R.I.M.

My poetry flourishes in the lacking of Sleep.

R.I.M.
Tired.
Sleep.
She drips away as she dozes off,
Heavily.
Deeply.
She plunders into a deep sleep.
She is gone.
Away from this world,
but she is present where it is most important.
It's a fight.
SHe is not getting through.
It is different here,
bombs or more clear.
One's gone.
The next is through.
No think's required,
What happens will do.
A pinch.
Squirmy, squeals.
The humid skin flutters,
Shutters.
Awake!

Dance Dilemma

          We finally had a good part of the dance that we were all pretty excited about.  It took a while to get to since we spent most of the time creating, taking apart, thinking up ideas, and improvising.  Our assignment for our past dance day was basically to think about our choreography in a different way.  We tried separating pieces of our dance and changing up the order thinking maybe that would make it better.  We also tried more improvisation and listening to each of our ideas as they popped up.  We ended up coming up with more bits to our odd and unique choreography, but at the same time, we weren't ready to change what we had.  If we think up something better, we will definitely open space for change, but we have a base for the dance and it is pretty interesting.

What is art?

          We had a very long conversation about this in STAC and there were many viewpoints on what the answer would be.  One that I agree with is from the thoughts of Duchamp, a dadaist who believed that art is whatever you decide it to be.  To him, even a urinal was art since he said it was going to be.  Someone else said something which I'm sure many can relate to.  She said that art is a form of expression, meaning that you can put your feelings into your creation.  My art almost always takes off from my mood.
          Once in the middle of last school year, I was so upset, but what surprised me is how I coped with it.  I am not the best best at drawing.  Actually, I was pretty bad.  I ran upstairs to my bedroom, tears running down my face and I opened up my sketch book and I grabbed a pencil.  I didn't know what I was doing.  I started scribbling a figure and realized I was making a person, but it was all disfigured and looked extremely emotional.
          I showed my drawing to my mother, not sure it was embarrassing or impressive and I could see she got all my emotions out of the picture.  It was the first drawing I did that wasn't pathetic like a child trying to make the smily face look symmetrical.  Every day for months after that, I didn't put my sketch book down.  I loved being able to express myself this way.  It was quiet, relaxed and it helped greatly with my drawing abilites.
          In both fun works, such as Ducamps's, or in more serious works, such as my drawing, these were pieces of art that came from feelings.  They were our forms of expressing our selfs, as is every other true piece of art.  Art is what ever you decide it to be, but the best works are always those that come from your strongest feelings, such as happiness, anger, love, or worry.  As long as you create based on your feelings you don't just get a pretty display, but a piece of art.

More Dada with a Dance of Power

          Our new dance project is similar to our last, but we can make it very different.  This piece is supposed to be from a dadaist's perspective in the choreographing, but with an underlying topic of power.  We came up with a dance representing the power struggles of popularity between girls of our age.  It was a take off of the movie, Mean Girls.  Luke then watched what we had and he told us it should be from the perspective of Dadaists, so we started over and did a lot of improve to see what we could pull from it.  While we were figuring out our dance, the Georgian Television filmers came and filmed us talking over ideas and working with what we had and doing mostly improve.  This was very exciting to me because even a television appearance in country of Georgia helps present me to the world, but this was nerve racking to the others.  Now that we have so many ideas from playing around with many odd bits, we have a lot to incorporate in what will became a very cool dada dance with the topic of power.

A Creation to compete. One to wear. Who's will it be? This week's when to care.

          Those t-shirts mean competition and it's that time of year again.  We had the three periods of STAC art to make the design and we had time at home to complete it.  Draft.  Draft again.  Front.  Back.  Touch up.  Sharpie time.  Add color.  The vote is on.  I learned a big lesson from last year.  Although my design was intricate and really cool, I wasn't able to finish it in time.  Besides, the winning design was Leah's and her shirt was simple and strait to the point.  It won, not for the pictures, but for what it represented, and that was cleverness and truthfulness.  "Earth without art just spells Eh."  This year I took a completely different route and did something simple and clever.  I danced and thought and danced some more.  Then it came to me.  The "S" is a flimsy letter, but becomes strong when held by a tack.  "Stick the S in the tack.  That's creative."  On the back, I put the eight disciplines on flying papers held by tacks and wrote.  "Love your Mama and Dada...," which made what I think to be a simple and creative template for the shirt.  I saw one draft that had a really cool design and I can't to see the others and vote on my favorite!

To Perform a Dance of Dada

Our costumes were set.  We knew what we were doing.  It was the day of the dada fest and we were determined to make our performance special.  After all the work we put into it, we got up onto the floor of performances and and did our odd, but interesting dance.  We hope it came off well and we didn't mess up the steps, but was it what dada was all about? Did it appeal to the audience.  These are the questions we can't answer ourselves, even though we tried to accomplish both of these tasks.

