DISCOVERIES/THINGS THAT WORKED:
- Coming into the dance, I was all about me and the dance. As Jackson du Blanc, I was prepared to BLOW PEOPLE AWAY at this dance - because let's face it, that's what I do, and that's what I've been doing all my life. In preparing for the dance, what worked was for me to come into it with a specific idea of why I was there (to dance, meet people and dance with them, and win the dance competition of course!). The night before, I held a dance rehearsal for the Entertainment Committee - we prepared a dance to B.o.B.'s "I'll Be in the Sky" (a favorite from my hometown of Atlanta). I also organized Zanny to have her rehearsal for a "sexy stripper dance," but that never actually happened; I'm not entirely sure Zanny was comfortable with doing the dance, which I understood, so I didn't push her on it. I then wanted to have a dance rehearsal to get everyone comfortable with dancing, but unfortunately the energy on Thursday night was a little all over the place and only a couple people showed up, so instead we pitched our energy, like everyone else, into decorating the room for the next day. Which I think we did a very good job of, if I may say so myself.
- So standing in line for the dance, I was getting pumped for all the dancing I was about to do - exercising, warming up my muscles, talking to the people in line, etc. I was getting pretty pissed off that people like Brittany's character were going to be allowed in - weren't they too young to be let into the dance?? They are just going to ruin it! I began to meet people for the first time, and that was quite interesting - I found that it worked for me to kiss people's hands when I met them, if only because it gave other characters something to work off of from the get-go. Some of them enjoyed the hand-kiss, others (like Kyle Wilson's character) were completely flipped out.
- Coming into the dance, something I instinctively did that worked really well was NOT wanting to take off my glove for them to put a mark on it, as entry into the dance. I didn't, in fact, want to take off my gloves at all during the dance, except to pour drinks, perhaps. The gloves were part of my aura, part of my preparation, and I couldn't have them off.
- I found that, as Jackson du Blanc, I really liked being the life of the party. As I was on the Entertainment Committee, I organized people to get their dance cards filled out, and I tried to get as many people to sign my card as I could. I ended up dancing with about 12 different people on different dances, and for each one I learned something new about how Jackson related to those characters. For example, I danced with MiMi, Nicky Robles's yoga teacher character, who danced very slowly and methodically, but it was a very pleasant dance - she's a very pleasant person to dance with, although she wasn't as energetic as I was. And then I also danced with Olivia's character, who really didn't want to, but I got her onto the dance floor anyways and taught her a few moves. I enjoyed being the person who gets people moving, who gets people dancing, and people enjoyed participating in my energy. So what worked for me was being a source of energy for the rest of the party. Of course, there were those, like Taylor's characters, who simply didn't want to dance with me - but I felt that Jackson, as a non-confrontational being, would simply ignore them rather than force them into something that they ultimately didn't want.
- I was very excited for the dance competition, because dance competitions are what I do best - I put on my resume that I had won several of them. So of course I expected to win this one. I got together with three other dancers and I danced my ass off to get into the next round - but Barbara Mackenzie-Wood tapped me out! I didn't believe it at first - at first I stayed on the dance floor, and my dance partners came to my rescue, telling Barbara about how famous I was and how revered I was throughout the world. But when she told me to get off, I had to leave. I was furious. I didn't speak to anyone, I just stood at the side of the dance floor and judged the remaining dancers as harshly as I could. After Kyle's character ended up winning, I mumbled to someone that he didn't deserve it, and as his winning song was put on, I went up, took the crown off his head, and performed a solo dance. I discovered in that moment that Jackson has a bitchy side. He wants to dance, and for other people to dance with him, but he is also proud and when he does not get recognition for his talent he will force his talent on other people. I went into a very abstract dance, taking all the time in the world to showcase my abilities as I owned the dance floor. For Jackson, it felt good; but of course, he was alone.
