I just found this article.
Architects' drawings of the human figure. Something interesting to look at a Sunday night.
Looking at the drawings and then at each architect's work makes me think about the body and how the way we see/feel ourselves influences so heavily in our work.

http://www.archdaily.com/784121/these-architects-drawings-of-human-figures-offer-an-insight-into-their-minds

Comment for Javi's post

This is a comment for Javi's post that I can't post as a comment because...ugh...technology

I just commented on this and it got erased, so I don't know if my inspiration will come back. But, I was saying:
It's interesting how the work influences the mood. In class I've gone from feeling very cranky to very happy, and vice versa. It's amazing how the mind makes connections...
The arms begin at the sternum. At the center of the body.
I remember the first time I felt I was in love, I felt it in my arms. And it still happens. Whenever I have and intense profound feeling, my arms get very tingly. I was aware of this, but I hadn't made the connection. I can think of my arms now as part of my body, more than as just 'extremities'. My arms are my body.

I'm so Happy Re Mapping my Arms by Candace

I'm So Happy: Re-Mapping My Arms

Re-mapping my arms for our AT class was honestly one of my favorite exercises! For the first time in my life, I felt a sense of freedom to move my arms and body as I pleased.  My body was in a state of heavenly bliss. It was sensational to finally move freely and be FREE! I was able to give consent to my body to explore bring present in the room and most importantly, being present in the moment.  It truly meant so much to me.

My partner Andres use the pinky ball to navigate specific parts of my arm joints and my arms felt awakened.  Andres helped me remain centered by speaking words of affirmation to me during the exercise.  Usually, my shoulders, arms, and back holds the majority of my tension. Throughout this exercise, I was able to fully trust Andres with letting go of all my tightness and peeling away at the rigidness of my body.  At times, the pinky ball felt painful under my collarbone, yet I kept fighting through the pain since I knew the end result will be a positive outcome. The most impressive discovery I made was my arms felt lengthened which brought on a new strength in my body. This newfound strength was beneficial for me in speaking my text without hesitation or overthinking my action in our text circle.

Overall, this exercise correlated with a quote from The Happy Mapping of Arms reading, “When the collarbone comes back to its rest position there will be a feeling of ease, and movement will be available in all directions from that joint.” This quote sums up my reaction to how happy my collarbone was after the exercise.  My body was poised and at ease.  The movement in my entire body was three dimensional instead of one dimensional. I definitely plan on incorporating this exercise into rehearsals from here on out.  Thank you so much Margi for introducing this!

Allelujah Arms by Javier Padilla

 Allelujah Arms
By Javier Padilla 

Overview:
This has been one of the most interesting/amusing exercises we have done in class. This is one of the first exercises where I could feel what was happening in my body right away. The shoulder blade sliding, the rib cage expanding, the collar bone moving, everything was present and I was able to pinpoint exactly what they were doing. The "hurt so good" pain of the pinky ball really gave me an idea about how much we  over use the muscles in that area. 

The Uneven Reveal:
After going through the exercise once and reaching both hands to the ceiling laughter filled the room. The awkward, uneven and totally unbalanced lengths of our arms seemed to be the most perfect visual metaphor of what our lives had become. Never did a more accurate, physical image resemble the confusion and awkwardness of my personal well being. I actually looked the way I felt. 

Finishing the exercise:
After doing both sides and resembling a human being not constructed by Frankenstein, the lightness and freedom in the arms was extremely new. The tension and weight  before was unnoticed until having this new sensation in my body.  Allowing gravity to takes its course when we would drop and suspend was dramatically changed. Dropping and suspending didn't become a muscular task anymore. For the rest of the day my body actually felt more in-sync. This exercise gave me another way of analyzing my body and inhibiting it.

Fin.

