Ahhh. I've moved. And I think I'm really going to like living here.
I'm in an airy, light, old house in Clapton, in a room that's more than twice the size of the one I had in Vermin House. A nice high ceiling--and room for a chair! There wasn't even enough space in my old room to lie down on the floor to do my back stretches. It'll be a pleasure to stretch out in a room like this.
I bIked over past school today (maybe 30 minutes, which is also about how long it'd take by bus) and then came back and wandered around my new neighborhood, found the local pub (with a quirky name, something like The Crooked Billet) and a couple of little restaurants and cafes (in addition to the ever-present kebab shops), checked out the bus routes, etc. My housemates told me of a couple other pubs a few minutes away that overlook the canal. And I found Hackney Downs, a pleasant park just a few minutes away. I think I mentioned the large park at the end of the block, too. I've rearranged my new room and spent most of the morning unpacking. It's nice to have leisure time to do all this. Unlike last October, when I moved in and started classes all within about 48 hours. And also unlike last October, I didn't get egged on my way home the first night in my new place. Ah, Plaistow, I will not shed tears for you.
Another good sign: Last night not one but two housemates brought home some Haagen Dazs. Some housemates will come and go over the next few months, but nations represented include Australia, Guatemala by way of Mexico, Italy, Switzerland, and the US. At any given time there will be 4 to 7 people living here. We'll eventually settle down to 5. Six when Robin comes next May-July or -August.
My new address, in case anybody needs it:
22 Cleveleys Road
London E5 9JN
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
The 20 movements
One of the main events at the end of the first year is each student's presentation of 20 specific movements that we learned over the course of the year. We all have the same repertoire to draw from, but it's quite revealing how everyone does them differently and how each person strings them together in their own unique way. I'd heard that the 20 movements show who you are. That's quite a claim. But I'll grant that there's something to it. I wouldn't say the 20 movements are likely to reveal something that's never come to light before, more that they often crystallize some key parts of what has shown through from time to time.
We 40 or so did our presentations over three days, and we all watched each of them. The 2nd years were invited to come, too, and several did. As did most of the teachers. I'd worked on my presentation quite a bit. I enjoyed the challenge of finding a flow from one movement to another, also including some surprising juxtapositions and varying the rhythms. A few movements take just a few seconds. Others are quite involved--a dozen steps or more. And you can cycle through a movement several times before moving on if you want; so each presentation took a while. Mine was about 8 minutes. You're out there, all by yourself in front of potentially the whole school. The stage is yours. The time is yours. The goal is more to show yourself than it is to hide your mistakes, because often the things that are most difficult for you show you more in your fullness. (The things that are most playful often do, too.)
As I watched others go before me, I often thought of which movement I would go into from the one they were doing, just as a review to myself. The morning I was to go, I was a bit chagrined to see that a classmate had almost the same routine as I'd be doing a few people later. Of the 20 transitions, about a dozen of hers were the same as mine. Oh no, I thought at first, mine's going to look so familiar after this. But each of us does them differently--different bodies, different ways of moving, different things that we bring to it--and so after she'd finished, I realized mine would be different in its own way. I'm not sure anyone but me (and maybe she) noticed the similarities of pattern when all was said and done.
Doing the 20 movements was one of the highlights of the year for me. The feedback afterward was very encouraging, and I got a lot of strokes from my classmates. I don't know exactly what it looked like, but several people commented on the "maturity" I brought to it, which I really do think was not just a way of saying I'm obviously older. (One of the teachers even said I look much younger now than when I started last fall. I am a lot more limber. And lighter.) I won't go into the specifics of the comments here, but apparently something did show through that drew on a different level of life experience. I felt really good about it. It was one of those times (that we all need so much) when I could tell that I really have learned something in my time here.
It was also a time when I could get out of my head and trust that my body knew what to do. I remember thinking at one point in the middle of it all, "Did I just forget something there? Did I skip a movement?" But there wasn't time to stop and fret over it. Actually I could have stopped and done that, but I didn't want to. So I just went on, trusting that my body remembered the patterns I'd rehearsed. I wish I could do that more often.
We 40 or so did our presentations over three days, and we all watched each of them. The 2nd years were invited to come, too, and several did. As did most of the teachers. I'd worked on my presentation quite a bit. I enjoyed the challenge of finding a flow from one movement to another, also including some surprising juxtapositions and varying the rhythms. A few movements take just a few seconds. Others are quite involved--a dozen steps or more. And you can cycle through a movement several times before moving on if you want; so each presentation took a while. Mine was about 8 minutes. You're out there, all by yourself in front of potentially the whole school. The stage is yours. The time is yours. The goal is more to show yourself than it is to hide your mistakes, because often the things that are most difficult for you show you more in your fullness. (The things that are most playful often do, too.)
As I watched others go before me, I often thought of which movement I would go into from the one they were doing, just as a review to myself. The morning I was to go, I was a bit chagrined to see that a classmate had almost the same routine as I'd be doing a few people later. Of the 20 transitions, about a dozen of hers were the same as mine. Oh no, I thought at first, mine's going to look so familiar after this. But each of us does them differently--different bodies, different ways of moving, different things that we bring to it--and so after she'd finished, I realized mine would be different in its own way. I'm not sure anyone but me (and maybe she) noticed the similarities of pattern when all was said and done.
Doing the 20 movements was one of the highlights of the year for me. The feedback afterward was very encouraging, and I got a lot of strokes from my classmates. I don't know exactly what it looked like, but several people commented on the "maturity" I brought to it, which I really do think was not just a way of saying I'm obviously older. (One of the teachers even said I look much younger now than when I started last fall. I am a lot more limber. And lighter.) I won't go into the specifics of the comments here, but apparently something did show through that drew on a different level of life experience. I felt really good about it. It was one of those times (that we all need so much) when I could tell that I really have learned something in my time here.