Dada Art

          Art is about expressing yourself.  Dada is about creations of randomness.  Basically, by doing a Dada art project, their were practically no wrongs.  I first made a piece of art that was a building up of my flowing ideas.  The second piece I did was an actually specific work.  At first, I was building up ideas and throwing them on the page with excitement, but care.  It ended up turning into a swimming pool with a slide, and a ground that almost looks like a work of Pollock's.

Tears with Luke

          I found it really interesting how emotional people got over what they were thinking in their heads.  Some people thought of how they would sneak somewhere and grab a hat.  What would happen?  How would you approach this.  Some pictured their big brothers scolding them.  I could see this as startling, but just how much it upset them was a shocker to both myself, others, and especially them.  Another thing I found interesting with this hat scene was all the different ways one person could approach the same task, sneaking somewhere to get a hat.  While some were scared, others were annoyed, some were nervous, and some just didn't know what to do.  With these ways, I wonder just how many approaches could be taken to this simple task.  Maybe it isn't as simple as it seems.

Just dance! It's Lady Dada...

          Dada dancing, that's our group's challenge.  We searched up videos on Youtube to see how others approached this odd task and we saw some really cool moves.  We also came up with the hardest parts of choreographing this dance;  how it starts, how it ends, and of course, the the theme/story.  The ideas are flowing, but I don't want to spoil the dance.  We still have a lot more work to do on it anyway.

Connecting Words on White Walls

          Our approach of writing words of things we love on walls, and connecting them to other words of things we loved seemed really random, as art often is.  I expected something that would wow me, but I honestly didn't think it was the best for factory work.  I believe this idea seemed more like something that would belong in the lab, or in it's trial stage.  Although it isn't a master piece,  I is still interesting to see how one word can connect to another.  The word wall doesn't seem that interesting after the first glance, but when it is read, I see it quite fascinating.

Chinka Chunka Clunka Clunka

          I love improve.  It gives me that feeling of on the spot nervousness, but it gets my mind working and sharp.  We played a game today where people would come up and become part of a machine.  It was a lot of fun, but verble  improvisation games are much more of a challenge.  I hope to do more of these harder games in STAC so I could be better at improvisation.

A beginning to New Adventures

          I can't wait for another great year in STAC!  On the first day, we watched an episode of Star Treck and I was very impressed with its strong message.  It really captured the feelings of what many gay people feel.  If they weren't bothering anyone and just living their lives the way they choose, what's so wrong about that?  I believe that if more people watched this one episode, there would be more acceptance for the love that people share in different ways.  I wonder what I'll learn tomorrow!

Dance! #4

     Today we stretched and did a completely different style of dance from the others we did.  It was Fossie.  This dance was to the music "All That Jazz," from the Broadway show "Chicago."  What was really cool and different about fossie was that it wasn't so much that the moves were complicated, but they were the kind that were simple and had to be perfected to get that isolated body movement affect.

Acting #4!

     Our last mind blowing experience had come.  We did the usual, but yet it still made us feel oddly about our feelings.  One thing we did was improvisation.  I played the part of girl who was in competition for a role in a ballet with a girl who was terminally ill.  I learned from this that sometimes you just have to let go in improve, not get into all the details, making it clear for the audience, and do what they want to see, which is plainly letting the other person get what they wanted.  In my case in the improve, it was the part in the ballet.

Dance! #3

     I can't believe my reactions.  In dance, we were stretching, in a normal fashion.  Then came a twist which made me laugh and cry so hard and I couldn't stop till the oddly strong feeling eased away.  A person was supposed to sickle their foot into my thigh, close to the knee, until an odd feeling went streaming trough my leg. They would then press hard there for about a minuet, until the muscle relaxed.  It made my legs feel light and floaty, and longer then ever.  I have never seen anything like it.

Acting #3!

     Jim Bonnie is almost a hypnotist, with his skills of making a person feel exactly how he wants them to feel.  If he wants you to feel sadness, he will make you pretend that you are in a melancholy situation.  He told us that by putting ourselves in a certain mood before we perform, can really have a great impact on the believability of our acting.  This is because, if we are really feeling a certain way, it is really no longer acting, but you being that character and feeling that character's feelings.

Acting #2!

     So, today we had another day of indescribable emotions.   Where did they come from?  Why did we feel this way?  We were allowed to let our feelings out, and so we did.  They must have been deep inside ourselves, and could never haver have been allowed to be released before.  Using these emotion that are already yours apparently can help you play a character with those same feelings.  Just put you body into that mind set of the person you have inside you with that feeling that is shared with your character and the part you play will probably seem extremely realistic.

Dance! #2

     Today we switched up that theater dance to some funky hip-hop.  First we got warmed up with some exercises including planks and crunches.  Next we got down to business and learned a combination.  It was fast, fun, and looked awesome!

Acting #1!