Re-Mapping my Arms was Life-Changing

from Ellen Bryan:

Re-mapping my arms was pretty life-changing.  Well, it would be life-changing if I did it regularly and often, which I now plan to do.  I did a similar exercise in undergrad, re-mapping my arms AND legs and it completely changed my alignment: I no longer felt like I was having to hold my body in place—it just was.   I felt this again in class last week.  I habitually collapse my chest, which I never relate to back/shoulder tension.  My chest hadn’t felt that free and open in a very long time— probably since the last time I did this exercise 4 or 5 years ago.  It compounded the discovery that the uninhibited body is completely in balance.  And so when my shoulders are tense, so is my chest; when my calves are tense, so are my knees.   Which works the other way: if I release my shoulders, I release my chest, so on and so forth. 

I think the true joy and satisfaction of this exercise is that it provides almost instant results— something we do not get with a lot of the work we are currently doing, where things we learn today might not make sense days, weeks, or even years from now.  The simplicity of having gravity work for you, instead of against you, and just breathing into those muscles melting over this little pinky ball helped me focus the energy I normally use to “stand up straight” into active energy for what I am doing. 

Now I try to do this exercise for a few minutes before I get up every morning.  I find it oddly energizing, despite just lying on the floor.  The initial shot of pain through my shoulder does a pretty good job reminding me to breathe.  On the mornings that I have successfully woken up early enough to do this, I am actually able to get ready for the day much faster and with much more ease.  The first morning I did this, I looked up at my clock, expecting it to be time to leave for class, but I still had not 5, not 10, but 20 minutes left.  My body and brain were so alive, and I hadn’t even had my coffee yet.  So I happily, a word I never use to describe myself during mornings, worked on lines while sipping on caffeine.  

Magic Arms

This week of AT was one of the craziest yet. The process of rolling out my shoulders was slightly painful, but the results were completely amazing. While we were laying out our little pinky balls, I had the thought, "This feels terrible, what is Margi doing to us?!" When I got up off the ground, my thoughts shifted to something like, "Where has this technique been all of my life?" I felt light throughout my entire body when we got on our feet. I tend to hold a lot of tension in my shoulders, and I felt like a new woman this week! It was like I was floating, in a way; I wasn't being weighed down by my upper body anymore. James was my partner, and he made the observation that he felt this unified energy throughout his shoulders and arms, like they were operating as one instead of being comprised of separate parts (shoulder, bicep, elbow, wrist, etc.). I didn't connect with the foot roll-out quite as much , and so this whole shoulder roll-out blew me away.

Overall, I think AT is going well. I just feel like I haven't had enough time to really implement it into my every day routine, and that's the only way to see a real difference. We have had a lot of new information and ideas thrown at us in these first few weeks--Linklater, Alexander, text analysis, scene work--so for me, it's been difficult to find a way to bring all of these things together on a daily basis. At times, I find myself falling on bad habits when I'm rehearsing. I guess at this point, all I can do is keep reminding myself. The only way to get rid of bad habits is to replace them with good ones!

Thoughts

Working with George reminded me that intention will focus the technique and make the connection to action very present. It was very reminiscent of the "direction" section of our reading. I find myself getting lost in AT frequently. My body feels supported and alive, but connecting it to the techniques I'm familiar with has always been a struggle. The Magis Workshop helped to strengthen my connection between acting and AT, and I walked away from class feeling more prepared to use the excercises in rehearsal. The use of containment was also very helpful. I've always found that using large, broad emotions comes easy to me, so taking a step away from that to hone in on something was refreshing and ultimately very useful.

AT is changing how I check in with my body. My central energy feels smaller and more specific, while my limbs and muscles feel expansive. It creates an interesting dichotomy in my mind, feeling so small, yet so large.  I'm very elemental with how I visualize things in my body (Fire, Earth, Wind, Water), and in class I always feel like a palm tree with huge leaves, and when I'm properly suspended, the air is keeping the leaves up. It's a helpful image that frequently pops up in my mind's eye.

Working with George on the waves and the concepts of gravity, accumulation or  suspension and momentum i noticed the following in my body:

• My body felt freer. 
• I noticed a tingling sensation on my skin. I noticed this most during accumulation/containment/ radiation aspect of the waves. I felt a lot more awakened.
• In relating this acting/scenes each state of the waves gave me a different feeling. something different to fight for. the same applies to push/pull/reach and throw. flowing through each aspect, it felt like that the energy only dissipated when i started getting self conscious. But as far as i was in the moment, the energy kept evolving from one to the other and my breath was flowing without my conscious thought. the movements inspired an objective or made an objective feel stronger.
• I should also state that the addition of text brought back some old habits ( tense shoulders, shallow breath, tension in the throat). Nonetheless i would like to work on these exercises further to the point were i don't have these habits or rather worry about them.
• With the constructive rest, i feel that my back and spine feel much more open when i do it. and it feels like i am sinking into the floor and my spine feels lighter. 

