Look Ma! No Hands!

Today we had another contact improv workshop with the MFA students. The theater students didn’t join us, however, since they’ve been doing a contact intensive with this teacher for a week.

Over all it was really fun. We started with balances (ie: holding a partner’s arm and both leaning back and balancing from each others’ weight) and then did a seesaw-ish exercise where you would hold on to your partner’s arm, lower them to the floor, and then raise them up to repeat the process on you. From there, we used the front, back, and sides of our shoulders/chest to tilt our partners back. This was all fun, but mostly things I had seen or done before.

We then began to work on lifts. We learned the dead chicken (partner is over hip), the flying chicken (the partner is over hip but with legs, arms, and head raised), and the koala (partner jumps up on front of base to clutch the base with their legs [either bent or straight out behind base]).  I’ve done the dead chicken before and absolutely love it so that was fun and learning the other two was interesting as well. The koala lift was especially insightful both when I was the base and when I was the koala. We then did an exercise where two people would use their weight to lean back and sit down/come up and then repeated it for groups of three through six, which was really amusing to do.

From there we did an exercise that had the base have the partner laying belly down on their back. Then the base would lower them and the partner would bend their knees and lift the base to have the base end in a sitting position.

Now here come my favorite parts of the class. We then moved into an exercise where one person would be base and the other the lifted and then you would switch. The tricky part was that you were not supposed to think too much between lifts and that you should not change position too much to get into the next lift. We then did this exercise with groups of three. And then again with groups of four! I absolutely adored my group of four and I think that was the group where I really began to stop thinking and try for subtle shifts to get really interesting results (once I had someone on my back and when we changed, she lifted my legs so I was upside down and I lifted some of my weight by wrapping my arms around the legs of another girl who was being lifted). I was then in a trio again and that led to some really simple, but very organic, lifts and movements.

From there, we got into large groups that moved together without touching (it was okay, but not as fun as our group lifts) and then repeated the constant lifting exercise in pairs again (which was really fun). We ended with leading a partner around by their wrist and then moving from that into contact jamming.

Overall it was a really enjoyable class, and I really was glad to get to work with the MFA students again. I’m actually really sad that this is the last contact improv class we’ll have this semester. However, there is a contact jam tomorrow night that I’m planning to go to so I’m sure more opportunities to play around with this type of movement will present themselves.

I’ll try to post about Venice before break begins, but we’ll see how tomorrow goes.

Ciao!

A Really Lovely Tuesday

Today is the day my group got to go apply for our permit of stay! We left in the morning aster breakfast and arrived at the police station at around 9am. From there we all took numbers and proceeded to wait for a while. Luckily the wait wasn’t too boring since everyone in my group ended up chatting for the entire time.

Eventually it was my turn to go up and I proceed to unload all of the documents I had been told to bring. But the guy just barely looked at my passport, took on of the photos I brought, and scanned my fingerprints into the system. I then had to wait some more to have my fingers and my palms scanned in more formally by someone else. (I actually found this part really cool! Watching intense close ups of my finger prints appear on the computer was really interesting.)

Eventually we all were finished and headed back to the villa. Unfortunately, by the time we got back, both our first morning class was finished (which we had expected), and our second class was almost done. However, we did get to do some fun things in the class before it ended. The class was voice and was with the theater students, but it was so unlike any voice class I’ve ever taken. Tim and I partnered in an exercise where someone was always physically on top and the other on the bottom while both made noised (with the top person always making a higher noise than the bottom). I really enjoyed this especially the time when Tim lifted me on his back while on all fours. I was only touching the ground with my elbows, and, when he started moving, I had to walk my elbows to keep up with him! From that exercise, we got to see Emily and Arthur have a bullfight and Kate lead a group in singing “Soft Kitty” from the Big Bang Theory. Both were absolutely hilarious.

Later, after all of our classes were done, Sophie, Hannah, and I used some of our free time to work on the group choreography we had to create for Giorgio’s class and were showing to Rita tomorrow. For the assignment, we have to use only movement that we’ve learned in Rita’s and Giorgio’s class so we ended up creating over half of the dance rather quickly. Overall I think it looks really good so far, and it was really fun working with Hannah and Sophie.

