ABSTRACT
A clown’s tale’ tells the story of the author turning from an academic business educator into a theatre and clown performer. It gives a colourful insight of how life-changing, transformative and healing the contact with Performing Arts can be, on both personal and professional levels. For the author, this contact has not only been a turning point in his personal development and healing journey. It was a crucial moment for him on how to perceive, face and change typical academic working conditions. The chapter therefore mirrors the alienating impact of mainstream academic working conditions. A work context that calls for fierce competition and relentless self-marketing in precarious work settings builds ground for self-alienation and emotional self-disconnection, generally fuelling biographically established self-doubt and self-denial. The story therefore provides a strong testimony about how impactful Performing Arts can support individuals in breaking free of alienating and devaluating contexts, finding personal ground and a stance to operate truthfully from. Performing Arts does have immense immanent powers for personal and societal transformation, and this story is only a tiny example of that.
