Let's Roll Together and then Interview these strange people in our classroom!!!

Welcome back!

ACROBATICS

1. Hold hands, with your toes together with your partner. Switch hands. Pull yourselves toward one another, then let go of each other, then switch hands and fall back again. Take risks. Wait to grab your partner's hand until the last moment.

2. Titanic Handshake. Here's what I mean. Shake hands. Person 1 squats down creating a nice square platform with their legs. Person 2 steps up as close to P1's hips as possible. P1 holds other hand upside down behind head, and P2 grabs it. P2 now stands on other side of hip with body as close to P1 as possible. P2 now stands up. P1 leans forward ever so slightly after letting go with both hands, and P2 bends his/her knees ever so slightly. Both spread arms out with palms up and smile.

3. Forward roll into a headstand with legs straight, then roll down onto stomach in sort of a reverse worm to knees then go into a forward roll again.

4. Partner rolls. Roll together--one in front of the other. Then go into a stomach cruncher or jump on your partner's back while they are on all fours in a dog position (what I like to call the Egg Shell jump).

Now, let's move on to CHARACTERS

1. Character Interviews. Pretty self explanatory. "We want to see how you enter." -- Ole

2. 5 Characters in a train compartment.

-Let each character sit down. Do not enter in a repetitive rhythm, but enter more organically and unpredictably. Wait for the other characters to establish themselves before you enter so the audience doesn't get confused and overwhelmed.

-You don't have to make something happen. When you get such different characters together, it's already interesting. Be still more.

Much love,

David Roby

The Four Elements

Since I chickened out from today lesson I had a good opportunity to observe and take notes.
Here is a short summary of the 2 days of elemental studies we had so far:

The four elements have different centers in the body where the impulse of the movement starts from:

AIR: upprer side of the torso - chest, lungs, upper back and ribs

FIRE: under the navel - agnii chakra or fire center in yoga

WATER: pelvis - as seen in crossing the river excercise

EARTH: not as much of a center as a direction - down into the earth (we will come back to this)

We've been let free to discover our individual elements but all four have certain guidlines we need to be aware of.

AIR:

The most important aspect of the movement of air is that it is being pulled.
All movements of air is initiated from the chest, being pulled from the chest. Remember the excercises when we disect the undulations. Air fills all spaces, dare to be big and follow the movements with the arms as well (we have a tendency to leave them hanging)
Air definetly does not make loud thumps with the feet (be light and relaxed)
The movement of air is a constant flow, out of balance, one impulse after another involving the whole body (as in the neutral opening closing excercise and the movement lesson of yesterday)
As if the movement of air is a constant fall.

FIRE:

We had no specific notes on fire apart from the personal and group investigations.
We've been discovering different aspects of fire: matches, candles, grills, vulcanoes
(many of them had a feeling of epileptic seizure... Which is probably a good way to go since seizures start from the fire center)

WATER:

This was with Ruth as well as with Ole. Water is smooth. It starts at the pelvis, so let everything else follow the pelvis. This includes the hands and the head. The pelvis is being pushed and pulled as it moves in waves.

Also, let us explore how different types of water can change how you use your body to express it. With bubbly, freezing, boiling, or flowing water it all changes, you see. You knew that already, though, huh. Yuppers.

Ruth took us on an epic journey from the fresh water of a river (over the rocks and through tree roots and down a waterfall) to the salt water of the sea.

Water has very little resistence, which means it flows around objects. It is also somewhat continuous in motion, without pauses. So, keep it moving, bub!

EARTH:

Earth is grounded in its movement...obviously. Like clay, earth moves quite slowly and with a great deal of resistence. (It may help to either think of pushing and pulling your body through clay, or it may help more to think of yourself as an Ent from Lord of the Rings.)

Each time you move, it is uprooting yourself and then replanting yourself (either into the ground, an object, or another person).

We also climbed mountains in this way, not being people, but being the earth. You see, when you experience these elements with the mask on, it is like the mask is giving you a grand tour of these elements. It is showing you how they move and where they live (and who they love). Follow the mask without hesitation and with full confidence...and try not to bump into your partners on stage, please and thank you very much.

Holding hands,

Team Imre and David

SlowMo and Elemental Extasy

On today's MIME class we've been working with different speeds and levels...

Walking as fast as we can (still keeping the 'normal' walk), walking in slow motion, going down on and standing up in slowmo and walking while gradually going down with our knees and stretching up.

