Lecoq: Des Materiaux

 This week we explore materials.

Monday:

With la Greve, I ended up walking all the way to school in the rain today. After taking the bus to Saint Placide, and finding that the metro stopped working, and having 3 buses escape on me due to them being full, my resignation to walking was complete. In fact, you could say I was pretty zen about it. I was going to walk all the way to school, be late, but go into class anyway. They were doing lyrical acrobatics for duos. Not bad.

With Anne in improv, we simply... improvised different items in the household. We had honey, iron wire, chewing gum, balloon. We eventually sat and watched the journey of the balloon deflate through space and land.

Autocour's perfect. It's my first time working with Justina, and we're all working in English. She's really good about wanting to move and not talk too much, which I'd categorize as the kind of people I like working with. Like Mykola. Who is leaving today. Ahhhhhhhhh.

Tuesday:

In movement with Anne, we first explored Audrey's glass, and glass shattering. Then we watched a ping pong ball, a cushioned ball, tennis ball, a marble bouncy ball, an elastic band, blowing bubbles in the air, and a sugar cube in water. When performing in ensemble, remember that the space between us is also the material.

With Yasuyo in improv, we explored different kinds of paper - cardboard, Japanese paper, aluminium foil, thin pink translucent paper, tracing paper, newspaper. The journey of the material is captivating. How it moves and flutters through space, how it reaches the ground, how it crumples. How it uncrumples. Does it change its personality post crumple? How does it move after? How does it tear, and fall to the ground. In pieces? Lastly we captured the journey of a newspaper in the street, flapping against a lamppost, shaken by a dog, picked up by someone, read, crumpled and thrown on the side, perhaps rain beating it down into oblivion.

In autocour, I applied a little of what I learnt with Ariel in Arthaus for memory. We each brought movements, and re-did other people's movements, and projected stories on the movements. We had plenty of actions, and soon we had material for 'Waiting for auditions'.

Wednesday:

With Anne in movement, we re-did the 57 grand attitudes of the pursuit. Did you remember them? Me neither. Today we re-did them with the breath. Then the inverse breath. Attitudes move with breath.

With Eric in improv, we explored heavy and dense materials like metal, metal sheets, lead, tin, alloys and glass. Glass shattering came back, and I do like the idea of the fissure, but I guess I was trying too hard to be glass to be sensitive to the speed of the crack. The two are extremely far apart on the movement spectrum for me. There is a deep vibration to these materials when they are hit. Some almost invisible, but there, such that when the voice is brought out, it resounds immediately. That is the presence we need to hold the neutral mask.

We worked overtime in autocour today, and after a day of working on the auditions, we're switching to the bank robbery. Everyone is having fun improvising though, so we have lots of material to play with.

In LEM, we are starting to move our creations. We have a box of forms that are supposed to show monter or descender (rising or falling), and we move them solo and ensemble. I am reminded of the usage of fixed point, or contrast to show movements.

Thursday:

With Eric, we explored Mr. Ressort - the spring. There is a unique strength to a spring that desires to return to its original position with a ferocity. A strength that emanates from the body that immediately surpasses the brain. Close to the spring were the elastic band, and the rubber band, which we explored with gusto. We have the possibility of splitting, then running past each other, or meeting in the middle and relaxing. Also, fixed points could be used. On the opposite end of the spectrum, we played popcorn; an item whose journey was irreversible. There was no returning to its original shape. I was in a good ensemble, and we had popcorns that refuse to pop, and popcorns that fused together. After, we watched the epic journey of a paper from the 2nd floor to the ground. A journey unsurpassed, save for the journey of two papers. At the end, 4 papers lying on the ground, screaming a tragic tale.

In Paola's improv class, we watched - and consequently did - white and brown sugar in water, and then an effervescent seltzer tablet dissolving. We are slowly transitioning into words, as we begin discovering how to essentialize the movements (solo or ensemble), and transpose words on the movements. After everyone had had a go at playing ensemble sugar, we split into men and women, and played out a large cube of sugar melting. The men had the rebirth or the phantoms, since we also acted out the dissolution of sugar after it falls. The women brought their voices. At the very end, we watched 6 people travel from dirty clothes to the wash to the iron to the cupboard. Next time I go back home, I'm going to watch mom clean the clothes.

Autocour was slow going, but I think we're triangulating the idea of a clown show. We have the beginning, although the rhythm is almost the same.

Friday:

In acrobatics I did a forward flip!!!!! With help of course, but what a rush!!

Autocour was a disaster again, but the situations that everyone came up with were pretty fun and cool. Surprise birthday party gone wrong, a pregnancy, pregnancy in the middle of a supermarket, babysitting, discovering a dead body, even working in a bureau. There's something in there about us needing to discover the beats, and the actions and the reactions... I can't.. or won't.. intellectualize it right now. That'll happen over the holidays I'm sure.

For now, I will head to Loye-sur-Arnon and plant some trees! What do you know, I'm a hippie after all. A year in France and perhaps I'll even be vegetarian.