Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Speech and Drama Class Day3

Activity number ONE (revision)
Drop yourself down with a big vocal Sigh~!
Lift your spine one by one and head is the last thing to lift (3 times with bigger and bigger sigh)

Revision of catch sound from air pass it through my body and throw into the big circle we formed
“Harmph”
”Harmph Hymph”
”Harmph Hymph Haymph”
”Harmph Hymph Haymph Hormph”
”Hamph Hymph Haymph Hormph Huuumph”
”Gerh”
”Gerh Kerh”
”Gerh Kerh LLLL”
”Gerh Kerh LLL mmm”
”Gerh Kerh LLL mmm fff”
Gerh Kerh LLL mmm fff ssss”

Activity number TWO
Look across the room, find your destination
Pronounce “JErh Jerh JErh…” while marching across the room
(Because we 47 or us standing in a huge circle so imagine everyone pushing themselves through in the middle congested while JERH’ing’ and stomping)

Activity number THREE
2013-02-27 13.57.34Form yourselves a group with at least 2 person and above…
She close her eyes and start counting… we simply grab anyone from beside in panic situation.. haha
She need 16 groups
Each group will just have to deconstruct the word under their group number..
Group one is the word “VVVaaasssssT!”
So they have to explore every alphabet sound in that word and create an artistic gesture

(10 minutes discussing and practicing)

She rearrange the circle in group order…
Like reading a poem one group flow straight after another .. but do wait until others finish their sound in silent then continue…

(Everyone deconstruct the words until we barely recognise the word itself)
Some like dancing fairy.. some like transformer… really interesting and the pronunciation is so precisely clear…

Now make it sound more like a word but still take your time and others time yet let it flow like the poem…

HOMEWORK: memorize this for next lesson.. go around with big gesture.

Closing activity 5 minutes
”Back to the big circle”
Instructor gave a conclusion of this lesson…
”Everyone imagine there’s a big golden hoop in front of us.. we bend down and pick it up together.. step back and toss it into the air”
And everyone silently follow the instructor.. everyone hold the imaginary hoop together very slowly
Hold it up high then put one of our foot back, swing our arms back slowly.. and toss the hoop into the air… watch it float away in the air…
Then she close her eyes holding her hands on her chest for few second…
Then she smile and say thank you to the class…. Everyone thank her back and gave her an applause…. It was a lovely lesson…

Eurythmy Class Day3

Activity number ONE (Revision Expansion of self-space)
Stand in circle…
Follow the verse she said and move in and out of the circle.. forward and backward
Like spreading wings.. imagine a little wings behind us growing
Follow the movement breath in and out.
”Look at the Earth (out)… down to the dust of white sand(in)… Up to the heaven above(out)… Like a blooming flowers(in)…
Behold the eternity (out)… right in the hands of ours (in)…”
She said feel the words as we move… or else it will be just deadly walking in and out…
Does your breathing changes with the movement??

Activity number TWO (Occulta Philosophia drawings posture)
Open our arms to the horizontal plane…
Lift our right leg a little and place slightly apart while our hands move slightly up to the height of our head / ear
Lift our left leg a little and place slightly apart again with our hands move slightly down to lower rip cage height.. let our heart be at the center of the triangle between 2 points tip of our hands and head…
Lift our right leg a little and place more apart with our hands above the height or our head form like a star…
Then close our left leg in with both our arms close slowly down

Activity number THREE (Putting awareness of our steps)
Stand feet together and lean slightly forward feeling a golden thread connect through our heads to the heaven…

Consonant is like the outer world.. which form the world..
Vowel is like the inner

Move around the room with our hands wide open and say “Ahh” just like you met an old friend…
notice how you feel.. and the open feeling

Now form a cross with our arms in front of us.. how do you feel now..
notice the energy change.. this is “Ehh!!” don’t mess with me.. stay away from me
We start to feel our own touch and the mid point of the cross.. triggers our self existence.. Me! appear

Now move with one arm up connect to heaven and one arm down connect to earth.. (move around the room)
How do you feel?.. this is “eeeee”

How would and “Oooo” feels like… both hand curve like embracing something…

and “uuuuu” is vertical parallel line ahead of us… like the word Fuutuure…

Activity number FOUR(Putting awareness of our steps)
get a partner and one person walk like normal relax way and the other person try to follow at the back how their partner walk.. then exchange..
”Isn’t it strange to try to walk like someone else? and walking can really portrays a personality don’t even have to look at the face and you’ll know who is it.”

