Lecoq: Paintings and Poetry

 Monet, Manet, Pee Picasso

Renoir, Rembrandt, Vincent van Gogh
Vinci, Dali, Michelangelo
Pollock, Warhol, Kahlo, Caravaggio


Monday:

We began in the grande salle with everyone (Group A and B). Finally! We get to see the other group move. Fixed point was the first order of the day, with one group becoming obstacles, and the other moving through. Open a new space. After, we used the batons to connect with each other. Two batons each hand on fingers outstretched, in pairs and off we go. When they were removed, Camille and I kept the space constant, and then slowly we expanded our movements. Turning, high, low, in contrast, quick, slow, minute, vibration.

In movement, we moved the city. First, a loose interpretation, and then in 10, 5 or 3 movements. How do we move NYC in 10 movements? I started with the Avenues, and explored the grid, became people on sidewalks, and was pushed onto the street where the cabs drove by. Ne réfléchis pas, ne lache pas. Laughter from the audience is a good gauge of understanding, but today it threw me right off. Too many thoughts on what was right and what was wrong. There is a right and a wrong in the school, but when we do, we don't think. I have to keep playing! Elena had a jerky movement in her second attempt that for some reason reflected well on NYC. We're all half human - half robots, all sadistically destroying ourselves in the big apple for our goals. Her times square was a little too noisy although, times square IS a little too noisy. I even saw the silver statues. Projection ftw. Olga had water in Istanbul, which was cool, we begin to see the elements in play with the city. How do we do not just the characters in the city, but also the city? Can we look up a building, and then be in it? Jumping between city, personnages and forms seem to be the most useful way to do this exercise. As I write, I'm thinking of how to show the elevator going up a building, or even a Marilyn Monroe over the sewer grille, then tearing it off to descend into the sewers / subway.

With Paola, we moved colors. Green has an angularity that goes in all direction. It's the most moyen of the lot - is high and low, fast and slow, kind of just exists. Perhaps... a little uncertainty? And red has a concentrated compactness before exploding. I could perhaps essentialize my jerky movements into more vibrato, before splashing the red on the canvas.

In LEM, we did the faces with collage. It is all very new to me, but I'm getting something. We're working towards using planes and shapes to create the space of the face. Take that line for what its worth. After, we moved colors again with Frederick. Slowly, we began to humanise it, putting it in improv situations, first with perhaps 10% human, then mostly human in an art gallery. Purple turns and exists lower, Orange turns and exists higher, perhaps more relaxedly.

The bike home today swam by in a daze. Am I getting used to la greve???

Tuesday:

I find myself yet again in the middle of an autocour group that speaks French. Time to speak French.

In movement, we re-visited the discus and concretised the details.
Step 1: In the non-main hand, we begin the swing. We explore the connection of the hips to the hands; the hips guide the hands forward, and the hands guide the hips backwards. There is la gamme to be played, starting the momentum small, and then enlarging it just til the vertical. There is a suspension to each swing.
Step 2: At vertical, we step back with the discus above and just in front of us, then we push our bodies forward to guide the discus forward. le grand circle. Basin, plexus, tete.
Step 3: The discus swings down between our legs, and we switch the discus to our main hand. We transfer our weight backwards, and then forwards to restart the circle in the other direction. The weight transfer is a little ahead of the hands.
Step 4: We draw a huge circle, time our weight shift and launch. Main, pied, pied.

In improv, we visited artificial light. We saw lava lamps, old florescent lamps, light house, streetlights that won't work, police siren, etc. En ensemble, we explored police sirens, the light house, lights from the slums through the night, and then lights in the Eiffel Tower. What I am getting from this class is that if we have lights that turn, shoot out, diffuse and are big, and we have an ensemble, we can each choose a quality and embody that. The important thing is still of course, to listen to each other's timings, and be aware of what the other is doing. We don't need 3 people doing 'big' at the same time, or 'vertical'. It's possible to have one doing the 'horizontal', another doing 'big' and another doing 'diffuse'.

Mykola is back from Ukraine! It's a good day to-day.

Wednesday:

With Anne we completed the 3rd speed of skiing. Then we did speed 1 to 2 to 3, back to 2 to 1. La gamme, always.

In poems with Eric:

"not say i want to say, but then this one
who say one?" "i say one lor, abuthen."
"this one you say one? liddat also can??"
"today you say ho say, later buay gum
then you say i say who confirm?" "you say
what one lor. anyway i say one thing
is one thing one. not like you everything
also say people like mm sam mm say."

"you say some more?" "you say first one ma." "wan
to come outside say? say louder?" "dun wan.
okay la, i say wrongly, ho say bo?
take it i never say la." "then say so!
your mouth damn suey. you dun wan me to say
then dun say me - not say i want to say."

Does the poem travel? Is it one that is big, or short or strong? Is it a poem or a dialogue? A bit of both, really. As I attempt to interpret the angst of this piece, and move it with the rhythm, I know I am attempting to essentialize the sense of the poem, and not the movements of the words. I can't help it, I know it too well. Florent gets up and jumps. There is a height, and the base to Singlish. Hugo says there is an asian sonority to it that overlays itself over English. I am also aware of the presence that arrives after I've lived the poem. Eric is right, I open to the space when I have journeyed the poem - do I have to journey the poem before performing it? I have to live it already in the reciting perhaps, before even going up. That is why we repeat the voyage of the Neutral Mask; as we open to the space, we have lived the journey, are living the journey, and are about to live the journey. The past, present and future together.

Take for example 'floundering', 'struggling', 'haughty', 'meditteranean', 'transformational', 'doggy-paddling', 'sensual', these are descriptive words that have an instinctive movement to the jaw. We purse our lips and curl our tongue as we say 'murmur', lower our head a little to guard the space, it is easy (easier) to explore movement of 'murmur' if we agrandir the movement of the mouth to the body. The word has already done the essentializing of the idea of itself, and perhaps even the movement. For example 'speaking in a low tone down way below where no tone lies' is almost like 'murmur' but has a different idea, a different rhythm and moves completely differently. If we essentialize the phrase, do we eventually get the same movement as 'murmur'??? Hold the thought.

"Think 'beauty', but be beautiful. Say 'beauty', but say it beautifully." - Stephen Fry

Thursday:

In movement with Eric we worked on rafting. Pulling, gliding, pushing with fixed points.

With Paola, we moved French poetry. What is the music of the piece? It's more simple than we think it is.

Autocour broke my brain and my ego a little today. It's a really difficult week.

Worked for 5 hours in LEM on faces in paint and 3D... I think I might be getting somewhere. It's nice. I love faces so masque and color is exactly what I need to do to explore this.

Friday:

Back to acrobatics and it feels really good to stretch today. We worked on doing a backflip with aid. I don't trust people to carry my weight.

Watching the abstraction that everyone gave during autocour was amazing. There was Sang Min and his detailed isolations, Jade and Hugo rolling forwards and back, Medusa slowly advancing. A joy to the split and strokes. Shimmering before the explosion. A cohesive look at the blurred woman.

Next week, we shall explore the dialogue between two paintings (and painters).