Before Fall Break

Picture of the week: This is Bob, Brian, me, and Meredith having some fun before our last film lecture night (before fall break). We are silly!

Hey everybody! We're back from fall break. If you want to hear more about what we did during the break check out our couple's blog: http://sibleystories.blogspot.com/. Now I am catching you up on everything we have done since my last blog post up to the week of fall break. We had a wonderful visit from Peppy Biddy, Professor and Chair of the Music and Theatre Department at Mississippi University For Women (our graduate program is accredited through this school if you didn't already know that). Thanks for everything Peppy. We miss you already so come back soon!!

In movement we started in a circle doing some rolling on our back then coming up from this first into launch then lunge then leg in air and balance. Remember to fold into the ground letting it be soft but controlled. After our Yoga break, we run around then do poses lifts, counter balance spin drops with partners. We worked on sacrum scoop and rolling off the partner's back. Rolling on butt, back, partner push/pull, group push/pull, bench roll, standing bench roll, barrell roll, gun holster roll -- see-saw. We did some contact work starting out walking in pairs arm to arm and really explore that (stopping, walking backwards). Heightening the listening between you and your partner. While maintaining contact we support weight, support weight while the other slides off or rolls off, lead a peripheral body part to the ground and back up, lift standing, use movement to life and travel. We took all of these and created choregraphy in our pairs to perform in groups of threes. Then Claudia added music which was a very interesting change in our pieces. More intentional.

I was sick during Music but we did some breathing, vocalizations, worked on the song 'Troubles of the world' and some individual ritual presentation.

In voice with Kevin we worked with tension, making our bodies tense in each part (right arm, left arm, right arm, left leg, etc.) then letting it go. We repeat this with right side, left side, whole body. We worked with feeling our pubic bone and moving our sternum then sacrum moving through space. Next we imagined that an elastic band was attached to front teeth, molars, elbows/heels, crown/tail, collarbone/chin, sternum/sacrum -- the feeling of moving with that image in our head. We began working with our text while moving with or against the elastic band. On the day I was sick they did some partner work where one person would use their own weight to rub and open their partner. Working with the pant, stretching forward in a diagonal. Let out sound while lengthening and moving forward once you lose your balance. Then they would react to words from The Suppients.

We had Acting with the wonderful and talented Andy Crook. We worked mainly on group listening and building which is something we really need to focus on in these beginning years. On the day I was sick they played the name game, learned the Akash (Meyerhold -- Biomechanics), Physical awareness of self on the floor and awareness of ourselves in space (residual space), balancing stick on one hand -- allow this to fall, you aren't going to succeed all the time, celebrate your failures -- throwing the ball exercise, bamboo sticks, and rhythm with clapping. DO NOT APOLOGIZE!! We repeat these exercises throughout the week giving us a good reference point within the group. We started most exercises with equalization of the space. A whole walking exercisen (The Game) stopping, changing direction, tempo, weight or sense of weight -- paying special attention to different parts of the room -- exploring the wall, then the ceiling, then the floor. Walk around now and observes what it is like. We did these in halves then adding text we wrote (a journey). We used these key words from these stories to continue through this work. We worked in a similar way with music -- free movement, music moves you, you move the music, have nothing to do with the music, and then switching between all of these. Then we added the music rules to The Game.

Our final day with Andy we reviewed everything we had done that week and added the twisty foot (happy feet is what I call it) NOT EASY!! Then we sat in chairs changing focus from one thing to the next. We did a kicky kicky exercise and then added arms to it (very difficult but interesting). We oiled the body (rolling through our knees, hips, chest, shoulders) before choosing an occupation. This occupation had to be a repeatable action during which we became distracted at moments and changed our focus then return back to work. In two groups we discovered going from The Game into a construction (ours was The Duomo) and into a landscape (ours was a swamp). We used all of these elements (I mean everything we learned.... EVERYTHING) to make a small improvisational group piece that we performed for Kevin and Andy. I felt very successful at the end of this workshop being able to put all of this together with my group. It was very satisfying as an artist.

Sick days

My picture of the week: Taylor quickly figures out a way to be supported in our movement class. Good picture. Thank you Katie for uploading all of these pictures from movement class so I could add them to my blog!!First of all, let me apologize for slacking on the blog. I am trying to get back on track. I had a headache from last Monday until last Friday. The doctor thought it was a compacted disc in my neck vertebrae but on Saturday I woke up with fever, the chills, sore throat, runny nose, and achy muscles. A virus has been going around and has hit most of the undergraduate theatre students... yuck. I'm still sick today but hoping to get back into the swing of things tomorrow. This blog will include everything the highlights since my last blog through last Wednesday the 7th.

After warm up in Movement we ran through the room leaping and hopping. Then Claudia said that when she clapped her hands we would either support someone or be supported. It started in two's then three's then half and half, then the entire group. We decided to call these lift portraits. Once we arrived in our portraits we would come out of them in slow motion and go back into them in slow motion. This really helped us find our balance and how to pose without momentum. We did this again on the next Wednesday. Here are some pictures of our second run through this:

Courtney, Bob, Ben, and I making a quick portrait:


Louise, Caroline, and me; this one was not so easy to reverse without momentum:

I accidentally clocked Bob in the chin with my knee during this pose... sorry Bob!:

All of us in our first poses:

Louise and Mer Mer:

Louise, me, and Taylor:

We started working on Downward Dog walking in pairs (one on the other) then rolling over in pairs. Next we went back to one of us being the bench the other now doing a handstand on their back only using the upper arms. We tried walking as a group blocking different areas of our bodies one at a time starting with sternum, pelvis, knees, feet, neck, shoulder blades, then teeth. It was very interesting to understand what blocking these parts will do to the way you walk and feel on the inside. We also explored intrograde and retrograde (doing a movement and reversing it). We did improv contact dance. Making our partners aware of their lines, joints, where they place their weight, and give the partner suggestions and then let them move on their own while you observe. We did some more partner lifts using the sacrum scoop and working towards rolling over the back.

The biggest highlight of voice class (something new that we weren't revisting) was the 4 emotions wheel. We had four different points in a circle and you had a different emotion you sand in at each point. The transition was most important. We worked in partners 'kneeding bread' on their backs into a full person lift using a person at each limb. We did some rolls across the floor (REMEMBER YOU HAVE TWO LEGS). We did some rhythm work 4/4 on top of 3/4 call and response. Then we did one of my favorite exercises: Gargoyles. This brings something out from the inside that is unexplainable and sometimes a little scary, but it is extremely interesting all the same.

In Music we worked on ritual. We improved a ritual with objects in a sacred space. Then we made up our own rituals or create what ritual is to us to present in the next class. Taylor came up with a great one for us to do together. He's working out in the fields while I'm washing clothes by the watering hole. Then he comes in from the fields to get water and begins pickin' and singin' a Robert Johnson tune. I begin humming and making a rhythym with my laundry bin. It was fun!!