After we finished Sophie agreed to help give me notes after ballet class (since I can’t rely on the teachers to give constructive criticism) and to help me learn to fouette turn! We then just chatted about how safe the atmosphere is here in the dance program and about not stressing too much about our work and just enjoying it. The entire conversation just filled me with excitement and definitely decreased my stress. It was a really lovely Tuesday.

Ciao!

An Interesting Weekend

So many things have happened since my last post! Hopefully I can remember it all!

Last Wednesday was the Madonna del Conforto festival in Arezzo. I’m not quite sure of the entire story behind the festival/holiday, but it basically celebrates Arezzo’s personal Madonna. For the entire day, the main church would be open for worshipers and interested travelers, and vendors would sell candy on the street outside. Unfortunately, the dancers had class without break until late in the day, and, after that, I had rehearsal for cabaret to go to. By the time everything was over, it was around 10pm. Luckily, my roommate was also interested in going (and the church was still open) so we headed out.

And I’m so glad we did. The inside of the church was incredibly beautiful with many beautiful paintings and statues and extremely high ceilings covered in frescos. There were just too many things to look at and admire! To add to the beauty, mass was going on while we were there, filling the air with song. 

Candy vendors outside the Doumo.

One of the alters in the church.

Inside the church. 

Ceiling of the church.

I must admit, I felt awkward taking pictures while people were worshiping, but there was a lot of other people just walking around and admiring the church and a camera crew was filming the event. So, in the end, I didn’t feel too guilty.

On Thursday, the mfa students, the actors, and the dancers all had a four-hour contact improv class together. It was amazing and so much fun! The teacher was German, but had lived long enough in England to have a British accent to his English. However, the German was definitely still there below it all, so the end result sounded slightly Irish. He was very nice and incredibly talented, as shown by the many improvs he did with students where he would either create really interesting movements or would easily guide the students through complex lifts.

The class began by exploring our own bodies. We did a lot of walking around, stretching or isolations, and then more walking around to see what changed types of exercises. Some of my favorites included crossing one leg in front of the other and then moving your hips and sitting on the floor in double attitude and moving your pelvis. Both were really wonderful stretches that left my hips feeling really free.

Eventually we moved into partner work. The first exercise just involved stopping someone by putting your hand on his or her head and then guiding them to the floor and back. This had no specific partner and we just all wandered from one partner to the next. We then did choose partners (I was paired with Rowan, an mfa student), and we did and exercise where one (or both) of the partners had to be sliding against the other using a random body part. This ended up being really enjoyable, and Rowan and I found many interesting ways of staying connected. The next partner exercise began as self-exploration involving back isolations. After moving around on our own for a bit while our partner observed, they would then place their hands on your back as you moved. After doing that for a while, they would then start guiding you with their hands and, eventually, the guided would be allowed to resist the hands as well. I had a little trouble guiding my partner, but being guided was really interesting, and I absolutely loved when we were allowed to guide and be guided randomly by our choice. My partner (Taylan, an mfa student from Turkey) and I ended up just clicking in terms of movement, so we were able to really explore the movements and to do some interesting lifts and weight sharing. After that, we all worked on balancing and then being moved out of that balance (by lifts or guiding) by a partner. I ended up with Mimi, but it wasn’t the best partnership since I was doing really badly finding where I could lift Mimi out of those balances and Mimi was having problems with finding comfortable balances. 

Arthur lifting me

After that, I partnered with Arthur to work on how to get into a specific lift. Arthur was really surprised with how high I was able to get him! (Even though I don’t have phenomenal upper body strength, I can lift people heavier than me if I get them in the right position). Overall, it was a great class, and I’m excited for us to have it again.

On Friday, we had our cabaret show. For it, I re-did the solo I used for my audition to the Accademia program. The other students that came up with acts were my roommate (who sang a song she wrote and that I love), two of the other dancers did a hip-hop and ballet fusion dance, and Jake and Seth gave a performance of some poetry Jake had wrote (it was about fruit and it was hilarious). To add to that, our student orchestra came up with a hobo theme for the show and had many musical numbers and little transitional skits to fill in the space between the acts. Overall, the show went really well (though I accidentally switched my choreography from the right to the left side for a bit in the middle) and was fun to watch.