Stand in circle.. practice Eurythmy walk.. always feel the from put of the feet .. nothing on the heels
feel the front of your feet attached deep into the ground, lift right leg and imagine your draw and light line on the sand
place the front part of your right foot down
feel left foot roll slowly up from the ground and draw on the sand and place in front part of foot down
(very meditative walk 4 steps in to the circle then backwards same way)
Lifting and roll up our foot is our act of WILL
Moving towards is our act of THINKING

Activity number FIVE (Body balance and coordination)
She pass the rod by tossing through and invisible rainbow bridge.  She reminds do not do this to small students… for older students.
After you got the rod.. balance it on top of your head.
until everyone got the rod.. walk 3 steps forward.. 3 steps backward.
open our arms shoulder length, tilt our head to drop the rod in our arms.
(Revision of climbing up stairs and down stairs rolling rod up and down from shoulder to palm with palm facing down and up with verse)

lift the rod slightly draw half circle up and arm straighten down with a step forward.
Lift the rod up straighten our hand up with a step back
90’ down straight in front of us and push our left hand down while still holding the rod in shoulder length
Push rod slightly to right with a step to right and close
then switch to left hand up right down push towards the left slightly with a step to left and close
then to the right same gesture again…
Step back a step lift the rod straight up above head
Step forward a step while slowly put down our hands in relax.

Now repeat all the above movement in 3 steps
While stepping side way 2nd step is cross leg behind a step

Activity number SIX (coordination with peers)
Mexican wave in the circle… Teacher lift rod up then next person follow and so on like Mexican wave
teacher put down… push to right side.. push to left side… (Like the hand movement above but with steps)

Balance rod on our head… one student step behind and say ready for us to tilt our head back to drop the rod to him/her

Closing (Use idea in activity number THREE to feel the movement according with words in verse)
”The joy of light.. (one hand out in the sky and one hand receiving)
….xxxxxxxxxxxxx
May the wisdom of light, guide me as a spiritual whole…. beings… in our hands we hold.. (too long.. can’t remember)

Monday, March 4, 2013

Eurythmy Class Day2

Activity number ONE (Expand Self Space)
Stand in circle…
Follow the verse she said and move in and out of the circle.. forward and backward
Like spreading wings.. imagine a wings behind us expanding.
Follow the movement breath in and out.

Activity number TWO (Follow the expression of words)
Same movement.. follow the rhythm of her speech…
”Where is the Earth? where? (Out)
It’s there .. drops of grain… (In)
And where will the Heaven be? (Out)
…. (can’t remember)

Then she raised a question.. what is the purpose reading a verse?
Text to show focal point / expression / feeling / imagination / concentration / energy …
She showed the difference of putting the text into the body gesture.. When we talking about Heaven.. we have to be light and looking up..
NOT heavy steps and looking down…
When moving backwards feel like there’s a wing behind you.. guiding and grow… expand as you go…
Imagine we hold a golden thread together and we move in and out of the circle with connection from the person next to you…
Remember this is all about moving together

(After we do it with more imaginative emotion in our movement) “How do you feel?”
Our answer: Feel ourselves energy expanding / breathing more deep / lighter…
(one guy don’t feel anything, so she stand beside him to make him feel the energy as we move again)

Activity number THREE
She took the copper rods and stand in front of a student in the circle.
She wanted us to pass the rod according to beat as she sings…
“Sing with me if you know” As she started sing This Old Man she pass one rod..
Student grab with Left and change to right on next beat while the next student grab from that student holding the rod and so on…
Until everyone got one rod in their hand and teacher stop. “This is the idea for younger kids in the class”

Activity number FOUR
Hold the rod out between the grip of our thumb with both our palm facing down… Hands shoulder width apart..
Lift the rod a little and arms straighten down while step a step forward… (Body still straight)
Then lift our arms straight up and let the rod be at the back of our head while stepping a step back
.. and down 90’ straight in front of us a step forward
…Push our left hand down to make the rod vertical and right leg to step a step to the right…
… then push 180’ right hand down this time rod vertical and left leg step a step to the left…
Push 180’ right  vertical again and right leg step a step to the right…
Close and arms straight down.

Now same movement but make everything 3 steps.

