I'm glad to be going back to school tommorow. I don't much like not having something to do.

At 9:30 I went to my first class, which was my conditioning class. In this class we have an hour and a half of guided Pilates exercise. Its interesting because you don't move around that much. It is all very focused, minimalist kind of work, but it works you hard! And it felt good.

After conditioning was over, I was scheduled for a 2 hour and 45 minute break. Phil and I decided to go up to the student room and work on a comedy piece that we want to write that involves a very British person running into a very American person. Our idea is that both of them will be in Paris, and both will be frustrated because noone speaks English. Then they run into each other and are very excited about the fact that they both speak English. But through the conversation, they discover that indeed they don't speak the same language. We didn't make much progress on it, but we wrote out a few good ideas. While I was upstairs, I went into the office and asked Charlie if he still had my audition tape. He said he thought he did. Moments later he came into the student room and handed it to me. I ended up showing it to Phil and a few others. Phil said it was very good.

After my session with Phil, I went over to the gym to practice my juggling for the last bit of my break. I worked mostly on my 3 balls in my left hand. At 1:45 we were supposed to have Movement Technique class. Everyone piled into the gym for the class, but Tilly never showed up. She mentioned to us that she was going on holiday to Greece before the break, so maybe there was a problem with her getting back in time. What was annoying was that nobody from the office came to tell us about this. Eventually Fay went to the office, and found out that the class had been canceled. So that meant we had extra time to practice. I did a lot of passing with Oskar. We dug out some old clubs that are very fat, single piece plastic body clubs (there are 10 of them, and I imagine they are used for performances.) I told Oskar we would probably use these clubs if we did a passing routine together in the final show, and we should get used to them. They are hard to catch, but they look really good in the air. We had several very nice runs of eight club passing.

After using up our Movement Technique time on practicing skills, it was time for our Body Awareness class. But strangely enough, Helen never showed up. A lot of people were getting frustrated, including myself. I confess, it was nice to have all that extra free time to practice, but you feel like this is supposed to be a professional school, they should be on top of things. But I shouldn't complain until I know the full story. Anyhow, at that point, once people realized that there was not going to be a class, several people started to pack up to go home. I however stuck around, because we still had one more class scheduled. Well, it wasn't actually a class, it was E&M circuits, and a lot of the people that went home probably didn't need to stay for that anyhow--assuming they were not E&M people.

Anyhow, needless to say, I got a lot of juggling practrice in this afternoon. By 5:15 I was exhausted. There was a guy showing up to give a free workshop on clowning--in an attempt to gain people's interest in taking his classes. But since I can't afford the classes, it seemed silly for me to take his "teaser" class. So I went home. The bike ride home was uneventful, no rain. I'm getting lucky.

They are celebrating some holiday here. I still don't know exactly what the holiday is, but the entire city is setting off fireworks. I went to bed rather early to the sounds of fireworks.

Dear Walter,

       For your information:  November fifth is Guy Fawkes Day in England.  It seems that on November 5th, 1605, Guy Fawkes led a group  who tried to blow up King James I and the Parliament to avenge the persecution of Roman Catholics in England.  They had planted barrels of gunpowder in the vaults belneath the house of Lords.  The event is commonly known as the Gunpowder Plot.  The rebels were caught and Guy Fawkes was hanged in 1606 for his part in the episode.  It would appear that The King made a big deal about the whole thing to help bolster his waning popularity. In memory of the Gunpowder Plot a formal search of the vaults beneath the houses of Parliament is still made before each new session.  

England observes Guy Fawkes Day each November 5th.  They have rhymes that the children chant:

             Please to remember the 5th of November. 

             Guy Fawkes die.  Hit him in the eye.

       There are fireworks, the children blacken their faces and dress in old clothes, going about the streets asking for pennies.  They have bonfires and burn effigies of Guy Fawkes, life size dummies made of old clothes stuffed with straw.  It's quite a holiday. . . and also happens to be your sister, Naomi's birthday.   Love you lots, MOM

Thanks for the email, mom, and Happy Birthday Naomi!!

Anyhow, I got up this morning, and the first thing I notice is that it is absolutely pouring! My luck had run out. I made myself as rainproof as possible and headed out the door at a much later hour than I usually do. I got to school right at 9:00am, and headed in for the warm-up. Javier again lead the warm-up. No games, or scratchy fleas--I guess he used up all his games on his last week.

After the warm-up, it was time for my E&M class. For some reason the E&M class is split into two groups on Thursdays. So my group is about 6 of us, and we are the more skilled of the whole group. Rod introduced us to Sam, and then left. Sam started us off with ball spinning. There seems to be a shortage of spinning balls, but we each managed to get one. I ended up learning on a basketball, which is heavy, and the little bumps on the surface make it harder. But I was making a fiar amount of progress. Sam explained the proper way to spin a ball. He told us that some people spin the ball away from their bodies, but that the standard way was to spin the ball inwards towards the body. To spin the ball, he said, you hold the ball by the fingertips with enough force that you can hold the ball up side down without it slipping out of your hands. This proved more difficult for me, considering the weight of the basket ball, but I managed. Next you hold the ball with your wrist pointed out. The first part of the turn is with the wrist, turning the ball inward towards your body. Then when your wrist has turned as far as it can, the fingertips turn it even further. This is what gives it lots of speed. So first Sam had us work on just getting the ball to spin really fast, tossing it up slightly as it leaves our hands, and then catching it flat on the palm of our hands. Next Sam had us work on making sure that we kept the ball level as it goes up in the air. He described the ball as a planet, and told us we wanted to keep the "equator" level (parrallel with the floor.) So after we had worked on the spin, and keeping it level, he had us move on to catching the ball on our extended index finger. This is difficult, but I was making progress quickly. I managed to get it balanced on my fingertip for a few seconds a few times. After we had worked on trying to spin a ball on our finger for a while, Sam gave us a demonstration of possible tricks to learn in the future. He showed us two balls at the same time (one on each finger.) He showed us juggling three large balls, then going into a 2 ball fountain with one hand and at the same time starting to spin the third ball with the other hand. He showed us the inside and outside rotating the ball around, twisting your arm (for this trick he explained that you want to keep the ball as close to it's original position as possible, in other words, don't move it out or back, but keep it in the same original plane. He also showed us spinning a ball, tossing it up into the air, bouncing it off his head, and catching it again, still spinning back on his finger. He also showed us how to balance a second, smaller ball on top of the one that is spinning on your finger. He showed us a pole that he has, that he spins a ball on, then balances the pole on his chin (I later got him to put the spinning ball on the pole for me, so I could balance it on my chin.) And he also showed us that you can spin balls of just about any size (he demonstrated this with a small stage ball and a HUGE red ball--those inflatable exercise balls.)

After the ball spinning session, we moved on to diabolo. Everyone in my group had the basics down on diabolo, so Sam didn't have to spend any time working with people to show them how to get it spinning. As soon as Sam saw us start up our diabolo, he mentioned that the best way to start it, and get the speed up is by doing circles with it. By this I mean you put the diabolo on the string roll it up the sting on the floor to the left side by lifting the right side, and then once it is rolling a little towards the left, flicking it up in the air with the left stick causing it to go over to the right where you catch it with the string and repeat the same process but in the air. Anyhow, I doubt that explanation was very clear, but it did prove to be a much better way of getting the diabolo started, so by the end of the class I was doing it that way. I must confess diabolo is not one of my favorite props, but I gave it a fair try, and worked on some of the skills Sam had us working on. It was difficult for Sam to teach the entire class equally because Michel and Oskar both can do two diabolos at the same time and were wanting to learn other harder tricks, while the rest of us were just working on some more basic moves. Some of the tricks Sam showed us were under the leg, under the arm, a mills mess variation, catching the diabolo with the arms crossed, then tossing it back up, and several others which didn't completely sink in. My neck was hurting towards the end of the class. I think it was because I spent so much time looking down at the diabolo. This became another reason this is not a choice prop for me. I have no doubt in my mind that I could get pretty good at diabolo, pretty quick. The question is do I want to.

I understand Sam is quite good at bounce juggling too. It was a shame he didn't teach some of that too. Though I find bounce juggling annoying, because of the "chasing the dropped balls all over the gym" factor, I would still like to learn some new stuff. There was a time when my five ball lift bounce was almost coming together, but I abandoned it a while ago.

After the E&M class I had a HUGE break. So I went to Studio 2 to work on my juggling. I spent a fair amount of time working on 3 balls in my left hand (which is getting better every day.) I also worked on my backcrosses--those still need a lot of work. I think my 39 backcrosses that one day was a fluke. But I can still get about 15 good ones once I am warmed up. I also worked on my five club pattern.

Around noon I went up to the student room and ate my lunch. Someone had popped in the Acro presentations video, so I got to watch those again. Its a shame how much detail is lost by saving something on video. I doubt there will ever be a format that captures a performance as good as the actual performance itself. It would require some kind of hologram. But that is Star Trek fantasy talk at this point in life. I ran into Michel in the lunch room, and he and I agreed to meet at 2:45 to do our conditioning.

