Lecoq: Bon voyage

 This week we started with the masks.


Neutral Mask week 1:

We jumped into the ship, and pushed off with The Awakening. To discover the awakening of all awakenings. How everyone awakes. How the mask awakes. There is a rhythm and music to awakening. What was the time just? The mask sees and the mask goes. I woke up to 'Da Hai' playing in my head, and that was useful for rhythms. However, there was too much going on in my head, and between the music and all the notes in my head, I could barely super-impose a forest on the salle verte that we were in. At the end of the improvisation, Anne looked at me and said: 'You didn't see.' My eyes were wide open but I wasn't in my imagination.

The second day we did la vie des géants. How slowly and how big do giants move. It is possible that we as students are too quick and too slow, and this exercise will begin to slow us down. I loved this exercise. Since I'm usually too quick for the moment, I was able to reach deep inside and savour the movements. At this point I tapped into my imagination a little. I went from slow heavy walking to a slow heavy running - we got to stretch the limits - and then I stopped, because I felt the time to change it up. I must have relaxed at this point, because I was trying to see the space. Then I tore a tree from the ground and chopped it up and threw it into the fire. At the end of the improvisation, Yasuyo told me I started well, but I lost the tension. Also, my physical motion was not yet on point. So she told us to build a wall together. Unfortunately I ran away from the theme and build a small house - she wanted us to build a wall bigger than us. Big big bigggggggggger.

Movement classes so far have been great. End of last week, Anne broke down how to jump and climb a wall. This week, Francois started by getting us to go across the room thinking about how many points are in contact with the floor - 2, 3, 4. And then to choose a closed space, or an open space during the poses; then also during the transitions. Next, Anne taught us the 10 photogenic positions:
1. Samurai
2. Table
3. Harlequin
4. Forward feint
5. Open hips
6. Open hips other side
7. Forward feint other side
8. Harlequin 2
9. Table
10. Samurai
All the axes were used.
We also did le Jeu. Games included the name tag, breaking out of a circle, the group passing one brave soul in the center.

On Wednesday, we awoke into a fog, passed though it til it thinned, found a lake, and threw a stone into it. While I had done this before, Eric gave me more to think about. After I had launched the stone, I flew with it, and the moment it landed, I retreated back to my axis to grow. His note was, of course, 'Don't go back into yourself.' He was right - I'm taking Lecoq so I can stay external. Find the zen outside of my head. Be in the moment physically. So I need to push myself to stay outside with the mask. When the stone enters the lake, I need to stay exterior and grow. How do I conquer the lake, the world, without coming back to myself? Without any of this ego?

Agathe threw the rock, and she threw the rock, again and again. Each time the rock didn't fly. But when she took off her mask - She looked completely present.

On Thursday, we urgently walked to the dock to wave goodbye to a loved one, and then walk off. Each time someone went up and performed, I felt a bit of a chill. Ivet almost disappeared into a woman waving bye on the docks. Although I did feel a sense of disappointment. If we're waving goodbye to a loved one, wouldn't we be sad, left wanting? Why did Paola not want us to be sad? Perhaps we were too much so. I joined the ensemble at the end and it was not good. Some got 'Too early!' Others 'Too late'. Some even 'Why stop'? I got 'Il faut monter le masque.' Which is basically I'm not wearing the mask.



The end of the week rolled around and we got destroyed for the autocour: 'If you're a choir, sing!' 'If you're a schoolboy, be a schoolboy!' 'How do you play with water in the fountain?' 'Fixed point, feel the water.' 'The ohm in the yoga is too cliche.' 'The only life in the otherwise dead town is the couple quarrelling.' 'The space is empty, empty, empty.' 'The same hour all day!'

Bon voyage.

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