Eurhythmics Sept. 7, 12, and 14
Last Wednesday's class was not too terribly novel. We started off by listening to some music and being asked to just move around as it inspired us. That was pretty awkward because most people didn't want to be awkwardly dancing, I guess. I tried to comply as gracefully and non-stupidly as I could (but it was like an Irish jig, so it wasn't exactly something I could slowly move to). We did the handshake routine again, only this time we threw in a little turn-around.
This past Monday's class... I don't really remember anyting too crazy. We got out the awesome blue and red balls (about softball size, a little bit heavier than wiffleballs) and tried bouncing/tossing/catching them to the beat. That was kinda tricky, and a good exercise in "doing something with the sound" when you aren't on the beat--after you caught the ball you wouldn't just wait a beat, you would move your arm upward in an arch to fill a beat.
This past Wednesday's class wasn't with Annabelle, but Steven Neely. He was Annabelle's student long ago and a pretty amusing guy. He also decided to push us a little harder than Annabelle had. He started by telling us to always be aware of the space--fill in spots where people aren't and try not to cluster. That's a useful skill for actors on stage or just people walking on a busy sidewalk. We practiced walking to 3/4 and then he snuck in a time change on us--tempo was the same but became 4/4. We stumbled but caught on. Then he went into 5/4 as we walked around! We couldn't figure it out the first time, but he stopped us and had us try again and we caught on. Then we did some very tricky stuff: all in 5/4, we were told to step on certain beats, and only clap on the first beat. So... step on the first and third beat, but only clap on the first while making circular arm gestures or whatever with our arms to fill the other four beats. It was pretty difficult! And, by the end of the class, when we were back to stepping at every beat, Neely had us note our formation--since we were so focused on clapping and stepping and all that, we had fallen into a formation: we were generally walking around the room in a counterclockwise circle! He says this is a norm for all people (even in other hemispheres)--crazy!
This past Monday's class... I don't really remember anyting too crazy. We got out the awesome blue and red balls (about softball size, a little bit heavier than wiffleballs) and tried bouncing/tossing/catching them to the beat. That was kinda tricky, and a good exercise in "doing something with the sound" when you aren't on the beat--after you caught the ball you wouldn't just wait a beat, you would move your arm upward in an arch to fill a beat.
This past Wednesday's class wasn't with Annabelle, but Steven Neely. He was Annabelle's student long ago and a pretty amusing guy. He also decided to push us a little harder than Annabelle had. He started by telling us to always be aware of the space--fill in spots where people aren't and try not to cluster. That's a useful skill for actors on stage or just people walking on a busy sidewalk. We practiced walking to 3/4 and then he snuck in a time change on us--tempo was the same but became 4/4. We stumbled but caught on. Then he went into 5/4 as we walked around! We couldn't figure it out the first time, but he stopped us and had us try again and we caught on. Then we did some very tricky stuff: all in 5/4, we were told to step on certain beats, and only clap on the first beat. So... step on the first and third beat, but only clap on the first while making circular arm gestures or whatever with our arms to fill the other four beats. It was pretty difficult! And, by the end of the class, when we were back to stepping at every beat, Neely had us note our formation--since we were so focused on clapping and stepping and all that, we had fallen into a formation: we were generally walking around the room in a counterclockwise circle! He says this is a norm for all people (even in other hemispheres)--crazy!