This was the warmup for further studies of the neutral opening and closing of the body.
We repeated the excercise from last week focusing on starting the movement from the center, moving together with the breathing and keeping the entire body in motion. Our specific task was to find in which parts of our bodies does this constant movement stop or break.

From this excercise we went on to the undulations back, fort and to the sides, working more with our bodies being lead by impulses f different parts, letting the impulse take us out of ballance, and let the new impulse lead the way again as we find our ballance again in a flow like manner.

We spanet the last minutes of the class practicing the chase.


With Ruth we continued the journey of the neutral mask, introducing the elements of water and fire.

At first we worked all on the floor individually exploring and incorporating the movements of the elements in different shapes and sizes. (Holy shit it was intense!) Afterwards we presented different aspects of elements for the class individually the in groups, without and with masks.

We've been reminded not to turn introverted, to go against the natural tendency of any expression focusing on the movements  body that head (the face and the focus) gets lost.
Having the mask on akes it really visible if the performer is turning inside or is giving the mask (being aware and communicating)

The Chase

The Chase Scene!!!

My original post got lost in cyberspace..  So here's what I could save from a lonely draft.

NOTE: Double check if your post have actually arrived on the Blog. Internet can be quite a bitch sometimes.

The Wall Climbing reached it's final phase with 52(!!!) steps.
It turned out to be a short scene of being chased by someone or something in a narrow alley.

Here's the breakdown:


1-7: 7 steps straight slowing down from full speed running to full stop (start with left)

8: Turn around

9:  See the chaser, react (Back leg bends, body falls backwards)

10: Turn aback

11: See doorway move head only

12: Pose for running to doorway, front knee up, foot in air (it will also be the left if the count was right....)

13 - 17: 5 steps into doorway, on 17 back against the door, facing towards the alley

18: Look at chaser (only head)

19: Chaser doesn't notice and runs on... Follow chaser with head.

20. Look at wall

21. Left foot steps out.

23: Look after chaser (head stay facing this way till count 26)

24 - 26: Short steps towards wall spying after chaser

27. Look up wall

28. Pose for jumping (keep looking up)

29. Jump (shoulders down, on tiptoes, straight arms, flat hands vertical)

30. Catch wall (same as 29 but with flat hands horizontal)

31. Drop. (Look forward, hands fixed, shoulders down, heels down)

32. Attack (back to no. 30)

33. Pull body up (Hands move down till chest - fixed point, elbows pointing down)

34. Left elbow turns up

35. Right elbow turns up.

36. Push wall down (arms straight down, shoulders up, heels down)

37. Left foot up.

38. Left leg pose for wall (keep straight line with hands over the wall')

39. Move body over.

40. Push down the wall with 2 hands + left foot (keep straight line!)

41. Left hand up, right foot up.

42. Right foot goes to the place of left hand.

43. Lift right hand up.

44. Pose for jump (looking down!)

45. Jump down (still looking down...)

46. Stand up

47. Dust hands off (be aware of the direction of the movement..)

48. Turn around.

49. See chaser, react

50. Turn back again

51. Pose for run.

52. RUN!

Next weeks group assignment is to create a choreography with these 52 steps, The order of the moves can not be changed but we can play around with the tempo doing it in forwards and reverse, and can put music under it...

Here's a little inspiration from a Japanese dance company - the bastards don't allow me to embed the video so it's just a link this time. (Sally posted on Facebook not so long ago)

------ > http://youtu.be/ZxT-v9cxf7g  <-----

MORE NOTES:

When working with the Wall be aware of the dynamics of the movements:

SPEED - RESISTANCE - PUSHING - PULLING 

A Walk in the Forest...Casually and Neutrally

Hello Shoppers.

Today's date: 13/10/2011

Janusz

Basically, we did the Feldenkrais thing and rolled our head, pelvis, eyes, and tongues up and down and left and right opposite from other parts of our body. This is to notice how each part of our bodies react to the movements of other parts and how to keep them relaxed and available for discovery at the same time.

One must relax and be casual, especially while walking in a small square of space while alternately touching someone and saying someone else's name. Noted.

Then, let's play corners, but the person in the center must sing a song. I think the idea was to keep yourself relaxed but focused while in the center.

Improv

React, don't analyze.

