First day back, and it only took five minutes to want to be home again. I'm like, the greatest, most independent and self-sufficient college kid ever. LET'S GO HOME SOME MORE!!! But I love home, so whatever. Three more weeks and then it's holiday time and I will get more kitty cuddles and homemade food and blah blah blah.
High point of the day - acting class. We did the Uta Hagen Respect for Acting "Three Entrances" exercise with a bonus object exercise all last week and the beginning of this class. I'd done them before, back at SCSU and last year, and it wasn't until this year when I really truly think I understood what this exercise was about. ((Sidenote, I keep getting corrected for my spelling of "exercise" - I wanna type it "exercize" but apparently that's wrong. Come on, google, I like my z's.))
I'll add to this post later (after I get SOME homework done) with the Three Entrances exercise as written in Uta's book. It's incredibly useful at bringing life onto the stage, even if it does take you four damn years to understand it.
So, in short, I did the exercise, honestly didn't think much of my work, but I wasn't about to apologize for anything I did, since that just looks lame if you're all like "well, I wasn't really feeling it, so if it sucked, sorry." But some of the feedback I got was really nice- pointed out what makes my work individual and dynamic in a way that was more than just "you did really well."
The ease of my presentation, the natural quality of my actions, the complete lack of indication or needing "to explain" my actions - I was surprised any of that came across, to be honest, but I'm glad it did. And one of my classmates said something really quite special - how everything I did, the feelings I brought into the exercise with me, they all really affected her, and how I have this quality to really change the motion of an entire room when I come in.
My teacher followed that up with some astute observations on the next step I can take in practicing and doing my work, but also another flattering and surprising comment. He was discussing (in his superfluously verbose sort of way) how each human being has a unique light that only they can bring to the universe, and to slouch or break at the waist or lose posture is bringing that light back in upon themselves and "depriving the world of that indelibly unique light that is you." He said that I do not do that at all, that I have a grace about me (no idea how I got to be graceful in any way, he must not have seen the bruises on my legs from walking into things and tripping) and that I am open and share that unique quality of myself that makes my actions compelling.
Not to say that I don't have miles to go in terms of my skills, but those were very nice things to hear, you know? For many reasons, I've been examining my own self lately and the person I see is not a pretty one. My personal lense is pretty distorted, as are all of our own lenses, so perhaps to get the clearest view it takes many eyes.
So that was my positive thing for the day. We won't talk about ballet or tap. HAH.
Also we got to sing Sweeney Todd in class today. That was also a positive thing. SWEENEY! SWEENEY! SWEEEEEENEEEEEEEEEEY!
Much love.
