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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.
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!!
We went on a hike in the Pratomagno on Sunday with Scott and friends. Here are some notable pics (above is my favorite pic from this trip - Ben Sota on top of the Pratomagno):
William, Meredith, and I are about to start hiking:
Meredith and I take a water break.... seriously straight up:
YIKES!!!!
Even Persey is tired and she has four feet:
Ben and William make it to the top:
Lunch spot!
I'm tired:
My feet and legs take a rest during lunch:
Taylor and Jesse enjoying the view from the top:
Persey enjoys staring at her Daddy's sandwich:
Jesse being silly on top of the mountain:
Classic picture of Scott:
Jesse and I at lunch:
Meredith, Me, and Caroline on top of Pratomagno:
Jesse and I on top of Pratomagno:
A close-up on Ben on top of the cross:
The cross that Ben climbed (he's at the top):
Louise, Jesse Dunn, and Me:
Meredith and I coming down the serious hill:
We practiced the Greek Chorus on top of the Teatrino after the hike:
Well, we have been busy again this week. If we have a week full of Acting, I won't be able to blog during those days and do homework, so I have to choose the homework because it is the priority, obviously and catch up on my blog when I can.
We started with Voice this week doing a warm-up that consisted of a self rub down, dry shower, and vertical shaking into jumps letting out sound. Then we worked on some tongue exercises. These are very good for me because I have a control issue with my tongue and it's connection to my jaw. I have a problem releasing both or using one and releasing the other. We went into some panting work with the nose, which is very good to build control in the lower stomach. Moving into stretching our lips then leaving them while humming. We worked with the difference between holding one nostril and humming then holding one and half closing the other while humming. We learned two new songs: Water Boy, a negro convict song, I knew this one cause Daddy used to sing it; Yo E Ma Mo, an african song, we used this as call and response.
In Acting this week we worked on the 4 ages on man: baby, 20, middle-aged, old. We added to the Boatman: fluid with repetition, Object in three different sizes - huge, small, toothpick - and improvising with a problem of some sort. For the Greek Chorus we added a second entry option, entering where the hero was before, telling a story, singing, and simultaneous movement. The simultaneous is harder, figuring out how to lead the group with your intention. You cannot waffle! 7 levels of tension - all released and no energy, sleepy walk, neutral, bubble inside, suspicious, angry tense guy, complete tension then release to the floor. We worked on the improvisations this time in threes... very interesting... now we are adding climate and characters. The newest thing we started was mannequins. Two and two for instance. You decide who these people are and what is there relationship. Then using as few movements as possible in the most efficiant way, you sculpt your partners. The point is to put two mannequins in a scene so there is some realistic qualities but there is always something just a little off. We decided to do this in Cabaret last night. Our mannequins were Meredith, Bob, and William who we made stand outside until we asked the audience for the scene. Courtney, Brian, Caroline, and I were the ones forming them. We asked our audience who Meredith is... they said Foxy Feline... Courtney took that to be a stripper named Foxy Feline. Then we asked, where are they... a shed... fantastic. Then we asked what is Bob and William's relationship to Foxy Feline... they are her cousins... wow. So we called our victims back in and made a pretty beautiful scene of Bob and William holding eachother scared - but William kind of wanted to look - while Meredith grabs her boob (poor Meredith - she was blushing hard) and looks are stripperesque. It turned out very nice I have to say.
In Movement today we started with three different speeds to music. First we gradually sped up as a warm-up, then we moved in slow motion exploring the a-semetric world, finally we had a free for all which was very nice and I found myself drawn to the wall for some reason. I really don't know why. We worked on rolling next. First as salmon rolls alternating front and back - difficult but interesting because you cannot use your hands or legs against the floor to move you - second sitting then a backwards roll - easier on my right rather than my left - third kneeling rolling backwards into another kneeling position then reversing the movement- fourth walking backwards then rolling backward and then continuing to walk back on the way up - we used a partner for this one as motivation and eye contact, the partner walks towards you as you walk backwards, it was very helpful in the dismount of the roll to keep walking backwards. We reviewed the bowling positions we used for handstand but modified it for cartwheels. Then we started doing cartwheels, first how we are used to doing it and then using the bowling position as our launch. I like cartwheels and have always been able to do them on my right side, but I have trouble on my left for sure. We presented our homework in pairs and started working on kinestetic response. Meredith and I will be working on ours together which will be really fun!
