This wednesday, my wifi was not working, and because of that, I was unable to join the class that morning! However, I was still able to finish up working on the diptychs for the upstream arts show! I am happy that I got them done and was able to help out!
For the Thursday class, I was in my old bedroom at my mom’s house in Des Moines, which added a fun extra layer to the experience. This week the focus was on showing characteristics through movement, and identifying how movement could be used to complete and convey physical and mental tasks, solo, or with a group! We went through many activities, including:
-deciding what animal we felt like today, and showing how we could embody that animal with our movements
-showing how we do tasks together and conducting those tasks
-using our body to represent sounds others were making
I thought these activities, especially the animal one, were really interesting because of how they allowed people to both become more in touch with themselves by finding an animal they connect to, while also embodying, relating to and taking on an entirely different being. It was a good way of being outside yourself while still being grounded. It was also very fun to pretend to be a salamander, and trying to represent that while standing up! This week was a little more trying in terms of people wanting to volunteer and wanting to participate when being offered the chance, but many people still do, and many more participated when everyone was encouraged to do something at the same time all together. I still think my favorite part of the class was watching everyone act like the animal they felt like.