First, let's play the Ball Game, where someone's in the center throwing a ball to someone in the circle around them in rhythm. However, let's add an extra level so that someone new can take the place of the person in the center when they say "go."

Then, sit down with a partner and say "yes" and "no" and "maybe" and "down in the cellar" and "up on the roof" and "green" and "yellow" and "me" and "naturally". It's different when facing each other, now isn't it?

Then, how about we do the recognition exercise, yes? Yes. Be open and available to react genuinely.

THOUGHT: Perhaps neutrality is just acting (not reacting). It is acting upon objects and discoveries, but not letting them affect you. Thoughts?

Now, on the masks.

Mask

Wake up in the forest. It's like you're an animal. The purpose is just to move around the forest. Like a deer. A deer does not struggle to move around in the forest, it just moves around, because that's natural for it. This is what the metaphysical/neutral mask demands: being natural and aware. Efficiency of movement.

Now, walk through a forest for a little while, then notice a beach, then run to the beach, then notice a rock, then throw the rock, then watch it land in the water. RELAX!!!! BREATHE!!!!

Be aware and serve the mask. Serve the center. It's not about you, dude. It's about the mask, or about the story, or about the action, or about the atmosphere, or about the environment. It depends on the medium of performance, you see.

There are thoughts by David Roby for today. Thank you, and tune in next time.

David of Roby

Humpety Dumpety walking down the hall

Hello 2013ers!

Today in history:

Acrobatics:

Today was mostly review while adding little things. We did the stretches we usually do (small handstands, balancing on heels, counting stretches, etc). Then...

-Humpety Dumpety (you know, this is the one where we life someone up who is sitting on our feet, the one that looks like someone is sitting on a throne made out of someone's legs). The thing we added is the different way of getting up into this balance position. You stand in front of someone's legs who is lying on their back on the floor with their legs up. You place one foot in the lying down person's hand, then you push their feet between your legs into the same Humpety Dumpety position while swiftly stepping into their other hand. Got it?

-We also did Jumping Handstands. This is when you are standing up with your arms out in front of you and you go into a handstand. Try it against a wall! Push those shoulders and straighten those legs, people!

-We did big cartwheels which are everyone's favorite, of course. Stretch your arms out and look forward, baby!!

-Finally, we wrapped up with the Stomach Cruncher. Run into it. Also, you can try doing the stomach cruncher where the person who is usually on their hands and knees is actually standing up with their hands on their knees and arms straight. The person crunching the stomach must bail out if they are falling by letting go with the arm closest to the hips of the person standing. Got it? Good.

NEXT

Improv/Mask:

Day 2 of mask work. I...love...this.

-We learned the 7 levels of tension today.

1. Lie on floor limp and attempt to get up, like a bird stuck in tar.

2. Hands and knees, try to stand up but it doesn't really work, like being drunk or trying to move with noodles for arms and legs.

3. Extremely relaxed walk. Walk around and acknowledge each other in this relaxed way.

4. Casual walk. Casual greetings. Aware of movement, but not completely alert.

5. This is neutral. You are hyper aware and hyper sensitive, noticing every little thing, not exploring or experimenting, but always being distracted by new discoveries.

6. Robot walk.

7. Barely able to move. Whole body is tense. The exact opposite of level 1...obviously.

-Rhythm Ball. Stand in a circle around one person and throw the ball in rhythm to each other, one or two balls at a time. Keep the rhythm. The most important thing is to SERVE THE CENTER!!! Make is easy for the center and always concentrate on the center. The circle is the servant of the center.

-Mask. Wake up for the first time in a forrest. Be at level 5 of tension. Don't experiment and play, don't allow yourself to be distracted, but constantly be discovering. Each discovery leads to another one. Keep alert and aware, but neutral.

-Mask. Put mask on. Turn around. Breathe. Walk down a hall. Notice a door. Walk through the door. Notice a chair. Sit in the chair. Remain neutral and efficient.

There it is, classmates. Let's eat paste together and have a mask-making party!!!

David of Roby

Chairs and Birds

Acrobatics:

This day we practised the ”chair” – one person lying down, holding the other on the feed while supporting with the hands.

We also made the ”bird” where one person on the floor lifts the other up on the feet. Important things to remember is the tempo in the lift..

Other new things was the handstand. Starting with jumping up, clapping the feet together, afterwards the handstand with spotter.

The spotter is VERY important in pair acrobatics.

