Walk The Space - Observations

 Some of the things that I observed as an audience member for today’s activity were that…

  1. People categorized their neutral, fast, and slow walking speeds in different ways. Some related it to music, others to genres of performance.
  2. At the start, there were many people who fidgeted out of nervousness and confusion. I saw people who would wring their hands, clasp behind their backs, or twirl their hair.
  3. When switching back to a neutral motion from an extreme speed or slowness, it was difficult to remember what the initial pace was. Some walks were faster than the first neutral and vice versa.
  4. During the start and stop exercises, the instinct for many was to act polite and follow a consistent order of walking. The time of each pause also tended to stay within a 3 to 6 second range. Once the concept had been practiced, though, the energy changed much more often and an element of chaos came into play.
  5. Another benefit of the start and stop exercise was that it helped the actors to learn how they could rely more on the sound of movement rather than watching where people were. It gave them a chance to fully explore the spaces on stage, even more so than they had already been doing. 
  6. Personally, I was somewhat surprised by the difficulty I encountered when trying to curve my steps with the boot on my right ankle. Although it made sense for the more squared foot, I became a bit frustrated. That emotion also affected the rest of my motion as a part of the “flow”.
  7. Overall, our class became much more comfortable with walking the space of the theatre when the activity was done. I was incredibly impressed by and proud of how everyone grew in their confidence and responded to feedback extremely well.

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