To be available...

This past Wednesday, I was surprised by myself. During our session with George Drance, I found myself pliable, in body and mind. Arriving to quite a weird but enjoyable state of mind. 

How did this happen?, I've been asking myself all week. 

The study of gravity, momentum and suspension, were a way for me to find out how much I was committing to my body, how much I was trusting my body. If I didn't, when I thought about suspension instead of letting it be, I wouldn't feel anything. Instead, when I trusted that my body knew what it was doing, I would be surprised with gravity, momentum, and suspension. Which filled me with energy to continue with the rest of the exercises. 

When experimenting with the waves, I was already mindset on letting whatever had to happen just happen. The energy coming from the floor through my whole body I feel was a way to dispose the body to receive and give without thinking about it. I feel I can apply that feeling to my scene work, because it makes me trust my reactions and not think about them. It makes the receiving of energy necessary for the giving of energy. Meaning, that whatever happens has to come from something. The same can be said about the experimentation with pull, push, reach and throw. When doing the movements with lines, I just used the text as a pretext, without expecting anything from myself or from the character. That availability of my mind, helped me play and discover new things about Medea. I think that if I had done the exercises making myself find something or thinking about how Medea is supposed to be, I wouldn't have discovered anything because I would not accept any energies coming at me that were different to what I had had rehearsed before. This relates to my experience in Andrea's class, accepting my feelings when reading the poem, to look at them with curiosity rather than avoid them. 

When I read Chapter 8 from 'The Actor's Secret', I understood that what was allowing me to experience all this was presence, being at the moment, available to the space, as the space was available for me. The string exercise, in which we looked around and went through all the strings, were a way to experience the 50-50 awareness Polatin talks about. We had to be aware of our own strings, but also, of the rest of the class. I think that helps us a lot, not only for scene work, but also for our dynamic as an ensemble. Being connected only with our inner world is not useful when we have to, throw the ball during Andrea's class, for example. Or even when we are sitting down observing a scene, keeping and ensemble mentality, 50-50 awareness (with what we are feeling and what is happening onstage) will make us stronger as an ensemble and learn more about other's work. 

AT and George Drance

(or the the Gift of the Magis...lol jk)

The work we did with George this past week was very informing. As an actor who allows the head to do all the work in performance I was finally beginning to feel what it would be if the impulse actually came up through my spine/entire body. That being said, it’s horrifying and scary because it requires completely letting go and a giving over to the energy in the space. What I found most fascinating was the idea that I can use the energy around me to fuel me- I don’t need to manufacture it to make something happen. Allowing gravity to lead me to momentum, living in the moments of suspension, and then trusting to let it go when it has passed left me with a sense of ease and freedom I so rarely feel in my work. And again it is something I don’t have to muscle but rather just recognize its availability for my use at all times. I felt this the most when we were in the text circle. The idea of receiving text from someone and allowing it to move me to speak is literally what the basis of acting is, and yet it is very, very difficult for me. I couldn’t really give myself over (which was frustrating) but I saw it happening in other people and felt the transfer of energy from one person to the next.