On Fridays, now with the new schedule, I basically have a HUGE break from 9:30am until 1:45pm. I spent most of that time hanging out in Studio 2 juggling with Javier and Annette. At first I worked on my own, practicing my 3 balls in my left hand. I also worked on ball spinning, and made a significant amount of progress on it. Javier came up and asked to pass clubs with me. I had never passed with him up to this point, so I was eager to see how good a club passer he was. We started with 6, and eventually went up to 8. He told me I am a good club passer. He was surprised when I told him I could pass 9. We tried 9 a few times, but it just didn't happen between us. I miss Will. He is my favorite person to pass 9 with. Eventually we dragged Annette into the pattern. I suggested Javier stand on my shoulder's while Annette feed us. Javier is a small person, so I hardly noticed him up there. Annette was having problems with passing up that high to Javier, but with a little practice, she started to get it. We ended up getting a few decent runs, but nothing like what I used to get with Jessi, Joe, and Silas. After that, I taught both Annette and Javier how to do a walk around, and how to fit it into a 4 count passing pattern. They both seemed to enjoy it, and were excited about learning a new pattern.

We piled into Pascal's car, and I became the navigator, since I was sitting in the front. It took me a while to realize that the stearing wheel in Pascal's car is on the wrong side (for England.) He apparently brought the car with him from Switzerland. The ride was nice. We included Pascal, Michel, Fabian, Annette and myself. I remember a funny moment that popped in my head. Pascal got disoriented for a moment and we pulled over to look at the map--as we were trying to leave Bristol, and some nice woman walked up to the car and gave us directions. At that moment I realized, we were a car full of foreigners. I don't know why, but it seemed a funny thought at the time. The ride to London took about 2 hours and 45 minutes. It was a nice ride. Annette and I talked a lot about possible juggling passing routines we could put together. We started really getting into the conversation, and the other people in the car started making fun of us, and making up fake names for juggling patterns. For some bizzare reason, the names they were coming up with all had to do with food. So I included a fake juggling trick name as well, "The double spin brocoli special." It was silly, and we were all laughing. It made the time go quickly.

When we got to London, I took over as the navigator, and guided Pascal through London using the maps we had. I did well, and we never got lost. We made it straight to the festival site without a hitch. The festival was being held at Circus Space, the circus arts school in London. Rod, our E&M instructor, also teaches at Circus Space. He told us that when we get there to go in and ask for the key to the back fenced in parking area. So when we got there, Annette hopped out and ran inside to get the key. It was funny, they have the key attatched to a juggling ring. Denise had actually arrived at the same time we had. Apparently she had taken the train the previous day, and stayed with some friends. Pascal insisted that Denise catch a ride with us to the back parking lot (which was just around the corner.) Denise jokingly said, sure, I'll just crawl through the window. And before I knew it, Pascal hand pulled Denise through the window, across his lap, and placed her on my lap. Now we had six people crammed into that little car. It was quite hilarious.

Once we were inside the festival space, we went in and put our stuff down, and wandered about. Circus space is a beautiful school. Much bigger, and much nicer that Circomedia. Also almost twice as expensive for anyone not from the UK or the European Union. It felt like I was visiting the "rich kids school." They have two main rooms where the juggling was going on. The ceilings go on for days. There is trapeze stuff hanging all over the place, but it is up so high, there was no danger of hitting it with a club. We went to the main desk to pay our £5 each (Rod got us a discount, from the normal £12, since we are Circomedia students.) Then after registering, I went off to do some juggling.

I got to meet Sean Gandini, who I met previously at the Damento Juggling Festival. He didn't remember me. I told him I am training at Circomedia, where he will be teaching in February. He seems like a very nice guy. He is also an incredible juggler. I saw other jugglers I had seen at the Bristol convention, like this guy Parit. I never got a chance to pass clubs with him though. There were several workshops going on, but none that caught my attention. I was just eager to have people to pass clubs with.

I juggled almost the entire afternoon with very few breaks. It was weird being a juggling festival where I know so few people. But I wandered around and met new people and passed clubs with them. I met one girl in particular who is from Austria, and is going to a university in London studying Anthropology. Her name is Resi, (she said it is pronounced like "crazy" but without the "c") and she was very nice. She and I did quite a bit of passing together, and hung out a bit, chatting. After one particularly long passing session with my heavy clubs, she complained that her shoulders were bothering her, and she needed a massage. So I gave her a quick 10 minute massage, covering her arms, hands, neck, shoulders, and back. She asked me if I was a professional. My massage techniques must be getting better every day. I keep getting asked that question. Anyway, my massage worked, because right after that, she wanted to pass some more. She eventually had to stop because she was developing a sore on her hand from so much juggling. So after that we sat down and chatted until it was time for the show to start. She was a very interesting person to talk to. We disagreed on a couple of things dealing with modern medicine, but it was good conversation. I had some peanuts in that I shared with her, and she shared some cookies.

When it was time for the show, she and I headed over to the room where they were having it. The school has a very nice stage. Resi found us a couple of chairs, just two rows back from the front, so we had a good view. Let me see how much of the show I remember: The first act was this guy who did some weird manipulations with some large acrylic tubes and a silycone ball. I found it to be a bit boring in an artsy fartsy kinda way. He did a few cool tricks, but he could have made it a bit shorter, or used costuming, or lights to help the affect of his show. The next piece involved two jugglers in a small car that they sat in and pushed into the center of the stage. They were in full costume, suites from the 30s, and the one guy was playing a saxaphone. In their car/truck they had a case of juggling clubs decorated to look like bottles. Their routine involved a little bit of acrobatics, and a lot of club passing. Unfortunately they had a lot of drops, and when things couldn't get worse, one of the wheels of their car broke off. But they did a good job of covering that. I heard many arguing after the show whether or not the wheel was supposed to break as part of their routine. The next routine was a 13 year old kid. Rod had described him earlier as "England's Gatto." I wouldn't say he could even come close to being compaired to a young Anthony Gatto (who by the age of 8 was doing 5 club routines,) but this kid, had an impressive 3 to 7 ball routine with very few drops, he also juggled 3 clubs in the middle of his routine (the clubs thrown in by, I assume, his father.) The clubs felt awkward for some reason in the routine. Perhaps because we all saw the 7 balls, and knew what to expect, and then the 3 clubs came in, wihout any warning--almost as an afterthought ("Oh, the routine isn't long enough, here do a few 3 club tricks.") Anyway, after the kid, a guy came on stage with a suitcase and an umbrella and did a comedy routine. Most of the tricks he was doign were pretty basic, and he spent way too much time on the build-up of each one. He was funny, and he had a good rapor with the audience, but his routine could have been just a bit shorter. He mostly did ball spinning, and 5 ball tricks. His head was like a leaky faucet, he was sweating so much. One of his tricks involved catching a ball on his head, letting it fall back into a neck catch, and then flinging it up back into a five ball cascade. After several failed attempts, when he finally got the trick, his head flinging sent drops of sweat flying all over the place. The next routine was a contact juggling routine. I'm never a big fan of contact juggling routines. Mostly because people try to make a 3-5 minute routine when they only have about 30 seconds worth of tricks. So you either get a lot of artsy fartsy moving about on the stage, or you get repeating of the same tricks over and over. This guy did both. The next routine was an Acro balance routine. This routine was one of my favorite pieces in the show. They only made one obvious mistake, and that was on their hardest trick, which they turned around and nailed on their second try. The costumes, music, and light was very well planned, and they were graceful and elegant. Definitely a good piece. And best of all, it wasn't too long, it was just right. Next the Gandini project was up, wearing some dreadful orange/red costumes with green Renegade 95s clubs. I have only seen them twice on stage, both times their juggling was brilliant, but their costume choices were a bit strange. One of the best tricks they did was a two person 10 club passing pattern, I presume it was a 2 count pattern--but it was definitely double spins (which is impressive.) After the Gandini's (who should have gone last,) the first guy who went, (with the acrylic tubes) came back on with another "object manipulation" piece. In this one, he was using these weird shaped tubes. Hard to describe them. But again his piece was slow, and cumbersom. It was more amusing and interesting to the perfromer than the audience, I'm sure. In this piece, though, he did show a little more skill by juggling 5 of those weird tube things--that was obviously a hard trick considering how large they are. I should comment that between acts, they attempted, with much technical difficulties, to display vintage juggling/circus video footage on the upstage wall. I guess they were trying to create a theme, because they ended the show with Sean Gandini talking about some 100 year old spinning fire clubs that someone had, and wanted to light them for the first time on stage. So some guy came on stage with these antique fire spinning clubs, and did a quick fire spinning routine. It was nice, but the whole show just had an awkwardness to it, there was no solid ending to it.