Janusz:

Exercises on the floor:

Lying on the floor with legs up.

New things:

At first imaging to turn the head from side to side while moving the legs from up and down in the ”pelvis-manner”.

After that actually turning the head from side to side while moving the legs up and down. Now come into standing position and feel how the body feels.

Two-person exercises:

1)

Moving together standing in front of each other. Feeling each others weight and slowly pushing each other while still holding the arms in the same position. The hands can move. Change partner at least a couple of times.

2)

One person is lying on the floor with legs up. The other person sitting in front of the legs, then begins to slowly move one leg up and down, while holding on to the knee. Start with moving it up and down about then times with each leg.

After that take to legs at the time. Moving them together to both sides, and a part at the same time. Make it without any pattern for the person lying down to feel the movements not possible to presuppose. After that the person who was lying down

3)

Telling a story together with your body.

The group are standing in a circle. One persons starts with a movement. It should indicate some action and/or feeling without using any face-expressions. The next person in the circle then continues the story. Think about following up on the story while also adding a new aspect or something unpredictable, where there is a new opening to the story. The next person follows up and so it continues in the circle. To follow up on the story you can also choose to make a new chapter, the movements should be inspired from each other, but with a new chapter they can change.

"Fly Me to the Moon" and The Crazy at the Cafeteria

I'm going by memory here, and I didn't take notes. So...sorry about that. If you have something to add...this is what blogs are for.

Okay.

We started with Acrobatics, of course, where we jumped right in to swinging our arms like monkeys, doing the insane roll-over push-up routine, rolling over our shoulders (arch your backs, people), headstands (work your hips, your hips, your hips, you must have COMPLETE control, or else don't move on to the next step), and pulling our feet into a heads from the back. Rehearse rehearse rehearse! Practice practice practice! Work work work! This is what we came here for!!!

Next, we moved on to the stomach cruncher (or doggy hug, if you like). Added twist: Run toward your partner and enter seamlessly into the stomach cruncher. Next added twist: Do the front roll into the stomach cruncher. Booya!

Finally, the favorite of the day was the "Fly Me to the Moon" jump.

Steps:

1. Lie on your back, knees up. (Partner place one foot in between partner's feet.)

2. Hold wrists, or hands firmly while keeping shoulders and arms relaxed. Impossible? Keep practicing, son.

3. Standing partner pulls up lying down partner while turning around and taking a step in the opposite direction, and pulling lying down partner's arm straight over your shoulder. (Lying down partner, you must remain relaxed in the arm and jump up from the ground.)

4. Lying down partner will now land on standing partner's back and the two will walk away like an adorable couple (consisting of a cave person and a quadriplegic, sorry if that offends anyone...Sam, sorry if that offends your cave Auntie. Kay, sorry if that offends Sam.)

Now, on to Improv. *fanfare*

We proceeded with the Classroom exercise for all those who missed it the first time. Build the story. Build it to a really high level and don't drag it on too long. Keep it building, not remaining flat ever.

I hope you all enjoyed this exercise, because apparently we will not return to it until April. Holy Spring Rolls, Batman!

Next, we introduced a new exercise. (Woot!) The Crazy at the Cafeteria. Listen to each other. It needs to build together. Play. Play a lot. Then play some more. Be playful. Crazy person, you need to enjoy what you're doing--don't make it too grotesque. Non-crazy person get some food, pay for the food, then sit down and let it build, then allow something to interrupt you (like falling of the chair, or simply cut yourself off at the peak when you suddenly notice how you and the Crazy are the same person).

Well, there's that. Hope you enjoyed today's installment of...CLASSNOTES!!!!

Remember to rehearse the 19 wall-climbing steps!

"Keep your hands perfectly flat. Not mostly flat, but perfectly flat. Perfectly flat!" -- Ole Brekke

With love and pure affection,

David of Roby

19 steps of wall hopping, shoulder torture and jailbreak

I was late with my blog duty, so I'll just condense the notes from friday and monday together in this post...

MIME:

Heel-heel, Toe-Toe walk:
Sideways slide walk with triangular feet... I hope someone gets what i mean.

We extended the wall hoppping excercesise with 14 more steps (into a total of 19)

First five:

- Look up.

-Pose for jump.

