Oh right...THOSE muscles

My body is slowly rediscovering muscles that I didn't know I had....haven't felt them sense birth probably. My calves and forearms even hurt...what the hell?...those NEVER hurt, right? This is all courtesy of our ballet and movement teachers. Our movement teach, Vladamir, is absolutely amazing...and he's even more amazing cause I just realized that he looks just like JOHN DENVER! (I'll be waiting for some sort of "Rocky Mountain High" joke, Dad, so it better be good:)

I'd just like to say that, once again, Jenny is (and I'm sure will always be) leading the comment tally. Go Jenny!

So lots of good things today. Last night we went to a show...King Ubu. Yes, it was in Russian. No, I didn't understand a word. Yes, the jetlag was still affecting us all and we slept through part of the first act. But yes, it was BRILLIANT! We read a loose synopsis of the story before we went, but that really didn't help much. I still managed to get some of the plot though. Man, this was a spectacular show though. We think that this theatre was built for a specific actor (who played King Ubu) by a former Russian leader because he loved his acting so much...and for good reason. His performance, along with everyone elses, was fantastic. The show was very clownish and carnival-ish...crazy eastern european music with some english words...beautiful costumes...a complex set that at one point disappeared while another floor rolled downstage over it. The acting was very bizzare too....lots of higher, different voices were used that I don't think were the actors natural voices. But WOW, my first Russian theatre experience was pretty unforgettable (look, I've stopped using "amazing" to explain everything...amazing!)

I've been trying to understand the metro system with very little success. Scott and I always had fun with that when we'd get to a new city, but when you can't easily identify the characters of the alphabet, it makes it nearly impossible. Luckily our guide, Nastia, dropped us off and picked us up, so we got home safe.

The morning, for me, started with being flung up to the front of our singing class and singing a wonderful rendition of Jingle Bells. I was given this honor as one of the four people who hadn't really had lessons. It wasn't too bad, but the giggles started to come out and I looked like a real jackass. It was even funnier to me because the translator hadn't arrived yet so I couldn't understand what she was saying other than through her mimes and scattered english. But she is such a kind and caring teacher...and man, does she know her shit. A girl here had a cyst (sp?) removed from her vocal chords and no one back in the US could explain it...within two minutes the teacher identified that it was from singing in a very breathy, almost whispery voice, her whole life, which is apparently worse for your voice than constant screaming. She really is a great teacher.

The afternoon acting class was more of the same concentration exercises filled with clapping and stomping. These feels like 1st grade exercises, but prove to be very difficult when we attempt them. After the exercises, we got to all go through our brief etudes (improvisations) of an object. I was a baseball, jason was water, christina was a jack in the box...you get the point.

I feel like I'm learning so much, but I'm really afraid to forget it. I try to document the exercises so I can remember them for when/if I ever teach, but there's almost too many to remember. But the important thing is that I is smarter than when I get here.

Later, peeps!