The exercise which we pretty much did for the entire class with Philippe was one in which we dance to music in a large group and someone has a ball, and when they find complicité with someone else they pass the ball to them. The music stops. The person who received the ball stays perfectly still. Fixed point! Says "thank you for passing me the ball my little friend" and then turns to the audience in major and calls out "Hey Dad! Look at me! I'm in major! I'm in Sceaux, in Paris! With all my new friends! And right now I have the ball! So everyone is looking at me! It's great!" etc.
When it was my turn I was in a good zone. A bit nervous. But I had just previously reminded myself that I didn't need to impress anyone or be great at the exercise, but rather should use the opportunity to have fun, play, and discover. Which I did. Had good pleasure, and good bodily control (a lot of people got killed for being too tense in their bodies, walking oddly etc), and took my time and didn't talk to much. Philippe would say "shut up" to a lot of people who never stopped talking. He said things like "Take your time. Take your space. Don't talk too much. You're Too Small. Nose up. Head straight. Look to the horizon." And he talked about how actors must have a large aura. Fill the space. But when you speak and move, follow impulse. Let a word or two come out, listen to them, where do they land? Next word...
A wee bit into my time calling out to Dad he started playing some slow orchestral music and he told me to listen to it as I go. This slowed me down a bit. In talking and movement. It made me more sensitive. I whispered "dad". And I sung a bit too. And I played and discovered. I went with the music and so my calls to dad got a bit fake-emotional and epic and melodramatic and it was fun. I really gave in to it and took risks (I could take more though) and it felt great. It's hard to describe the state I was in. I guess I wasn't pushing - I was being sensitive. But I wasn't being too small either. I had life and energy. Pleasure and complicité. I looked at my audience, and my classmates on stage. And I followed impulses with my voice and movement. When I talked to Thomas the Austrian afterwards he said I was fluid in my movement. And Zoe said I was kind of 'sitting back on it'. That makes sense.
Anna also did a great job. She really took her time and space but held a great energy. She didn't even use her voice when calling out to her dad. She kind of mouthed it. And at times used a bit of voice which was really funny. It was mysterious and surprising. And exciting. She did it her way - which was kind of cheeky and raw and sexy/*clenches fist and roars*.
The class turned into a bit of a lesson in 'beauty' today. Lots of people got worked on after me. Philippe was quite strict about body - posture, walking, head to one side etc. He talked about the characters we portray as 'ourselves'. "Daniele does many things to hide himself". "Lynn plays the cowboy...I have to kill this cowboy". "In the the theatre we want to see *haaaa*, not a stateworker". "The character you play when buying cigarettes is not for the stage. On the stage you have to show something totally fantastic." "You have to think, I have to be beautiful". "The stage is not the street." "When you are beautiful we dream about you. We are happy."
One great moment today: The three italian's from our class walking down the stage towards us slowly trying to be beautiful. To the song Volare. It just made me realise how amazing the mixture of people in my class is!
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