After the show it was time to go home. I said goodbye to my new friend, Resi, and we piled into the car. Annette didn't come back with us, because she was getting a ride with Rod. Getting out of London proved to be a little trickier than getting into London. We had to take an alternate route because a few of the roads we came in on were one way, so it got a little tricky. It was a Saturday night, so the city was just bustling with activity. It made me want to do some exploring. Something I will have to do at a later date. Once we got out of London, and back on the highway, Michel and Fabian fell asleep. I was exhausted, seeing I had been up since 4:00am, and it was nearly midnight, and I had juggled all day. But I knew it was my responsibility to keep Pascal alert and awake, so I spent the next two hours engaging him in as much conversation as I could. Towards the end, I was nodding off, but still managing to keep talking. I think some of the things I was saying started to not make sense. When we got back to Bristol, sometime after 1:00am, it was raining--which meant I was going to have to ride my bike in the middle of the night, in the rain. It wasn't that bad, actually, and before I knew it I was home. Oddly enough Mandy wasn't home. But moments after I got home, Mandy and her boyfriend showed up. Apparently they went to see the new Harry Potter movie. I checked my email before crawling into bed. There is nothing better than crawling into your bed when you are overtired. I slept well.

At 9:30 it was time for E&M class. Usually we have E&M class in the gym, but Rod showed up and made a quick announcement that we would be having the class in Studio 2. This, I knew, meant that we would be working with bouncing balls today. When we got to Studio 2, Rod started the class by talking about what we would be doing today. He said that we would only be working on juggling for about 1/2 an hour, and the last hour of class we would spend watching videos. He started off by giving us a demonstration of bounce juggling. First he showed us the 3 ball lift cascade, then the 3 ball force bounce cascade, and then one he called (I think) a "Follow Through" pattern. In this one, it is like a slow shower where each ball bounces twice. Finally he gave a short demo of the five ball lift cascade. Next he gave us a demo on cigar boxes. He showed us the very basic moves. Moves like turning over the outside box, and take-aways. He explained that there are different methods for doing each. For example, some people bend their knees to get the bouncing action, some just move their arms up and down, some throw the boxes up higher, so they don't have to bounce too much. After the brief demo, Rod gave us about 20 minutes to work on both bouncing balls and cigar boxes. I started off by working on my 5 ball bounce pattern. It was crazy at first, since I haven't worked on that one in a long time. But I eventually got it under control. After getting frustrated with chasing the balls, I went over to one corner of the room and grabbed a couple of screens with the intention of building myself a little space where I could work (so the balls wouldn't bounce too far away.) As I was grabbing the screens, and starting to get them into place, Rod stopped everyone, to explain that some people will build little barriers to deal with the escaping ball syndrome. As he was in the middle of explaining that, he looked in my direction, realizing what I was up to, and pointed to me as an example. He also suggested using the large acro crash mats around you as a way to keep the balls from going too far away. After playing with 5 bouncing balls for a while, and getting up to about 14-15 catches (which is better than I usually have done in the past,) I put the balls away and picked up some cigar boxes. It was fun playing with the cigar boxes. It had been a while since I had picked up a set of boxes. It made me miss my own set which is in storage in Arcata.

After the juggling session was done, we all packed up the equipment and headed up to the student room to watch some videos. Rod asked us, by a show of hands, how many of us had heard of the following list of famous jugglers. Then he proceded to list off a bunch of jugglers. I was surprised how few of them I actually knew. Rod explained that it is very important, as people specializing in E&M, to know who these people are, and what contributions they made to juggling. Next he started showing us some video clips. First he showed us a clip of Francis Bruhn. This guy is amazing. He was doing a circus act (to a very dead audience.) His act was high paced, acrobatic, and involved his entire body most of the time. He did a lot of ball spinning and body rolls with large balls. One of the tricks he did, which he is famous for is spinning a ball on one finger while taking another ball in his opposite hand. He then tosses the non-spinning ball behind his head, which makes contact with his foot. It is kicked up into the air, back over his head, and lands on top of the spinning ball, perfectly balanced. His final trick involves something like 14 objects. He has two sticks, one balanced on his head, one in his mouth, on both sticks he balances a spinning ball. Then he places two large rings on one arm and gets them spinning asymetrically next to each other, while on the hand of that arm he spins another ball on his finger tip. Then on one of his legs he spins a ring while he stands on one foot. And to top it all off, with the free hand, he juggles 3 rings! Absolutely mind boggling. The next video we watched was of Chris Kremo. Apparently Chris Kremo is one of the highest paid jugglers, or maybe it is the guy who has made the most money at juggling (not sure if those are the same.) Anyhow, we watched a circus act of his that involved him doing a quick hat routine, which lead into a hat, ball, and cane routine. Next he did a 3 ball routine, followed by a cigar box routine. His most impressive trick with the cigar boxes was doing a 3x pirouette. Apparently, though it was not on this video, he has done a 4x pirouette with cigar boxes--getting him a place in the guiness book of world records. The next clip we watched was WC Fields. He was an american movie star who started out as a juggler, working the Vaudeville circuit. The clip we watched was from a movie where he plays a Vaudeville performer. In his routine, he does a 3 to 4 ball routine with bouncing, and a cane spinning routine--all very clever, and funny. Next we watched a clip of Fu Xiuyu. She is part of a Chinese acrobat troupe. Rod talked a lot about how hard it is in the world of Chinese circus. How the performers are actually beaten if they perform poorly. Something to do with national pride, or something. It all sounds horrible. Anyhow, what this woman was doing was incredible. She started out by riding a giraffe unicycle, and this other woman on the ground would toss up these bowls. Fu would catch them, place them on her foot (the one that was not being used to make the unicycle go) and she would kick them up, catching them in a balance on her head. She did this first with one, then two at a time, then three at a time, then four, each time, catching them on her head, kinda like you would toss and catch shaker cups. Then, after she had done that, she rode her unicycle on top of a giant globe. It is mind boggling to think of the skill involved riding a unicycle on top of a globe. But it wasn't enough that she just rode on it, but she turns around and does a few more of the foot to head tossing dishware routine. Absolutely amazing! The next clip we watched was Michael Moschen. We watched his bounce routine inside his wooden triangle. I had seen this routine at least a couple of dozen times before on video, so it wasn't that exciting to watch again. And the final video we watched was of Bobby May. I always enjoy watching the video clips of his performances. He really was an amazing juggler. Its sad to think of the jugglers who eventually get too old to perform the tricks they are famous for. One day I will be too old to juggle.The video viewing session went over time, right into my break. But I didn't mind. My next class was Physical Theatre. So I packed up from the student room and headed over to Studio 2.

Physical Theatre class today was very fun. I was excited about going to it, because I knew we would be working with the Larval masks. Bim had us start out by getting into small "choral" groups, and moving about as a chorus. This is the same as the exercise we had done before, where there is no leader, but the group moves being led by "Bob" the invisible leader. However, these groups were small groups of 2 or 3 people. So when I was teamed up with Denise, and it was just the two of us, it was mostly pretty obvious when, and who was leading. There were a few moments when we moved, when neither of us seemed to be leading, but any major decisions happened because one of us decided to move. This exercise is definitely easier with more people. As we were moving about, Bim started placing several random objects on the floor. Once he had them out on the floor, he asked our choral groups to find our way over to one of the objects. Denise and I moved over towards this hose (off a vacume cleaner.) Next Bim asked us to pick up the object and play with it in the same manner we moved around the room, without any one person leading, and by letting the object, and its qualities help guide the movement and manipulation of the object. After a few minutes of playing with the object, Bim asked us to pick out 5 specific movements that we had discovered through playing with the object. The ones that Denise and I picked out were: Approaching it, picking it up and standing opposite each other making it rotate in circles (first parrallel to the floor, then perpendicular,) then stretching it out between us while Denise gave it a whipping motion (sending a small wave down it's length,) then she wound it around her waist from her end until she reaches me, then she grabs my end while I grab her end, and start to simultaniously wind myself up with it while unwinding her (we do this a couple of times back and forth,) next with her wound up in it, she unwinds, moving away from me so that the hose is stretched out straight between us, at that point, we start to pull in to each other getting tangled up in the hose, imitating the slinkiness of it. After we had chosen our moves, Bim asked us to practice them a few times, but after each move, we were to turn our heads towards the audience, almost presenting the trick, before moving on to the next trick. We practiced it a few times, then Bim asked each group to perform it for another group--and in turn watch the other group perform theirs. After we had done all that, Bim set up the two screens in the middle of the back of the room (as an entrance area) and each group took turns performing their little routine, each person wearing one of the Larval masks. When it came time for Denise and I to perform, something amazingly hilarious happened. First, I should explain that Denise is the smallest person at Circomedia, and in turn, I am the largest person there. Putting us together in any situation is funny right off the bat. Second of all, it is so incredibly difficult to see while wearing those masks. And so much of our routine required our ability to see. I thought the piece was a complete failure while we were doing it because I was having so much difficulty, but I stayed focused on keeping my head movements slow, and trying to add some character into my frustration, and focusing on letting the audience see the mask as much as possible. Everyone loved our piece, and couldn't stop laughing. It was interesting to realize how much entertainment was being created by our fumbling around blindly. After everyone had gone through their routine, Bim had us get up and start working on some isolations. The isolations we worked on involved the head (forward, back, side to side, tilt, turn, etc.) it involved the shoulders, chest, and hips as well. Also he had us work on our "double takes." Next, after working on those isolations, Bim had us work on a quick exercise that involved seeing some money on the ground, doing a double take, looking down at the money with much interest, looking around to see if anyone is watching, then looking back down at the bill with interest, then reaching for the bill, one last look around to make sure noone is looking, then taking the bill--holding it low down by your waist in front of you, looking around again to make sure nobody noticed, then looking down at the bill, then suddenly realizing someone is nearby, and tossing it away quickly, hoping they didn't notice. After running that scenariou a few times on our own, Bim set up a weird sculpture (involving two chairs, with a tall piece of wood balanced between the backs of the chairs, a weird tube on one of the chairs, and a juggling ring balaced on top of the wood) in the middle of the room. He then asked us to, with the masks, one by one, enter from the screens, see the weird sculpture, do a double take, then approach it, examine it, and then show some kind of emotional response to the sculpture. When I went, Bim had me redo my double take, because it wasn't clear enough. Then as I approached it, I started by showing great interest in it, then, taking advantage of the long nose on this mask, I turned my nose up and away, trying to look disgusted with the sculpture. Then I exited. Bim said something to the affect that it wasn't long enough, and he didn't understand why my character did what it did. After that I sat down and watched the rest of the class do the same exercise as Bim gave each person notes after each performance. At the end of class, Bim gave us our assignement. We are to put together a duo or trio piece using the Larval masks that involves a normal human situation, that uses objects, that shows a movement of emotion, and can involve costumes if we want. Having worked so well with Denise today, and having gotten such a positive response from everyone about the humor created from our size difference, I asked Denise if she wanted to work on the piece together. She was quite in agreement that we should work together, and is excited as I am about this project. The project will be due next Friday during performance time.