The birthday girls in front of the fireplace:
Sorry for such a late post. Last week was kind of crazy. In any of my free time I was studying so I'm just now getting around to blogging. Meredith and I also celebrated our birthdays last Thursday night. It was nice to have a big party. Thanks to the Farmhouse peeps for hosting us!! To see pics from the party go to: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=125149&id=606945247&l=a3549771b1
This week started with voice. Warm-ups with some pelvis work, friction, dry shower, and rub down. We began feeling what it is like to push off the ground to walk. Then some group work walking in a circle forwards, backwards, and then changing direction. This sounds easy but it was much more difficult than it seems. At the piano we went through some Ro Ro Ro, Vee Vee Vee O and then did one of my favorite exercises called Cello, Viola, Violin. This helps you find different levels of sound on one note. This is a great help when once we begin working on voices in the mask.
We had voice again on Wednesday. We started with the looking glass image and blowing out hot air on it to clean it. Taking this concept and now letting out some sound, then sound and sustain that sound. We used the image of throwing a javolin and watching it land with the suspension. I find this a hard image to follow without moving my voice. Next we were walking through a crowded street constantly talking. Sometimes we would freeze and only two people would walk at a time. Then we did it one by one, stopping to look at the crowd and say, "My name is Dory (or whoever else's name it was)". Then Kevin stopped me and asked me to play the pro/con game. My subject was scorpions. Basically you just speak about the pros of scorpions until he says con then you go straight into the cons. The only way to play this game is to turn your brain off and not be scared of what crazy stuff may come out. I think I ended up having an army of scorpions spelling ART and then killing eachother so we could eat them. Great exercise. Kevin then gave us our vocography project which is telling three different stories in our life that involved sound.
We had acting most of the week with Marcello. We started with a quick review of all of our exercises adding components to them and moving into improv again. We moved the group through 10 different speeds. We did a lot of group building exercises with him which was really wonderful. Another exercise in this category is the chorus movement on a suspended board. The chorus decides when to follow the hero balancing the space and when they stop, another hero enters and the past hero joins the chorus. We worked on the 20 step glass grab (grab a glass, drink it, see another glass, grab it, throw the other one out, drink it). We moved this into 3 person improvs. It was difficult to keep the drink movement in mind while reacting to your peers and acknowedging there is an audience... as Caroline said, 'Welcome to theatre'. Then we presented one and two people improvs with a clear reason to enter the space and a clear reason to leave the space.
We watched a film on LaCoq and his work (this was one of Marcello's teachers so a lot of our exercises in acting are LaCoq based). Very interesting. The next day we worked on the 31 step boatman. We start this step exercises very sectioned and move them into a smooth transition between movements. 'The body remembers.'
In movement this week we started with a Feldenkrais exercise where we focus on our two thumbs together and they move us around the space. Then we played the peripheral game, having to keep two people always in your periphery. We warmed up swinging our arms back, around, & down then adding a jump in the middle. Next we stretched our legs getting ready for our next step into handstand. From crouching, one leg stretches back across the floor, when it is straight it comes up and you use that momentum to lift the other leg off the floor (image of painting a red line). We did hand stands across the floor starting with one leg up, then one leg comes up to say hello, scissors, reversing the movement, then using unbroken eye contact with a partner. Finally we worked on Negative and positive space playing the shape game with a partner. It was really interesting to see what kind of stories this game would tell based on the partner grouping. Was it beautiful and flowing, did it have a theme, or was it completely sectioned and weird.
We finished the week in Principia Comica with Scott and Mike then Music with Gianni. We told our aphorisms. Mine was: 'Reality is funny as long as it doesn't happen to you'. We made many observations and talked more about the expectations in class. We discussed the fact that most of our jokes were about sex. This segued into our discussion of the body and how it is percieved in different cultures and why. We will continue on this topice next week.
In Music we went over some of the dances we had learned the week before, and then learned the turns. We also learned a song to sing and Gianni gave us a beautiful poem to read. Great way to end the week.
