains and the innate love that exists within us. 

As old friends and space holders, Zuma and Christie explore and play honestly with the dynamics present in their relationship. This creates an enlivened atmosphere full of permission, inspiration and freedom. With 20 years combined experience, study, research and group holding between them, they offer a fierce, wild, tender and loving transformational space. This week-long playground is our first seed in what will become a month-long deep immersion in the coming year. 

WHY THIS? WHY NOW?

It has become apparent that there is a collective longing for embodying new more empowered, supportive and regenerative ways of being together, with the land and with ourselves. In our western world, it has become a normality to feel isolated, alone, disempowered, a victim of the system, anxious and depressed. These collective struggles can also be seen as clear arrows pointing us directly to our needs of; connection, empathy, togetherness, expression, solidarity, play, laughter, authenticity. Honouring all the parts that make us human and that innate sense that we are fully alive and active in what we create. 

Being playful is our natural state of being and it is the way we learn exponentially quicker. This retreat will allow you to meet deeply what is alive in you, and at the same time to tap into a shared empowerment of full life expression. Leaving the retreat with a wealth of resources that can support you in daily and creative life here after

BOOKING

MAIN RETREAT (5 days) ~ 13th August to 17th August 2025

Deposit *: £275

FULL EXPERIENCE: (8 days) ~ 13th August to 21st August 2025

Deposit* : £385

WHAT TO EXPECT:

Group, duo and solo Exercices

Fooling

Clowning

Ritual

Authentic Relational Play from the Facilitators ;p

Connection with one another and ourselves

Psychomagic

Embodied Tarot- working with archetypes

Weird and wonderful immersive rituals

Embodiment/ Movement/ Dance

Laughter, tears, full life expression

Plenty of space for the mystery to reveal itself

Connection with the land

Swimming in the Lake

 Community living

Unexpected happenings

 Spacious Integration

WHAT YOU WILL LEAVE WITH:

A strong understanding of Fooling and Clowning, their differences, similarities and embodied insights in how these artforms can positively impact one’s life and creative pursuits.

An empowered sense of self

More confidence

Ease and empathy for yourself and others

The pleasure in being you 

Inner resources for life 

Deep connection with what Christie calls your  ‘Inner Village’ and all the parts that play within you

Resources in performance, wild expression and connection with the world outside

Strong sense of connection and being seen

New ways of seeing and experiencing the world around you

Once in a lifetime experiences and memories that will fuel you for life

TIMETABLE

MAIN RETREAT: (5 Days)

Arrival August 13th – Evening Opening Ceremony

14th- Morning Warm Up, Afternoon exercises

15th- Morning Warm Up, Afternoon exercises

16th- Morning Warm Up, Afternoon exercises

17th- Morning Warm up, Closing Ceremony & Clean Up

18th- Integration Day/ Leaving day for Main Retreat Players

FULL EXPERIENCE: (8 Days)

Additional Dates- For those who want to go deeper and stay for longer

This will be an integrative time for Clown & Fool Jams, being on the land, playing in town, playing with what the transition to ‘normal life’ brings in each one of us, swimming in the lake, making music, resting, dancing and living as a creative community.

19th August- Additional Day- Emergent Session integrating the work

20th August – Additional Day- Emergent Session integrating the work (Cabaret des cheap Artistes, an opportunity to develop a performance and play what feels alive). 

21st August – Leaving Day

Please Note: As an emergent community we will be encouraging a culture of self resourcing, naming our needs and taking care of ourselves. We will also be practicing Radical honesty, Self Accountability and Self Responsibility. We ask that all participants agree to be accountable for the impacts that they may have on the group and are willing to stay in connection and play with what emerges. This will be a trauma informed and therapeutic space but it is important to note that it is not a group therapy course. 

PRICES

MAIN RETREAT: £444 – £555 – £666 (Sliding Scale)  Deposit £275

FULL EXPERIENCE: £666 – £777 – £888 (Sliding Scale) Deposit £333

Partial Work exchange options are available for those who are desperate to come but can’t afford the Tier 3 price, please feel free to get in touch.

ACCOMODATION

Camping or a van. If you would like to hire a caravan on the land or a bedroom in the main house at extra cost, do get in touch.

MORE ABOUT ZUMA PUMA (She/They): 

Canadian/British Clown, Comedian, Neuro Linguistic Programming Master Practitioner and Embodied Dreamworker.  Zuma founded Clownlife  in 2016 and has facilitated thousands of participants in 160+ programs since. She has 16 years of training with more than 30 teachers around the world in a diverse range of approaches alongside her keen and committed study in personal development, psychomagic, tarot embodiment, ritual theatre, NLP, Improv, healing and creative arts. She also works as a one to one coach.  Besides her work in facilitation and coaching, Zuma is an award winning performer and director, she has performed in 14 countries in solo, duo and company productions. She has spent the last year writing a resource book on the; Clown Arcana (Funded by the UK Arts Council), exploring the Major archetypes of the Tarot through what she calls the ‘Clown Lens’. Zuma is also the founder of the International Lost Cabaret (CIC London 2012) which has since grown to become a collective home for emergent and alternative comedy (CIC 2016) with regular shows in; the UK,  France, Germany, Canada and Australia. 

She has recently returned from 4.5 months with the ‘El Juego’ community in Colombia (where she participated in a program dedicated to conflict resolution and personal transformation) in accordance with her research in exploring the lines between comedy and tragedy, tension and release and ritual theatre (Supported by the UK Arts Council). To find out more about her work, Website: www.clownlife.org

MORE ABOUT CHRISTIE ANIMAS (She/ They):

Christie, originally from Belgium is a playful human researcher fascinated by the wealth of experiences in the world inside of each one of us that she calls the ‘Inner Villages’. She is a community builder, a musician, a Therapist and Workshop Leader dedicated to the decolonising of our bodies and psyches and to the creation of inclusive and regenerative cultures. She trained as a Voice Dialogue practitioner, in the Fooling practice with Franki Anderson and in Body Informed Leadership UK. She has a degree in Occupational Therapy and a specialization in child psychiatry, Brussels.  She is offering her group process called ‘Fool Expression’ in the UK and throughout Europe, which blends aspects of Fooling, Voice Dialogue, Focusing, IFS, Shadow work and Psychodrama. She has created and gathered an expanding, vibrant community of players in the South West of England, and collaborates with the Deep Play Institute, USA.  She also works one-to-one using the Voice Dialogue process and performs and improvises her own music using the Fool’s practice. To find out more about her work, Website: www.christieanimas.com

If you would like to join us or ask any questions about the upcoming event feel free to get in touch.

Email: synergeticplayground@gmail.com

 We look forward to seeing you soon,

x

Zuma and Christie