At 9:30 I had my Pilates/Conditioning class. This class is pretty basic. For an hour and a half she runs us through several exercises. It's a real workout. Fo some reason, I don't know if it was just lack of coordination, or just being tired, but I didn't do too well in class. I was in a good mood, and full of energy going into the class, but leaving the class I was exhausted. As I was leaving that class, Annette and I made plans to work on our passing at 1:00pm

At 11:00 I headed up to the student room.I decided to go ahead and eat my lunch a little early today. My next class wasn't until 1:45pm and I wanted to spend a little time doing some brainstorming on Denise's and my PT piece. I ate my lunch (while watching the Acro presentations video for about the 4th time--because Merlin hadn't seen it yet,) and then I headed into the adjacent "sleeping room" to relax on the couches and work on the PT piece. I was making very little progress with my brainstorming, so I ended up putting my notes aside and just chatting with Ashling. She was sitting on the couch, working on her little glass pieces. A friend of hers makes stained glass decorations and sells them, and she pays Ashling 6 pence a piece of glass to cover the edges with copper foil. It seems to take her about a minute per piece of glass. Ashling said her friend is looking for more people to do this, so I asked Ashling to bring me a batch of the little glass pieces so I could work on it too. Ashling said if you put in about an hour a day you can make 25-30 pounds. This would easily take care of my grocery bill. So hopefully she will bring me some to work on.

At 1:00 I met with Annette and we started working on some stuff. She wanted to try this one trick where I am juggling three clubs with my legs bent in a sumo-wrestler type stand, and she crawls up on top of me from behind, placing her feet on my thighs, pressing her body into my back for support. I then toss the three clubs up in a slow, high, single spin, and she catches them above me and starts to juggle them. Next she opens her thighs as I squeeze my shoulders and head between her thighs. Once I am through her legs, I hold on to her thighs with my hands and lean back a little, as she leans forward while still standing on my thighs and still juggling. We managed to learn that trick fairly quickly, but we are still trying to figure out what to do after we are in that position. Next she and I worked on our a-sync and sync ultimates passing pattern, and worked on going from one to the other. This is a little difficult because to go from a-sync to sync, one person has to throw a self double. But we are getting better at it. Next she and I worked on passing on a four count for three passes, then each doing a half pirouette getting into a back to back position, and then making 3 passes while back to back in a four count pattern (the transition from the half pirouette to the first pass back to back is all done in a four count pattern--so it is pass, self, self, self, double self/pirouette [stand back to back] self self self pass [back to back]) We managed to do it once without dropping. Not bad for a first try. She and I are thinking about putting together a passing routine for the end of term show. This morning, before warm-ups, she came to me and said it was my fault I she didn't get any sleep last night. The last time she told me she didn't get any sleep was because she was working out a passing routine. Sure enough, she has a passing routine in her head. I am curious to see how this all works out.

After Annette and I had our 45 minute session it was time for our next class. On the schedule it reads, Movement Technique. But apparently for the rest of the term, that class will be a choreography class. Liz, our conditioning instructor will be teaching the choreography class--as she has an extensive background in dance choreography. I will come back to this later and add the notes I took during her class today. Today's class was basically us sitting down on the floor, watching videos while Liz talked about the elements of choreography.

Edited to add notes after I got my notebook back:

At 9:30 I headed off to my Performance class. Today's subject was animals. Bim started the class off by playing the game we had played previously in one of Tilly's classes, "Corners." Bim played it a little bit different. He made two playing fields (so almost everyone could play--the only one who didn't was Catrina, and she was late for class,) and instead of using chairs, he used shoes. So instead of sitting in a chair, you just run to a shoe. I really enjoy this game. After we played it the standard method, he had us play it again in casual or slow motion mode. This became interesting. You basically play it the same way, but you are not allowed to run. So you have to casually start walking away from your shoe, keeping in mind how long it would take you to walk back to your shoe if needed, and trying to get to another shoe while the other people are walking away from their shoe. Very different approach to the same game. After that warm-up game we went right into the subject of the class, which is animals. He had us start out, standing in a circle, and acting as horses. He had us imagine that we were basically the front part of the horse. Our feet were the horse's hoofs, and we tried out different forms of walking, trotting, galloping, etc. We explored having a long (imaginary) mane, and shaking our heads around, proudly, and we also explored having a tail (using our arms as a tail behind us.) It all looked very silly, but there was more to come. The next animal we did was an elephant. For this animal, we bent over in a 90 degree angle at our waist, rocking our HEAVY bodies from side to side, using that rocking motion to lift our feet (without bending our knees) and walking forward. Next we explored our trunks (using our arms) and how we might move them, and use them to eat food. Then we explored having a tail, and having big floppy ears (using both arms to indicate large floppy ears.) The next animal we imitated was a cow. First we explored how the cow walks. This was difficult for me. I am not good at walking on my hands and feet at the same time. Walking on my hands and knees is easy, but walking on hands and feet at the same time puts a lot of weight on my hands that I am not used to (oh the joys of having a top-heavy body.) But I did okay. Next we explored how a cow would lay down. This was awkward, because a cow, when it lays down, will bend its front legs first, (onto its knees) then bend the back legs (onto their knees) and then lay down. Getting up is just a matter of reversing that order. The next animal we imitated was a cat. The movement of a cat was similar to the cow, in that we walked on our hands and feet, but with the cat the back knees are bent more than the cow, and the movement of the legs is a-sync. During the movement we explored how a cat would turn. Unlike humans, their spine can bend from side to side with much ease as they turn, leading with their head. We explored how a cat would sit, how it would lick itself, and how it would arch its back when it was angry. Next he had us humanize the cat, and explore what a human cat-like character would move like. The next animal that we explored was a dog. We went with one of those smaller dogs, that are very excitable. We explored how they move their heads, the excitement, the eagerness. We explored how their focus on a bone being held by a human is. I have this funny image in my mind of Bim standing in the middle of Studio 2 holding an imaginary bone while about 12 students surround him on hands and knees, wiggling their buts, looking very excited, heads focused on the bone as Bim moves it back and forth, finally throwing it across the room, and the room full of "dogs" chasing after the imaginary bone. After Bim threw the bone, it lead us directly into the next segment of dogs, which was growling. He had us explore growling with a partner. This made many people laugh. It was hard to keep a straight face. Next he had us explore the humanized version of a dog character. The next animal was a chicken. We explored how it moves. Its head, making quick, sharp movements, its eyeballs not moving (thus its head rotates in the direction it wants to look,) eating, and shaking its feathers. Then we humanized the chicken, and walked around the room. The next animal we did was a pigeon. The pigeon was similar to the chicken, but its head moves forward and back at twice the speed of its walking pace (very funny looking.) And finally we looked at a sparrow, exploring how it moves (making short bursts 2-3 hops, both feet together.) After we had studied all those different animals, Bim asked us to find a space on the floor, and become our own animal (the one we had chosen, after having gone to the zoo to have a look at them.) Because I couldn't afford the £7.50 to go to the zoo, I had decided to be a chicken--an animal I have had a lot of experience with as a child. We started out with our animals in the sleeping position. Then he had us get up and move about the room, as our animals, searching for food, then he had us move as if we were in danger, and needed to run away from something. After we had a chance to explore our animals in this way, he had the entire class sit down on the bench agains the wall, while we went up in groups of 3 to show our animals. The idea was that the class would try to guess what our animals were after we showed them. I don't know what I was doing wrong, but only one person guessed what my animal was. Perhaps it was because I was doing my chicken different than Bim had taught it. Most people's animals were quite clear, and easy to recognize. For the final part of the class, Bim had us wander about the room, in a humanized version of our own animals. Then he had us making sounds that our animal would make. Then he had us morph that sound into a word--my word was "brocoli." Next he had us greet each other and speak to each other, using that same characterization of our voices. An interesting class to say the least. After that hour and a half class I had a half hour break before my two hour Physical Theatre class.

