Thursday, January 22, 2015

Our First Company Meeting January 20, 2015


Magis work falls into different modes over the course of an average year.  As we welcome new company members, we start with our “back to basics” mode.  It helps build a common vocabulary and offers a chance for the more seasoned performer to go deeper into some of the fundamental understandings.
From Margi: 
“Last evening's session was the introduction to the Alexander work that is the base line for the movement and voice work coming soon.
I would invite the company to remember and practice the "lie down" or constructive rest position, to ask their bodies what it is like "not to push" forward, to let their backs rest and expand. And to be curious about how we balance, pour weight and receive support from the core of our bodies: the spine! Finally: Who has your back?
Margi also handed out a diagram of the spine, reminding us that the energy we work with flows down the front of the spine, the smooth weight bearing portion of it, rather than on the boney spurs on the back. 
The physical training focused on the first of out basic dynamics: opening up energy flows. 
We introduced the concepts of Gravity, Momentum, and Suspension.  Much of what happens in a body that is balancing happens because of how we harness gravity and put it into momentum, conscious of the suspension points where energy shifts direction, flow and character.
We examined:
the blue wave- the energy that comes up from the earth through the body and out the head
the red wave- the energy that comes from the cosmos down through the head and pours through the body to the feet
the big X- accumulating energy in a squat. Containing it in a tuck, and Radiating through the shape of the big X.

The energy flow through each succession of actions ought to be thought of as one stream that flows from one to the other.  
This will form the foundation for the physical work as we add on.