What I notice most about my body after constructive rest is that I am open. I feel as though my skin is a few inches from my muscles, my muscles are a few inches from my bones, and my bones are a few inches from each other. I’ve recognized that this feeling of primary control makes me really uncomfortable and puts me in a bad mood- I’m guessing because it is a state of pure vulnerability and openness. But how lovely it will be when I can live on stage in that state and actually allow the Magis work to happen; for the waves to enter and affect me. With my body available to receiving I think I will actually be able to fall into gravity, trust the momentum, and live in the suspension.  Sherrington said “every thought manifests as bodily reality”. Without the opening up of my body in AT I can’t say I ever allowed that to actually happen for me on stage. Exploring this in scene classes has literally blown my mind and thrown me off balance. I drop lines, I forget what I’m doing…but I’m learning to trust that it is becoming more organic and real, as opposed to manufactured and put on. Connecting all we are learning in AT, as well as voice, to our scene classes has begun to feel like I’m going through a second puberty. It’s so hard but it is helpful to constantly have this body awareness on my mind since it IS the work we do on stage. The question of “what am I doing to cause the problem?” has become vague, but I wonder if “the more I learn the less I know” idea is coming into play. The more I focus on inhibiting falling back onto my spine when I feel something uncomfortable, i.e. real, the more I feel grounded in AT, but the less I'm in control and therefore the less I FEEL I know. 

Reactions to Magis Training with George Drance

I enjoyed working with George because even though we were repeating some exercises we had learned in the first few days of class, the language he used helped me see the work from a different perspective. I made some new discoveries in the breaking down of the physicality, but what was most impactful for me was how he unified a lot of the work we are doing in all our classes and related it to our work as actors.

This is something that is so crucial in our learning. So often when I tell people outside the theater world about the work I do in school, I hear “what does that have to do with acting?” And sometimes, that voice will start yapping at me while I’m in the middle of a seemingly eternal class. Thankfully, over the years I’ve learned to acknowledge these doubtful thoughts, let them go, develop trust in the work, and believe that it is working, even though my results-oriented brain doesn’t realize it.

Anyways, this thought came to me when we were doing the swinging and blue wave exercises to experience gravity, momentum and suspension, and George reminded us to be honest with ourselves about when we were forcing it (controlled swinging, taking extra steps) versus when we were simply allowing the moment to come and go in its natural rhythm. JUST LIKE ON STAGE. He reminded us that all of the body-mind awareness we are training is part of our conditioning. When you learn to be honest with your own instrument and stay true to when your impulses begin and end, then you can be honest with your scene partner, and by extension, with the audience. I was really able to feel the difference from the doing the blue wave at the beginning of the class, and repeating it again at the end of our exploration. My body was more available, alert and free.

Another exercise that we had already done but sunk in more during this class was using the energy of push, pull, reach and throw to enliven a monologue or scene and connect the intention to my body. Afterwards, however, I had some questions… I can understand how every intention/verb fits into the push and pull categories because these are very similar to the Threaten and Seduce verbs James talks about. But what about reach and throw? Can anyone share some examples (of past scene work we’ve done, or in a known play/film) where the reach and throw actions were used?

Are we all met? Feedback on Magis Waves and Text Work

This week in our MFA Columbia University program for actors we will have George Drance coming in as a guest. We will build on our Alexander technique warm up and move into a physical and vocal training developed by Magis Theatre Company (magistheatre.org). One of the things that Magis strives to do is find the connections between disparate techniques rather than honing in on the differences. Here is a little about George:

GEORGE DRANCE has performed and directed in over twenty countries on five continents. New York credits include The Public Theatre/New York Shakespeare Festival, The Metropolitan Opera, La MaMa’s resident company the Great Jones Rep and Ralph Lee’s Mettawee River Theatre Company. With La MaMa, he has toured throughout Europe and Asia, working on several of Ellen Stewart’s original pieces and performing in the Andrei Serban/Elizabeth Swados’ epic Fragments of a Greek Trilogy. Regional credits include The American Repertory Theatre, The New Rep, ImprovBoston, and The Stonington Opera House. He earned his BA from Marquette University and his MFA from Columbia. He has been a guest artist and lecturer at Columbia University, Cornell University, Marquette University, Marymount Manhattan College, Hebrew Union College, and Boston College. He has been on the faculty of the Marist International Center in Nairobi, Kenya, at Red Cloud High School on the Oglala Sioux Reservation. Film credits include Solidarity and The Light of Eons. He currently serves as Artist-in-residence at Fordham University Lincoln Center.

With our first blog entry, we will give feedback about how the Magis exercises, particularly this company's use of images like the red and blue waves helped open up Alexander concepts such as gravity, anti-gravity, suspension, support, inhibition and use.