for the physical theatre impro geeks

On the train back from Dancehouse. Again, I’m going to write what we did so I can remember.

Union jack – the union jack is laid out in tape on the floor and you are limited to walking on it. You cannot cross another person on it and you must stay neutral and the only movements you can do is walk, turn or stop. Add run and fall to the next time round, then add scream and laugh the time after that.

I noticed the intimacy of coming face to face with people, the significance of stillness.

It’s interesting how selfish I feel when I choose to stay still and not go with the group. Choosing to become the one people notice.

At lunch, we went again to Degani to the friendly waiters who know us already and give us discounts. Christy tried wildly to email Kapow! photos from the photoshoot to Mitchel so maybe they will go in the Age for the Northcote shows. Luke and I talked, what are we learning what are we noticing; I find it easier to work in neutral, it feels safer and I feel like its easier for me to have a big picture of what I’m creating. Luke has a story about why and its something to do with being able to define what you’re doing giving you freedom, but I’m destracted by Christy’s little distress noises she’s making towards the phone. I really can’t help and so Luke and I are talking again. Does the fact that we are a trio creating work right now affect the group? Maybe. (More in the social time rather than the actual workshop) Thinking about clown camp this weekend, being careful about being part of the big group. And we race from the café with Christy in her phone and her phone still hasn’t done its magic. Want our photos in the Age. But she puts it down and steps into the workshop.

We did a warm up starting with ‘your hips are a bowl of water’, carry the water carefully, tip the water out in all directions, create a gentle wave in it, how does it make the rest of your body move?

Now you have a beam of light coming from the crown of your head – what does it mean to play with that light, now you also have a beam from your coccyx now you have a beam from both feet, both hands, your eyes. So fun to play with where the light goes. I’m not playing with my body – I’m playing with the effect of my body, shading the light and shooting the light – it goes in all directions and then I crunch and cover it up.

The feedback sessions. The aim of talking about what you enjoyed and what you discovered, which is occasionally broken when people need to talk about what was hard. The difference between feedback which is about specific moments, feedback which is the story you saw, and feedback which is about broad intellectual concepts. I find my brain sliding off a word like 'composition', perhaps because I’m not used to using it. It doesn’t hold a meaning for me.

In the afternoon we just did little performances with scores we were given by Nick. “school of fish and union jack” “similar and the same and union jack” “create character from body shapes, then do school of fish as those characters” “start in two duets and use a crazy shaped union jack.” All kinds of hilarious moments came out: the crazy, posing, vogue ponies; the bizarre bouffant troupe; the stunning dance duet in front of frantic, irritated techies.

It’s nice to find something fun, relaxed, playful about the impro. So much of what I have done in the past has felt self conscious, lonely, somber, significant.