Hold the rod with our right hand in the middle still vertical and curve towards right to have figure 8 steps..
Draw a big figure eight on floor with our steps.. remember to pull the energy from the person next to you..
Curve towards the left with the rod pass to our own left hand...
Stop at the half eight (Everyone close together in the small circle in the middle of the room)
Then walk backwards the other half of the eight.. out.. (same thing)

Activity number FIVE
Connect the movement of activity TWO and FOUR together with a verse…
”The Joy of Light.. Shines through me…. (I will try remember the whole verse next class)
(classes are not allow recording so I am writing all this down based on my memory.. maybe some missing parts… I will try my best)

Sunday, March 3, 2013

Eurythmy Class Day1

(Sit in circle, introduction of Eurythmy)
History of Eurythmy: It is a young art, just 101 year-old.  Much younger than many forms of arts…
Eurythmy has a rich vocabulary of movement and gesture for both speech and musical tone, "scultped air" that arises when speech or music sounds forth.
Sue used the example of words “LOVE” and ask us to pronounce and feel it with gesture.

Sue further introduce: How Eurythmy express, how it cure sickness and problematic children…

Activity number ONE (Body balance)
Stand in circle.
1 meter long, slightly thicker than a pencil diameter copper rods were distributed to everyone.
Balance it on our heads walk forward into the circle and backwards…

hands shoulder apart let the copper rod drop from the head to our arms…
Let the copper rod roll down to the palm and roll back to our shoulder..

“Tell your little students that catch the squirrel don’t let it fall of the tree”
”this is the way climbing up the stairs” Roll the rod up to our shoulder…
”this is the way climbing down the stairs” Roll the rod down to our palm…
Turn your palm facing down while the rod stay above the back of your palm… let the rod roll up to shoulder
(She continue reading the verse.. I can’t remember.. but is really beautiful and calming…)
Rod roll down to back of palm again then turn our palm around holding the rod…

Activity number TWO (Body spaces)
Practice to move in the figure eight with the guidance of the copper road.
Hold the copper road vertical and step the steps of figure eight route, while moving to the left pass the rod to your left hand.. move to right pass the rod to your right hand.
(Some people will follow their nose, some move backwards back to the same point)
Sue encourage everyone not to afraid of the space behind and just move bravely backward not always guided by nose.
She raise a question :”Why is children afraid of moving backwards?”

Activity number THREE (Move with connection)
Still moving in the figure of eight steps… imagine we are all connected with a golden thread.
Steps out to the right imagine you pulling the person on your right.. and the person on your right feel you being pulled..
Still passing the rods between hand following the flow of your movement.. curve to the middle of eight imaginary pull the person on your left…
Stop at the half eight…
Then go backward in the same way.
The whole circle of people move together in the same force, while she recite a verse (I can’t remember the verse but it goes according to our movement very poetically and meditative)

Closing activity
Balance the rod on our head.
One person goes around and collect to rod from behind and the others just tilt their head backwards for the rod to fall straight into that person’s arm.

Friday, March 1, 2013

Speech and Drama Class Day2

Activity Number ONE 15minutes
”Scatter yourself around the room… Here’s the rule.. Do not let the ball touch the ground…
you may tap slap play like a volley ball.. anything.. as long as you keep it off the ground…
BUT know your limit.. we are not fighting for Olympic champion.. I don’t want anybody to fall over…
If you miss the ball.. it’s ok.. We just going to count again…
So everyone count together and see how many touch can we keep the ball off ground..”
(Round 2)
”Now New rule is.. those who touched the ball must go and touch the wall before touching the ball again.. Count
End of this round
”Those who didn’t get to touch the wall go and touch the wall now”
(Round 3)
same as round 2 again
End of this round
”Those who didn’t touch the wall tap on someone else shoulder and say well done to them”
(Round 4)
Don’t have to touch the wall now
End of this round
”For those who haven’t get to touch the ball, kiss yourself at your inner elbow”

Activity Number TWO (Sense of space and movement) 15minutes
Section 1
”Walk into the space around this room… feel your movement…
Feel your feet connected to the floor each step…
Walk slower and feel your heel, roll to the palm of your foot to the toe…
Walk like normal again… feel your spine.. your shoulder while you walking into the space
Walk slowly again and feel the movement of your body…
Walk like normal again…”

