The lack of posts recently reflects, at least in part, the pace of things. With only three weeks ahead, everything is accelerating. Just a few notes here and then, I hope, more short posts in the next three weeks.
The schedule changes from here on out, to give us more time to work on our final group presentation (for me, that's the community folk dance thing) as well as individual presentations in acrobatics and what they call the 20 movements, which are choreographed moves that we each string together in a unique flow. Many are mime-type movements (like climbing a wall or punting a boat on a river), some are a succession of specific postures or "attitudes," some are acrobatic moves. Each is quite specific and some are complex, so we'll be getting a series of refresher sessions over the next week or two. The acrobatics presentations (one set routine, one of each student's devising) have me a bit distressed. I had to take it easy for a couple of weeks since I'd reinjured my neck (yet again!) and now there's not a lot of time left, especially for someone like me who really needs to do it on the padded mats that are in one of the classrooms, and the classrooms are almost always in use. I'm going to have to cut back on the hours I work at my job in the next few weeks to prepare.
A few brief notes:
¶ I may have mentioned earlier that we'd watched a film on CG Jung a while back. I've started doing some reading on him (finally getting around to Mary Ann Mattoon's book, for those back home who also knew her--and of course I wish I'd read it years ago). I'm seeing where some basic elements of the Lispa approach reflect Jung's thought. For example, that the unconscious is the source of creativity, and how the mask and countermask work that we did a bit ago parallel his ideas about persona and shadow.
¶ We also watched a film on the director Peter Brook a week or two ago. At one point he talks of contrasting kinds of improv. One is where they tell you you're so many years old, and you're dealing with these pressures at home and at work, and this is where you are, and these are the things around you, and this is what happens to provoke you. Now improvise. And the other is, Here's a shoe. Improvise. Occasionally we shade toward the first of those scenarios, but for the most part we deal with the second.
¶ So often my movements in improv are too small, too relaxed. A lot of that, I recognize, reflects my personality. But I also think it comes from my having watched so much more film than stage work. So much of film is amplified by the camera so the movements can be--have to be--small, and the intensity is in the magnification that the camera does of the small movement and gesture. Also, as an audience we often don't believe things on film that are done too big (regarding character, not action like blowing things up). So also with personal interactions, sometimes (at least in an understated culture like in Minnesota): smaller things seem more trustworthy, or at least there's a distrust of too much emotion or movement. You know the old joke: How can you tell if a Minnesotan is outgoing? He looks at your shoes when he talks to you.
¶ I'm only just starting to understand how live theatre is so much different from film. For example, if you see two people in a film who are hiding from (or looking for) each other backing up toward one another and then, butt to butt, pivot around each other, never knowing the other is there, it may be amusing but it's a bit like, C'mon, we've seen this before. Seeing it in live theatre is more enjoyable because you're part of it. Yes, you've seen it all before, but what's enjoyable is how well they do it, not that they do it. We watch differently because we invest differently in a play than we do in a film or a TV show.
More scattered thoughts later.
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