Lecoq: The Ballet d'une Poursuite

 When I was young I pursued the fun. Now, I try to make the pursue fun.

Monday

In movement, we protected one and feared another, and then did a satellite - planet duo. All the ways we can be in spatial relationship with someone else. Far away, right behind, in front of, on top of (??), below. There was a fun tag we played where the chaser had to chase a player, and we stood in formation:

o   o   o
o   o   o 
o   o   o

At any time, the player could stand behind, or in front of a column, and the player role would be transferred to the person at the other end of a column. The game was to play it in a way to confuse the chaser. Or so it would've been, except that my team was too busy playing tag.

x                      o
o   o   o            o   o   o          o   o   o
o   o   o            o   o   o          o   o   o
o   o   o            x   o   o          o   o   o
                                                x

Rules were made to be changed, and I want to change the rules of this game. Perhaps adding a rule for rows, or making the taggers run in rows / columns. There are so many possibilities!

In autocour, I'm a little unhappy that people are making teams before the weekend, but to each their own. In my opinion, this doesn't take care of the whole group. And we are a group. This week, we do the choreography of the chase with 57 attitudes. That's right, we're doing a ballet of a pursuit. Everyone's pretty generous with each other this week on my team, I think the school is doing a good job in breaking us.

And in the entretien, Paola has a warm smile for me, and she soon became frustrating again. Il faut aggrandir (comme toujour), il faut engage plus (if I stare any more daggers at them my eyes will become a drill), et il faut provoquer le comedien (wtf). Il faut jouer.

After listening to the interviews of everyone else, I'm starting to understand that they're still provoking us. Well, fuck, time to provoke them too.

Tuesday:

In movement with Anne, we did the pursuit again. All 57 attitudes. With cartoon-y energy, and then with barely any. Also, in reverse. C'est tout. That's it.

With Yasuyo, we started with food. Food!! I love watching food. Everyone's personality is returning, and Jonathan has the most relaxed face of us all, which is super fun to watch. Something about how the emotions come up just from the movement of the body. Remi attempted a sexy buerre, simmering over the pan, slipping and gliding. We explored pate on the pan, butter on the pan, butter and bread and how they relate to each other in the space, then spaghetti and eggs, and then we made 4 groups and attempted to bake something. Finding the mix was a challenge - we have to go between each other's space, but also give everyone space; going above and under, going around, and slight difference in rhythms. After breaking off as a chocolate piece (we did chocolate bread), I had to walk pretty far to the mix (Audrey: 'chocolate - chocolate - chocolate'), then Sasha and I melted and bubbled up as the rest of the team rose and expanded as dough. Even the audience whispered 'chocolate'. Did I mention I was chocolate?

In autocour, we've improvised and found plenty of ideas, now we just have to put it together in a way that everyone likes.

Wednesday:

Acrobatics is fun-ner than usual. My handstand is getting better, and I am able to do it with a little pop-up. It helps me stretch my center-line while upside down.

Improvisation with Anne centered around burning paper and a matchstick. Here I rediscovered the joy of switching between burning, having been burnt, and being smoke. There's freedom for playing after all.

The soiree of the second year was fantastic. If I had any doubts about wanting to do a second year in this school, it was completely wiped away. A simple boutique shop with two zealous girls trying to dress up a tourist had us laughing the entire sketch. The picture of two robbers pointing a gun at an old lady about to hang herself (and who put up her hands in front of the gun) was irony at its finest. Even the short that was supposed to make us cry made me tear up a little. The final moment when the mother chose to forgive the best friend for shooting her son was what did it. The choice.

Han Jie blew my mind away today in front of the school, located at 57 Rue du Faubourg Saint Denis. That's right. 57 attitudes.

Thursday:

In movement with Eric, we are sensing people in the space. Sharing the space with 1 other person, then 2. Attempting to lance the fillet with someone else at the same time. Then we went back to the 57 attitudes. He helped us with a small improvisation, where we do the movement with other people in the space, or start with different vectors. I'm happy to say, this is an improvisation that we attempted on Monday, so our autocour must be on the right track.

In improvisation with Paola (and dare I say, a masterclass?), we did elastic materials. First we discovered different ones, then we made a rubber band solo, and then en ensemble; figuring out how it stretches to the breaking point, returns, and then stretches past the breaking point. What word arrives? Using a fixed point and then stretching across the room. Is it better to do it with everyone else leaving from the fixed point? Or with only one person? What situation can be imposed on it? So many. A warfront appeared for me. With Anna leaving from the outstretched hands of the four of us, I felt the goosebumps rise as she rushed back to embrace us, refusing to leave. As she left and broke what held us, I felt myself fall to the ground. C'est just, mais un peu timide.

The elastic can be used always in humane situations. There's something about how humans feel emotions and each other that are very elastic. We can almost say that humans relate to each other in an elastic manner. Perhaps not so much about the relationship of humans with god. But with each other, yes.

Autocour was efficient today. We wasted no time in getting to work, and we finished practically the whole thing in a day. With 12 people in the space, it's really difficult to settle on one fixed idea, but we managed to put a sequence together with all the interesting dynamics that we discovered during improvisation. Also, we're adding in Nicky's cool choreo movements, and it's great that a whole bunch of us in the team like Pina Bausch. That's always a good start.

Friday:

Last day for the trimester, and in movement with Paula we attempted la guerre with two different elements on two sides of the battlefield. First it was Mr. Resort against concrete, which ended tragically. Then there was a platoon of balls against glass, which was one sided, and also not really glass at all. The last one was a rubberband against paper. You'd be surprised how deep papercuts go.

The last autocour of the year had 6 dances, and it was extremely fun to watch everybody's interpretation. Luckily and unluckily, another team had the exact same song as us, and had similar ideas in choreography. Needless to say, we were destroyed.

On the long walk back home with Barbara, we heard the trumpet in the distance. Jonas??? It was a jazz band basking next to the Notre Dame! And who did we meet there dancing with the sun on his face, but Nathan - the lead of 'An American in Paris' - also classmate of Cindy!! All in all, not a bad last day of the trimester.

Next trimester, we'll do poetry, painting, animals, masks and all fun things to do with the intangible. I can't wait!