Day SevenPresent

CLASSES:
Movement: I was very worried. I couldn't find my knee braces this morning, which are simply some neoprene tubes for my leg. The give stability to my knee and the material keeps them warm and adds a little padding for when we are on our knees. My right leg has been on edge since Sunday. A good workout, but some strain. I felt better Monday morning during drill when the warming up eliminated my limp.

The class was not so intense with regards to my knee and ankle, a big relief. We did some very interesting work, with the class in Rhino, the 100 seat black box theatre on the second floor. With a partner standing at an extended fingertip to fingertip position, as though pointing at the other, with the opposite foot forward. The back foot was then lifted high (this is relative for me know) and the leg moved in a circle with the partner. We have done a lot of similar exercises, and the fingertip only touch with the added fingertip dialog to the other fingertip was new, and the discomfort in my leg also added a new dimension.

We explored the space. For feel, sound, hazards, etc. It was a two part exercise, the first part leaving us to our own impulses, the second picking and exhaustively studying a certain aspect with regards to how it will serve the actor and audience. Things related to safety, resonance, sturdiness, etc.

Unusual climbs of the seats while reciting the text (part of Ulysses). Some of us did this a couple years ago in a movement class. It felt different, and the final run with half starting at the bottom of the risers most notably, which was further complicated by pauses and direction changes. There was a feeling of engagement with each other and the space much more pronounced than in the previous class. Another example of the energy of dedicated people, who are a bit further along the path.

Finished up with more work balancing sticks, keeping it to right and left hands, and kneeling to the floor and back up.


Combat: We reviewed many of our moves so far. Crosses, jabs, knaps, side falls, backwards falls, uppercuts. We didn't review hair pulling, face slamming, choking from the front and back. Sounds delightful, like we're training to be republicans, except our number one goal is to not hurt each other. Then we spent over half the class working on forward rolls. We're starting on a mat and moving to bare floor in the next week or two. What we did was line up and go through it one person at a time, adding a little more with each roll.

The first roll was just roll the way you would normally. I was asked to turn off the fan as the temperature was comfortable, and the fan noisy, so I was last in line as the switch is behind the risers. There was something from some training in the Navy -- maybe parachute landing -- which told me to roll on my shoulder. Turns out I was the only one to do that, and Geof laughed as I finished, "Cheater, that's what we're going to do!" Well, it was more formalized than what I did.

We started kneeling with the right leg up on the sole. Place your hands on the mat in front of you on the left, with the thumbs and index fingers creating a diamond. Next your right forearm comes down on the ground in front of you and you push lightly with the legs to lift you over the right forearm to a roll along the muscles of the shoulder and back. It is all to protect the neck. From there we worked to coming up kneeling on the right foot with the left leg crossed behind you at the end of the roll, which happens naturally if you have a good roll. From there we worked to starting from a squat and letting the legs extend (not smack to the floor, which a few of us did the first time around -- ouch). More on this over the next few weeks. It is scary for some, but I found it to be quite fun.


Speech: We started preparing for IPA, the International Phonetic Alphabet chart (IPA is aka I.P. Association). We worked on the Articulator Actions (plosives, fricatives, nasals, trills, etc) and Points of Consonant Focus (or Points of Articulation) which include bilabial, labiodental, and palatal. The IPA chart is set up with these as the axes, in order obstruction of the airflow and front to back of the vocal tract respectively. I think some of us found it very cool and helpful, and others incredibly dry and non-intuitive. I am looking forward to the work to clean and enhance these sounds in usual speech and use them in accent work. The IPA chart assigns symbols to all the sounds used in all the human languages. For English we can work on them for clarity, and for accents use replacements. There is more to it of course, and this is just a high level overview reiterating what I've been exposed to before.

OBSERVATIONS/HITS:
In discussions during movement it was again emphasized by George that in all this work success is not the ultimate goal, the effort and striving is. A concept he mentioned Sunday was reiterated. Don't go flat out. You can't go emotionally flat out in a scene either, as it also leaves you stuck with nowhere to go. You simply become another asshole screaming at other drivers on the freeway. I thought about this, and it makes sense. You must maintain control while letting go. It is the same with physical actions, there must always be a little reserve, a bit more you can do. George contends the when audience can see you have something left it keeps them with you. This makes sense to me. If you're spent, you've nowhere to go, nothing to give to the audience or your scene partners it is seen. Holding that tiny reserve keeps the moment alive. If you've no options why should the audience care? It seems to me there has to be some doubt or question about what will happen next. Without that you are already dead.