Physical Theatre started at 11:30. We got a short lecture from Bim about being on time. I have noticed that several of the students are being bad about getting to class on time. The rules state that you should be ready to go 5 minutes before class starts, and they also state that anyone more than 3 minutes late will not be allowed to attend the class (thought I have never seen this rule upheld.) I have yet to be late for one of my classes without a very good reason, and those only make up 2, maybe 3 times. Bim started the class with a warm-up that everyone seemed to be familiar with. The only explanation I could come up with in my head as to why I wasn't familiar with it, was because it might have been used while I was home sick with my crazy alergic reaction back in the begining of October. The warm-up involved standing across the room from a partner, and then walking towards them. Then when you get to them, keep making side to side movements (like you are trying to get around the person, but you each accidentally make the same decision as to what direction to go.) Then we did that faster, more like a run. Then we did it faster again, but he had us freeze, face to face. And from that position he had us do some head isolations, mimicing the same action (of trying to get around, or under, or above the other person, but only with our heads.) Next he split the class in half and had one person stand towards the back of the room, while the rest of the half of the class put on larval masks and we played "Grandmother" or what I would call "Red Light, Green Light." The idea is that the "grandmother" turns her back while the others try to get close to her, and she turns back to see if she can catch anyone moving. If she does, she sends them back to the wall. After the first round of the game, Bim asked us to play it again, but to make bigger gestures with our bodies as we moved. Next we switched places, and I got to watch the other half of the class play the game. For the next section of the class Bim sent half the class up to the front, wearing masks, and while wearing our masks, he put our characters through an audition. Each character in turn had to respond to what Bim was saying as the auditioner. First Bim had us as characters go through whatever "warm-up" we might do in order to be ready for the audition. Next, one by one, we presented our "audition piece." Mine was just making my two fingers touch. After the auditions, Bim announced the winner, and we were to respond. I had trouble with this exercise. I found out later from Bim, that I was exaggerating all of my movements. Apparently I wasn't taking into consideration that anytime you wear a mask as big as these, any movement tends to get amplified. I was really disapointed with the results of what I did. I made the mistake I have made before. I always tend to be one of the first people to volunteer for an exercise, and I don't get a chance to see what it is like from the audience perspective before I try it. I need to not volunteer so fast. After my half of the class was done with that exercise, we got to sit down and watch the other half of the class go through the same exercise. Each session of that exercise was pretty long. In it, Pascal's character started laughing, and shaking his head up and down. Bim quickly leaned over to me, and whispered to me (pointing it out) telling me that that was an example of how exageratted movements don't work with these masks. I could see what he meant. I learned a lot in that moment. For the final part of the class, Bim had the first half of the class (which included me,) go up and put on these other masks. These are masks made of the tops of plastic jugs (I may have mentioned them before.) But they are simple: two eyes, a nose, and a round mouth. They look quite dumb, actually--dumb as in not very inteligent. Bim had us work in "choral," each wearing identical masks. I tried harder this time to simplify my moves. The scenario for this exercise was we crawled out from behind the screens, on our hands and knees, exploring the world as if we had never seen it before. Then Bim ran us through a series of emotional responses. He pointed out an imaginary puppy on the floor in front of us, then he pulled out a gun and shot the puppy, splattering it all over the place. Then he showed us the imaginary gun, and showed us that it was really a water pistol. Then he eventually had us exit the scene the same way we came in. After this exercise, Bim hardly gave us any real feedback. He just kept saying something about how sometimes you can create rules of things you should and should not do, but that sometimes those rules need to be thrown out. Phillip, who was sitting next to me said that I did a good job. But I wasn't content with that. So after class I went up to Bim and had a chat with him about the exercise, complaining that I didn't get enough feedback from him. We spoke briefly, and he told me a few things that worked, and a few that didn't. I left that class feeling a little frustrated with myself. Its something I need to explore. Again, I wish I had contact lenses, so I could wear these masks, looking into the mirror, and observing myself better. Arrhhg!

By the end of that class I was quite ready to sit down and eat my lunch. And that is what I did. I didn't have anything to do for a while (since my next scheduled class was at 4:30.) So I took my time, eating my lunch. After eating my lunch, I asked Ashling if she had brought those glass pieces. She had. So I spent about an hour and a half working on the glass pieces. I am putting copper foil around the edges of these cut pieces of glass for her friend that does stained glass artwork for a living. The woman pays 6 pence per piece of glass that we cover the edges in copper foil. So if I do around three hundred a week, it should make me £18 a week, which is plenty for my weekly grocery costs. After I had spent that time working on the pieces of glass, I went and washed the dishes, and cleaned up the student room. I have been very good about cleaning and vacuming every day (though apparently you only have to vacuum once a week.) Helen told me the other day that I get the "stage manager of the year" award. Its nice to be appreciated.

At 4:30 I went to my E&M practice session. This is a nice session. It lasts until 6:00pm. I did a bunch of work on my cigar box tricks that I am working on. And Javier showed me a couple of new moves that I started working on. Next Annette and I started working on stuff for the routine she wants to do. First we talked about what tricks each of us knew, and were comfortable doing in a routine. She complained that I juggle too fast. I told her it wasn't a problem, that I can slow down if need be, but that I enjoy juggling fast. Next I showed her a bunch of two person three club stuff (like steals, walkaround, etc.) and we experimented with that for a while. At 6:00pm when the session was over, I was supposed to meet with Denise and practice our PT routine, but she came to me, telling me she was too tired to do it. I wasn't concerned with that, since we have plenty of time between now and next Friday to work on it. So I ended up staying until almost 8:00pm working more with Annette. We worked on our ultimate passing pattern, sync and a-sync. Plus we worked on 4 count and 2 count tomahawks. I am starting to notice something about Annette and I that could cause some problems. We are both strong minded people, and we both have ideas that we want to do, and we are both very stubborn. These are not bad qualities by themselves, but when you put two people together who have those qualities, things just don't work out. So as i was leaving to go home, I spoke with Annette and I told her my observations on our characters, and how we are both too stubborn to work together on a project where both are putting in ideas and such. So I told her that I would be willing to step down, and that she alone should choreograph this piece and just tell me what to do. This will be a challenge for me, because I like to be in control. But I also see it as a good exercise of just being told what tricks to learn, and at what speed to learn them, so that I can fit into someone else's plan. She was pleased that I was giving her complete control.

It was raining as I rode my bike home, but the wind wasn't blowing too hard, so it wasn't that bad. I was pretty wet, though when I got home. I crawled into bed around 8:30, read a little, and then fell a sleep.

At 9:30 it was time for E&M class. We met in Studio 2, and Rod started the class off teaching cigar (not to be confused with cigarbox) manipulations. He taught this workshop at the London Juggling Festival, but I was unable to take the workshop. He handed us each a brand new plastic cigar. He gets them pretty cheap. There was a price tag on the packaging that read 50p. It is basically a novelty cigar that you might buy in a gag-shop. He taught the workshop with his wooden cigars, but explained to us that the plastic ones were just as easy to work with, and he learned on them as well. The lesson only lasted about 20-30 minutes, and he basically showed us one trick at a time giving us a chance to try to do them. The first thing we experimented with was just tossing the cigar from one hand to the other with a flip (just like a juggling club.) This was no big deal. I tried behind the back throws, under the leg throws, etc. no problem with any of the standard throws. The next thing he had us work on was incredibly difficult. This trick involves tossing the cigar with one flip, and catching it in your mouth. I never managed to make a single catch! Rod warned us that one of two things will happen, either you will enjoy this kind of juggling, and pursue it, or you will put the cigar down after the workshop and never want to pick it up again. I may be leaning towards the later of the two. The next trick we worked on was starting with the cigar in your mouth, and tossing it with a single flip back into your hand. This proved to be quite easy to do, but hard on the neck after about 20 or so throws. The next trick he had us do is tossing the cigar from your mouth over your right shoulder, then catching it behind your back with your left hand. This wasn't too hard either, I managed half a dozen successful catches. The next trick he had us work on was starting with the cigar in your mouth, and tossing it with one flip, and having it land back in your mouth. It goes without saying that this is a hard trick--but very impressive. The next trick involved starting with the cigar in your mouth, moving your arm up, grabbing the cigar with the inside of your elbow, then popping open your arm, causing the cigar to make a single flip into the other arm in a similar catch, and then placing the cigar back into your mouth. This wasn't too hard, but I had less success with it than I did the previous two tricks. The next trick he had us work on involved putting the cigar back into that same inside elbow grip and letting it slide down the backside of the elbow and catching it in the hand (similar to the cane sliding trick.) He explained to us that thought it may feel good, making the catch, that this trick is not that impressive to an audience due to the size of the cigar. The final trick Rod had us work on was a kick-up to the mouth. I gave this a few tries, but didn't even come close. The trick to it is that the cigar does a backwards spin. You place the mouth piece on your shoe, and the cigar end against your pant leg, kicking in a motion that would cause the cigar to do a backwards spin. Very hard. After he taught us all those basic tricks, he gave us a brief demonstration of juggling 3 cigars. It was very similar to the way you juggle 3 hats, but instead, the idle object sits in your mouth instead of on your head. After that session, Rod had us spend the rest of the class working with bouncing balls, cigar boxes, diabolo, spining balls, and hats. I spent most of the time working on cigar boxes, then went on to practice my five ball lift bounce pattern, which is coming along nicely. I also spent a short time working with spinning a ball on my finger (which is making very slow progress,) and I did a bit of hat manipulations too. Rod explained to us that today was the last day that we had to "play" with the different objects, and that starting next week, we would begin putting together the presentation for this section. He suggested that we work in groups. I am excited about starting to work on this project. After that class was over, it was 11:00am, and I headed up to the student room.