     Today's acting workshop was amazing and everyone, including myself got really into it.  I was told not to try to explain what we did or I would go crazy, but I can say that I learned something very important from this workshop.  While improvising, don't think about what to say.  Just talk and you'll find yourself more in character, more fluent, and making more sense.

Dance! #1

     The dancing workshop was a lot of fun!  We worked on pirouettes, stretched, and learned a fun combination.  The workshop allowed me to do what I love in a simple way, being almost a relief of pressure from my regular , challenging dance classes.  This first combination that we learned was one in my favorite style of dance, theater dance!  It was upbeat, fun and looked really cool.

Miming 6!

I would have to say that our mime performance is almost completely figured out.  All that is left for us to do touch it up (if that is nessisary) and add a scene or two or three to end it.  The way each scene transitions into another is so cool.  Just as you get really into one story, you are popped into another and need to find your way, as in what's going on.  Once you found it, you are in the next scene!

Miming 5!

     Today was very different from all the other miming days.  We didn't do the usual technique and practicing as much as we usually would.  Instead, we focused more on interviewing Gregg and adding to our mime play.  Our first, and main issue with the interview would be least expected.  We were trying to find a spot near the windows for Gregg to have his interview.   The problem was the fact that we couldn't get the windows open and they were casting odd, square shadows.  We finally had his interview take place in a less sunny part of the room so you could at least see his whole face.  Gregg did a whole miming performance for the interview and it was amazing!

Miming 4!

     I can't believe how well our miming act is going!  We have the whole beginning and a little more figured out.  Miming is a silent version of acting, a dance with extra isolations and exaggerations, and with bold facial expressions.  Practicing all these aspects of miming have been leading us to consistent improvements every time we meet together.  Practicing outside of the workshop has also led to becoming better.  The more practice, the better!

Miming 3!

     Today we started planning out our project.  We were talking about how we could use rituals in a miming performance, like the ones that were talked about in chapter two "The Holy Theater," in the book The Empty Space.  We have some really cool ideas, but I don't want to give them away.  We started rehearsing one idea, with Gregg choreographing it.  I never knew their was so much you could do with miming!  Now I have to think up more ideas to add to our performance.  I can't wait to see what direction it takes!

Miming 2!

     Since this is my second miming class, I feel that I have gotten a lot better.  We have been working on the same technique, and new technique as well.  Gregg showed us the robot, which led to the obvious. We all wanted to learn how to do it too.  It looked so cool!  We worked on that and it was a lot of fun.  Us robots did our own movements, and interacted with objects, humans and other robots.  Doing this allowed for a large selection of options for if one of us wanted to do the robot in an odd situation.

A Drawing a Day Keeps the Doctor Away!

     I have been drawing multiple still life pictures and human pictures everyday.  I used to barely be able to draw well, but today, in STAC we drew people.  I was amazed at how far along my art abilities have come since I started drawing daily pictures in my sketchbook!

Miming!

     The miming workshop with Gregg Goldston was terrific!  I learned a lot about the movements of the body that are needed to make the invisible world that a mime is in come to life.  For example, there are many full body stops to help the audience see whats going on without feeling like they are missing any of the story.  My goal for this workshop is to be good enough at miming to be able to put on a performance that is easy to follow for the audience and looks really good.

Gregg Goldston

     Gregg Goldston is one of the the world's greatest mimes.  He trained at the Richmond Shepard Studio in Hollywood , and then moved to Salt Lake City where he studied ballet and modern dance.  Gregg opened his own mime studio and wrote and performed many mime acts in grand shows.  He even worked with Marcel Marceau and helped out by being in a show of his.  Gregg also is a visual artist!  Tomorrow I will be working with him in a workshop.  I believe we will work on some miming basics and then work on a story the mime way.
I can't wait for tomorrow!

Drawing?

     I never used to draw, but one day I was in a really bad room, and for some reason I went to my sketch book, something I never would do.  I drew a picture of a girl around a tear drop, but not just a normal looking girl.  I purposely made her look all out of proportion with stray lines around her features and with oddly and differently shaped eyes.  It wasn't that bad for my first picture of this style and it has a really strong mood to it.

STAC Live Minus improv?

    Apparently many people agree that this was the best STAC live ever done!  Most years, the performances were mainly improv, but this year there wasn't any!  My brother who hasn't been in the high-school for five years got so excited when I told him it was coming up, telling me how fast and sharp the STACies were, doing improv in their shows.  I was surprised how well the show went, illiminating what use to be its main element.  I guess it was a change for the better after all!

Final Boom!

     Editing the STAC commercial of blowing random things up is finally complete.  Matching the "BOOM" noises with the pictures at the right time and even finding when to put the booms was a challenge, but we found a great solution.  Luke would make his fabulous "BOOMS" with his voice as the commercial was playing so everything would fit in at its right place, the footage and the sound.