Lecoq: Cataclysm - Exodus

 Neutral Mask week 4:

Monday:

In movement class we divided into two groups and had to keep possession of a ball and not let the other group take it away from us. After that, in groups of 5, we had to push a car, and in groups of 8, we had to set up a circus tent. Pushing the car was fun - we did it with different attitudes, Camille pushing and driving, me pulling on the other side. Romane, Leonore and Jonas pushing the car from the back with different positions. One with the back, another with the front, another runs and jumps. One, two, three, and we're off with the car. Op! Too far! We ran to the front to stop the car.

In mask, we began with cataclysms. We are climbing the mountain and descending it, when all of a sudden, an earthquake happens. Guillaume and Ivet are killing it this round - It is not enough to just play the cataclysm, we have to react to it as well. Also, with the playing of the dis-equilibrium. Anne told me I was engaged, but that I was tout-seul. After, Xiao told me that I was not showing my mask a lot. It's weird - with the lack of attention from the teacher, I didn't feel very inspired to show the mask. Plus, I was still working on the previous note, which is to not be tired. I ate my breath, which meant that I didn't do a lot of breathing through my movements. I need to be careful of that, and use my breath to reflect the space.

Autocour this week is the Exodus, and I am in a group with all French speakers. This is going to be fun.

In LEM, we finally moved the elements with our breath. We started by being in an air bubble, then pushing and pulling the air, then touching air with our face. Next we had a fish bowl in front of us, as our plexus, head, and hips, moving the water back and forth and in circular directions. After, we scooped earth with both hands, and threw them on the ground. I must remember to breathe through earth. Fire from a candle was definitely fun. The end of the class had us playing with transposing the elements on a piece of paper large enough to be carried by 4 people. It reminded me of how beautiful the work of other people could be. Fixed point was fun - it highlighted the movements of the scene.

Tuesday:

In movement class we played with equilibrium and dis-equilibrium. Pushing each other. Pushing one person. From the floor, crouched, to the floor and back. Slowly rising, and being pushed. We fell onto our hands, searching for connection with the floor. Next, we took a baton, and imagined it as the floor. One person holds it, and the other has to react to anything it does. Pretty fun exercise to do as a group. In hindsight, this could be a good exercise for the bateau.

In mask, we continued into the tempest. We arrive from the sea to the beach, and find ourselves in the tempest - a lot of wind, without the rain. I rediscovered the joy of the mask today, having fun moving against the wind, and being the wind. My note - again to essentialize. Yasuyo explain later that it's good to move, better in fact, than to not move at all. The journey of the mask is to essentialize anyway. This calmed me a little. I thought I wasn't getting it at all. We worked towards finding diagonal lines in the space. In our body, in the stage, pushing against, being pulled, surprising ourselves with the dis-equilibrium of the tempest. There seems to be a form that Lecoq is striving towards - and hey, guess what - I did come here to look for form. I hear Thomas, Ariel and Kelley in the back of my mind, and they ground me in sanity. It is true, I have time to journey, and then to essentialize that journey and put it with the forms that we are looking for. Perhaps a little wind in my fingers as I block my face from the wind (not too in front of the mask!), some wind in my body, the rhythms playing out in a minute manner, and the body, striving diagonally through the space in effort. I'm still searching.

Exodus is turning out nicely. We got stuck at the beginning - leaving the city, but we got to improvise a little bit of traversing the marshlands - les marais. We decided to have a Frontier, to traverse a snowy mountain, and also a frozen lake. Pretty excited about these landscapes.

Ahh, the sun is out!

Wednesday:

In movement class we visited the frozen lake. Putting on socks and 36 people gliding in the grande salle, I could almost feel the spray of the melted ice and smell the crisp christmas morning air. Hot chocolate, laughter of children, the scraping of blades against ice. We started normally, then we tried to find speed. Then we were babies again, trying to find our balance on ice for the first time, people bumping, a fall here and a split there. We became speed skaters, and then artistic figure skaters. Jonas turned and turned and squatted and turned. Then we essentialised skating so that we did it on the spot. The push, the glide, the switching of the leg, raising the other leg to show the effort of the leg. We did speed 1 and 2, apparently 3 to follow next week.

What a pity! We were looking forward to exploring the frozen lake independently in the autocour!

