Monday, February 22, 2010

Ippopotamo

Ciao Amici!
The internet has been funky lately so I haven't been able to write! Update since last time:

Friday:
Voice - We worked on three distinct vocal qualities. 1) Cello - a deep, low, rich sound. 2) Viola - a hollow, plum-in-the-mouth sound and 3)Violin - light and airy. We had to sing the same note but use these three different qualities. It was really interesting - it sounded like people were changing notes even though they weren't just based off of the quality that they were injecting into their voice. We then took this into textwork, creating different qualities within our speech.

Movement - Favorite quote of the day from Claudia: "Life without handstands is nice, but life with handstands is a bit nicer." Can you guess what we worked on? :) In the beginning of class we did an exercise helping our partner move; we made it so that they could feel their joints, lines, and muscles. Afterwards, the awareness that I had about my body in space was amazing. I felt like I could do anything! Which was probably perfect, because then we moved into handstands. ha.

The weather on Friday was out of control - very windy, and pouring rain. When it stopped a bit, I went outside and sat on the balcony. The clouds were barrelling over the mountains and through the sky - stunning. To make things even better, there were guest musicians playing Baroque music all day in the villa, so with that weather and that music it made for a pretty exceptional day.

There was a party at night that I didn't feel like going to, so instead I spent about four hours catching up with my dearest friend, Allison, who happens to be studying abroad in Russia right now. Thank you A-Hip - seriously that made my night.

Saturday and Sunday were both incredibly lazy but incredibly NEEDED days. I went running on Saturday morning and then met some of the girls in the city for some shopping. Kadie and I had a dinner date that evening at Mazzoni (that incredible pasta place). So yummy. Afterwards we went out for drinks with other people from the Accademia and ended up meeting some other American students that are studying in Arezzo. (Apparently there are two American groups here!) Sunday was a similar day - listened to music, walked into town, and oddly enough had dinner at Mazzoni again. (It's not that expensive, and the amount of food you get is well worth the price. UGH. SO. GOOD.)

^The restaurant!
Sunday after dinner I was feeling particularily homesick and our internet was down so I couldn't talk to anyone from home. Needless to say, I had a pretty blue evening which resulted in me spending some time out on the balcony and then going to bed early.

This week is a much lighter week! (Thank goodness!) We had voice this morning and after doing some warm-ups with a straw that helped us make sure our voice was supported by breath, I SANG A HIGH D - and it was only 9:45 am! I am an alto. I'm not quite sure how this happened, but I was very pleased :) Then we continued working on monologues from "The Tempest". After voice we had Italian and then Studio time. In Studio we are working on this huge collaborative project that we have due for Commedia a week from today. Michele gave us a very vague description of what he wanted, forcing us to use our imaginations. We have to come up with a structure, and then once we have the outline, we improvise the rest in class on Monday. It's hard, but it's coming along really well, and although at first our group dynamic was a bit wonky, I feel like we are getting better at communicating our ideas. What Michele told us was that we are on a ship going somewhere. That's it. We have to decide what kind of ship we are on, why we are on it, where we are going, who we are, the conflict, and the resolution. There are going to be a couple group scenes with all of us, and then a bunch of 2/3 person scenes as well - and he wants us to take some of the ideas that we initially presented in our dream/travel improvisations. Also - all of it is in mask and he wants very little speaking - and the speaking that we are doing will be mostly in Grammelot (gibberish) yet it all has to be clear. PHEW. A lot to swallow, right? So far, we are doing really well though :) I'm impressed by how well we are managing to collaborate.

We ended class at four today and then Kadie and I went for a run and worked on this movement/acrobatic sequence that we have due tomorrow morning for Claudia's class.
The rest of the night = music listening, homework, ITALIAN (Man...it's getting HARDER AND HARDER), skyping, and sleeping.

Buona Notte! :)

1 comment:

  1. So true. That made my night, too.

    That restaurant/cafe looks so cute...

    ReplyDelete