Organizing it however, was less than fun. All of the students with acts had entered the cabaret thinking that the performance was meant to show their acts with the orchestra providing music when asked for or to fill in time. In reality, it was organized so that our acts would be inserted into the hobo story line, which sometimes didn’t work so well (the dances just didn’t fit into that world at all). However, I think what really bothered us was how much we were told we were going to have to modify our already finished acts to suit the hobo story line. Luckily, the time constraints allowed everyone to just do what they had planned to do and the show ended up looking fine as is.

AND THEN WE HAD PROM! :D

The events team for this week had decided that the Accademia was in need for a Prom and had sent out invitations earlier that week. Everyone (and I mean everyone! The mfa students, G. Ben, my Italian teacher, and all of the students in the program ended up coming) came dressed to the nines and the night was spent dancing to everything from Lady Gaga to Wham!’s “Wake Me Up Before You Go Go.” I had a great time dancing, chatting with the mfa students (Taylan kept a running joke with me of how long I could keep dancing at a high energy level before crashing—I ended up winning that conversation since I kept going for over 3 hours!), and watching my Italian teacher be awkward. It was a fantastic night.

On Saturday we went to Siena in order to see a performance. I had planned to head to Siena early in the day to explore, but after my late Friday night, I knew that I was going to have to take the 1pm bus (it was the next one departing after the 8:30am bus). However, this ended up being perfect. After getting up late (for me anyways), I went to town with Liv and bought lunch at the market (it was a chicken breast-I think-and some fries. Both of which tasted amazing). There we met up with Gen, Nick, and Seth and proceeded to head to the bus station (though I stopped briefly to buy some fried dough balls that were good). On the bus, Nick and I ended up chatting most of the way (mostly about travel suggestions and plans) so, once we arrived in Siena, we basically ended up exploring together. We went to the piazza grande to find the tower that you could climb up and see the city from. But it ended up being too expensive so we decided to keep exploring. 

Piazza del Campo

From there, we eventually wandered over to the Nuovo Duomo, which ended up being amazing. We originally decided to just go into the cathedral since it was only 3 euro. If I had thought that the church in Arezzo was overwhelming, this cathedral clearly proved me wrong. On top of having many paintings and statues, there were a ton of well-preserved mosaics on the floor, the ceiling was painted and carved in many interesting ways, and there were a ton of amazing side rooms to explore. 

Nuovo Duomo

Mosaic in Nuovo Duomo

My favorite ended up being this room that was completely covered in wall and ceiling frescos and which held very big and old pages from what looked like music books. Each page was painted with flowers, pictures, and ornate letters and it was all I could do to drag myself away from the pages. 

The library room in the Nuovo Duomo

However, Sophie convinced me to after Nick and I bumped into her. She said that the panorama connected to the cathedral was really worth seeing—and closing soon. So we ran over to the ticket office and made it just in time to be among the last to go up. And, just like in Florence, the view was amazing.

Me, enjoying the view

After basking in the glow of sunset and a beautiful view, Nick and I returned to exploring. We ended up finding a lot of interesting old buildings, including a synagogue (which was unfortunately closed since it was Saturday) and a music school, an amazing gelateria, and a bookstore.

After dinner we chilled in the main piazza until the rest of the group arrived for the performance as well. For a while, it was looking like no one else was coming so we went looking for people only to find them back at the piazza where we started. We then had another silly moment trying to locate the theater. No one knew where it was except that it was on the piazza, and we couldn’t see anything looking like a theater. Then Nick and I remembered the poster for the show we saw in the building next to the tower. Apparently that was the entrance to the theater!

So we all went in and saw the show. I ended up in a side booth that made it difficult to watch the show, but the view wasn’t too bad and the show was very entertaining. It was four men (though at first we thought there were five performers) playing scenes about the inhabitants of a nursing home and about a group of very young children. All of the scenes where done with no dialogue and all of the actors wore large masks. Although the story lines weren’t that impressive, the physicality was. For example, in the children scenes, one of the actors played and baby and mimicked the movements perfectly. Over all, it was a really impressive show.