-Jump (on toes, reach up, hands straight, shoulders down)

-Grab the wall (hands go horizontal, fixed point)

-Drop (heels go down, shoulders up, hands stay flat on fixed point)

and 14 more:

-Pose for pulling your self up (shoulders down, heels go up)

-Pull your self up (hands go down till shoulder, arm paralel to body)

-One elbow goes up

-Other elbow goes up

-Push your self further up (hands go down flat, arms straighten, heels go down again and shoulders come up)

-Lift one foot

-Put foot on wall (keep it in line with hands)

-Pull the body over the wall.

-Push wall down with hands and foot (keep the straight line)

-Lift the hand closer to legs.

-Put other foot down where hand was

-Lift other hand

-Get ready for jump

-Jump! ("stay in the air..." and throw your hands in the air)

Be carefull with fixed points and keep hands PERFECTLY flat!

Mime walk No.1:

Whoohoo... I'll try to break this down.

One foot steps forward (both legs straight, heel down, foot flexed, lowest position of head) 

Other leg bends, as the foot in front goes back (heel stays down all the way back, highest head position)

Well that is pretty much it. Just make sure that your arms follow the legs (opposite arms)

Ice Skating

It is esentially the sideward leg swing excercise that we do as a warm up....

When the foot moves to the side it remains flexed and goes while the hips turn out slightly.

As the foot comes back forward the other foot is being thursted out to the side.

Note that the head should not be moving up and down (keep knees bent)


Some new STRETCHES:


We learned a few new couple stretches...

The Shoulder Torture:


One sits on a chair while the other pushes the tensions in the shoulders with elbows and lower arms.

and the Ass Grabbing Thigh Stretch:


Pulling feet back while lying on the floor to stretch thigh while partner help with pushing hips down/forward and pulling the thighs up.

The day we rolled a lot

Ole's class

Acrobatics

This day we were starting acro like always with roling back and forth, then practise the shoulderstand.

We practised the stomach-one with walking into the others stomach. We practised the roles with stretched legs, then grab your legs and come all the way up. This role we comebined with the positing of grabbing your partners lower legs part and the back side and then roling into it like you would begin another role.

In the end of the class we practised jumbing around starting with sitting like a frog with both your hands turned up in front of you, and then turning the whole way around while you let the focus of your eyes be at a fix point in front of you all the time.

ending up with pair stretching. eg. have your legs in front of you, the partner pushes on your back. and legs out to the side, your partner pushes your legs further out while holding your arms.

Janusz' class

Exercises on the floor with the pelvis. Some of that we have done before. This time introducing the shoulders more. And the arms. some part of it contained roling the legs around in cirkles while you have your arms bended and they go the other way around, while meeting each others at the stomach area. When explained it is like: "ben your legs up in front of you and then move your amrs around and see how they can move together."

After this movement we were asked to getting up into standing position and back down on the floor again. I found that the previous exercise made the body go into a pace which made playful to get up standing.

Janusz' comment was something like" Give your nervesystem time to react to the changes that has occured to it."

After this we were dancing together in pairs. It was about letting yourself become inspired from the other person. The exercise starts with changing between who is moving. Let your body lead and follow the impulses. After the previous exercise we were moving very freely. At first the partner is just observing the movements of the other person and you change the dancing role after some time. You later extend it to dance at the same time and enduring influence each others' movements. After a while you change partner, which continued with about 4 different partners. The experiences from this exercise was for example that when we see other people move we get inspired to move like that to, and to try movements that our own body normally wouldn't have begun doing. It was also a liberating feeling to play like that in the dance. 


( last comment is from writer, aka. Signe)

Acrobatics and Impro

ACRO:

The new excercise from today was

The Nose Crusher:
Like handstand but on elbows (lower arms on floor supporting)
The nose should keep pointing towards the floor.

and a new stretch:
"Foot grabber back breaker"
Stand on knees, toe knockles on the floor. Reach back for the soles of the feet with the hands (not just grabbing the ankles) and bend back lloking towards the wall behind.


IMPRO:
The walk-clap-turn excercise was developed pairwork:
A: start walking
B: call name of A
A: stop AND turn
B:say something to A (no questions!)
A: awalk up to B and reply

today B had to say something about or somehow relevant to A also adding the name of a place


The scene of the day involved 3 people in a park, one comes to a bench to paint (with equipment mimed)
one is completely amazed by the work the other one is totally disgusted.

And the conclusion is: Serve your partner and make it more "difficult" for him/her!