Voice lessons (or, Simon says)

Simon, our Voice teacher, said something today that I thought described the apparent goal of Lispa in general. (When I think about it, It seems a bit odd that I've never even heard the last names of almost allof our teachers (or of my fellow students, for that matter). And no one ever refers to "the teachers" as faculty, certainly not as professors.) The gist of what Simon said was that what he's trying to do is help us to recover good and healthy ways of using our voices that, through bad learning, misuse, or disuse, we've forgotten--ways that will help us to communicate more effectively and more naturally if only we can get our bodies to remember them and retrain ourselves into using those practices again.

The school, by focusing on what is called physical theatre, aims to help us use our bodies in such ways. My middle-aged body is a good example of the stiffness that comes from inattention, bad habits, and years of neglecting to keep myself limber. My distress has been that I won't be able to regain the flexibility that I lost as a child. I literally can't remember the last time I could sit cross-legged on the floor, for example, and I've always felt clunky and awkward in any kind of freestyle dancing. But Ilan, our main Movement teacher--a very childlike, limber, and young-acting man whom, rumor has it, is 76 years old--keeps assuring me that I can indeed regain lost flexibility. And, bless him, he also says he can already see a difference in the way I move.

The recovery of something childlike, young, creative, expressive, something that (we are repeatedly told) our bodies know even if our minds no longer remember or understand: this seems to be a lot of the aim here. That and encouraging us to find the bold and generous creator/artist/communicator within. And a more harmonious unity of body, will, and spirit.

Or so it seems after seven weeks.

I can see why Thomas keeps saying not to think of this as an acting school.

PS -- Speaking of stiffness, the hot Epsom salts bath seems to have headed off a lot of the pain I expected after Acrobatics class yesterday. I decided not to try a headstand again today. But I need to try to get back on that horse again tomorrow or Saturday. Our Acrobatics presentations are less than a week away. I need to set aside the hesitations and fears that hold me back and just go for it. I want to do that. After all, that's what I'm here for: to push through the things in my own head and habits that hold me back.