Menorahs and Christmas Trees - That Talk

Greetings!

Our final class for 2011 was full of merry making and sharing what the holidays mean to us. There's a game we play where we go around the circle, say our names with a quick movement, then everyone mirrors that movement back. We changed it this week to words and sounds that reminded us of the holiday season. Here's what I heard:

Santa, Winter Girl, Family, Berries, Marshmallows, Mrs. Santa, Presents, Candy Canes and Frizzle Frazzle, HoHoHo, Jingle Jingle, Weeeee!, Ahhhh!, Marshmallows (again), <undecipherable shrill of words expressing Glee>, and Forgiveness.

The kids' improvising skills get better and better and they surprise me every time. This week we found ourselves in the company of talking Menorahs and talking Christmas trees. They, the Menorahs and Trees, speak in their own language of course. 

Happy Holidays to everyone! See you in January when I'll not only be blogging about the creations from the Improv Front but also sharing insights from our new class coming up: Writing and Performing Original Works. Until then...

Cheers!

Fleur

Focus, Bubble Gum Machine & The Sitlyboo

Well Saturday was fun and ...interesting. Was it something in the water? I find on any particular Saturday at 2:00 I can have a room full of students - at this point the total count is 11 - and it can feel like a solid unit. One mind, as it were. Amazing when that happens in a group with an age range of 6-11. Then there are days where I can have 8 kids and it feels like 20. How is this possible? Maybe they feel the need to make up for the absent energy. And they did. Bouncing with energy....bouncing and bouncing and bouncing.... 


One of the ideas we touch on in class is that you are always focusing on something. You are never distracted. You've just made your choice for the moment. It's a different way to think about where our attention is. So I just ask, quietly, "What has your attention right now?" or "Where is your focus?"  There's usually a short pause - and a funny stare at me - but then suddenly the focus is back on the group.  For the most part. (OK, sometimes not. It's a work in progress.) But it does encourage awareness of the moment at hand. I like to think about how that might be taken home or to school or into an art or writing project. It might stick. Who knows.


It takes many components to build a human machine but the kids took on the challenge winningly. If I could listen to every single idea they come up with in one hour we would have no time to play. They are bursting with them. Did you know that to make a human Bubble Gum Machine you have to have: A bubble gum blower/tester, a stamper, a boxer, a passer, a DRILLER (I know, but you do!), and the person that shapes to gum into little perfect square before it's sent out to the world. And in order for this to take place you have to have 8 kids working with each other systematically watching and listening, giving and taking evenly. Oh yeah. They did and they do.


Finally, a Sitlyboo is a magic apple that is thought to bring immortality and is a coveted treasure that can only be found by following an ancient map. But Alas, the joke is on you because the apple is evil and if you eat it you are a dead man.


So don't be fooled.


Until next week,
Fleur

Babala Vedix, Toilets and Lady Gaga

This blog begins after we, (da kidz and I), have been working (playing) since July of this year. They are getting to be regular pros at the same improv games that adults find challenging. So I am pushing them into new territory that requires quicker thinking. One of our exercises I will call the "5 W's" (Who, What, Where, etc.) entails answering as quickly as you can to my question: "WHO?" or "WHAT?" What's the answer? Whatever comes to mind. This is not an easy task. Try playing it with your kid this week. The brain will leap in and judge in a millisecond. The challenge is to get past that nano-second to whatever wants to come out of your mouth. Then we take some of the funny, creative answers and put them on their feet. On Saturday they found themselves improving Lady Gaga and Fleur (Har Har - thanks, Jessica) in the public bathroom fixing toilets at a Lady Gaga concert. It's refreshing to think that Lady Gaga will use the public restroom at her own concert.

Thanks to Caitlyn, Sasha, and Derrick, we now know that a Babala Vedix is a type of bird that walks on land and swims through the air.  Hey, you never know when this knowledge will come in handy. 

I could write endlessly of the talent, courage and creativity that they all have. Don't worry, I will. But I'd like to share something else. A new student joined us this week. Can you imagine how it feels to be new in a class where you are constantly asked to think on your feet, perform, and enter into games, (that everyone else already knows how to play), in a  group that has been bonding for about four months now? It could have gone many ways. But this class? There was a collective and unison "HELLO" as they swooped her up and brought her into the fold. 

This is Community. That is gold. Those are your kids.

See you next week,

Fleur

PS. "Who?" 

You thought too long.

Welcome!

This blog is devoted to the children learning to improvise/act/write here in New York. They are smart and funny cats. I will be sharing the things they do and say. And mostly, hopefully, what they are teaching the Teach (me) in the process. Wait. That would make them the teachers...oh and they are. Stay tuned.