Section 2
”Now while we are still walking into space.. You will slowly form the formation of the letter or number that I am going to announce…
DO not point with your finger… No indication… No talking.. Silently adjust yourself into the formation
… Give me a ‘2’…”
(45 of us walk silently and form ourselves a straight line.. and it took another 5 minutes for the nice curve of ‘2’)
”Still slowly adjusting there… good… No speaking… No pointing…”
(Round 2)
”Break the formation and walk into the space between yourself again…” (2minutes walking as she give us relaxing explanations and instructions)
”… Now form yourself into a capital letter H”
”Just incase you don’t know what kind of H I want, I’ll draw on the board…”
”No pointing.. No speaking…and slowly get yourself into the formation…”
(We are more comfortable with the space and movement together.. 1 minute we formed it)
”Ahh.. seems like the earlier ‘2’ was a warm up… Now you all are very well aware now…”
(Round 3)
”Break the formation and walk into space again… This will be the last one…” (1minutes walking as she keep our concentration of being silent again)
”…Now form yourself into capital letter ‘R’, I will draw on the board again”
(We spent 2 minutes adjusting… and one group of people suddenly aware that the R we form is in mirror image)
(Immediately we change the formation and we giggle)

Activity Number THREE (Acknowledge the uniqueness of each sound) 15minutes
Section 1
”go into a big circle now…”
”We believe that sound is constantly stored in the air… just like spirit…” (She explained a lot more)
”So we will catch the ‘harmph’ sound from the air.. let the sound past through our body and throw it out into the circle..”
(Everyone copy her movement.. catch the air above our head swing our arm throw it into the middle of the circle when we said ‘Harmph’)
(That sound amazing)
”Now I catch the sound and pass to the person next to me.. and you catch it from me and pass to the next person..”
(Both her arms raise in the air.. catch and toss to the next person “Harmph”.  And the next person pass on.. one circle around)
(She caught it back and hold it like a ball in front of her chest, with her eyes close.. harmph.. softly)

Section 2
”Now catch the sounds ‘Harmph Hymph” from the air and toss them into the circle..”
(Everyone does it together… the sound is powerful…)
”Harmph Hymph Haymph” (Same movement)
”Humph Hymph Harmph Hormph” (Same movement, We were so pushed by the sound and toss further into the circle.
”Humph Hymph Haymph Hormph Huumph” (Same movement…)
”Everyone say “Girhh” (everyone reply “Girhh”)
”Feel the sound produce at the back of our throat “Girhh”
”Khhh…. “(Everyone reply “Khhh”)
”LLLL” (Curl tongue inward)
”Feel the sound from the back of our throat “Girhh” to slightly forward “Khhh”, then to the middle “LLLLL”
”And now to much more forward MMMMMMMMMM…..”
”More to the front of our lips…. FFFFFFFFFFFF……..”
”And out of our lips… SSSSSSSSSSSSS…..”
”Catch the sound from the air and we going to do the Girhh Khhh LL MM FF Ss…” (Everyone do together toss the sound into our circle)

Section 3
”Every alphabet have it unique sound and expression.. not just ABCDEFG (singing the alphabet song)
”I want you to feel the energy of each alphabet sound.. So you will be partner up… One person catch the sound from the air”
”let the sound go through you.. pronounce it and toss it to your partner and the partner catch it and toss it back while pronounce it…”
”So team up with the person next to you and each of you will get different alphabet..”
Pair one – AAAh

Pair two – Berhhh
Pair three – Kirhh
Pair four – Derhh
Pair five – Ehhh
Pair six – Girhhh
Pair seven – Herhhh
Pair eight – Eeeee
Pair nine – Jerhh
Pair ten – Kirhh
Pair eleven – LLLLL
Pair twelve – mmmmm
Pair thirteen – Nerhh
Pair fourteen – Oooooo
Pair fifteen – Perhh
Pair sixteen – Rrrrrrr
Pair seventeen – Sssss
Pair eighteen – Tirhhh
Pair nineteen – Uuuuu
Pair twenty – Virhh
Pair twenty one – Wirhh
Pair twenty two – Kirhhsssssss
”spread around anywhere and start tossing….” (some go out into the foyer some stay in the movement room…
and we were tossing air to each other like playing ChiGong for one minute)

