Sunday, November 19, 2006

Moving






We are in our new flat!

Last week we weren't. Which made it difficult to sleep on account of not having bedding, walls or a roof.

We were sleeping on the floors of friends or in horrible hostels, spending lots of time reading in cafes, negotiating and arguing and begging with lawyers in France and an eldrely woman in Washington.

But we moved in eventually, in an irony as snugly fitting as a Jay Miller cardigan, at 7pm, Flat Night. Just in time for Beer o Clock.

All's well that ends well.

PS. When people told me I'd be spending each night in a different bed in Paris, I didn't expect this! Thank you, thank you, thanks.

Saturday, November 04, 2006

Did somebody say flatnight?

Yes. Somebody did:

Thursday, November 02, 2006

Franglais

We're beginning to feel that a routine is being established in our
Parisian lives. It goes like this...

Tommy and I are still in the same room which means that we share an
alarm clock. We wake up together at 7.45am and exchange a moment of
recognition. Tommy prends his douche first and I shuffle to the
kitchen to make our morning mugs of tea. We leave our flat at a sharp
8.30am. On our walk to school we sometimes chat, we sometimes don't.
At Lecoq we separate into our separate classes.
In a recent post Tommy explained the structure of our classes and how
we were finding them. Not much has changed since then. Our movement
classes have focussed on bodily control, mime and acrobatics. The
latter class reminds me of P.E. at school. I was always
rubbish at forwards rolls, cartwheels, headstands etc. My bosy is still not as lithe as i want it to be. Consequently the teacher,
Christophe, has began to use me as an example of how not to do things.
Though I have been reassured that his mocking of me is in good
spirit. Phew.
After school we drop some chat with friends in a cafe. Conversations
often seem dominated by the progess of our auto-cours. This week the
theme is an 'imaginary journey'. When we eventually present our
vignettes to the year group on a Friday afternoon the teachers sit in
a line at the front and critically judge our attempts at making
theatre. It is a scene reminiscent of X-Factor, except that to-date
no praise has been offered. The teachers rely on an officiously
critical approach, which means there is cause for celebration when we
get the slightest positive response.
After a coffee Tommy and I head back to the flat to make a late lunch.
Our days then seem to slip away; Tommy goes to his second course (LEM)
and i try to read French comics in a cafe on the canal with the hope
that my French will be improved.

One of the most interesting aspects of school is meeting a host of
people from very different countries. Our classes consist (amongst
others) of a gay Venezuelan dancer, a quietly angry Bosnian, an aloof
Israeli, a mono-lingual Japanese girl, a New Yorker with a 'real big
heart', and a professional Italian clown. This means that
communicating with each other can sometimes be frustratingly slow but
it is interesting to observe how people from different cultures
approach the dynamics of theatre.

Tommy and I are still working hard to improve our French but at the
moment a lot of our understanding of the taught concepts is based on
observation of others. We find ourselves thrusting our bodies in
various directions but we fail to understand the reason for doing
it. This means that when we are performing some ridiculous movement,
like rolling from side-to-side on our backs on the floor (thus being
unable to see other French-speaking students), we uncomfortably laugh
at ourselves because we have absolutely no idea why we are ensuring
that our t-shirts get dirty. We are both determined to improve this
situation.

You may have noticed that Jenny has not appeared in this post. Sorry.
Jenny does not go to Lecoq with us but she has promised to post a blog
soon about her classes. Just so you know, at the moment she is
working with the neutral mask. Over the duck that i cooked this
evening, she was telling me that noticing how actors used their bodies
with the mask strapped to their face was fascinating.

I hope that is enough of a hook to keep you checking for her update...