The cry of the gesture

We had the wonderful Norman Taylor again for two morning workshops.  Of course it was unutterably brilliant... Movement analysis... of course... mime.  Articulation of the space.  The space.  Always with 'the space!'  So we did the Le Coq articulation phrase - Make a cocktail.  

1... see the cocktail shaker on the counter

2... open the hand out wide ready to take the shaker... the cry of the gesture...

...Norman calls this wide spread hand the cry of the gesture...  I love that.  It made me want to do it.  That my hand spoke of a cry for movement.  Ja.  But when it comes to the technical side of this work... poetry really can see one through!  And its funny with mime, things you normally know without having to think - like which way to twist open the cocktail shaker - simply goes out the window and everyone is asking... which way is open?!  Something one never considers... or gets wrong... when opening a tap!  As Norman with a wide smile and fixing his hair continues to say... You have to be a maniac for the detail... don't miss a beat... be ridiculously big, in order to become small... in the same way that children learn to write big in order to write small... 

AHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... ringing through the streets of Florence!

Because when you break it down the amount of detail in a simple movement phrase is staggering.  I'm going to leave it at step 2 - The cry of the gesture. 

That afternoon we did our Larval mask performance...  With scrambled brains from articulation articulation articulation... we decided that when in doubt... articulate... and breathe!  Our feedback was next time try to articulate the play rather than play the articulation... Of course...  Which we did.  

Go big to go small.  Articulation.

me, Nicole, Vika and Lucy in larval masks

My alien!

We finished our home made masks!  The amazing thing is they all seem to have soul. Yay.  Even my alien!  I know.  You wouldn't really say it by looking at it.  But it's true.  So exciting.  Of course Matteo helped everyone with reconstructive surgery and some much needed paint make-overs... in most cases to calm the masks and help them to come to life on stage.  The mask proposes a physical form and a state which proposes specific play and brings the mask to life.  Like magic.  But if the mask is stuck... what Giovanni calls an expression mask rather than an expressive mask... then it is better to hang the mask on the wall and start again.  The mask depending on how you play it physically has to have more than one emotion... and hopefully even several.  The mask and the counter mask.

My sleeping profile

Following our personal creations... or our artistic statements... We have began the process of learning how to make masks properly... professionally!  Starting with the profile of the face.  After observing and drawing each other profiles, from a small lump of clay we had to create a three dimensional profile...  As I was working on one side of the profile from the top down... Surprisingly she ended up looking like she was sleeping... with the weight of slumber.  Let the form emerge.  And it did.  Art.