Activity number FOUR (Exploring sound through body expression) 10minutes
(She stop everyone from the last activity and add on instruction)
”Now when your partner give you the sound let the sound go through you and express it through your body gesture…
Then pass it back to your partner.. and partner will do the same thing.. explore every possible gesture of the sound that impact you…”
(sound tossing from one to another and everyone come out with different posture and gesture each time we receive the sound) 2minutes
”Discuss with your partner which gesture is the best and practice it.. then we will have everyone to perform…” 2 minutes

For taking turn to present your “thing” we try to make it flow.. one group go down and the other group move in immediately…”
(It was really interesting each pairs presented their gesture of each alphabet sound.. some jumping up some melting down.. some wiggly off…)

Closing activity 5 minutes
”Back to the big circle”
Instructor gave a conclusion of this lesson…
”Everyone imagine there’s a big golden hoop in front of us.. we bend down and pick it up together.. step back and toss it into the air”
And everyone silently follow the instructor.. everyone hold the imaginary hoop together very slowly
Hold it up high then put one of our foot back, swing our arms back slowly.. and toss the hoop into the air… watch it float away in the air…
Then she close her eyes holding her hands on her chest for few second…
Then she smile and say thank you to the class…. Everyone thank her back and gave her an applause…. It was a lovely lesson…

Speech and Drama Class Day1

Activity number ONE 20minutes
Everyone stand in a big circle:” many people lost connection with their body, they are not aware what is going in some parts of their body.”
”Wiggle your toes… feel the connection of your toes with your feet…”
”Feel the palm of your feet move them.. feel them connected to the toes…”
”Feel the knees.. let your knee say hi to the other person knee… move them in all direction.. and feel them connected to the feet and to the toes…”
”Feel your thighs now… move them so that you knowledge their existence… feel them connected to the knees.. feet .. to the toes…”
”Feel the hips… connected to the thighs.. knees.. feet… to the toes…”
”Feel the spine… feel every joint… how they stack on top of each other… feel the connection to the hips.. thighs.. connected to the knees.. feet .. to the toes”
”Feel your shoulder.. your neck.. how they sit on top of your spine.. connected to the hips.. thighs.. down to your knees.. feet.. to the toes”
”Feel your head how it placed on your neck down to the spine.. connected to the hips.. thighs.. .. knees.. feet.. to the toes..”
”Give your face a massage… give your ear a little pinch.. they are now connected to the toes…“
”Tap the top of your head… and tap the head of the person next to you… and tap back your head.. now it’s connected to the toes”
”ready to give your self a big SIGH and your body fall all the way down to the ground.. HUuuuuhhh…”
”hanging your head. Slowly feel your spine lifting up one by one .. slowly lift up your body … feel your neck and then your head sit on top of your spine.
relax again… and ready for the big vocal sigh and drop to the ground again…. HUUuuhhhh….
Lift up your body from stacking up the spine slowly… and make sure your head is the last thing to bring up… (just like above)

Activity number TWO 10 minutes
”I’m going to clap two time and then follow by an action…then everyone copy…
and then the next person will do two claps follow by another action.. everyone copy as well…
NOT STRESSING anyone up.. any action will be fine.. just keep the rhythm going..”
(One round)
”Now clap twice then follow by your name with an action.. then everyone copy as well…”
(One round)

Activity number THREE 15 minutes
Quickly form yourself into 4 groups by the count of TEN… (Instructor closed her eyes and start counting immediately)
We are going to stretch out our arms.. close our eyes..
Some people will go like this (She showed with her eyes closed stretching her arms but a very scared expression)
Some people go like this (With her eyes closed stretching her arms, she showed a smiley cheeky curious expression)
But we will have fun…
In the circle stand with your shoulder close to each other.. close your eyes, stretch your arms and walk forward slowly…
Eventually you’ll touch someone’s else hand… open your eyes and if you’re by yourself then the whole group do it again…
If everyone is entangle in the circle now start unhook yourself without letting go your hands…

Closing activity 10 minutes
”Back to the big circle”
Instructor explain what her class is all about and the criteria and expectation.
We will put up a play by the end of the term~!
”Everyone imagine there’s a big golden hoop in front of us.. we bend down and pick it up together.. step back and toss it into the air”
And everyone silently follow the instructor.. everyone hold the imaginary hoop together very slowly
Hold it up high then put one of our foot back, swing our arms back slowly.. and toss the hoop into the air…