Back to the Grind

We were back to our normal schedule today after the St. Petersburg trip. I was the first to go for singing lessons today and it went ok. There's something about Marina that makes people tighten up I think and I'm definitely in that category. I sqeaked out my song and I was glad to get the work in. I was also fotunate enough to get to work again towards the end of class on a duet with Kerianne, but sadly it was at the expense of Justin getting to work. What really sucks is that our next class is our final, which I don't think Marina was aware of. If we don't have another class it's gonna be pretty messy for our performances.

Movement is probably my favorite class here. There's something about Vladamir that makes everyone want to work harder and smile while you do it...the smiling is usually cause he tells you to. He's got a very relaxed and carefree way about him when we're doing the exercises. But he couples this with a serious side that teaches us the importance of doing these exercises and to do them correctly. He pointed out our four day break from class and how it not only effected us physically but mentally as well. Our minds were the bigger problem and that was the reason we failed at some of the counter balancing exercises.

Both etude groups had really good etudes today. The first group (that I wasn't apart of) portrayed flowers in a garden that were being attacked by weeds, only to be rescued by gardener Brian. The second group (that I was apart of) was a human heart that was going through a heart attack. I felt like this was far and away our best day of etudes as it was the first day that both groups weren't humans putting themselves into familiar and predictable situations.

We all raved about the etudes during response time only to have Sergie bring us back to earth by saying he didn't like it. As disappointed as we were, this is exactly what good teachers do and what I truly want from our teachers back home. We did some good work andtook a few steps forward, but if we were to simply be patted on the back I think we all would have settled with where we were at. Good teachers always keep pushing you forward.

He did have a good point about the etudes though. The "flowers" in the etude were children's illustrations of flowers. Each one needed an individual personality and a need for something. Same with the weeds...there needed to be a reason they were attacking the flowers. Why these flowers? Were some flowers more delicious than others? And for our etude, it was a bit unclear with what we came up with for Rob, who was the guy having the heart attack. It wasn't exact enough, and that is what the theatre loves...precision.

We saw Shylock at Etcetera theatre where we saw Ubu Roi. It was pretty much just Merchant of Venice with a different name, but I didn't know what the heck was going on cause I don't know the show. Got in a little cat nap though, this time against my will...damn warm theatres put me to sleep.

This was the first time we were on our own for transportation as well, which was exciting in a lot of ways. I kind of took the lead in getting us around as I was the only map carrier in the group. And I ended up riding the metro by myself the night before after an excursion down south.

I followed the Moscva
Down to Gorky Park
Listening to the Winds
Of Chaaaaaaaange

I literally did the first verse of Winds of Change by The Scorpions...it was awesome.

But back to tonight. The Metro wasn't all that hard to navigate around once you've done it once...just as long as your map is up to date and has all the freaking stops! But everyone made it home safely, so i guess it was a success.

Russia Fun Fact: A word about Borsch. Borsch is a very popular soup in Russia. Made from mainly cabbage, potatos, and beets, it doesn't sound like it might be all that appealing. But damn is it good! Tomato paste is also used as one of the main ingrediants...add some sour cream to that and baby...you got a stew goin'!