In the student room, I hung out, and ate my lunch. They were playing Modern Times, the Charlie Chaplin movie. It is one of my favorites, so I watched that while I ate my lunch. I had made plans with Annette to meet and work on her juggling routine at 2:30. I didn't have any classes until 4:00pm, so I had plenty of free time. I would have usually wanted to juggle in this free time, but all the spaces were being used. So I took advantage of the free time and worked on the glass pieces some more. Its nice doing those, because it is relaxing, and you can just chat with people, or listen to people while you do it. I am have finished about 70 pieces so far, so I AM getting a little faster at it. Also during that time before I met with Annette, I did my stage manager duties (washed the dishes, vacuumed, wiped the tables down.) I also went into the office and checked out a couple of books. One book is a cigar box book, and the other is a magic book. At 2:30 I headed over to the South Wing to meet Annette.

When I got to the South Wing I ran into Kay, who asked if she could come by my house for a massage tonight. I of course agreed. Annette was allready there, and had been working on her routine. She had a rough idea of what the 3 club syncronized routine would be and she started teaching it to me. I can do all the tricks, but I just need to learn the sequence and the timing. The routine goes like this: 1) 3 club flash start-triple/doubles 2) three 3s 3) 6 overhead (double spin) 4) five 3s 5) six right handed shower 6) five 3s 7) under arm 3 times, back crosses (single spin) 3 times 8) five 3s 9) three double spin backcrosses 10) two 3s 11) eight chops 12) fancy finish (yet to be designed by me.) So we worked on that for a while. I wrote it down in my notebook so I could work on it on my own at a later time. After we worked on that for a while, we went over and she wanted to try to do a forward roll from the position where she is balanced, standing on my thighs. So we set out a few crash mats, and she gave it a try. With the crash mats it was no problem, but she knew right away that she wouldn't be able to do it without the crash mats, so we scrapped that idea. So instead, I suggested that to get out of that trick, she just stop juggling (with a fancy finish) and as she hops down, I would grab her by her torso, and flip her over, giving the ending a bit of a flourish. We practiced that a few times, and got it down pretty good. Next she had us work on a run through of the first part of the routine. The premise of her routine is that she is a secretary and I am her boss. And there is club juggling involved. I will describe it in greater detail as it evolves.

After we were done with that, I had about 20 mintues before my next class, Performance. Brita was sitting on one of the mats, watching the aerial people, and I sat down next to her and gave her a 15 minute massage. She is my biggest fan, when it comes to massages, and my only paying customer at the moment. After I finished giving her a massage, she jumped up and went to get some money from her bag. She didn't have change to pay me the other night, so I told her she could pay me whenever. She walked over to me and shoved a bill in my hand in a manner where I couldn't see what the bill was. It reminded me of a way certain people would tip when I worked as a waiter. That manner of tipping usually indicates that the tip is larger than usual, or at least larger than usual for the person making the tip. I suspected it was a £10 note, which I later discovered it was (because you never look at the bill right away when it has been handed to you in that manner!) When I gave her a massage the other night, I went about 25 minutes over the 30 minutes (for which I charge £5) and she told me that she would pay me more for that massage. I wasn't expecting her to pay extra, but it worked out perfectly because I owed Annette £10 from the London Convention.

At 4:00pm I headed over to Studio 2 for Performance class. Tilly was teaching this class (normaly taught by Helen,) and the theme of the class was "Choral Work." First Tilly had us get into groups of 2. Though because there were an odd number of people in the class, I ended up in a group of 3. The first exercise involved walking behind your partner with your hand on their lower back as they walk around the room at varying speeds, directions, and levels. The idea is that you "listen" to your partner, and move with them as effortlessly as possible. The more tuned in to what your partner is doing, the better. In my case, we had one person leading, and the other two people following. The only difficulty this provided, as a group of 3, was that when the leader is turning, the person on the outside of the arc has to run much faster than the person on the inside of the arc (with just two people, the follower has the option to just switch hands.) After we each had a turn at leading, we stopped, and had a brief discussion about what worked, and our experiences with it. The next exercise was exactly the same minus touching the leader's lower back. So your just follow them, staying as close to them as possible as they explore levels, speed, and direction. After each person was given the chance to try the leading part, Tilly changed the rules so that we could change leaders at any given point. This proved easy for our group of 3 because we naturally took on the shape of a triangle, so if one person, who was leading, turned sharp enough so that he and the person next to him were looking at the back of the third person, then the third person would become the leader. This became a rule that we subconciously followed throughout the excercise, but there were a few moments when we broke the rule, and things became a little more spontaneous. During the discussion, I mentioned this rotating of the triangle that forced a new leader, and Tilly said that that was similar to the next exercise we would be doing. The next exercise involved groups of 4. Again, because of the odd number of people in the class, I was in a group of 5. The 4 people stand in a square shape, and each person faces the back of one of the 4, who is the leader. If the leader turns sharp enough, someone else assumes the leader position. With this new exercise, we explored the same elements of speed, direction and levels. But also for this exercise, Tilly had us also follow the leader's gestures, and physical actions. In the case of the group of 5, the fifth person just stands in the middle, following, but never gets a chance to lead (so we would rotate that person out of the middle now and then.) In the next exercise, we did the same, but this time Tilly had us exploring as a choral group, the space between each person. So sometimes we would be spread far out, and sometimes we would be very close together, or maybe sometimes we would be inbetween. The key is listening to the group, and working as a chorus so that anyone watching would't know that it was improvised, and that there was a leader. For the final part of the class, we sat down and watched groups of 4 get up and do this same exercise while Tilly called out environmental scenarios. I was in the second group of four that did this exercise. Tilly had us start out by just moving normaly, changing leaders now and then, keeping the movment and actions simple. Next she had us in a breeze. This affected the distance between us, making us further apart, and our actions became more windlike. Next The wind got colder, and we started to move in closer, huddlign in, trying to keep warm using our body heat. From there it got colder and colder and we got tighter and tighter, shivering, grabbing onto each other for warmth. Then Tilly had the cold slowly transform into a fire. The fire started out small, and started to grow. And as the fire grew our actions got bigger, and the space between us got bigger. All the while we keep switching leaders at random throughout the exercise. Then Tilly instructed the fire to get smaller, and eventually die out. It was an interesting exercise.

I thought my next class was scheduled at 11:30, but I found out later that it was rescheduled for next week. But before that, I assumed that I had from 9:30 until 11:30 to practice in Studio 2. So I headed over there with 3 of the school's jugglign clubs (because they are the closest size to the clubs that Annette wants to use for her routine.) I pulled out my notebook and started going over the routine she had dictated to me. As I was working on it, I noticed something didn't fit right, and it turned out that in order to be able to make right handed shower throws at one point in the routine, I would have to add one extra left handed throw into the pattern. I figured it would be okay, but I should tell Annette at some point. I spent about an hour practicing the various tricks, and then practicing putting them together. I pretty much have all the tricks solid except for one series of tricks where I make a series of 7 throws (right under left arm, left under right arm, right under left arm, normal left handed self, right single spin backcross, left single spin backcross, right single spin backcross,) which are giving me a little bit of difficulty right now. After working on it for a while, I decided I would go find Annette and talk to her about the extra left handed throw I had to put into her routine. I found Annette over at the gym just standing there, watching the Acro class. She told me she wished she could take the Acro classes with the people who specialized in Acro. She specialized in PT and E&M like I did. I started to mention the extra throw, and she invited me over to the student house for a cup of capuccino. I accepted, and we headed over there, drank some coffee and talked about the various topics involving the school. She complained about her shoulder hurting, so I gave her a quick massage. Just when she was offering to give me a massage back, the phone rang. It was Rod, inviting us to come over for Dip Notes. Apparently, because there was no performance this afternoon, Rod wanted to get it done early. So Annette and I left the student house, and headed over to the student room.

When we got there, we found everyone there, listening to Rod talking. He handed us each a packet on our way in (I will scan it later today and post it on the documents page.) It was basically a multi-page form that we fill out while doing a group project. Apparently we are required to fill out two of these forms for two seperate group projects we work on. I have two projects coming up that are group projects, so presumably I could fill them in now and not have to deal with it after that.This is related to the similar form we have to fill out for a solo piece. But the group one is several pages, where as the solo one is only one page.