Unfortunately, by the time the show was over, I had a massive migraine. To add to that bad luck, our departure from Siena was delayed since no one knew where charter bus we were taking back was. However, due to really nice people in our group (Gen gave me some advil and Nick let me lean against him, as opposed to the bumpy window, so that I could sleep and let the meds kick in), I got back to the villa feeling much better.

On Sunday, I ended up getting up in time to go with a group into Arezzo to find Gianni’s (the head of the dance program) pastry shop. By the time we arrived, he was no longer there. Even so, all of the workers in the shop were excited to see us (including Gianni’s sister) and we ended up chatting with them for a bit.

The pastries I bought

The pastries I bought tasted wonderful and were amazingly cheap. I bought two large pastries for 1.80 eruos! I can’t wait to go back next weekend and eat some more.

After that wonderful brunch, the group decided to explore Arezzo a bit until lunch. We ended up finding the Piazza Grande where we stayed for a bit taking pictures and playing around. Since the Piazza is on a slope and there was still some snow/ice on it, some of the guys thought it would be a good idea to run and then slide down it. Luckily no one got hurt, but it was hilarious watching them be so ungraceful. (Best moment: Tim said, “Don’t worry. We have our pelvises under us” and then slipped and fell on his butt.).

Piazza Grande

Roy and Tim sliding down the piazza

Sometime after that, we went to lunch at a different kebab place than my usual. The sandwich I got wasn’t as good as the first kebab place, but they put fries in this sandwich so it still really tasted good.

So that was my week/weekend and Venice is late this week! Lots to talk about later, eh?

Ciao!

Florence!

This weekend I was able to travel to Florence!

Earlier this week, we had heard that there would be a lot of snow at the end of the week and that trains would possibly get cancelled. However, Friday proved to not be too bad of a snowfall and Saturday dawned with no snow and a bit of sun so there was no problems there.

I got up early since the night before we had all planned a departure time from the villa of 8:30am. But, due to one thing and another, we actually ended up heading out sometime around 9am and arriving at the station around 10am. Unfortunately, it looked like we had just missed the 9:51 train and would have to wait until 11am for the next one. However, I noticed that it looked like the 9:51 train was 25 minutes late and someone else in the group noticed that our tickets were for any train at any time going from Arezzo to Florence. So Mimi and I decided to run for it (others decided not too due to one girl having a foot injury and other reasons). Luckily we got on the train just before the doors closed. There were a couple of moments where we were a little nervous about possibly having boarded the wrong train, but, at the end of the line, we had arrived in Florence.

The first thing we decided to go see was the Duomo since it was in such a central location and because it seemed like a thing we had to do.

When we got to the square it was in, I was immediately impressed. Something about the shapes and colors combined with the size created a striking and interesting look. Mimi and I wandered around the outside for a bit and then headed into the main church to look for where we could climb up to the top of the dome from. In comparison to the outside, the inside of the Duomo wasn’t that impressive. The architecture was pretty but very plain, and the art on the walls was mostly unimpressive (save for one piece that glittered in the light. That was beautiful). Honestly, the designs on the floor were far more interesting. Eventually we realized that the entrance for going up was in a different spot, so we walked the entire way around the building, taking it in.

The Duomo

During the walk around, Mimi and heard this man yell very loudly in a language that was obviously not Italian. As soon as he stopped, I turned to Mimi and started to ask what language she thought he was speaking when he suddenly turned revealing a coat blazoned with “Russia” along the back. We both burst out laughing, and I said that I must have hit the easy button for today. Amusingly enough, that would not be the last time I would.

Eventually, we made it to the right entrance, paid for our tickets, and went through a door leading to a rather narrow stairwell. And we began to climb. And climb. And climb. Mostly through tiny spiraling stairs though, at the top, it was mostly narrow and incredibly steep stairs. On the way down, I actually counted how many stairs (starting from where the painting on the ceiling of the dome ended) and got to around 267.

