9/28

“Partners are everywhere”
Alex (acting professor)
Shshichstdtvbkglieyeyoyu is about how I feel when I am trying to learn Russian; my mouth can not keep up with my head. Russian as a language uses a lot more mouth muscles and is placed more forward in the mouth. We currently are working on the alphabet which is derived from Greek. I feel like a child when they are first learning to speak and everything comes out of their mouths a little funny, maybe they can’t say their r’s. While I have the r my e’s, and every possible e sound and any double sounds are totally lost to me but like I have said before being so immersed makes it easy to understand. We had our first Russian class and hopefully after three times a week I will begin to speak the language.
From a sit down class to extreme sweating, my movement class pushed me and today was only a test to see where we were WITHOUT pushing ourselves. We went through each body part first stretching then strengthening. I was very frustrated because I found that my shoulders in my hiatus from movement have become stiff and will not stretch as they are supposed to, I have a lot of work a head of me. I find it so interesting some stretches I can push my self very far while others I just get stuck. It seems though that our teacher Natasha will be able to push our bodies to incredible heights. For one of our tests Natasha had us jump over chairs in preparation for more elaborate jumps; imagine the possibilities.
In acting today we concentrated on partners and being in the moment. Sasha and Alex (our teachers) told us that partners are not only the person we are looking at but the whole group, the space, the chair we are sitting on and our in self. We worked on the hardest thing I think to do as an actor: receiving and giving communication in that exact moment. Internalizing the energy and emotion and feeling it change us and express it. It was hard though because it required us to be quick and it is hard to not over think when you are trying to focus on producing a reaction quickly. Our etude went well I think it pleased them how much time we spent on it but we are making a new one tonight. We also made small individual etudes of objects and preformed them. I was a hair straightened but I did not prepare how I should have and did not impress them but we are all redoing it for tomorrow so that is homework. I’m surprised how little time there is at night and how much there is to do. I have a feeling that this is the beginning of a busy, painful, and rewarding week.
Love
Kirsten