Acting Class

I know I've mentioned my acting class a few times, but I have yet to actually explain what we do during class. With the aid of some photos, some that I took and some that my friend Virginia took (she took all of the pictures that I am in), I'm going to do just that.

We have class in the school theater, which is on the third floor of the main building of the academy. It is a small theater, but it is still very nice. It is a beautiful little place, decorated in a style reminiscent of the Mariinsky Theater.

This is the view from the middle of the audience. (Keep in mind that the panorama function seems to have a way of making small spaces look much larger than they actually are... The stage especially looks a more spacious here than in reality).

The whole theater is decorated in white and teal-blue. The covering of the seats for the audience is made from fabric of this color, and as are the curtains above the stage and window (next to the audience, obscured by white curtains). The stage has a lighting system that is controlled from a booth behind the audience.

The part that reminds me the most of the Mariinsky Theater is the chandelier. It is a large crystal chandelier, very beautiful and almost the same as the chandelier in the Mariinsky.

There are lamps on the walls that also have strings of crystals hanging from them. (Bad picture of the lamp, but you have a good view of some of the lights set up to shine onto the stage from behind the audience).

The walls have some textural embellishments, too- areas of white with three-dimensional designs, faces, and borders the riased from the wall's surface.

Each class is like a rehearsal combined with a miniature performance. Individually or in small groups, my classmates and I take turns going up onto the stage to rehearse small pieces (either from classical ballets or contemprary choreographers) that we have learned, while our teacher, Alexandr Stepin, along with the rest of the class, sits in the audience to watch. Some of the pieces are ones that we learned as a whole class and then specific people were chosen to continue rehearsing, but most are ones that people learned on their own, usually from watching Youtube videos of the dance. All are being prepared for the same purpose, though- to hopefully be performed at our acting exam in the middle of next semester. 

The pieces aren't chosen for their technical qualities, but for the emotion required to perform them. A variation with a lot of turns and complicated footwork but a less dynamic emotional element (like Aurora's wedding variation from the Sleeping Beauty) wouldn't be a great choice for a piece for acting class; something that places more emphasis on the portrayal of reactions and emotions (like Nikiya's monologue from la Bayadere) is better.

One of the pieces that I am rehearsing right now is from the ballet Fountain of Bakhchisarai. Despite the tragic storyline of the scene, I enjoy rehearsing it a lot. This is partially because I get to work with two of my friends, Albina (she's from Kyrgyzstan, but not an international trainee) and Federico (he's an international trainee from Italy), who dance as the two other characters in the scene.

The piece is a challenge, too, which is another reason why I like it. I have to spend an entire two musical phrases slowly collapsing down onto the ground (and trying to be graceful about it) after being stabbed by Albina (with an invisible knife, of course).

Virginia (she's the one who took this photo) did an excellent job of capturing the invisible-knife moment, don't you think?

:)