long time no write

this is the third time i've tried to start this blog entry and have come up short. how do you start writing when there's so much to write? just dive in, i suppose...

first things first: i'm good. i'm in london, and so is janna, which has made for much delight, hilarity, and all-around mayhem. before that, i was in prague for christmas with my family, which was lovely. what would've been lovelier, of course, would have been if tucker's and my flight to prague on the 22nd hadn't been cancelled due to fog (FOG?!!?!) and we hadn't had to wait until christmas DAY to get on another flight out. so christmas was briefer than we may have hoped, but we still got four days and change with mom and dad and so that made up for it. there's nothing like being with family over the holidays. oh, and prague was beautiful, too. lots of gorgeous buildings and art noveau and beer and hearty food and outdoor christmas markets. and the mucha museum, which was stunning. did you know that he got his big break by designing a theatre poster for sarah bernhardt in paris? i love that. it's so amazing to me that there was a time that being connected with the theatre could make you famous. the fact that a stage actress like sarah bernhardt had world recognition and the power to pull an artist out of obscurity and into international fame kind of blows my mind. these days, the only internationally recognized actors are film stars, by and large. how the world changes...

obviously the other thing that i really should/need to write about is the school. as no doubt most of you have gathered, my assessment went well and i'm on board for the rest of the year, and most likely next year as well. that's right, i'm here for the long haul. in fact, the only times i'm planning on being back in minneapolis over the course of the next twenty months are for two weeks in early may and then next christmas. luckily, lots of people have either already visited me or have committed to - mom and dad will each be here over the course of the next few weeks, janna's here now, morgan was here last month, and avye and lindsay and ben are all slotted to show up sometime this spring. i should have a revolving door installed in the guest room. but i digress!

i think the best way to tell you a little about what i've been experiencing at the school is to tell you about the teachers and the classes i have them for. so here we go!

thomas.
thomas is the founder of the school, and an incredible man. he has immense benevolence, but i'm kind of terrified by him - though perhaps "awed" would be a better word. it's difficult to describe him - he's kind of like this incredible theatre guru. "enlightened" isn't exactly the right word, but it's the one i keep coming up with. and i know that sounds ridiculous, but really, you have to meet him. he's kind of indescribable. he has immense calmness and kindness about him.
thomas teaches movement analysis and improv. movement analysis classes with him this past term have covered everything from the evolution of movement (which i think i wrote about - writhing around on the floor and undulations and things) to the anatomy of climbing a wall (almost mime-y stuff) to partnering up and crawling all over each other. improv classes started out very simply with the class i wrote about a few entries back, and then changed with the introduction of the neutral mask, or mask of calmness, which we've been working with for the past month. i'll write a separate section on the mask and the improvs we've done with all the teachers on that. but to move on for the moment...

amy.
amy is the co-head of the school, and so fabulous it hurts. she's tall and blond and gorgeous and really intelligent and playful and flirty, and makes you feel immediately at ease. she also teaches movement analysis and impro. her movement analysis classes have dealt with things like exploring levels of tension in the body and what dramatic forms different levels lend themselves to, the anatomy of pushing and pulling (again, almost mime), and some more elemental stuff to do with the neutral mask (we explored "water" with her). her impro classes before we got into the neutral mask were really fun and much more situational than thomas's - for example, there would be five people in an improv, and the premise would be as follows: "you have been invited to a very fancy reception and a very fancy house. you've shown up and the butler's ushered you into this very grand room. you've never met your hostess before, you have no idea what she looks like, and you're not even exactly sure why you've been invited. you don't know anyone else there. any of them could be your hostess. and by the way, she's never going to show up, but you don't know that. go." and then we get to play! fun stuff like that.

michael.
michael is in his early fifties but looks thirty. he has tons of very happy energy, but is also very focused and grounded. he's very precise and articulate and fun. he teaches impro and devising. devising class is essentially trying to figure out how you create a theatre piece with other people, and works towards giving us tools to more effectively devise and create theatre together. it's very practical and VERY useful, and involves fun games like trying to be as enthusiastic as you possibly can about the worst possible ideas - e.g. trying to think up slogans for ridiculous products and being really enthused about every idea, no matter how bad (one of the suggestions was "a gun that makes you pregnant" that ended up with a jingle that went "pull the trigger sexy boy." yeah, devising is fun.) his impro classes have been slightly more like thomas's, and he's done a lot of mask work with us, too.

steph.
steph is a relatively recent graduate of the school, i think, and now teaches there. she's australian and adorable and has a lot of energy but is also very focused and driven. i like her more and more as she finds her footing as a teacher more and more. she teaches movement analysis and improv. in movement analysis, we've worked on, among other things, creating the illusion of movement - how to ice skate, how to swim when you're actually standing still, and, with the mask, the element of fire. her improv's early on were more about creating the space - she would construct a huge imaginary swimming pool and then people would have to find their way around it in an improv, while keeping the dimensions the same. later, we got to have cops-and-robbers chases around the swimming pool - also fun. then, of course, mask work, which i'll get to later.

ilan.
ilan is, as a fellow student said, "a magical man." small and wiry and israeli with white white hair that lies flat against his head like a cap, he is just amazing. very centred and warm and calm. he teaches movement foundation (NOT movement analysis), which is a lot of alexander technique and principally focuses on how to physically relax and open up and connect with yourself and your surroundings and other people. we have had classes with ilan where he has us pair up and just spoon each other for an hour. we have had classes where we run around in a park and yell "i am free! i am happy." we give and receive a lot of massages. IT IS THE BEST CLASS EVER.

ken.
acrobatics teacher. amazing. fun. a hardass with a dry sense of humor. can do crazy physical things in sloooooow moooootion. i love him, and i love acro. I CAN NOW DO HEADSTANDS! this is huge.

jacquie.
voice teacher, very british, very kind of shakespearean. kind of the odd one out in such a physical school, but she's teaching us how to be vulnerable and connected in a very different and important way - through voice and breath adn that kind of connection.

and that's all of them! and i feel like my head may shortly explode - this is the longest entry i've written in awhile. my next entry, which i think will probably happen on tuesday, i'll write about the neutral mask, or the mask of calmness.

i love you all! happy new year! i'll write again soon. promise.