The Exploritive Mind (Classical Acting)

It has been a couple of weeks since I last wrote about my improvisation class, but we played with some really cool material today so I just had to share!

Today we have entered into a subject about working with different amounts and types muscularity involved. We began by moving around the space as if we were just a skeleton. We experimented with what it felt like to envision and imagine movement just from the joints. This was so interesting to me because it resulted in this very angular movement. It was fun to explore what it felt like to move from the finger joints or the joint of your right shoulder or left hip.

After that we explored what it would feel like to be just a body of muscle. This movement seemed a little floppy at times, so our instructor told us to imagine we had to use every single ounce of force that we had. All of my muscles tensed and suddenly it was like I was forcing myself through an ocean of wet concrete.

We began to switch very rapidly between the two styles of movement, experimenting with tempo and repetition of certain moves. We also played with the ease of movement; this idea that sometimes it took all our strength and concentration whereas at other times it only took a minimalistic thought.

Following those two exercises we experimented with what it was like to move from our skin; what it meant to revel in the feel and touch of everything. This was the exercise that reached me the most. a little background:

I grew up as an insecure little girl. I was taught not to flaunt my body or do anything that might attract direct and outside attention to it. That has since transferred over to my grown-up vision of myself. I dress very modestly and I don't move or dance or do anything that would attract outside attention to myself. Which has then registered to my brain as zero confidence. Well, over this last year I have had to find confidence in MANY places. It began in The Spitfire Grill I had to find the confidence to take up space on stage and to be loud and be heard. It has since continued on in Heathers. I am wearing a mini skirt! I have never worn anything that short in my entire life! She is this brash and fierce girl who knows how good she looks and she flaunts it everywhere she goes. I am 100% NOT that girl. So finding the confidence to move that way and flaunt that way has been such an immense struggle.

But with this exercise, I finally just let myself go and experience what it felt like to move from every inch of my skin; what it felt like to revel in the beauty of movement that my body was capable of. It was such an eye opening experience; so much so that I felt I was truly experiencing movement for the first time; like I was discovering what it meant to walk and to dance and to feel the energy electric on my skin.

It was empowering and I hope to use that in my work with Heathers. I guess we will see how it goes!