Ironically I had been bitten by a spider this week on both arms and was having a pretty major reaction to them. I was about to go to the doctor when Thursday rolled around and I felt much better and the poison started to drain thank goodness. Well, I'm enjoying a much needed rest but I will be practicing most of the weekend as well. Tomorrow we are going on a hike in the Pratomagno with Scott so that should be fun.
My Birthday Pictures:
Here's Persey ready for my Birthday adventure!
Jesse and me!
Civita di Bagnareggio, la citta che muore.
Us in front of the city.
Me and Persey walking down the foot bridge.
Old Oil Presses found in the caverns where people used to live.
Persey and me sitting in an alleyway.
Sushi Boat!!
Me and Jesse at our table posing.
Hot Saki anyone?!
End of the night with my champagne and my Persey.
Here are some photos from the Wine Tasting:
Me, Julie, and look at Courtney!!
Ben pretending to work behind the counter for Bob and Meredith.
Me and Jesse
Kevin, Louise, Katie, and Bob
Caroline, Courtney, Meredith, and me
Taylor and me!
I had a great birthday weekend. It started with a wine tasting at the Charleston Enoteca. On Saturday Bea and Cesare gave me a book Il Barone Rampante and made me a birthday tiramisu. On Sunday, my actual birthday, I woke up to bellinis, breakfast in bed, and a bouquet of flowers (my husband is awesome). Then we went to Civita di Bagnoreggio, La citta che muore (the dying city), it is a place I've wanted to go visit for a long time. On the way we stopped at the Outlet Mall in Valdichiana so I could buy my birthday present from my mom (I bought three new pairs of designer jeans). When we got home Jesse had some wonderful Franciacorto champagne waiting for me and my present, a Breil necklace called Bloom; it is amazing because you can change the sizes and the look of the whole necklace -- it can become a bracelet as well! To end the night Jesse took me to a new Sushi restaurant. For those of you that know me well, you know this is my favorite food so I was really excited and it was gooood!! I love my husband! Momma called me and we were able to talk for a while. I miss her so much, especially during any holiday, so it was nice to get a long talk in. Everyone on facebook wrote me to wish me a happy birthday and it made me feel really special. Thanks you guys!! I had a great birthday!!!!
Thursday was a great day. We had Music class all day with Gianni Bruschi. We starting learning the basic steps of the Pizzicato which is the ritualistic dance in Tarantismo. After a person has been bitten by a spider, snake, or stung by a scorpion they would gather together musicians and the women of the town would dress the victim in all white. They would begin on the ground and start to dance for days and days. The family would cook for the musicians as payment. This is a very passionate tradition. Later that day we learned how to play the tamborello and some of the other percussion instruments used in the Tarantismo tradition. It was a really great day! Here's a picture of me and Brian posing with our instruments:
On Friday we started with voice class. We worked with a partner doing head and neck massages. Making sure the persons neck and head are free when they begin to hum. Then we worked with the freeness of the arms. At the end of this exercise we pulled our partner up to sitting and then let them down vertebrae by vertebrae. Next we worked with the baton doing some Pilates work, into hanging off the baton while standing, then sitting and exhaling as we go down vertebrae by vertebrae while the the baton pulls us forward. After this we worked in a circle as a group, first on consonants (breath then sound) then breathing. We each did a concert just using our breath which morphed into a group working with the E.E. Cummings text. This text has been very hard for me to memorize so I hope to make some more progress on that this weekend.
In movement yesterday we started by walking in the space. Next Claudia asked us to keep the space balanced, two people started and then we went in one at a time, then 3 ft. away from eachother to 6 ft. away to 9 ft. away then back in to barely touching moving into levels. After our Yoga we started working on elbow stands. I don't know how long it will take me to get this one. It does take a lot of strength. We did some downward dog relay races across the floor, forwards, backwards, and sideways. Then we started in downward dog and walked up the wall as far as we could go. I found this exercise very fun and helpful in finding the way my pelvis tilts when I go up in a handstand. We did this is groups using each other as a counterweight, going over and under each other. It was really fun and pretty funny. It was interesting to see who took what risks. I was a little too unstable to crawl on top of people while on the wall. I'll get there soon enough. Finally we worked on saggital and horizontal planes in Laban work. The saggital for me was much easier than the horizontal. I had more trouble figuring out what was and wasn't horizontal rather than what was or wasn't forwards, backwards, up, and down. This morphed into a group picture in both cases.