It was also a time when I could get out of my head and trust that my body knew what to do. I remember thinking at one point in the middle of it all, "Did I just forget something there? Did I skip a movement?" But there wasn't time to stop and fret over it. Actually I could have stopped and done that, but I didn't want to. So I just went on, trusting that my body remembered the patterns I'd rehearsed. I wish I could do that more often.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
End of Year 1
Wow. What a ride, especially over the past few weeks. I won't try to put it all in one post.
At the beginning of the 7th week when we presented our final works-in-progress, they were so rough that the teachers decided on the spot that we wouldn't be ready to show them at the scheduled time. So final presentations were postponed by 6 days. A wise decision, though it threw scheduling into chaos (something that happens here fairly regularly). The pieces continued to grow and change in the extra time given. Our piece in particular was disjointed and benefited from the extra days. Even a week later--on the Monday of Week 8--it was pretty awful, but the final 72 hours proved to be fruitful (as well as temperamentally volatile). Two-thirds of what we ended up with was created in the final three days.
The six final group presentations varied greatly in subject and treatment. As did the 50 final projects the Advanced Course students presented in the last two weeks. And the 40 or so individual 20-movement presentations that we in the Initiation Course did on the last Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. (It's been a busy end of term.) Oh yes, and the nearly 40 double Acrobatics presentations in Week 7--one a set routine, the other created by each of the first years. Except me, who just did a set routine since I had to protect my neck and was pretty low in energy following a weekend of being sick.
I didn't have swine flu, but at least one classmate has had. I'm not sure what the impact has been in the US except to know that Robin had it and got through it OK, but it's starting to hit pretty hard here. They're predicting up to 65,000 deaths in the UK, and I've read of plans to give everyone shots. Concern jumped to a new level last week when a GP and an apparently previously healthy 6-year-old girl both died on the same day. They're expecting up to 100,000 new cases each week. Most of them mild, of course, but the numbers are remarkable. So this is a pandemic...
Moving house
Now that classes are over, it's time for me to get back to work and also to move out of my old digs. I won't be sad to shut the door on that place. Again, fine housemates (what else can one say?), but a bad house to live in. Poorly heated, often infested (flies, mice, throw in a little mold), dark, a crowded little room, not much to offer in terms of location. Frankly, Plaistow--the town I've lived in since October--doesn't have a lot to recommend it. I'll be moving to Clapton (or Hackney--not quite sure what forms the boundary), to a house with more room, more heat, more light, another set of good housemates, in a much more pleasant part of town. A bit farther from school, and not at all convenient to the Tube, but I can live with that. More bike riding lies ahead, as well as increased familiarity with the bus system and parts of the Overground and National Rail.
More anon, depending on internet access. Our connection at home went kaput. (I do not recommend Vodafone Mobile Broadband. I'm locked in one of those absurd situations where to get out of an internet contract I have to negotiate with the company via internet, even though my internet connection with them doesn't work. Grrr. Honestly, why do they even have stores if the staff there just tell you you have to do your business through your computer?)
Another plus of the new house -- wired for internet. And it works.
At the beginning of the 7th week when we presented our final works-in-progress, they were so rough that the teachers decided on the spot that we wouldn't be ready to show them at the scheduled time. So final presentations were postponed by 6 days. A wise decision, though it threw scheduling into chaos (something that happens here fairly regularly). The pieces continued to grow and change in the extra time given. Our piece in particular was disjointed and benefited from the extra days. Even a week later--on the Monday of Week 8--it was pretty awful, but the final 72 hours proved to be fruitful (as well as temperamentally volatile). Two-thirds of what we ended up with was created in the final three days.
The six final group presentations varied greatly in subject and treatment. As did the 50 final projects the Advanced Course students presented in the last two weeks. And the 40 or so individual 20-movement presentations that we in the Initiation Course did on the last Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. (It's been a busy end of term.) Oh yes, and the nearly 40 double Acrobatics presentations in Week 7--one a set routine, the other created by each of the first years. Except me, who just did a set routine since I had to protect my neck and was pretty low in energy following a weekend of being sick.
I didn't have swine flu, but at least one classmate has had. I'm not sure what the impact has been in the US except to know that Robin had it and got through it OK, but it's starting to hit pretty hard here. They're predicting up to 65,000 deaths in the UK, and I've read of plans to give everyone shots. Concern jumped to a new level last week when a GP and an apparently previously healthy 6-year-old girl both died on the same day. They're expecting up to 100,000 new cases each week. Most of them mild, of course, but the numbers are remarkable. So this is a pandemic...
Moving house
Now that classes are over, it's time for me to get back to work and also to move out of my old digs. I won't be sad to shut the door on that place. Again, fine housemates (what else can one say?), but a bad house to live in. Poorly heated, often infested (flies, mice, throw in a little mold), dark, a crowded little room, not much to offer in terms of location. Frankly, Plaistow--the town I've lived in since October--doesn't have a lot to recommend it. I'll be moving to Clapton (or Hackney--not quite sure what forms the boundary), to a house with more room, more heat, more light, another set of good housemates, in a much more pleasant part of town. A bit farther from school, and not at all convenient to the Tube, but I can live with that. More bike riding lies ahead, as well as increased familiarity with the bus system and parts of the Overground and National Rail.
More anon, depending on internet access. Our connection at home went kaput. (I do not recommend Vodafone Mobile Broadband. I'm locked in one of those absurd situations where to get out of an internet contract I have to negotiate with the company via internet, even though my internet connection with them doesn't work. Grrr. Honestly, why do they even have stores if the staff there just tell you you have to do your business through your computer?)
Another plus of the new house -- wired for internet. And it works.
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