Anyway, the topic of the blog today is Specialisation. Next week we have to choose which two subjects out of the main four (aerial, acro-balance, physical theatre and E & M) we want to specialise in for the rest of the course. Obviously, my first choice was physical theatre. I love Bim, who teaches the subject, love his Lecoq based approach, and can't wait to get stuck into physical stories, clown and grotesque, all of which will be studied in depth. Brilliant.
The second choice though has always been a little more tricky. I thought it would be aerial, but had an open mind towards acro-balance too. And surprise of all surprises, I think I'm going to go with acro. Which begs the question, 'What is acro-balance?'
Normally when I mention acro to someone I get a standard response of 'Go on then, do us a back flip'. I can't do a back flip. There's a very good chance I may leave Circomedia still not being able to do a back flip. Because, you see, that's not really the point of acro-balance. Acro-balance is about partner work, about the ways two (or more) bodies can use each other as platforms to find points of counter-balance and elevation. I find it massively exciting to use in theatre because these moments of physicality have such great potential for really heightening the narrative. And on a practical note, it doesn't need the specialist equipment that aerial always will.
So maybe my mission in Circus is to raise awareness of what acro-balance is, and how it can help us as theatre makers to utilise everything we've got to tell our stories. For an example of what can be achieved from the Contemporary Circus point of view, check out this video from Mimbre:
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