With love

Ciao Amici!

Italian Germies are still here...and getting meaner and meaner by the day. Luckily, it's venerdi so I have the weekend to relax! Sorry - this is probably going to be long because a lot happened in the last two days..

Sidenote: The pictures are from the olive tree we decorated two days ago! (The close up pictures were taken by Jesse Dunn - the Academic Coordinator here)

Yesterday morning started out with voice class. We did an exercise where we had to pretend that there was a stretchy material all around us. We could push and pull the material around us and in doing so we also had to vocalize. Everybody in the room did it in completely different ways, and because one person would go after another, people got affected by other people doing the exercise and stories started developing. One girl looked as though she was underwater, another girl almost sounded middle eastern as she was mourning the loss of something or something. The last girl to go, Claire, was getting so into hers that at the end she burst into tears, causing Kadie and I to both burst into tears as well. She was so open and vulernable and in doing so, she connected with us in an emotional way. It's easy to look at that exercise as one where "you are feeling out your body and your voice" - but if you take the you out of it, and just LET GO, it gives you the ability to connect with and affect other people - the reason to do theatre in the first place.

Movement yesterday. We did some Laban.(Yet another influential movement dude). Claudia turned on some music and we did improv movement to the music - pretending there was a bubble around us that got smaller and larger. Then we moved through space using only the right side of our body, then only the left, then the back - all to music. (I need to steal her music because it's awesome. She said she'd be willing to trade :) although my little netbook doesn't have itunes on it.) Then we continued doing acrobatics. I did a successful headstand today! woo hoo! oh the simple things in life.

Philosophy in the afternoon. We had a huge discussion about "false liberation" and the illusions that most Americans live in (for example: people saying that once Obama was elected president, racism and segregation ended. bullshit, folks, to say the least). We also talked a lot about consumerism and how Nike, for example, took "Just do it" from a 60's revolution slogan, and re-packaged it to sell their shoes. The original slogan is exactly AGAINST what they are - a huge corportation living (as Scott so nicely put it) on the blood of the children who make all their shoes. Michael Jordan got paid more money by Nike for their advertising than all the kids who make their shoes in a year. Don't get me started.

So remember the other day when I said that the dancers joined our voice class for a day?

WELL you can watch a video online with some little clips from it. As Kevin (my voice teacher) says in the video, it's not a typical class because we had the dancers with us....but you can see where I am and the people I'm with at least. Also, Kevin is a rockstar so .....yeah.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjPftmRIFCg

Enjoy :) PS. you probably have to copy and paste it into a new window because I don't know how to link it directly

Because they joined our voice class, we got to go to their Tarantella class. Tarantella is a traditional Italian dance. It's a form of choral dance - almost ritualistic. It was SO much fun. Taught by Gianni Bruschi (Master. He is a Master) we danced, but he also took us through some beautiful exercises. At one point, we were holding hands with a person and we had to show aggression, longing, fear, and playfulness in just our hands. We were all in a big circle grabbing for eachother's hands and he was like, "no, with love. with love" and then later when he was teaching us how to turn with a partner in Tarantella he was like, "See, if I lose her eyes, I lose myself". He also taught us a beautiful Italian song (he has the best male voice I've ever heard. I am not overexaggerating) I think every female fell in love a little bit. Too bad we aren't his types. haha.

Today - Not feeling well. at. all. Voice in the morning. We played around a bunch with rhythm. I think Kevin knew we were all exhausted so he was pretty easy on us today. Italian! We had a quiz - I think it went well. In the afternoon I had movement - I wasn't feeling well, but I didn't want to sit out so I managed to push myself through it. I felt better near the end, but the beginning was pretty rough. Yoga made me feel better, but then after that we did acrobatics. Nothing like doing rolls over other human beings to make your body feel better :) ha We ended the class with contact improv - you move with a partner but you have to stay connected. We were connected back to back, and then head to head. It feels so good because when you are with another person like that - you can do nothing but be present. Your mind becomes blank. We have a few full days of contact improv later - I cannot wait.

THANK GOD IT'S FRIDAY!

I am just relaxing tonight - trying to get better.

This weekend is busy:

Antique Market in Arezzo tomorrow morning.

Then a bunch of us are going to Florence and spending the night in a hostel there.

Sunday in Florence we are going to see a mask performance.

And then I'm back in the villa Sunday night.

Time to do homework.

Buona Sera!

This one is one of mine :)