Stairs and stairs and stairs

Anyways, we eventually made it to the top and it was amazing. I mean, yes, it was cloudy, and the wind on one side was really cold, but the view of the city in 360 degrees was amazing. Everything seemed to stretch on forever with tall castles and churches creating beautiful points of interest. Mimi and I attempted to see if we could locate some of the places we had read about (Ponte Vecchio, some piazzas, etc…) but were only able to find a few. Even so, it really gave us a good sense of direction for later.

At the top of the Duomo!

While we were up there a really sweet Japanese couple offered to take our picture, and we returned the favor. We chatted with them a little after, but they only knew a little English, and my one phrase in Japanese (“Tom eats the spoon!”) just made them laugh.

Eventually we both got cold and headed back down the stairs. Since the stairways were so narrow, the exit staircase actually took the walkers right under the painting that graced the ceiling of the dome. When standing at the bottom of the church, the design hadn’t seemed that interesting, but this close up it was phenomenal to look at. The painting showed scenes moving from Hell (which was basically right where our walkway was) to Heaven, so we got to go really close up to some amazing and terrifying images, and the inhabitants of Heaven, from this perspective, really seemed to be looking down at our walk. It was really amazing.

A scene from the hell section.

Once we got down to the ground again, we decided that we should try to contact some of the people who got on the later train. Amusingly enough, as soon as we said that, Arthur (who was on the later train) ran up to us and said that we had just walked right by them. Easy button score: 2.

So everyone gathered and eventually Mimi and I decided to head off together again to get lunch since everyone else wanted to do the Duomo. After lunch (it was a quick and ok pizza), we decided it was time to go to THE CHOCOLATE FESTIVAL! :D

Yes, this weekend in Florence they were holding a chocolate festival in the Piazza della Repubblica. And it was amazing. About a third of the piazza was filled with vendors selling chocolate bars, kebabs of chocolate covered fruit, truffles, chocolate sculptures, chocolate cake, and, of course, hot chocolate. At first, we just had to walk around it just to take it all in and take pictures of the wares, but, once we were ready to buy, there was just so many good looking things that it was incredibly hard to choose. Eventually I settled on some chocolate cake (which was really good but ended up having a layer of some fruity jam that wasn’t as nice) and a mixed bag of some cream filled truffles and chocolate covered dried lemons (both of which tasted amazing! So good!).

The Chocolate Festival! 

Some of the realistic looking chocolate tools.

More examples of what was being sold.

When we were finally able to tear ourselves away from all of the amazing chocolate, Mimi and I decided to go see the Ponte Vecchio. I hadn’t known about the famous bridge of jewelers before she told me about it, but I figured that it was important to go see a famous landmark (especially since it was free to visit and nearby!). Neither the bridge nor the jewelry ended up being that exciting (my mother makes far prettier earrings), but I really enjoyed the old architecture of the shops and the interesting layout of having so many shops on a small bridge.

The Ponte Vecchio

After we crossed back and forth over it, I took over as exploration leader and declared that we should try to find this large outdoor market that I had read about in a guidebook. On the way to it, we stumbled upon a smaller market, the statue of a boar that gives you good luck if you rub it’s nose (so of course I did!), and the Piazza della Signoria. Unfortunately, at this last stop my camera decided to die before I took any pictures. There was enough battery when I had left in the morning, but apparently it had lied. Luckily, this piazza was really the last place I ended up wanting to take pictures of, and I could easily go back since mom wants to see Florence so—easy button number three!

Eventually we made it to the market, but it ended up not being that exciting. It was mostly vendors selling scarves, novelty/touristy items, not great quality leather goods, and jewelry. Some of the rings were pretty, but most of them were way too big on me, and the one ring I really liked looked like the stone had been cracked. Not worth it.

