I love Le coq!
For those that don't quite know how to take that statement I will explian. Jaques Le coq was a theatre practitioner that trained actors and creatives to use their bodies first and foremost to expereince acting. He focused on the physical over the physcological. The physcology was left for the spectator and the actors were free to inhabit movement in relation to space. It is more complicated than that but also his work was very simple, revisitng basic human actions inorder to discover physical freedom and physcial control. His theory and philiosphy is massive and interrogated human nature, while his exercises/forms were rooted in simplicity.
The 7 levels of tension is something that I have encountered in different ways over the years. Recently I have began to incorpate this work into my teaching and I am very interested in it at the moment. To revisit this today in class after teaching it and exploring it with another Le coq trained teacher in the space of 2 months was fantastic. I had the sandwich effect of the being the student (the bread) either side of the meat (the teaching) in the middle. That's an interesting thought, to have the students experience close to your teaching is a good combination. It needn't be that you work on a level so to speak with the students as you must assume the role of teacher but to keep their experience close to you is useful. I like to see the different approaches of teaching this work including the use of language, the time given, the imagary and labels attached. This time we moved through the states quite quickly and we didn't as I previously experienced break into a sweat and feel the body working to it's limits. We analysed each state after we had attempted to embody it, the states had numbers and the odd reference but a version of the titles for each were given to us at the end. In groups we discussed each state in terms of weight, breath, space (internal and external) and general associations. This discussion allowed me to consider the experience of others in the exercise and therefore my perspective was accompanied by that of other people. This is what I wanted to get from this course, to know how to work with actors by drawing on the expereinces of others not just my own. I want to have a varied understanding of the expereince of the work of so that I am more likely to resonate with them differently on their different journeys. We jumped in and out of the states which was a good training and we did them all from standing and moving positions, which I think is very useful for the actor. When it comes to the application of this work the actor should be able to transfer the tension of all of the levels in all positions. Previoulsy I had found that students felt confused when I taught the tensions beginning on the floor, to then adapting them to the different exercises. They were thrown into their heads to figure out the change and became disconnected from the sensation as a shape shifting experience.
Neutral Mask
Ahhh to be here again is another treat. It is always a nerve racking expereince and rightly so. To put on this 'neutral' mask feels a bit like taking off your clothes in public. The fact that everyone will be taking off their clothes one by one does nothing to ease the situation. So I find this a really active, challenging, refreshing experience. Again the teaching approaches are always different with a few constant codes of behavior. I put the mask on and turn to see my group, informally as 2 others are doing it at the same time and I have no instruction but to stand there. They gently laugh at me and my tutor commented on how this will be hard for me, as I have done it before. Damn there's no escaping this desire to want to be good, the neutral mask is so cleaver and it works to remove your ego or at least expose it to everyone! so cheeky! in the words of one of my teachers ' it's a cheeky mask, this one' yes cheeky in that it looks like one thing and it reveals another. So the first thing that struck me after wearing the mask for a few minutes as they looked and tittered at me was how grounded I felt. That was lovely, maybe new for me? I didn't feel self concious and I held something in me, or it left a trace of it's self in me. It, me, ah it gets a bit confusing when I start to write about this work but I think it is the experience that stayed imprinted on/in me when the mask was taken off.
So with the echoes of previous notes from previous teachers and the pressure of everyone knowing I had studied this before, which of course is not necessarily a benefit, I continue. I wake up for the first time, I walk through the mist, see the ocean and throw a pebble. I had a pleasant and inspiring mask experience today. I will look into this more from the perspective as a performer and a teacher but not I have to go and meet my mate fishy!
Performer or teacher that is the question?
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