Back to school today for more ballet. Yes that rhymed...no I did not plan it...yes I am tired right now.
Larissa took it easy on us today...or maybe it just wasn't as hot...either way, there was a dry spot on my shirt. It's still so funny to me to have her yell out orders...JUMP...SIT DOWN! Remarkable that we can understand her so easily, but we do and I really feel like we're learning a lot.
Despite my newfound interest in the DOING of ballet, it turns out that the WATCHING of ballet is as boring as ever. I just laughed at my own sentence...but I don't think it was very funny....oh boy...better finish this post up and go to bed.
As I was saying, the ballet wasn't very engaging. It's amazing to see how beautiful the dancers move, but as Christina pointed out, it doesn't really WOW you. If you've seen one ballet you kind of feel like you've seen them all....with the EXCEPTION being the various differences in quality. As Jenny pointed out, the Russians pretty much OWN ballet and they truly are amazing at it. But when a lukewarm Heineken at intermission is the highlight (which I only half finished) something is kinda wrong.
It was annoying that the first performance that i'm not falling asleep through because of the jetlag was just the performance that I would've liked to cuddle up and take a nap through.
So we do these things called etudes for acting class. Basically they're improvisations set around a situation that we all come up with. We always have two groups and today our group did an etude about a man proposing to a woman. I was the man and one of the Canadian girls, Lauren, was hopefully my bride to be. She said no. Bummer. But I thought it went pretty well and I got some good criticism from Igor. Again, it's so nice to get criticism...so beneficial.
We also do individual etudes, such as portraying an object, or an animal (like I already described) and now we're doing people along with a simple task (i.e. smoking) and we choose three professions (i.e. guitarist, teacher, secretary) and we go through each profession doing our task. The point is to get into the skin of this person and portray how this person does this task with great detail. It shouldn't be a mockery of this profession though...it shoud possess great truth.
These are really good exercises that I haven't been exposed to much. Coupled with the great criticisms, I think the acting class, while not my favorite (not because I don't like it but because I like others so much) is the most beneficial to us as actors. WOW....ACTING class is the most beneficial class for ACTORS.
Fuck this I'm going to bed...
Russia Fun Fact: I can't read anything over here!
Letters that are totally out of your element can really mess you up. There's nothing like looking at a billboard and wondering you have in fact had a stroke.
ReplyDeleteBudem zdorovy!
It'd be a left-hemisphere stroke in the posterior temporal lobe; if you can't talk either then it's probably your middle cerebral artery. It's better to believe that you're fine and all Russians are recovering stroke victims.
ReplyDeleteI watched some ballet once and tried to emulate one of the dancers, but Karen made me stop...
ReplyDeleteTo be fair, each ballet, while they may seem the same, are in fact very different. Each ballet tells a story, and each story is acted out using ballet moves. Just think of it as not have the ability to speak, and having to act out your emotions using only ballet moves (seems pretty obvious, but you have to look past the basic movements).
ReplyDeleteDon't forget that most ballarinas have to wear shoes with a large block of wood at the toe that you have to balance your tip toes on. Not all ballet dancing is on point, but a majority of it is. I always wished that I had taken point for at least a year. I think it would have given me a greater appreication of the hard work that goes into ballet.