Well, hello my amigos y amigas.
Escuchame!
ACROBATICS
New stuff:
-We began the day by warming up walking around the room...with bigger and bigger steps...then maximum big steps...then even bigger...then suddenly to small steps...and even smaller...then walking normally. How fun!
-Headstands. Sounds the same, you say. Read on, reader. We were challenged today to move on from the headstand where we have our hands on the top of our heads INTO the nose-cruncher. Booya! Work on it!
-Break dancing move. Swing the leg around and around, keeping it straight, and lifting your hands and other foot out of the way. I find it helpful to place my two hands and non-swinging foot in a triangle formation, so there's always two of the three on the ground. Also, I find it helps to keep my weight rocking around opposite of my swinging leg, which requires leaning my upper body around and around.
-The Throne (sitting on your partner's feet while they lie on their back). Let's add running into the throne position, and then eventually running and jumping into the throne position. Person sitting on the throne: this requires placing all your weight on your hands for as long as possible until your weight is well balanced on your partner.
-Front rolls. Except this time, let's roll on a box and sit on the end of it! Jump into the roll so that your head may end up off the edge of the box you're grabbing onto. Grab onto the very corners of the box, perhaps for stability.
IMPROV/MASK
"Your body must be aware of the space, because with masks you don't know what the hell everyone else is doing. You're blind." -- Ole Brekke
-First, we heard the children's rhyme "Hickory Dickory Dock" recited by our very own Ole Brekke. We then reenacted the poem on our own according to the rhythm and sound of the poem, NOT according to the words of the poem. Then we split up into groups of three and choreographed bits of movement to this poem. Gorgeous!
-To further emphasize NOT acting out the words, we heard poems from different languages and moved our bodies according to whatever images came to mind as someone recited the poem out loud. Beautiful, people. Suprisingly accurate with the story of the poem itself. Just goes to show how much the sound and rhythm of words have to do with the actual meaning.
-Then, we moved on to choreographing movement pieces to the poems "And If" and "Light Pole" in groups.
-Finally, we began to play with our masks by setting up a scenario in a library.
Three masked characters.
Character 1 (C1) enters the library, giving the mask to the audience, looking for something. There is a change (either of tempo or intention).
Character 2 (C2) enters (make noise, make it easy for C1 to know you've entered, because remember you're all blind). C1 leaves. There is a change in C2.
Character 3 (C3) enters from the other side. C2 and C3 interact. There is a change.
C1 reenters. You all interact. Find an ending.
Things of NOTE:
1. Masks are caricatures, so make your movements and your body position as big as possible according to how the mask inspires you, according to what images the mask gives you. Take a moment to look at the mask before you create a character out of it.
2. Focus on the objects or people first, THEN react and give the mask to the audience (aka, keep your body completely still as you look at the object of your attention, then look at the audience with your reaction to that object).
3. Stick to just a few certain movements for your mask character instead of establishing new movements. This makes who the character is extremely easy for the audience to interpret and understand.
4. Push your poses bigger. Make everything bigger with a mask on!
Appreciation and Maskication,
David
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