Me and Persephone Len having a nice conversation after class today:
It has been raining all week so far. This has been hard for me because I really depend on sunlight. I'm a pretty sleepy person when it rains all the time and sadness can really catch up to me.
Today was interesting but harder for my ADD self because it was a lot of sitting and talking. We started with Principia Comica I with Scott McGehee and Michael Grady. This is the study of comedy. What's funny? This class is aimed to help us form our thesis project through finding our own point of view or angle on life. We will be sharing things we find comic in life through Aphorisms, jokes, journaling, and our facebook page where we will share viral videos as well as other observations. We also broke up into groups and did some lazzi. Bob, Meredith, and I picked (without knowing what we were picking) a lazzi where someone had to use the other's limb in order to trick the third person. We made it a grave robbing scene... niccccce!
The film lecture series today was about the History of Comedia dell'Arte. Scott explains the historical implications and backdrop of the uprising of Commedia dell'Arte. Very interesting!!
We had our first music lesson with Gianni Bruschi today. We will study the southern Italian tradition of music, the Tarantella. Today we explained with words and pictures what music meant to us and how we found music. My story revolved around a picture of a foot print in the sand and then three other pictures that represented different points in my life. Here is my story:
'Mary walked into the living room and found her daughter sitting on the ground in front of the television. She was certainly amazed that her daughter was transfixed, mesmerized by the opera on PBS. I was 3 years old.
My father was the musician of the family. He had been raised in a poor family on a cotton farm in Opelika on the border of Alabama and Georgia. He told me stories of a time when there was no television, just their favorite radio programs. A time of deep seeded racism, hate, and poverty... But allso a time of music; Jimmy Rogers and the Blues. He played guitar with Paw Paw on the front "po'ch" as they say in Alabama. Songs that had been handed down between friends and families. Songs with stories, history, and worth.
I'm not sure when Daddy started writing music but it is the first music I had ever known. From the time I was just a baby sitting on his lap to the day in November when he passed away, music was his legacy, his gift to us.
Momma says she doesn't remember a time I wasn't singing. She insisted we join a church and Daddy agreed to the Presbyterian Church on Calvin St. because his friend was the minister and he was known to be incredibly liberal as well. I joined the Youth Choir and made my first best friend Jamie. Her parents were the Youth Choir directors and we did plays together. Their support and love really paved my way in music and theatre. We sang together from Elementary School to High School. My life from this point began to become sections that eventually informed my decisions in life and music. There was a time when I became a person that I never knew I would be: All-State Choir, Pom Pon Squad, Cheerleader, Theatre, pageants. But because of all of this, I was awarded a very prestigious scholarship to College if I majored in Music. That is when I started taking lessons with Janice Yoes who said to me, "You are a Coloratura Soprano". I had found my niche. Daddy said the last thing the world needed was another big woman standing on stage screamin'. However, he was very supportive and proud of all of my accomplishments in Opera.
There is always a point in time where you pull away from your parents. You need this to start making your own way in life, your own decisions. Then you come back and my bond with my parents became stronger than it had been since I was a small child. Daddy still didn't understand a lot of my taste in music. "Rap is not music. If you want to say it is a form of poetry I will slightly buy that, but I think it is a bunch of bullshit", he would say. I didn't pick up a guitar until it was much too late for Daddy to ever teach me anything because of the crippling arthritis that had taken over his joints. So, I listened to his records and stories about his life as a rockabilly star in the south. Opening for Johnny Cash was one of my favorite stories. "What did you talk to him about Daddy?" "Oh just about how hard it is to make it in the music business." Daddy used to get up in the middle of the night and tell momma the muse had come, then he would go and write music. I guess that is how it has always been for me, though my muse has always been my father. I can only hope to make as big of a footprint in the sand as he did in his lifetime. That is why music is in my soul.'