- The last discovery I made that I want to comment on is my reaction to the armed robbery. When the guys came in with guns and told everyone to get down, I was extremely frightened. Jackson is proud, and he will fight for his respect, but he is a peaceful person and simply wants everyone to recognize the beauty of dance. So when the guns came crashing in, my animal brain kicked in immediately, and I dipped heavily into the heron for what followed. I flapped my arms as I ran/flew in no general direction around the room, finally ending up on the bleachers by the television. I stayed incredibly still, hoping the robbers wouldn't see me, moving my head just slightly to take in the entire room (similar to how I acted in parts of Watering Hole). One of them saw me, however, and told me to get down on the floor - so I hopped onto the floor and sat on my knees. At this point, however, I was over the initial shock and now I was more pissed off. As perhaps a testament to how much I had gone back into my animal, I raised my head and shoulders and screeeeeeeched very loudly at the robbers - as if I was protecting my territory. One of them heard this and pointed the gun at me, at which point I put my head back down; but the anger was still there. I wouldn't even really call it anger, though - it was like something had disrupted the status quo of the heron's brain, something had set off the heron because it had been so frightened that it just wasn't the same afterwards. When the robbers left, I found myself wanting to keep to myself and my headphones, consoling myself with my music much like I did in my Private Moment. Lawrence (Thomas Moore's character) tried to get through to me by getting me to dance with him, which I did quite half-heartedly (and still wearing my headphones). In the end, I was really happy that the robbers had come in, because I discovered much about the instinctual animal nature of Jackson du Blanc - that in moments of stress, he will appear more like a blue heron than at any other time.
DISCOVERIES/THINGS THAT DIDN'T WORK:
- Something that was really difficult for me in the Social Dance, and something Patrick Wilson pointed out afterwards, was that it was quite difficult to keep the physicality of the character the entire time. In fact, for most of the dance, I would say it wasn't even on my mind. Now, that is not to say that it should have been on my mind the entire time; I think I have done enough rehearsal with Jackson to have an innate physicality of how he is supposed to walk, dance, and relate to other people. Still, for a 90-minute improvisation, keeping his physicality was difficult. After speaking with Matt about how perhaps Jackson is the type of dancer who simply doesn't use his hands, I tried to use that to combat my problem from the Private Moment (about how the dancer is in full control of his body, but the bird is not). Still, what I really lost during the improv were the undulations, and it was not until we reverted back to our animals that I was able to regain them and remember to apply them to all of Jackson's movements.
- Eating. Eating just didn't work for Jackson. The issue is that when I eat (and because I did so much eating as the heron), I want to eat by jabbing my head at the food and using a beak that isn't there. This doesn't really work for most foods, let alone drinks. So in order to feed Jackson (which I had to do several times - dancing is a calorie-burner!), I cheated a bit; I kept the animal brain and let that guide me physically, but I did physically that which I had to do to get food and drink into my mouth. It was not a pretty sight.
- Reacting to everything that was going on around me. There was so much going on around me - every few minutes a new scuffle would start between two characters, or people would start yelling at each other, or people would be dancing inappropriately on the dance floor - and I just couldn't respond to it all. And perhaps I shouldn't have. I didn't respond to all of it in Watering Hole; in that exercise, I just chose to respond to what was happening directly around me, and it made reacting much easier. Here, though, I felt like the energy was higher because people were simply moving more. As animals, we tended to stay in one place for a while, take in what was going on around us, then move on to the next place; but as human characters, we were always on the move (except for the gorilla characters, and a few others). So I often had to pick and choose what I wanted to react to. For example, Tsilala and Taylor's characters got into a fight right next to me at one point, but I chose to simply not react to the situation. Thinking about it now, I perhaps should have - but what was I going to do? Jackson is a peaceful person, not one to step in the middle of a violent fight, and that's what security is for anyways. And I didn't feel in danger as the character. So I simply walked away and kept dancing.
Perhaps, in that way, dance became for me like a status quo for movement - my "greatest hits." As this was a social dance, I don't think that that was a terribly awful decision; but if I could do this over again, I think I would actually want to dance less, and explore what else there was to do in the room besides dancing.
So, overall, the Social Dance was quite an incredible experience for Jackson du Blanc. He met dozens of new people, had the opportunity to dance with lots of different types, and he even stepped back into his animal character in the moments of extreme stress. As an actor, what I learned from this is to go places that are uncomfortable, like dancing with Olivia's character (who was practically immobile the whole time). I learned much about Jackson's connection to his animal that I will definitely be able to use for characters in the future. And finally, I was given yet another opportunity to step outside of Brian Pettitt-Schieber and try something new with the other members of the Acting class - and, from their comments afterwards, they really enjoyed acting with Jackson. In fact, a few have told me that they miss Jackson, even though it has been less than a week since the Social Dance. Perhaps we will see him again?
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