Steel Versus Sand

Exercise: Imitate Steel.

No Dad. Not like a MaxFli Pin-High Chipping Wedge...

...More like a long sheet of steel that's heavy, vibrates and wobbles.

I was in the first group to try (I've decided that the benefits of going first outweigh going later - it's invaluable to try and discover something without any other reference...plus often you can go again if you go first!). My steel was pretty stiff and flat (my arms out wide) but I was a wobbler! We added text. I let my voice wobble with my movement, but didn't really find the 'steel' in my voice.

Eventually we were all told to follow Andre as our chorifeur, and to make a pack behind him. He moved in a way that we could follow (it was clear where he was going and when, and it almost felt like his movements pulled us!) and had a great metallic squeeeezed voice - strong and explosive, then small and fragile. As a chorus behind him we echoed some of his sounds and movements. We were all really with him and committed and it worked really well.

"It's good. Not a bit good...Totally good."

And it's tiring! At the end we were all puffing and sweating. It requires real tension. Like a 7. Consistently!

Exercise: Imitate sand on a beach.

Start with wet sand. Then the sun comes out, the sand dries, then wind comes and blows the sand around, then it rains and the sand goes back to being wet again.

It took a while for anyone to get this. In a sense, you're shifting from water, to earth, to air, and back to earth then water. In my group, Gaulier made us stay at the first stage (because we were the first group to successfully capture the essence of any of the stages) and we eventually became a chorus of wet sand following Anna. This element is more like a 2 or 3 on the scale of tensions. Then Gaulier got Andre to lead a chorus of Steel at one corner of the room facing us, the chorus of sand, at the other end. Really different rhythms and physicalities and energies.

I was never picked to be a corifeur which didn't really bother me, because I'm good at supporting and I enjoy it too, but there was a bit inside hoping to be picked. Gaulier said to Claire and I when she asked why and he said we weren't chosen "because people are happier to follow Andre, but you were good. Everybody was good." I guess we were happier to follow Andre because he was committed, clear, and confident, without having the air of 'wanting too much' which I may have had a bit of at times. Although I've made great strides in getting over that kind of thinking.



It's been getting cold this week. Really cold. Like, 0 degrees cold. And it's started snowing a bit out in Sceaux. And after school on the way to the train home a bunch of us had a snowball fight!