We call ourselves a tribe, this is not just a cool name, it carries a philosophy within.
As travelers, we experienced the bliss of freedom as much as its weaknesses. Yet we think that all is about balance: too much individuality leads to egoism, and too much community leads to different kind of personnal suppressions. So we would like to find a good balance between individuality and community.
We meet far from our homes, in a completly unknown place for most of us. Feeling safe, feeling that people care for each others, feeling each one is welcomed amongst the others is an absolute requierement. The tribe is quite like a family: each one is allowed to be itself, cause despise our differences and argues we will stand together. In such an intense experience we may find difficulties to communicate softly sometimes, but within a tribe there is nothing we can’t solve with a talking circle.
In living arts we are used to share one expression, which works like some kind of mantra: “Show must go on!”. Although this can resonnate as a sad thing, from movies or biographies telling stories about the rougthness of a situation where one must go on stage despise its mental distress, this is actually a very important sentence. It means that whatever can happen between the people engaged, whatever can happen in someone’s life, whatever is going on right now, no one’s work will be dropped to failure. The stage is another world, the character is another person, and whatever happens, no one will drop anyone down.
Community is very important in the Aeolian Tribe, however we like to praise for individual freedom as well. Free expression is the essence of Arts, there is no way for us to suppress it! In order to kindly mix freedom and community duties, we have one tool: clearness. We ask everyone to be clear with its will, so we can find together the best ways to make everyone happy.
Concretly it means we will have councils to decide of the next steps of the travel, the general organization (renting of a house, a camel, buying costumes, organizing food, water and cleaning, …) and to solve the various problems we may cross.
Also when we will start building shows, we will decide together of the general line of a show (story, characters, messages,…) and then plit it in different parts in order to give to each of us freedom of creation in its attributed part.
This constant balance between unity and individuality may not be perfect, but it seems to be the fairest way to be together as artists and travelers.
The Aeolian Tribe 