Workshop in the Surf and Sand Room

Keith with Rachel, Christine and Jillian discussing the plan (photo taken by Eric Davis)

On Monday, I led a movement workshop in the Surf and Sand Room at the Annenberg Community Beach House for a group of about twenty adults.  The event was listed as part of the Beach=Culture series and was a chance for me, the choreographer in residence, to interact with the Santa Monica community.   Ir was a blast!

One gentleman arrived early and chatted with me and Naomi, the coordinator of the B=C program.  We talked about his interest in ballroom dancing and his desire for there to be free classes offered at the site in the future ;-)  Naomi encouraged the smiling man to find a ballroom teacher somewhere and incite that person to propose teaching at the Beach House.

By the time the event began, small groups and individuals arrived and found seats along the back wall of the long and narrow room.   Surprised as I was by their choice to sit down for a movement workshop, I immediately invited them back onto their feet.  I asked several people why they had come and what they were hoping would happen and I had to disappoint a few whose desires would not be met by me at this time ;-(  I had a loose idea of what I wanted to do and would decide what I thought would work best when I saw who was there and what they were interested in doing.

I didn't plan on defining what specific movements "mean" and, though there are some ballroom dancing steps in some of the choreography in the new pieces, I wasn't going to lead a class on waltzing or fox trotting or anything else like that.  I did consider some charleston-ing . . . but that didn't happen, either.

Instead, we started with a standing warm-up; quietly moving our arms and legs around, isolating different muscle and bone sections of our bodies and stretching some always-too-tight muscles.  It was great to loosen things up and I could see that almost everyone was enjoying what they were doing and feeling in their bodies.  Then, the real fun began!

Quickly describing the fact that Marion Davies threw lots of parties in her home when she lived there, we preceded to play some movement-based games . . . like party games!  Dividing into pairs, we started with a blind (wo)man walk:  with one person's hand in the hand of her or his partner, the partner led the closed-eyed accomplice in a walk around the room.  Careful not to lead the "blindfolded" person into any dangerous situations, (s)he was led here and there in the room, getting to notice what (s)he felt with eyes closed and what one participant called a "liberated" experience--someone else was making all the decisions and making sure everything went well!

Next, drawing directly from one of the Marx Brothers' 1930 movies' scenes now referred to as "The Mirror Scene," where Harpo and Groucho, dressed in identical night clothes, hats and mustaches face each other and one imitates the other (as in a mirror).  In the beautiful Surf and Sand Room overlooking the majestic Pacific Ocean, each couple chose a leader and the other partner had to imitate the leader, as if (s)he were looking in a mirror!  This was great!  Some people moved carefully and slowly (my suggestion), but others moved crazily, quickly and humorously with the partner trying to find their way to match them.  Funny and cool!

We followed that with a version of the 60s floor game called Twister.  Instead of a floor map with colored circles and a spinner telling us where to place arms and legs, I encouraged players to place specific body parts on other specific body parts on their partner (as in the preceding game, we switched partners and roles so that everyone got a chance to do each thing).  This started with something like "Your left hand to your partner's left shoulder" and kept adding things on. including traveling in a circle, "The crown of your head to your partner's chest" and more and more.  It became a little bit silly, a little bit embarrassing, with a lot of laughing and fun throughout.  I was thrilled at how willingly everyone tried everything, didn't blatantly flinch.  Everyone survived with a smile ;-)

The session soon ended and one participant, a docent named Kathy, brought some delicious cookies for everyone to share.  A sweet way to end the evening!  I also got to chat with some of the others and found out that some of them might be interested in performing with my company . . . VERY COOL!

More on all this later ;-)