During the walk through the market, Mimi and I decided to contact some of the other people in Florence since we weren’t sure what we wanted to do next. Amusingly enough, as soon as we remarked upon this, we bumped into some other people from the Accademia! Easy button number four! We ended up not sticking with them since they weren’t sure of their plans yet and finished walking through the market. At that point, I knew I wanted to go see the statue of David, but Mimi had already seen it and didn’t want to go again. So she pulled out her phone and found out where some of the other people were, and we pulled out a map to figure out where we needed to go to get to our separate destinations. Sure enough, easy button number five reared its head and showed us that we were on a road that would both take us the right way. And easy button number six showed up soon after by making the block that I split up with Mimi on be the block with the museum on it.

The museum itself wasn’t too exciting, and I will admit that I got a little lost attempting to find the statue (I know it was a small building! There were just so many doors and a lot of them were either one way or were off limits and didn’t have any signs saying so!). Even so, I knew it was completely worth it when I got to the hallway with David at the end (especially since there were so few people there that I didn’t have to wait for anything at all!).

I ended up not really enjoying the half-completed statues that lined the hall (Sorry dad!), though I definitely made sure to not quickly skip past them on the way to the most famous piece there. I think I just love realism and soft looking stone too much to like their rough forms. I also stopped in almost every other room just to make sure I wasn’t passing over any other amazing pieces of art on my way to David, but nothing really appealed to me.

Except David.

Oh my goodness. When I first walked up to him, I was just in complete awe at the amazing craftsmanship displayed and beauty in the subject. Very slowly I walked around him trying to take in every perfectly replicated muscle, bone, and action shown on the statue. Eventually I ended up sitting in a chair facing his front and trying not to cry at how amazing he was.

I did not at all expect to have an emotion reaction to him, let alone such an intense one. I have personally found that many of the most famous pieces of art have little affect on me and my opinion of them being, ‘incredible technique and it’s pretty, but not interesting enough for the hype.’ But David…oh my goodness. I’ve always known that I’ve absolutely loved realistic stone statues of people and how, through dead-on representations of how our body looks when we move, their skin looks like it is truly soft, but David amplified these feelings ten-fold.

I don’t know if it was the size or what, but I was completely floored by his body. I could not stop staring at the veins in his arms, the hand clutching stones and touching his thigh, the creases around his hips that separated his torso from his legs, his bellybutton, his pecs, the muscles showing from his neck being turned to the side—everything was not just incredibly realistic but felt as if it were in actual motion!

I ended up sitting there for over thirty minutes. I had had set aside time to just sit, but eventually I knew I would actually have to get up, turn my back to him, and leave. The thought was awful and, when I actually did finally get up, each step away felt heartbreaking. I’m so glad I was able to go though.

Immediately after leaving the museum, I got a call from Mimi—Yay easy button number six!—saying where the group was. I ended up meeting them back at a store near the chocolate festival, and, from there, Mimi, Arthur, and I ended up looking for a hotel to spend the night at. Eventually we found one that was a little less cheap than we had hoped (doubly so since the fourth person who planned to stay there too ended up not showing up making the two doubles unnecessary—we three could have easily shared the bedroom Mimi and I ended up in), but which turned out to have an amazing employee who directed us to a non-touristy restaurant. Which ended up being right next door (easy button number eight! WOO!) and had absolutely amazing food!

After dinner and dessert, we explored Florence at night (the Ponte Vecchio is so much prettier then in my opinion) and ended up dancing until 3am at a club our Italian teacher recommended. (Long story short, the wait to get in was really long, the line was so tight that I wasn’t holding my own weight at all, the dance floor was incredibly packed but we still found spots to jam in, and the club was more expensive than we’d hoped, but we all had a great time).

In the morning, we checked out of our hotel at 10am, headed back to the train station (via a route that took us near an old fort), and caught the train back to Arezzo soon after.

 I mostly chilled in the villa for the rest of the day, but for Sunday night dinner Gianni, the head of the dance department, took out all the dancers for dinner, and it was really lovely. I ended up trying liver for the first time (not bad actually) in an appetizer and sharing a huuuuuge but delicious stake with another girl. After dinner, he drove us back to the villa, and I ended up heading to bed early (yeah, only one 3am night for me in a row).

Overall, I had an amazing weekend, and I already have a list of places to go back to when I return to Florence!

(Again, there are more pictures on facebook for those who are interested.)

Ciao!

Week Three Blues

This was written yesterday, but I haven’t had time to post it until now.

