Lecoq: Des Animaux 2

 

Monday:

In movement with Frédéric, we begin to humanize and transpose some animal actions. We worked with horses, dogs, fish, chicken, lion and mouse today. How do they groom or brush their teeth? We start with the animals, figuring out some key movements, then transposing them on the action. A dog chases its tail in circles, and shakes its whole body clean. While wearing a vest, the dogomoid could, say, wear it in a circular way, and then shake it out. Similarly, a fish circles and shakes slower and with more precision. How does a dog or a chicken hang laundry to dry? Does the dog throw the laundry over the line, and then worry it?

Monday improv with Yasuyo! What a treat! We explored the rodent family, starting with squirrels, then to mice, then to rats then to hedgehogs, and then the fox. The squirrels were collecting food for winter, chewing nuts, guarding their stash, stealing each other, and then they flew. From branch to branch. The mice were poor things, scuttling in the house and stealing food, and then Joon got caught in a mousetrap. Rats were a disgusting lot, and we saw them trying to crawl through the sewers. Up and around circularly. Trying to get up. *bare your teeth* rats breathe rather quickly don't they? Whiskers trembling, ribcage heaving. Then the slow hedgehogs took the scene with their slowness and deliberateness. When everything was calm and quiet, a dog was let loose into the scene to play ball with those suckers. Lastly, we had 2 squirrels, two rats, two hedgehogs and a fox to enter last to hunt.

I need to buy clay for my mask but I'm putting it off. Oof

In LEM with Frederick we explored more passions and their stages. First we started out by being scared, and having 5 people share the space being scared. Next we had 5 people on a bench sharing laughter and passing it on (and monting). Then, a walk down the anger lane, increasing it slowly. The last scene had an angry teacher and two errant students who wouldn't stop putting their feet up (or angering the teacher).

Tuesday:

In movement with Anne, we practiced being animals doing actions. We attempted to transpose animal movements on concrete actions to find gestures, like how a dog chases its tail in circles, and how that can be transposed on a person looking behind at himself in the mirror. How a chicken walks around and freaks out. How a fish shakes itself, leads with the head. How the dog waits at the Gare for someone. And then realizes it's not the master. Then in pairs, we are couples who are getting ready, and then late. There was also the chance to laugh at each other, which must never be passed up.

Improv with Eric had us visiting a terrain park to watch les singes. Gorilles, macaques, bonobos, babouins, chimpanzees. The first wave had all the young ones up and jumping around as chimpanzees. Yelling, screaming, crawling along planks, gaining dominant positions. Gorilles had a similar thing, but with more bravado, more back, and more shouting and prostrating. I was proposed to be the alpha, to my delight, and ended up yelling down at Joon as he challenged the position. There was also posturing with submission. Baboons run around more, even swinging from tree to tree. The final scene has a gorilla bouncer and a chimpanzee with a list, letting monkeys into a vip party.

Wednesday:

Surprise acrobatics! Acrobatics was surprising and surprisingly easier. The forward flip was completely bonkers.

With Anne in improv we did the feline animals, exploring the hyena, tiger and the lion. There is a calm presence to the King of the jungle, his roar not to be confused with that of the tiger - more spatial than direct and scary. He stretches, is agile when changing direction, when getting up, when lying down. We played a little scene where the big, older, territorial lion has his throne challenged by a younger, braver one. They engage in a fight to the death! What is the rhythm of his declaration of territory, how does he try to use his voice to warn the younger wannabe. How do they fight? Hind legs on the ground, rearing up? Or just straight for the jugular.

In LEM, we worked on the passions. The first scene (in between 4 benches) was desire - it was basically 4 of us desiring to be like Nicky. There is a colloquial want that had less competition, a group need to be something, that was so far out of reach. Another group had desire for water, but that bordered on want, since there was a me involved, something more bodily, and something that was competitive. The second scene was vanity, Adam wanting to take a selfie for himself. There is a solo-Ness to vanity that turns, but that also looks down at others. There is a relationship to others in the space. Lastly, we went up as different passions to fill the space: Fear, anger, laughter, vanity, pride, proud, sadness, envy, desire, jealousy. They all exist in different concentric circles from the center, move in their particular way, and has different relationships with others in the space.

Thursday:

We flew with Anne today, working on big birds, small birds, fixed point with the wings, not too much undulation. We worked on the hunt of the falcon: how it takes off, it flaps and flies, it soars - there is turbulence - it sees its prey, it dives, it catches the prey with its talons as it flaps its wings. Then we work on the flight of the flamingo: how it takes off first with its leg like a sprinter, then it spreads its massive wings when there is enough velocity.

We dived into the sea with Paola, drinking some good seafood soup. We started with your standard fish, then in pairs we led each other by the head. We moved on to a school of fish, guarding the rhythms of the horde, changing directions often enough to seem multidirectional, and how we could transpose that onto shoppers lining up early for the black Friday fest. Next, we had octopus and their 8 tentacles (how to give that with 4 limbs), and transpose that in the work place. An octopus office worker doing 8 things at once. Then we had the crab race from side to side, looking at the world from the side of our eyes. This was transposed onto a metro with 5 crabs hanging onto the pole for dear life as a swarm of angry passengers swarm in. After, we played with jellyfish which get washed up ashore and dry into nothingness, then fish that are caught and are flapping around dying on land. La mort de les poissons.

Friday:

One full hour for juggling! We practiced with 3 balls, walking, sitting, jumping while juggling. We also practiced transitioning from one person to another - from in front, and from behind stepping in.

Animals autocour was hilarious with everyone trying their bestest. There were a few really good transpositions, like Martin's blind chicken, and Li's fish clerk, and Martin's smoking chicken, and Martin's shy kissing chicken. This chicken was really good.

Time to make my first mask!