In mask we revisited the Hunt. We start in someplace natural, and we show the place. We see the animal, we reflect the animal in our bodies. We attack, it reacts, we chase. We mount le gamme from 4 to 5 to 6. Do we kill the animal? Elena, Xiao and I went up, and tried hunting a wolf. It was already on my mind when Eric said it, so it made absolute sense. We found it in a clearing, tried replicating its movements, shot it, and it chased us. I lost bearing of myself as it ran between us and I tried catching it but it slipped from my grasp. All I remember was jumping and feeling like my thighs were on fire. It's impossible! After, Eric would say that it's great I took the risk, but the audience only saw a feline animal. A wolf would have to be much much more agile. La niege. Suddenly I could picture the scene: boots crunching, bowstrings taut, ears alert, crisp cold air. Chase with fixed point! This would give us more things to play with in the terrain. Perhaps tripping over a rock? Slipping, passing over and under? Boy, it's already difficult to work on a fix point at body level 4, much less 5 or 6. Either way, I felt I played my heart out, and was satisfied. That's the most important.

The rest of the class passed in a blur. We slaughtered a poor crocodile 3 times. A pretty well-organized team was dispatched, they hunted it down while it was sleeping, then crushed it with a heavy rock, then beat it to death, and then they slitted its throat and stabbed it. Another innocent monkey was caught in a trap, beaten to death and stabbed. After we were done, Eric was laughing. He took the blood of the monkey and did warpaint on his face.

In the autocour, we worked on the Frontier and the frozen lake today. It's a pity we can't get the image of cracked ice I so want us to make. Perhaps tomorrow. I mean, we're left with the mountain, and we need le gamme to mount. 

In LEM, we revisited the 7 levels of tension, transposed them onto the body without the actor (whatever that means to you), and then essentialized the movements. This work seems closer to Arthaus' work.

Thursday:

In movement class we learnt to wrestle with Eric. There was a lot of equilibrium and dis-equilibrium in play, learning to accept and then fall, or not. The band on the waist came back to play. While wrestling with him, he lifted me around him. Incredible, lifting someone of my weight is no mean feat. 

In mask we continued the voyage with cataclysm. Today, it was water and fire. The tempest in the water has a suspension that looks terrible. And even though we might be turning in the space, we have to look at the horizon to share the mask with the audience. The mask walks through the forest and discovers the fire, tries to run but himself surrounded. He then takes the decision to run through the fire. When he exits, he finds the mountain.

When I went up, it was only to do the fire. I turned and was already too close to the forest. As I travelled through a couple of fixed point branches, I saw the birds fly in the opposite direction, and then a pig (pig??) too. Then I smelt and heard the crackling. I pushed some foliage up and discovered the fire right in front of me. I jumped back, trying to reflect the fire, and tripped over a log. First I ran right, found a wall of fire, then left, and found that most of the trees there were also on fire. I turned and was surrounded. I had to run through the fire. I jumped. My parkour through the fire was long and hard, and had branches and ember falling on me. It's possible that my mask was not shared, but I was attempting fixed points at level 6, and Paola commented on the fact that I did it, so that was cool. She said that she saw the fire was too close, and that she saw the distance when I tripped. She has eyes of an eagle. Later, Romane would say that I've become lighter in the mask, but because of that, my fixed points had become lighter too. Perfect, more things to work on. 

One of my classmates accidentally unmasked himself as he spun through the tempest. Bridget - dear Bridget - finally broke down in class as she said: 'My head is in the way.' Paola joined her and said 'So move. The only solution is to move. That's the way of the samurai.' My respect for her went up a few more notches.

Autocour is difficult. The French have similar understandings of the mask as I do, which is fantastic, but everyone is too busy being in their heads while doing it. Nobody is actually porting le masque. Plus, we're not doing anything together.

Friday:

It's a great day. Great day for acrobatics! Half an hour of stretching, then tumbling and hand stands and learning how to fall down. Eric called me to demonstrate for the second time this week. It's a pretty fuckin good week! Also, I held a handstand for at least 3 seconds.

In autocour practice we got nowhere. Everyone is still trooping along with no change in dynamics.

Well, autocour was a disaster. Not one team got a good remark. Paola stopped us halfway through and told us that it began well, and then it ended the moment we left the house, which was our first image. Most of the teams had fun killing off team members, and it was fun to watch them transition out. The only note Paola gave was that they died and we gave 0 fucks about them. And then she walked out halfway through during another presentation. I guess she'd had enough.

I did remember the scene about fending off wolves though. Nobody did the bateau.

Next week's autocour is the hurricane. Hallelujah.