According to people at the Accademia, week three is the end of the honeymoon period and the beginning of culture shock. It is the time when you get sick of pasta, begin to hate all of the other students, and just want to go home.

Now, I can never get sick of pasta. It always sounds good for lunch or dinner and I think that Beloit has trained me to think this since the best food on campus is the pasta with meat sauce/chunks that DKs produces. Even now, I don’t find myself tired of pasta. Wishing for more meat? Yes. But sick of the pasta? Not really.

In terms of hating the other students, I have actually found myself getting closer to them this week then in the previous ones. Due to a lot of unfortunate luck, I’ve found them to really wonderful people to talk to when I need to de-stress, and, today in Gianni’s class, the entire time was mostly spent bonding. It started with us just having a discussion about our time so far (highlights: one of the girl’s remarking that she constantly needs to remind herself to not worry about being perfect and to just remember to have fun—something I need to remind myself too—and us discussing some of our problems with our philosophy class and how to change it), but ended with some of us remarking that we wished the vocabulary and phrases we were learning in Italian class were more relevant to our situation. From this statement, Gianni proceeded to teach us words for parts of the body (which turned into a hilarious two-team game) and then promised to take us out as a group to dinner to one of his favorite restaurants in town. He also apparently has a bakery in town which all of the dancers have decided they need to visit. After our phrases lesson, he then had us all give each other messages and then walk around singing and hugging each other. It was pretty obvious that we all walked out of that feeling relaxed, happy, and closer to one another.

In terms of culture shock alone, I don’t think I’m feeling it at all. I don’t feel mad or frustrated by the differences from home and I’m not absolutely miserable by not having certain things like they are at home (ok…so I do really miss bagels and Heinz ketchup, but I’m not going crazy without them!).

But I do think I have dance culture shock.

I definitely remember the first week of classes not being as exciting as I had hoped. It’s not that I don’t love some of my dance classes and think the rest are really good and have great teachers, but I do know that I was really not enjoying them sometimes and actively missing dance at home at others. I think the reasons for this are two-fold. The first is that the set up in our classes and in how our classes are scheduled is very different from what I know. In the first couple of weeks, the only class that was similar to those at home was modern and we only had that once due to bad weather. Most of my other classes were not technique heavy (except ballet, but that is still a whole new world to me) or very structured so I think that is what most threw me for a loop. The second is that, at Beloit, I have two dance teachers who really understand me well and give great critique because of that fact. Here, I’m going to have to rebuild that again.

So basically, I have culture shock…in my dance classes. Absurd, no?

Luckily, I’m sure this will pass with time (also, we just had modern again today and I could definitely feel its good effects all morning) and, until then, I just need to remember how much I love to dance and that this is SUCH A COOL EXPERIENCE!

In other notes for today (Friday):

1. Today the dancers and actors both had movement with Claudia together. Basically the class was all about contact improvisation and weight sharing and I absolutely loved it. Some highlights from it that I remember from it are Simon and I leading each other through complicated movements by just our arms, Catherine and I helping each other lightly bounce around the room, and Seth and I coming up with a really amazing combination that was so fun to perform.

2. I finally bought all of my spring break tickets. So it is confirmed that I am going to Vienna, then England, and then Spain for break! :D Feel free to send suggestions of places to go within those countries!

Also, here is a tour of the inside of the villa (again, more pictures on facebook if you are interested):

Here is our common lounge space.

Hallway to most of the offices and our bulletin boards.

The Sala Danza, the studio where we take most of our dance classes.

The view from the windows in the Sala Danza. Yes, it does make it hard to concentrate in class.

Hallway to all of our rooms.

Door to my room!

And so week three begins!

