Amnon Raviv

Amnon Raviv (born December 10th, 1958) is a medical clown, scholar, musician
and theater practitioner.
A pioneer in the field of medical clowning, Raviv is the first practitioner to earn
a PhD in the field. with his dissertation “Medical Clowning with Patients with
Life Threatening and Incurable Diseases” at the University of Haifa. He is the
author of the book “Medical Clowning: The Healing Performance”, published
and distributed by Seagull Books and the University of Chicago Press.
Raviv holds a Master's degree in Advanced Theatre Practice from the Royal
Central School of Speech and Drama in London and was an Israeli high-jump
champion in his youth.
== Medical Clown ==
In his 20’s, Raviv traveled all around Europe for four years as a street
performer. When his mother was hospitalized with cancer, he returned home
to support her. During the time he accompanied her to all of the treatments
she had to go through, he decided to become a medical clown.
In 1995, Raviv began visiting different wards in various medical centers as a
medical clown. In 2004 he joined the Dream Doctors Project and worked at
the Barzilai Medical Centre in Ashkelon. The hospital is located near the
border of the Gaza Strip and has been subject to ongoing rocket fire over the
years. Raviv was the first to work as a medical clown under rocket fire,
treating victims of shock and trauma‒ both Israeli and Arab ‒ to prevent or
minimize PTSD symptoms.
Based on these experiences he published an article in TDR, "Still the best
medicine, even in a war zone: my work as a medical clown" (2012).
Since then, Raviv has been working with dialysis and geriatric patients at the
Herzfeld Hospital Rehabilitation Center and in the internal medicine and the
oncology departments at the Sheba Medical Center,
His research on medical clowning with patients with dementia, entitled “Humor
in the Twilight Zone: My Work as a Medical Clown with Patients with
Dementia”, was published in the Journal of Holistic Nursing in 2014.
In 2014, terminal patients protested the decision of the hospital's management
to discontinue Raviv's visits to the ward because of budget issues. Hundreds
of the oncology ward's patients wrote letters to the management and to the
media. Their ultimately successful protest to keep their medical clown was
covered by national media.
Raviv has led several important studies in the field, among them: "The
medical clown as compared to African ritual healers" that was published in
Dramatherapy and "A semiotic analysis of the medical clown’s performance",
that was published in Social Semiotics
Since 2000, Raviv has been an instructor at the University of Haifa, the
Hebrew University and Ben Gurion University. He currently teaches at Tel-
Chai College, where he was awarded the honor of “Exceptional Lecturer” in
2016/17 in the Drama Therapy Department.
== Theater Practitioner ==
Raviv studied theatre in Tel Aviv and London. He is the co-founder and
director-performer of the “Raviv & Pomerantz Dance Theatre”.
Between 1982-1990 the company performed several programs in Israel and
Europe.
1982- HaAdam
1984- Mirror
1987- Amor Pesar Dolor
1988- What a Wonderful World
1989- You Came to Me One Weary Day
1989- In the concert of Life Nobody Gets a Program
1990- Shem Mishpacha
From October 1984 to April 1985, Raviv was a guest with the Pina Bausch
Dance Theatre in Wuppertal, Germany.
1998- performed with "Salvage" a site-specific performance by the Thames, in
London.
1999- performer-producer with Dimaa Theatre Company; the performance
won the British Festival of Visual Theatre Prize.
2000- Performer-producer with the People Show, in the 21 st Century Misfits, a
site-specific performance at Pollard Row, Bethnal Green, London.
2000- Performer-producer with Off the Bone Theatre Company in “The Table”
2007- Director of “The Short Life-Story of A”, with theatre students at the
University of Haifa.
== Musician ==
Raviv started his musical training at early age at the conservatory of Beer-
Sheva.
In 1983 he recorded his debut album, “Mirror”, the acclaimed album that was
re-released in 2019 by Paradigm Discs London. It is currently among the
rarest and most sought-after Israeli L.P.’s in the international avantgarde
music community.
His second album, “Bekef” was released in 1986.
In collaboration with his son, Yam Raviv on, the “Tsartsar Yarock Project”
released two albums:
Tsartsar Yarock- “Mitkadem Lakatse” (2014)
Tsartsar Yarock – “Leabed Kivon” (2018)
In 2019 a special radio program about Tsartsar Yarock was broadcast on
Radio HaKatze.
== References ==
Category:Israeli people
Category:Israeli medical clown
Category:1958 births