Today Aileen joins us. Some real art is going to happen. A beautiful slow dance song plays. 

After a little bit of juggling we talk a walk to generate some heat in the space. Then, we circle up in 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 2, 2, and 1 to say hi to Aileen. Hi hi hi hi hi. Since she's new, she asks us to do an icebreaker to get to know who we are--names, pronouns, and our impression of an elephant that has not had sex in 7 years. Not 6 years, not 8 years, 7 years. 12 or so elephants later, we start to walk around again. Aileen speaks to us.

There's not a lot in this space that can hurt us. It's a fancy room. But a space still finds a way. Look for the things that want to hurt you. To bite you. Or bonk you. Find that thing, give it a hard look, and then shout... NOT TODAY!

We find our main enemy. A light, a pole, a flag, a wall. Even in fancy places there is danger. 

We are working as a full ensemble today. We have the tools to make some stuff. Let's make.

We are building a physical vocabulary together today. It's going to be a lot--if we get bored, we'll just entertain ourselves. How exciting it is to be bored! We start without talking and Aileen gives us a series of commands. We walk around and around and around.

STOP: it means you stop. 

GO: it means to stop stopping.

CLAP: you clap while going. 

JUMP: you jump while going.

WALLS: go to the perimeter of the room and reach, REACH to the middle.

CENTER: make a clump in the middle and reach, REACH to the perimeter.

EARTH: stop and look down at the ground, the earth.

SKY: stop and look up, to the heavens.

SACRIFICE: one person goes to the ground (only one) and stop. The next command cancels this out.

SURVIVOR: everyone goes to the ground but one. The next command cancels this out.

WITHER: spiral. Make yourself smaller. You are a wrung out wash cloth. You are never finished withering.

BLOOM: get larger and larger and larger. Even when you are all space, you are never finished blooming!

Our bodies, our eyes are the consonants with which we pronounce these elements legibly. We are getting sweaty...

We've been getting commanded and staying in unison. That is not for us. We will use these physical vocabularies to improvise, to communicate--every action warrants a reaction.

No breaks. Aileen opens the Art Box for us. The Art Box is our freezer. It can save and hold on to anything we noticed about our improvisation. Something we want to save for later, something we learned about ourselves, or something we just want to say out loud to build into our performance. I saw that... I noticed that... I'm going to try...

The Art Box

• The horror of Mitch getting pulled away...

• Immersing yourself in a story to make things real...DRAMA!

• Using Katie and Michael's dance to play against Matthew's Sky moment

• Fun in the hub and the tension of leaving...

• Michael fan club

• Arms-length vision and catastrophic moments

• Manic focus... some stillness is maybe warranted, or some smaller groups!

A helpful counterpart activity, one that's quieter, more listening-focused, is next. We're going to build a shape in the middle of the room. We stand in a circle. There will be a prompt. One person will go to the circle's center and make a shape. There will be some stillness. Someone will go make physical contact with the center person (or group). Then together they will breathe, and change the shape. And so on and so forth. The music appears from the prompt and from Mycah's drum. 

The prompts are: The Chase, Romance, and the Night. 

The Art Box

• Holding hands and moving under each other to make an indescribable knot

• The greatest heartbreak is not holding anyone... I'm a toenail clipping.

• The reach of finding somebody... hand holding is not the only contact

• Bodies folding into each other...

• It feels nice to be a landslide.

We try to dig something out of the Art Box. Can we recreate something that we noticed and remembered?

Two more fun things. The first is flocking, a game we know--it's essentially follow the leader, but we're birds. It's a way to build choreography or movement that is led by one person. But that person changes. In a formation, multiple people stand behind one person, forming a triangle or diamond. The person at the point, who cannot see anyone else, is the leader. The people at the shoulders and back of the leader, follow. They copy each and every movement of the leader. But if the leader turns, and suddenly somebody else is at the point, with no one in front of them, they are the new leader. There's a moment of terror when you realize you're the leader. Or maybe you seize power or create a schism. Spines engaged, groups swarm and fly.

Now that we have flocking, organism-ing, and some vocabulary, we can really go on an adventure. We'll start with flocking, but all the other games and vocabularies are at play. Aileen is DJing an aggressively disjointed musical journey, and our job is to keep going. A jazzy, rag-timey piano, a heroic trumpet, cricket sounds, French violin and accordion, crazy sax, ethereal ambience, synths and beeps and boops, plucky strings, we find an exit. At the end, Sai experiences an extended trip over the recycling bin...danger! Danger! Everybody shouts... NOT TODAY!

The Art Box

• Mirror flattening flocking hierarchy.

• Mirror adding 10 more people!

• Breaking off and joining another flock with a little group.

• Falling into things...

• Black Swan Chainsaw Massacre

• Hello's and Hi's

• Hitting different moves, together

Homework: Use what you learned today and develop an idea further into a group piece.