So time for an info dump! :D

Over the weekend, the MFA students put on two shows in the Teatrino. On Friday, we were shown three fairy tales: Orpheus and Eurydice, Jack and the Beanstalk, and an Arthurian story.  They was performed by three different groups as the final for their storytelling class. I loved all of the performances for their interesting interpretations of the stories and their amazing applications of physicality to portray action and things (like how three people balanced on each other to create Cerberus or using their fingers to represent walking people without it being cheesy), but, I must admit, I loved the Orpheus and Eurydice story the best. I know that that choice doesn’t come as a shock to everyone, but I know it shocked me since I know the myth so well as to be really nit picky about interpretations. And, when they started by saying that this was a love story with a happy ending, I was really skeptical, but their commitment to the piece and their wonderful storytelling sucked me and left me close to tears at the end. It was marvelous.

On Sunday, the MFA students performed for us A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which they had pulled together for fun. Each of the main character groups had their own theme (slapstick for the theater troupe, stage combat and improve for the lovers, and acrobatics for the faeries) and, although the other groups did very well, I was blown away by what the faeries ended up doing. Every scene they were in had absolutely sick movements (ex: Titania falling asleep on Oberon’s raised feet, Oberon giving Puck the flower by picking it with his feet while upside down, and many other tumbles, tricks, and weight sharing) and, as otherworldly creatures, I thought it was perfect.

In other news, this week has started off both horribly and amazingly. On the bad side, yesterday I lost my jazz shoes and foot undies on the bus back from ballet when they fell out of my pocket without my notice. Luckily Monica has called the bus company’s lost and found office and notified them. Hopefully they find them soon.

On a good note, however, today the dancers had a master class with one of the dancers from the dance performance we went to go see a while back (she was the soloist in “Verdinastella”). It wasn’t the best master class ever nor did she really teach us anything new, but the combo she taught was really fun and I enjoyed having her as a teacher.

Also, here is a link to a video that G. Ben created of what we've been up to so far:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urqwLdVXV2M

Lastly, here are some pictures of my room:

The door to my room from inside the room and the closet.

The closet and my half of the two rooms my roommate and I share. Yeah, we have two separate rooms.

My bed, shelves, and desk.

Another view of my room.

Here is our bathroom (which can only be accessed by going through my roommates room). It's a lot bigger than just this, but the shower and toilet (located to the left) don't need to be pictured.

I'm Dreaming of a White...Arezzo?

So I’ll begin with some fun things from yesterday and then move to the big news (and pictures!) of today.

The first thing I want to mention is more something that I just don’t want forget and less a message that I need to spread to those back home or abroad somewhere else. During a dance class yesterday, one of my teachers mentioned this really evocative quote by Nietzsche about dance. I attempted to look it up online later, but she must have been paraphrasing, reciting something really obscure, or accidentally making it up since I found nothing.

Anyways, what she said was something along the lines of “Between sense and slut is the dancer. Between Heaven and demons is the dance and, when we dance, there are little bits of angel and devil within us.”

I just love that imagery and how it places the dancer not only on a physical plane (Earth is higher than Hell and lower than Heaven), but also the qualities that it ascribes to dancers: angel, demon, sensible, slut. I think it covers an amazing range of emotion and movement.

Another fun thing from last night was that we had an open mike. The performance was in the Teatro, which is a building separate from the villa, but still on the grounds (pictures of the inside will probably come around the time of our first cabaret). A lot of people in our group along with three of the masters students did performances (I did too. I sang “Gentle Soldier of My Soul” by Dave Carter acapella) and all of them were so much fun. They ranged from songs to instrumental pieces to stand up comedy and a Maori Haka that everyone got to learn.

All right, so onto the big news for today. Guess who got a TON of snow today?

WE DID! (snowmen courtesy of two of our masters students) 

Last night I woke up around 4am (and never really fell back asleep) due to the sound of a wind howling so strongly that shutters were banging loudly. When I finally got up I discovered that around a foot of snow had built up on the ground and that it might keep snowing until Sunday (so far it’s stopped, but it could easily start again).

So to commemorate, here are some pictures of the villa grounds and views from the villa before and after the snow:

Here is the view from my window.

Here is the view from my window post-snow. 

Here is our courtyard with the limonaia in the background.

Here is the same courtyard after the snow.

Here is a view of Arezzo from the top of the Teatro.

And here is the view with snow covering everything.

I'll be uploading more of the before and after snow pictures to my facebook so, if you're friends with me there, feel free to check them out!

Ciao!