October 20, 2008: Teatrul Fără Frontiere

Dear Friend,

A couple weeks ago, Iris managed to find me some theatre movement classes being offered in the area. They sounded interesting to I signed up for six classes. This morning was my first class. The classes are being held at the National Theatre and are being sponsored (I think) by an organization called Teatrul Fără Frontiere. I had somewhat of an idea of what to expect, as I had experienced some movement training during my years at Northwestern, but I only had an inkling.

The room we were in was some kind of dance room. Our instructor was a gentleman from Norway who looked very young, fit, and the type of person who would be instructing movement classes. As he was from Norway, he conducted the class in English, which was a bonus for me. There were about twenty-five of us, I think, I didn’t count. Most of what we did involved concentrating on relaxing the body. I’ll try to recount what we did exactly, but it will probably lose in translation.

We had to imagine relaxing every part of our bodies and then building our skeleton from the ground up. Our instructor helped us along by telling us to imagine our toes and feet being built and then up our legs and vertebrae all the way to our skulls and out to our hands. We then had to lie down on the ground and allow our bodies to relax in such a way that we surrendered completely to gravity. This meant that our muscles and skin should “sag” or “melt” off our bodies as we relaxed. It was quite the sensation.

The purpose of all of this is to release any tension we may have in our bodies. The way this helps actors is to allow them to be able to build their characters physically from a “clean slate,” as it were. Boal talks about this in Games for Actors and Non-Actors, and it’s a common practice for most actors. We each, throughout time, form physical habits that program our bodies in certain ways which limit us from performing to the extent our bodies are capable of. Doing these relaxation exercises helps us to break those habits and explore what else our bodies can do.

On the floor, after we had relaxed ourselves, our instructor told us to lift an appendage and allow it to lead the rest of our body in whatever direction it went. So, if my right hand crossed over my body to the left, the rest of my body would follow it and make me roll over. It was rather strange, but that’s what we were supposed to do. This lasted awhile, and then we had to stand up. As we stood up, though, we weren’t supposed to shoot up into the air like we normally would, but instead concentrate on what each part of our body was doing as we stood up.

Then we did some walking. Our instructor told us to observe the way each of us walked. We were to watch each others feet and how they landed on the floor and lifted. We were to watch each others ankles and thighs, how they moved as we walked. Then each others torsos, how they were held. Then the shoulders and the neck, and finally the head. None of these exercises were necessarily meant to bring up things we had to change. Instead, these exercises were meant to make us aware of what our bodies do and how they work, and by that I mean each of our individual bodies. It was an interesting class.

My meeting with Carmen went very well. We went to the park near the office. I had emailed her about my conversation with Diana and expressed how I didn’t want to blame anyone for the miscommunication that had happened but that I did want to find a way to keep it from happening again. She agreed, and most of our conversation was spent discussing what was coming up next on the calendar. It was a great time for us to content and understand each other. There hadn’t been much time after our return from Cluj, so this was our opportunity to give feedback to each other. Afterwards, she said she was glad we had the conversation. So was I.

Already, things are getting better, which I knew they would. The challenge I was given by Carmen, and also by Diana, was to be more up front about my needs. I had mentioned before that I’m not used to that, but that’s, once again, all part of the learning experience. No one is going to feel offended if I get a little pushy, because that’s how everyone here behaves. It’s an example of those cross-cultural differences I read about in Duane Elmer’s book and it’s one I’m going to have to adapt myself to. Being pushy is part of what it takes to be a part of this particular community.

Blessings.
Kailen