"The Only Rule Is We Don't Stop."

Amazing movement class today! 

We did this exercise Nicole is famous for in which you dance for the whole class, and the only rule is "we don't stop."

So for nearly an hour and half, we danced. Warming into it by concentrating on the feet, then the ankles, then the knees, the hips, the bum, the chest, shoulders, elbows, neck, and finally the head. Just playing around, but working physically really hard. The aim is to push through all the walls (tiredness, pain etc) and just keep dancing. Then we did dancing with rounded movement (which is associated with the emotion of 'joy), then staccato movement (associated with 'anger'), crazy all out dancing (associated with 'sadness'), light-as-a-feather dancing (associated with 'compassion'), and finally moving to stillness (associated with 'freedom'). We also had a moment where we made a big circle and pairs came in the middle and danced like crazy - throwing their bodies around, and we also danced in lines in a hip thrusting 'muscle & bone' type thing.

Nicole said the exercise comes from both African and American Indian traditions (she mentioned cultures dancing for three days and three nights non-stop, at events like a funeral). It's a releasing thing to do. You can have a variety of reactions to it. She said don't be surprised if you can't stop laughing, or crying, for 4 days. Or if you can't sleep tonight.

I found it invigorating! I kept pushing myself to go harder, but I could have pushed myself even more. 

I'd love to make this a staple of my theatre company's weekly schedule. Like, a three hour dance every friday afternoon to shake off the week. I bet people would have epiphanies about the work at the end of the dancing!

~

David and Claudia worked a scene from Much Ado About Nothing (Benedick & Beatrice).

He worked with Claudia to see whether she was better playing classic romantic, or not-classic. "I think you are not 'charming classic'...I think you are not classic classic."

He got her to play a farmer from Switzerland, and to complain about gays and Kosovo Muslims. Then he got her stand and watch as a prince (me) trotted by on a horse past her. She said her text whilst I did this - in a classic romantic way. 

And when I got off the horse I said "Claudia...I love you" and he got her first to respond in a classic way, and then as her Swiss farmer.

"You are good as a strong woman but not as romantic."

Then he worked with David. He got him to play a slightly gay Spanish snob with a little smile. "You have to smile...Every arsehole smiles." It took him a while to get the character so Philippe set up a game where various gay businessmen surrounded him and one by one came and started a conversation with him congratulating him on winning a prestigious award. The result was David finding immense pleasure and fantastic freedom. He was great with all of the guys - adjusting to their different qualities - but keeping some things (like his high pitched scream/laugh) that we loved. Ben was the final gay guy to talk to David, and they were fantastic together. By this time David was totally control of major, and together, they took on this incredible metatheatrical rollercoaster ride - with David directing the inner workings of the scene out loud: "And now we make space between us...and now we come to the centre again..." It was very very funny. And it lasted for a long time. A real show!

"It doesn't mean anything...It's just a fantastic game...And you were perfect...And it doesn't mean anything." (As in it wasn't particularly tailored to the Shakespeare scene, but it was still great.)

"It doesn't work every night...You always have to look for it." (The complicité)

Philippe talked about how long it takes to be good, and how many flops and crisises you have to go through until you can become good. The conclusion was: it's a mystery, but incredible.

~

Vicky got up and showed after a long time having shown nothing (those that haven't worked much with Philippe are now getting priority to work before the end of the workshop) but Philippe killed her, saying "it's academic...you don't know the text...goodbye." I'm sure she did know the text - she was just super nervous. She tried to tell me she wouldn't go today (I'm the guy with the list of who goes when this week) but I told her she has to and not to quit. Clearly she's in a bit of a crisis at the moment, and Philippe has knowingly just pushed her deeper into it...

~

Rodrigo played Iago in the scene in Othello where Iago tells Othello about a silly dream Cassio had - when really he's planting doubts and jealousy in Othello's mind. What he showed at first was big and theatrical, but heavy and not very logical (he acted a way around Othello - the general - that you just wouldn't). 

Philippe asked: "Did we see him?" Did we see Rodrigo? No. We saw ideas.

"We have to see this guy happy to have a beautiful tactic to point the mind of the king."

Philippe then asked Rodrigo whether he liked what Vicky showed on stage, and whether he thought it was bad. Horrible? This got Rodrigo into a state in which he was telling the truth, but with pain. "It's hard to say bad things about her...but..." Rodrigo then did the text in this way. Telling the dream as if it's not as bad as it sounds. "It was just a stupid dream" kind of way. This worked. Iago you bastard! Stop it!

"You have to stop having ideas and we have to see you."

~

I asked Philippe whether in Shakespeare, when there's an 'aside', we should play direct to the audience or not. And he said no. Play as if speaking to yourself, to a fourth wall. Pretend the audience aren't there. "Shakespeare - he never said you talk to the audience."

~

Ric worked on his "All the world's a stage" monologue. Philippe got him to do it as a Chinese magician.

And randomly, he got him to dress as a baby in white, sitting in a wheelchair, which Vicky pushed. It brought different things out of Ric - different rhythms and qualities - but nothing was quite right today. 

~

Started rehearsing Rodrigo as Caliban in The Tempest this evening, which I'm really excited about. Ever since seeing his monster-character in Characters, I thought he'd be great for the role. He loves to be horrible. And we worked well together tonight. And I'm enjoying working as a director. Thinking quite musically about the scene in a way. What rhythm where. I know the text well too because I played Caliban at drama school. Yay! I'm really excited about this scene.