Nights with Nutella

Ciao.

Mmm. Nutella and Apples. So good. Almost as good as nutella and Bananas.

Movement this morning = Contact Improv. Kadie and I were partners. She would lay on her stomach, on her side, and then sit up and in each position I would play around with putting weight on her using different body parts (my hand, forearms, head, stomach, back, feet, etc). This developed into contact improv with each other and then contact improv with the entire class. (Contact Improv is exactly what it sounds like: it's basically just improvised movement where you put different amounts of weight on eachother utilizing balance, rolls, and lifts.) It's all about trust, strength, and comfort. It's super easy working with Kadie; one because we're roomies and two because she used to be a gymnast. We also did a personal space exercise where one person would stand and the other person would walk until they "felt that person's bubble". There really is an "aura" around people - and if you walk slow enough it becomes really easy to feel. It was interesting to see how people related to me, and how I related to others. Aside from all the obvious movement/acrobatic things I am learning in this class, I think first and foremost I am learning patience; for myself and for other people. Doing contact improv, it's easy to "want to do all these cool tricks and go fast" but it doesn't work out well if you do that. If you take the time and really explore the ways in which your body is connecting with your partner(s) it makes all the difference in the world.

In voice we did an exercise where we had to touch fingers with another person and speak "Tempest" text to them - changing levels, moving in slow motion/fast motion and changing the tempo, volume, and pitch of the text. Hard to explain - but it was amazing. I was partnered with Sam, and even though we were both speaking the same text at the same time, because we were really listening to eachother, the ways in which we said the text bounced off each other naturally and thus tactics arose. Pretty cool.

For the rest of the day I had Italian and Philosophy.

Cabaret was tonight. We had to show what we've been doing in class, so all the theatre students did a group piece, followed by all the dancers and all the MFA-ers.
Woo hoo.

The best part about tonight is...I don't have class tomorrow until 11 so I get to SLEEP IN. Tomorrow is a super easy day. Thank goodness.

<3 love love love