Wednesday, September 17

MOVEMENT
We jumped rope to "Let's Get It On" today. My movement professor said she wanted us to slow down our pace today. I think it had something to do with building muscle?

We worked on isometrics for awhile. I seriously think that my hip sockets are defective, because I ALWAYS get cramps in them, even if they aren't engaged. *shrugs*


VOICE
We continued testing ourselves on IPA consonants, as we have a test at the end of the week. I messed up two things in class. One was the word "knowing", because I thought there was a "w" sound in it, but it turns out that it's just a dipthong (a combination of vowel sounds). The second was "daughters". It turns out, when you're pluralizing a word that ends in an "r" sound, the "s" has to take on a "z" sound. I do that consistently incorrectly.

This, actually, brings me to a concept that we've discussed in both my voice and movement classes. Correcting learned behavior is a process that takes you through four stages.

- Unconscious Incompetence
- Conscious Incompetence
- Conscious Competence
- Unconscious Competence

When you start work, you're doing things in the ways you've always done them, and you don't really think about it. They're not neutral behavior, but rather learned behavior. You're doing things out of habit, and they're not necessarily natural; they're normative. (Unconscious Incompetence)

As you begin training, you become aware of the things you're doing wrong (like forming your "l"s improperly, or standing with your feet pointing out to the sides). You're still doing it wrong, but now you're paying attention to it, and you KNOW that it's wrong. (Conscious Incompetence)

You learn how to fix the stuff you're doing wrong, but you have to focus on it in order to train your body and mind what the correct operations are. (Conscious Competence)

You do the corrected behaviors for such a long period of time that they become your new habits, and you do them without having to think about them (Unconscious Competence)

It's kind of neat, right?


ACTING
Two Shots Up did a physical memory exercise involving retouching film in a dark room. Thrill did one of cleaning his sneakers.

There was an interesting exercise involving the way you approach a door. Our professor would give someone a scenario to approach the door with ("you're there to deliver bad news", "you're playing a prank", "you can't find your keys", "you're visiting your girlfriend," etc.). It yielded some neat results.

The end of class ended with us doing our dialogue etudes on our feet. I was partnered with Iceman, and I feel like I let him down. I got really frustrated by the exercise.

But I guess there are going to be days like that. Some days I'm going to feel like I can rule the world, and other days I'm going to feel like I'm drowning. Maybe that's what grad school is supposed to be.