Maskwork with Jacques Lecoq and Groin Kicks...

What an exciting day! Really. I was enthralled enough to not notice that we spent an whopping 2 hours in the space working diligently. I'm a pretty restless person sometimes, especially in the morning, and today was just a joy.

Warm-ups went the same as always, love the beginning stuff, hate the on-the-back stuff because I don't have the flexibility of the Hamstrings, nor do I have the core strength go keep my lower half up. It's always been a frustrating ordeal doing situps with my legs in the air, or those V-stretches with your legs all the way out. It's more of a 'how-long-can-I-keep-this-going' kind of system in my mind, and it's sad, I know.

We then moved the mats out of the way and worked on our jabs from last week, from which I was absent, so I learned them quickly. It's all about EMT, so as to not cause the motivation to call an EMT. The former EMT stands for Eye-contact, Measure your distance, and locate your target... The second of which would happen to be the emergency medical team... We worked on jabs for a little bit, and then moved onto Groin kicks.

The basis of any kick is a series of movements, from the chamber, to the flex, back into the chamber (more emphasized), and down. Chamber, Kick, Chamber, and down. Pretty simple, right? Yup. It's all about staying balanced very strongly on your tripod on your left or right leg.

We then partnered up (me with Harrison because of size), and we practiced till the cows came home. It was great, it really was. It looks so real if done with the proper crumpling reaction, too. Quite nice.

(this is moving fast, I know, I want to get to bed...) We then discussed a bit of Jacques Lecoq and his mask work, and we chose our masks and got to work. We got to know them for a few minutes, put them on, and let them lead us around the space in any manner. We were asked to describe it in one word, and the usual came out: curious, sad, depressing, inquisitive... Mine ended up being playful, because he just wanted to do something! Everyone else wanted to act. I'm not really sure, but I'm kind of a huge fan of mask work, and I'm quickly able to get over myself and my hesitations when I'm in a mask. It's one thing that I'd like to develop over these next few years, to be honest. It sounds like a great way to just step outside of yourself, and LET GO! <- something I have a problem with.

We were lead on an expedition around a forest from a beach landing, up on a mountain top, to the valley below and finally to go see the river. We reached our destination and I was incredibly proud of myself for sticking with it. It was exhausting, for some reason, but It was fulfilling when I took the mask off and acknowleged that I was lead for that journey without even thinking about it. And I did some pretty kick-ass stuff!

One note, though: whenever I'm in mask mode I feel like my eyes are closed, like I'm not looking through my person, but peering through someone's head looking out, does that make sense?


On another note, I have strepp throat, my stomach hurts, and my legs are killing me.

Night.