After Rod had gone over that form, and answered any questions about it, we dispearsed again. I assumed that I had a Movement class at 11:30, but when I got there, nobody showed up. I apparently had missed the information about the class being postponed until next week. So anyhow, I stayed in Studio 2 where the Movement class was supposed to take place, and I continued practicing my juggling. Annette showed up, and started working on her 3 ball routine. She asked me to watch it. She has a very nice routine. I asked her to help me at some point to put together my three ball routine.

At 1:00pm I went upstairs and ate my lunch. I really am starting to enjoy hanging out with my classmates. Lunchtime is always so much fun. I went in to check out a video, and I asked the girl (who's name for some reason I don't know,) "Is it allright if I check out a video?" And I couldn't believe the sound of my own voice when I said that. I sounded so English. It cracked me up. I told Charolette about it and she laughed. She said I should work on my accent, and it will be a good way to pick up women when I get back to the states. I ate my lunch, and hung out watching some Buster Keaton.

After lunch I headed over to my Acro class. The class was fun. I mostly practiced my forward rolls (which Nicky, the instructor, was very pleased to see I have gotten them straightened out, so I don't go off to one side.) I also worked on my cartwheels a little bit. I also practiced getting up on the horse and doing dive rolls off of it onto a big fluffy crash mat. Very fun.

After the Acro class was over, it was time for E&M circuits. I spent most of my time passing clubs with Oskar. It is quite fun passing clubs with him. But as far as club passing goes, I am most looking forward to passing clubs with my friend Will when he comes to visit in December. He is the only person with who I can keep 9 doubles going for a while.

After E&M circuits were over, I headed over to the office to make sure that the stage manager duties had been taken over by the new people. I chatted briefly with Helen, expressing my concern about the communications system (because I was a little frustrated about not being told about the postponed class.) Then it was time for me to head home.

Jeremiah was leaving the same time I was, so I invited him to bike with me (since we go in the same general direction.) I wanted to show him my short-cut. Apparently he had been going up the hill and then back down the hill--where with my shortcut you don't have to go up a hill, just down. So he joined me. When we got close to my house, I asked him if he wanted to see where I live. So I showed him where I live--that way he can come visit sometime. He is the only person, I believe, who lives with his parents.

Anyhow, I got home, was exhausted, stayed up for a little while, but ended up going to bed quite early.

Anyhow, Denise and I spent the next couple of hours working on the props that we need for our physical theatre piece. I had quite a good time with her, making the props. We also picked out two pieces of music that are really going to add to our performance piece. We are both very excited about this piece, and expect it to go very well. We both agreed to rehearse daily in the evenings. Our performance is on Friday, and I expect we will have just enough time to get it good enough to perform.

As we were winding down, I gave Brita a call and invited her over to visit. She didn't want to come at first, but I offered her a massage, and she said she couldn't turn that down. Brita arrived a few minutes before Denise left, and the three of us chatted a bit. Denise and I told Brita about our piece, and showed her the props we had put together.

After Denise left, Brita and I went up to my room, and I gave her a nice long massage. After the massage, she and I just sat and chatted about stuff. Its nice to hang out with Brita. She has a boyfriend back in Germany, so there is no confusion about how or where I stand in our relationship. It is strictly friendship. I like drama free friendships like that. The last thing I need in my life right now is drama. After chatting for a while in my room, we headed down to the living room, because Brita wanted to see my audition video tape. After I showed her that, we chatted some more in the living room. Around 11:30, we realized it was getting late, and Brita headed home on her bicycle.

At 9:30 it was time for E&M. We headed over to Studio 2, carrying with us all the props we needed from the E&M store. Before class started, Rod talked to us for a little while about what our options were for putting together the assigned presentation. We had the option to work in as small of groups as two people, or as large of groups that could include the entire class. He encouraged us to create 2 or 3 groups. He also talked to us about what we could involve in our presentation. He said we can use music if we want, we can make it theatrical, we can make it skill based, basically he said we have a lot of freedom with this. The only requirement is that we use the props we have been working with. I am interested in doing a routine that involves hats and cigar boxes. Rod also asked us if we wanted to go ahead and get started on choosing our teams, or if we wanted one more day to play around with these props. I suggested we spend half the class playing around with the props, and the second half choosing our teams. Everyone seemed to agree with me, so that is what we did. I spent most of my time working with cigar boxes. I played around with the trick that involves stacking 9 boxes on the floor in a vertical pile, laying on their sides on top of each other, than pulling them into my hands one at a time. The cool thing about this trick is that every time you go for another box, you let go of the structure of the boxes in your hand--which seam to just hover there while you bring the next box into place. This trick proved pretty simple. Next I wanted to get that pattern where you collect all 9 boxes onto the floor, push the center one out a little, then pick up the entire stack, folding them in on themselves so that they create this neat stacked pattern that you can balance on your chin. I have no doubt that I will be able to balance it on my chin once I get the shape made, but I am having a hard time getting the boxes to fall into the proper shape. They don't seem to slide against each other very easily. I'm sure I just need to work on it some more. I also spent some time working on my hat juggling. I really enjoy hat juggling, but I am not good at it yet. I have plenty of time, however, to learn enough basic tricks for this presentation. After we spent the first half of the class practicing, Rod had us stop and we began, as a class, discussing how we would break into groups. First Rod had us each tell the class what kind of presentation we wanted to be involved in (theatrical, skill-based, and what props we wanted to use.) After some time we found ourselves splitting into two groups. I moved into a group that includes: Natalie (who is not really a juggler, but is willing to learn and has an interest in cigar boxes), Michel (who is incredible at diabolo, and is also interested in cigar boxes,) Jermiah (who is rather quiet, not a skilled juggler, but very good at acrobatics, and is interested in hats,) and Merlin (who was not in class today, but got drafted into our group in his absence--he is good at diabolo, and poi.) In essence I drafted myself into the "less skilled" group. But when I say less skilled, I am talking traditional juggling. The people in my group have little skill when it comes to traditional juggling (eg balls, clubs, rings.) But I really felt the need to work with this group, instead of the other group. Maybe it's the teacher in me, wanting a big project. Who knows. After getting into our groups, we talked a little about some ideas, and then we stood up and tried some group tricks using cigar boxes. Nothing worth mentioning yet came from our playing around, but I think everyone is eager and excited about this assignment.At 11:00 I had a short break until 11:30 when my next class, Physical Theatre, would start.

At 11:30 I headed over to Studio 2 again for PT. Bim had us start with the warm-up of trying to step on each other's toes. I don't see the point of this as a theatrical warm-up. It seems to be more of a physical warm-up. But it has everyone laughing by the end anyway. After that warm-up, we went on to some isolations. Bim had us go through the basic exercises of isolations: chest (back, neutral, forward) head (back, neutral, forward, neutral tilt, back tilt, forward tilt.) Then after getting our isolations warmed up, Bim went through another series of exercises. He started first with the chest, rubbing it (as we copied him) then pulling his hand away from his chest, he told us to imagine our chest growing, filling in the space between your actual chest and your hand. Then with our imaginary extended chest, we were to move around, noticing when we penetrate other people's space. Then he had us make eye contact with people as we walk around, silently greeting them. After that we went on to our nose. Bim had us rub our noses, then extend our hand out, creating an imaginary "pinochio type nose." Then we explored having this extra long nose, taking into consideration how the smallest moves of the head become amplified because of having this extra long nose. Again, Bim had us move about the room with our extra long noses, exploring how we might move, and how we might silently greet people we run into. Then we did the same with our forehead, chin, and the top of our heads. Each time, warming them up by rubbing them, then extending them into an imaginary lengths, and exploring how we might move. With the tops of our heads extended, the "extra weight" might cause us to walk funny if our heads were tilted--causing the weight to pull us to one side. The whole exercise was to help us realize what we should take into consideration when wearing a mask. If we have a mask with a long nose, you have to be aware that the slightest movment will be amplified. It was an interesting, and very helpful exercise. The next exercise we did involved some lip syncing. Bim divided the class in half. Half of the class sat down to watch while the other half put on larval masks and headed to the front of the class to perform. Next Bim put on a cassette with some opra music, and the masked characters had to perform for us. It was amusing to say the least, to see these cartoon like characters up there, waving their arms about, dramatically expressing the feelings that they were having from "singing" to us. After the first group went, we switched and I had a go at it. Bim played two songs with my group. First he played the same song he did with the last group, then he let it go on to another song, but the next song hand no words. This was awkward, since my character was no longer "singing," I just had to respond, at an emotional level, to the music. After we were over, and had removed our masks, Bim gave us some feedback. Once again, I keep finding out that less is more with these masks. Bim said I did much better in the second half of the exercise when my actions were not as dramatic. The next exercise involved having Bim set up this elaborate "sculpture" in the center of the room of unusual objects. In his sculpture he created various shapes: circles, triangles, wiggling lines, squares, etc. Next he had pairs of people go up, wearing masks and explore his sculpture. The assignement for the exercise was to interact with the sculpture and mirror the shapes of the sculpture using your body. For this exercise, Bim had them use the less human, and more shape oriented masks (the white ones.) Only a few participated in this exercise. Most of us just watched. I was among the ones watching. I found this exercise interesting. It definitely makes anything you are watching become more interesting if their is a relationship between the characters on stage and their environment. After a few rounds of having people go up in masks, and explore the sculpture, Bim had us go on to the next exercise. For the next exercise, we all got up, without masks, and began to walk around the room. Bim had disassembled his sculpture, and left its various parts around the room. For this exercise, we were to walk around the room and go through the following process. First we look, and see one of the objects. Then we react to that object. Next we look to the audience. Then we turn back to the object, and respond in some way. Bim had us do this for a few minutes, moving from object to object, going through those same steps, making sure each step was very clear. Next we all sat down and watched while two people at a time would put on masks and come on stage. This exercise involved the similar steps in the previous exercise, but instead of seeing, and reacting to an object, they were seeing and reacting to each other. The first two groups of people that went up were kinda muddled when it came to this exercise. There was no clear definition as to who was seeing, responding and reacting. They both seemed to move at the same time. I was in the third pair to go up, and we did considerably better. See, I learned something here. I wait, watch people make mistakes, and then go up! After Tom and I went, Phillip and Eley went up. Their piece was by far the best. Tom and I followed the instructions correctly (unlike the ones before us,) but Phil and Eley did that, AND had some kind of story going on. I learned much from watching them. Thus ended that class around 1:35pm.

