by the way

before I forget


something which is obviously implied, but which I may as well verbalize now


thank you, 武康
thank you, 威嘉
thank you, 書毅


really. 

correspondences

So now we have me stand on my head, and moving slowly from there, doing all sorts of stuff. It's so hard, it's so much fun. Like learning to walk all over again, except on one's head and hands. 
Requires paying a whole lot of attention. 


Grotowski, perhaps, would be proud. Yet another unexpected (or maybe not so much) correspondence. This is why I do this. 


We are actually researching all the videos available from the Workcenter's training sessions. I've decided to be better than they were at those exercises. Keep my legs straight, extend from center outward. put the breath in the dantian. 


On the menu tomorrow (today): a tripod headstand, with a slow cartwheel, to a crouch, and a slide of the bent legs from there--> imagine if i were squatting in between two glass panes and cartwheeling on my head. 


Must practice more, every day. Keeping my neck relaxed. 


Meanwhile, it feels like 小邱 repatterned my whole body today, so thank you. Wow. 

one week down

week one of rehearsal is in the books. 
things I've learned so far: 

• I am very bad at ballet, 
• however, my body learns really fast if I just let it. 
• which of course is, often, very complicated. 

to put it as the late Grotowski would've, the work now focuses on removing the physical obstacles, and the mental ones, too. 
Yes. I can do this. I am doing it. 


The challenge is not to be as good as everybody else at certain things. 


The challenge is to keep at it, to improve, to focus on the details. 


In short, to remind myself of all the important things that I often like to teach others.


The body, my body, is the lab. And the experiment. And the materials. All in one. 


I see the results, every day. 


And we continue. 

"You have to love dancing to stick to it. It gives you nothing back, no manuscripts to store away, no paintings to show on walls and maybe hang in museums, no poems to be printed and sold, nothing but that single fleeting moment when you feel alive."

so far...

lots of throwing bodies around
lots of small details I cannot remember
lots of muscles I still cannot control
lots of relèves
(many, many more of all of the above to come)
and a busted lip. 
oh well 


a nice bit of advice learned today (hopefully for the upteenth and last time): the breath. it helps. a whole lot. with just about everything. regulate it, see it. let it move you. 


and a funny, developing camaraderie I didn't expect to find. 


so, thank you. 

much needed reminder.

Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You’re off to Great Places!
You’re off and away!

Dr. Seuss

note to self, #1

kid, 
balancing is easier when you're rested,
so try to make sure
you get some sleep
before a big day of rehearsal.
you'll be thankful you did. 
and your body will, too.

this stuff

..is SO hard... 
I've got some challenge cut for myself, in case I had any doubts. 
加油啦

01.10.11

and so we begin.

this is like the dream I didn't know I had. 

the whole thing is still very surreal, a mix of happiness, fear, expectancy, excitement, questions. 

eleven months of my life.

eleven months to create something that is still unknown, a creative container amidst the madness of life. 

eleven months to see if I can learn what I still don't know. (I'll have to learn it, well, pretty fast).

eleven months of daily practice. 

繼承者. successor. 

if you wish to listen, this is the place. welcome.

there will be words, maybe images. ideas. 

there will be a bit of me. 

Not because -me- is particularly important, but because, among other things, I want to see if -me- can keep a (somewhat organized) record of what he's doing. 

the challenge is here. 

thanks to the guys at 驫. 
and to all of those who continue to teach me.


with gratitude,
mauro