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

Imre's Song

Ilju (the first 3 verses)


Hej, de gyűlnek hadba, édes,
Hej, de gyűlnek hadba kócsáni pogányok,
Anyám édes, kócsáni pogányok.

Hej, de vasra vernék, édes,
Hej, de vasra vernék Ilju haramiát,
Anyám édes, Ilju haramiát.

Hej, de nincs ott Ilju, édes,
Hej, de nincs ott Ilju széles Kríva víznél,
Anyám édes, széles Kríva víznél.

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)

The Power of Listening and Crazy Stretches

Hello Classmates of...would we be the Class of 2011 because we started in 2011, or would we be the Class of 2013 because we graduate in 2013? I'm pretty sure we're the Class of 2013.

Hello Classmates of 2013!!

Here are some notes I took for today's classes (28/9/11):

Janusz' Class

Theme: Listen

Some Quotes:

"Behind something silly is something serious."

"Move with gravity and work for neutrality." (in reference to the pushing each other exercise outlined below)

The Day:

Let's lie on mats!!!

1. Then, let's reach our hands toward the sky--which way does the palm face in order to reach the highest?

2. Now, let's reach our hands at 45 degree angles across our bodies (which of course causes us to roll over a bit--does the hip or the shoulder lead the movement?

3. Now it is time to push each other. One person stands neutral, the other person pushes them around with very specific points of focus.--See how you move whether you're pushing or being pushed. If you are pushing then please lead with your pelvis. Those being pushed please provide a little bit of resistence. Don't be completely relaxed and loosey goosey and don't be too dramatic about it (Kay and Imre!).

Finally, let's form a dance circle where we watch each other push each other around.

4. Sit and Chat. It is time to listen to each other. Just listen. No responding in any way, no noises or words, unless you do not understand something or something is unclear to you. This means shutting your mouth and opening your mind, folks.

That's it for Janusz' class. I had more quote of his in my head, but forgot them when it came time to write it down. I'm sure you understand.

Ruth's Class

Theme: Focus

-It's all about the FOCUS!!! The eyes are the tool of the Actor. You could almost call them the flashlight (I know, brilliant. I came up with this myself. Please hold your applause.) You see, if you are acting in a pitch black place (as we all know you would need to if Sam were performing, am I right?), then where your eyes look there is a beam of light that forces the audience to look where you are looking. Now, come back to the professional well-lit theatre we will all work at some day very soon and remember that where you look, the audience will look.

1. Crazy Stretches

a. One person sits on floor with arms raised above head. The other person grabs sitting person by the shoulder blades and pulls them up while pushing their chest out. Sitting person--BREATHE!!! Standing person--don't kill them.

b. The Arm Breaker. Welcome to Aikido. Pull person's arm laying on stomach over their head backwards. Place hand on back of lying down person's hand and push their arm up up up. Go slowly. Person lying down tap the floor when it's too much. BREATHE!!!

2. Swimming Move (one of Lecoq's 20)

Brings hands together in center and let them flow outward pushing out like you are doing the breast stroke and cutting your way through the water. Really imagine and see everything in the water as you do this, and work with your breathing!!

Then add the legs as you stand on one leg, slightly bend the standing leg and pump the raised leg, raising it to the side of your body......Clear? Didn't think so. Anyway, just remember tempo. Keep the speed in bursts--really fast and then smooth and slow while you bring it in again.

3. Library

Fixed point. Hold your finger somewhere in the air. Other person takes a book from that exact same spot. If you really wanna be crazy, then put the book back. I know...crazy.

Take 10 minutes to prepare a library as a group, then BOOYA switch a couple members of the group so that you are FORCED to listen to each other and watch each other. This is theatre, people.

Then be spontaneous in creating a library and create an event. (Let's try a fire. That sounds safe yet urgent, doesn't it?)

Thank you everybody. I know I missed some stuff...so add it!

Forever Yours Class of 2013

David Roby

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!