Feeling Confused

Here is a story about me feeling confused.

Yesterday I attended my first acting class at Vaganova. It was an uncomfortable experience for me, not because of the content or nature of the class itself, but because of how much of the class consisted of listening to the teacher talk and explain things that I did not understand because he was speaking primarily in Russian. 

At the beginning of the class, the teacher was talking about the format of the class and what we will have to do for our exams at the end of the year. I had no idea what was going on, which made me feel rather stressed. In an effort to help, which I do appreciate, the teacher sometimes switched and began speaking in French and in English when he could. I understood his explanations in French better than his explanations in Russian, but I still missed out on a lot of what he was saying. I managed to grasp the gist of what I need to do after a Russian girl in my class who speaks English pretty well helped to translate some of what I did not understand.

The rest of class was more fun (and a lot less stressful)- we started learning a choreographed scene. Though I missed a lot of the explanations of what the emotional presence should be like, I was having a much easier time understanding what was being said to me than at the start of class. I could figure out much of what I did not understand by watching him and my classmates show the movements.

Still, this experience left me wanting to start Russian classes as soon as possible. We haven't started yet because the level placements for the international trainees were not fully decided upon until recently, meaning that our schedules still had the potential to be changed. (Each level has different classes at different times and on different days). With our schedules set, the school administration will now be able to assign us to Russian classes that do not conflict with our dance classes. Hopefully I will be learning Russian soon. I know that I will be able to get much more out of all of my classes, but acting in particular, once I understand more of what the teachers are saying. I want my classes to be challenging technically and artistically, not difficult because of a language barrier.