The Drop Out

Post by Peggy Baker

I'm a theatre school drop-out - University of Alberta - striding in the door of Corbett Hall with illustrious classmates including Bob Baker and Janet Laine Green in the fall of 1970 and, following an unanticipated, cathartic realization, out the door and off to study dance in Toronto in the fall of 1971. But the influence of those acting classes with Tom Peacock and theatre design aesthetics with Gwen Keatley remain crucial, primary influences.

These four mornings with the Volcano Conservatory are a chance for me to share possibilities for a physical practice suitable for the dressing, wings or hotel room, and to offer ideas and materials concerning:

1) the interior experience / relaxation, excitement, sensation, impulse, motive, awareness

Photo:  V. Tony Hauser 

2) sphere of influence / gesture, action, pathways, trajectories, levels, place, inside and outside, away and toward, calculation and spontaneity

Photo: Chris Hutcheson

3)  time / rhythm, tempo, acceleration, deceleration, modulation, dynamic

Photo: Chris Hutcheson

Nervous, excited. Hoping it won't be too hot.