We're locking in on what it is that we are working on.

To some calm music, the class starts with some juggling. Mycah observes, telling them to lock in and be cognizant of what we're working on. What are we working on? We get into pairs and ask our partners that exact question. We give each other some advice and we take it too--we're learning how to be an ensemble, give feedback to each other, take it up, and really play. The scarves are just vectors for that experience. 

The Mini-Skill: Really talking to and working with partners and being able to give and get feedback

Can we figure out tandem juggling? After saying thank you to our partners, we get into two groups of five and just try to make a tandem juggling situation happen. One group goes with order, and the other with the "groundperson" or "cockroach" method. It's amazing what happens when you just give people some scarves. 

Mycah adds some rules--your group cannot drop the scarves, but what happens when you do? You decide. We switch groups spontaneously a couple times. It's all feeling--feel grounded, feel your lungs, feel the eyes, the breath, the moves, listen and play. Then, increase "saturation" by 30--what happens then?

We're using the rules we're making to increase the saturation of our games. What game can we find in dropping the scarves? The groundperson seems to be becoming something... something like a baby? And the scarves become something else too, covering the baby, ooh, pretty baby...

This game-making is an effort of the eyes, breath, movements, lungs, and play. So much so that the entire room becomes part of it--things we've never touched before, cones, mats, balls big and small, become part of the game. The only way to really see what that means is to watch it happen.

Then, stop. If Pretty Baby is the game, in the next five minutes, everybody has to be Pretty Baby at least once. So, everyone must increase size and speed. Different games start to appear--stop. If a game is found, everyone must play it together!

At the height of the last minute, when everyone is playing their hearts out, Mycah asks a question: Where is everyone's noses?

What happens next is pure clown-mania. Games come and go. Clowns know and grow. Ending with the exploding starfish. Everyone did a really great job!

We stay with the feeling. The work is about relaxing and paring away. Then we First Look again.

Transitioning is to resist the urge to add a button. When the wave is over, it's just over. We are not the waves, we are the one that rides the wave. With the promise of more waves, noses come off and we wake up. After a little break for air and water, we prepare ourselves for the next set of FIrst Looks.

Our individual virtuosic selves feel so together, so beautiful.