After getting out of PT, I was starving and ready for lunch. I headed up to the student room, heated up my lunch, and enjoyed my break, eating, and chatting with the other students. At 2:30 it was time to head to Dip Notes.

Today in Dip Notes, we had another Anatomy lesson. The notes I took were few. The guy teaching it did not have a board to write on today, so much of the information (which he spat out rather quickly) never made it onto my page. But here is what I did write down.

Anatomy Notes:

Bones, muscles, joints work together to create movement.

Tagonist/Antagonist: muscles relax or contract. For movement you need on bone that is fixed while the other moves away from it.

Movements: rotation (inwards/outwards) flextion, extension, supination, pronation, abduction, adduction

Circomduction: range of all motions

The party was nice. There were only a few Circomedia students who were not there. The party was spread over three sections of the house. In the kitchen there were usually about 2-3 people just chatting, plus the occasional person coming in to make a drink. In the living room were the people who wanted to hang out next to the bowl of chips. And then there was Denise's room, where most everyone was until Denise announced that there were chips downstairs. I say chips--what I should say, so as not to confuse the British, is crisps. Chips are fried potatoe (french fries.)

I stayed at the party until about midnight. Surprisingly I was not the first to go home. But I did go home before many others did. What can I say, I like to go to bed early, and I couldn't keep up with these kids! Brita and I rode back. She wanted to find a shortcut, bipasing my house, so she could get home quicker. We looked at her map, and figured out a road she could take that would save her some time, and eventually get her back onto the A420 (headed home.) We rode together up to the point where she and I would have separated, but seeing that it was unknown roads she was about to go on, I offered to escort her up to the main road (via her shortcut.) She accepted, and we rode on. Once we got to the main road, we parted ways, and in a matter of minutes I was home and crawling into my nice warm bed.

-Domestic situation required too much "talking"
-poison bit was too long
-after glass was dropped, Denise needs to raise tension level (failed plan)
-slow motion did not work. (it could have worked, but it was not precise enough)
-death was a little clowny/artificial-Denise's legs in the air
-good story w/ twist at the end, need to build the obstacles
-good transition from angry to soft for Denise
-timing: have a system to work with each other
-space: too big, work smaller
-head movement for reading worked well

 

After giving us notes on our performance, we got up and started today's class. In PT, we are moving into character masks. Bim explained to us that the difference between Larval masks and character masks is that we now have the option to use our voices. He warned us, however, that using voice can cause loss of physicalization. We started the class with a facial warm-up. This was similar to the facial warm-up of Jyl's class (eg, making face really big, really small, really wide, etc.) After our facial warm-up we moved on to a vocal warm-up. This warm-up was similar to the one we did with Tilly. First Bim would make sounds, and we would imitate them. We went through a whole wide range of different sounds, some of them didn't even use vocal chords, but just involved making sounds with different parts of the mouth. Next Bim separated us into groups of 4 and we did a choral, vocal warm-up, facing each other. These are always a lot of fun. After our session of warming up our faces, and our voices, we started to explore character faces. Bim asked us to "make a face." Once we had made a face, he asked us to explore how that face breaths, and then explore what kind of sounds that face makes while it is breathing, and then to turn those sounds into words. Then he had us move around wearing those faces, and greeting each other with our character's voice, and mannerisms. After a couple of rounds of this, with different faces, Bim had us get with a partner. With our partner, one of us was to create a face, and voice, and be a "State Agent" or realtor agent, trying to sell the other person a house by taking them on a tour of the house and showing them the different features. The other person had the role of "director," and as they went on a tour, they were to listen and watch, and if they saw, or heard anything that was particularly interesting or funny, they were to encourage the other person to repeat it, or maybe even accentuate it more. After each person had a go at the different roles, Bim had one of the two in each pair go and pick out one of his character masks. Wearing the mask, we were to go through a similar exercise as we just had, but instead of bothering with details of showing a house, the person in the mask was just supposed to have a conversation with the other person, who again was acting as the director, and encouraging the person in mask whenever they noticed something that worked well in that character. After the other person in each pair had a chance to wear a mask, as the other person acted as a director, we moved into the final part of today's class. Bim set up two screens (as an entrance area,) and a row of benches for people to sit and watch. Then Bim asked us, one at a time, to go up and wear the mask we had tried on, and come out and tell the class, in character, what their favorite thing is. From there, Bim would interact with the character, asking it questions, acting as the "director" trying to get the character to come out, so to speak. There was only time for 3 of us to try this, and I went second. After I had done my bit, and Bim talked to me, about it, I realized that what I had done then, and during the previous exercise with my partner, was that I had brought out Coviello. Bim, before I even confessed this, told me that I needed to ease into the character, that I was offering a complete package. The main problems were, one, the mask did not match Coviello, and two I need to branch out, and explore other characters. It just happened so naturally, that is, falling into Coviello.

Anyhow, after that class, it was time for lunch. I spent half of my lunch time, eating, and hanging out with people in the lunch-room, and then I spent the rest of it playing hacky-sack with Charlotte, Merlin, and Tom.

At 2:30 it was time for Diploma Notes. Today, again, we had a session of Anatomy with Russell. The topic of the day was the Spine & Lower Back. Here are the notes I took:

Spine: a collection of 33 bones: 9 of them fused into 3 larger bones for an actual total of 27 bones.

Separated into 5 sections: Cervical (7 bones,) Thoracic (12 bones,) Lumbar (5 bones,) Sacrum (5 bones fused into one big bone,) and Coccyx (4 bones fused into 2 bigger bones.)

My sketches (when time permits, I will scan my images in and post them online-check back)

Functions of the spine: gives body shape, supports head, protects spinal chord, acts as a shock absorber (the Cervical through Lumbar section (24 bones) acts like a shock absorber)
How it acts like a shock absorber: Discs are squishy and help absorb shock, and curves in the spine help absorb shock

My sketches

Flexibility: each bone only flexes three degrees. Working together, as a whole, it can flex a lot more.

Cervical: 45 degrees forward, 80 degrees backward, 90 degrees rotation
Lumbar: 55 degrees forward, 30 degrees backward, 10 degrees rotation

The Spinal Chord: a collection of nerves that start at the base of the skull (brain stem,) and stops between 1st, & 2nd lumbar vertebrae.

Another sketch

C-3-4-5 keeps the diaphragm alive!

The Lower Back:
3 Muscles in stomach: external oblique, internal oblique, transverses abdominis

Diaphragm: huge muscle, lines rib-cage, dome shaped

Back muscles:

Handout #1, Handout #2, Handout #3

During the Lower Back, section, Russell got 5 students to go up, and pull their shirts up so he could draw on their stomachs. This really cracks me up. I can't imagine how long it takes to wash off all that ink. But it didn't take much to get volunteers up there.

After Anatomy class was over, I was supposed to have an hour break, followed by an hour of PT practice. Bim told us that for PT practice we were to watch ourselves on video from Friday's performance. I had already done that, so I didn't have to do it again. I initially made plans to juggle from 4:00-5:00 and then watch the video again at 5:00, and then do conditioning at 6:00 with Fabian, but around 4:30-4:45, Polly and Charlotte showed up in Studio 2, ready to do their conditioning. They said they were going to do their conditioning first, and then watch the video after that, since watching the video would only take 5 minutes. So instead, I decided to join them. Fabian was there, so he joined us too. So the four of us did our conditioning. I didn't make it all the way through the conditioning-though I made it through most of it. By 6:00pm my back was hurting, and my body was telling me to go home. And that is what I did.

The ride home was very foggy and cold, but there was no rain. I got home, unloaded my camera, processed the images with photoshop, and headed off to bed nice and early.