Today was the first day of my first class. I will be taking 8 or more classes in the next three weeks, during their summer intensive. Classes are 6 or 4 hours a day. The 4 hour classes have an option to take more than one per day.
In advance of the class, I had purchased the textbook written by the school's owner, Elaine Clark. I bought it on kindle so that I could pre-read and prep for the class, and then bought the in-person book today.
I was nervous about the class. I was nervous to get up and read, even though reading aloud has been my favorite thing in all the world to do since I learned how. As a kid, any chance I got to read, to any other little kids, to my little brother, to ANYONE WHO WOULD LISTEN, I took it.
So why would I worry about treading aloud? Why would I have to work to control my breathing, my shaking, and the - let's name it: stage fright - that I have NEVER had before in my whole life?
Dancing.
By The Book, as a class, is about dancing while you read. Except not the polka, the twist, or the cha-cha. Not even choreographed ballet. Those are dances with repetitions.
No, this is the HARD kind of dancing, the dancing where you listen to the music and then you improvise. Where you know individual techniques, that make up a dance, but you have to make your own pattern. Layer your own moves...That's right folks, The Vocal One School of Audio Acting is Improvisational Bellydance.
At which, I could never get the hang.
Ask my teachers.
Because I can listen to music, and I can move, but my mind goes BLANK on what to do next....how to layer, what looks good, what FEELS good. The physical moves never became ingrained enough, combined with the knowledge of the music by live musicians, combined with transitions. I couldn't hack it.
And although today was easier than that, it was HARD. It was more like dance moves, silly ones, than reading.
In our exercises this afternoon, the group played a game that anyone who has gone to camp, or done the name-game ice-breaker is familiar with: Everyone sits in a circle. The first person says, "I'm Yvette and I love Yogurt."
The next person says, "She is Yvette, and she likes Yogurt. I'm Jill and I like to Jam on my guitar."
Person three is responsible for, "Yvette, likes Yogurt. Jill Jams on her guitar, and I'm Cynthia, with a Sinful Smile."
And around the circle goes.
Now in the camp version, to be fair, usually a counselor starts AND ends the game. The person who has it easiest, also has the hardest time, the most to remember.
In class today, the person who went first did NOT also have to go last.
And instead of the memory game being about a name and an alliteration, it was about the text:
First person, go faster here
Next, slower there
You, Do some eyebrow acting
shift the weight of your feet
point to those places
smile here, not there
imagine an angry parent in front of you
display the product
breathe here and here
throw that line away
hold up three fingers
open the door
So the exercise was reading copy. Fast. Then slow in bits. Then with a wave, a wiggle, a thumb behind you, a wand in your right hand, a pat on the head for imaginary kid on your left...
It was...alarmingly different from ANYTHING I've ever done before.
I watched, and watched, and took notes.
At that point I was ecstatic that I had pre-read the book. Every little bit helped.
I thought I would jump up and read someplace in the middle, when the list of things to remember wasn't long. But as things got more and more complex, people were FAST to get out of their seats, and I was busy making notes and trying to come up with copy notations....until eventually, I was the last.
And I did. I felt stage fright. I had a hard time standing up from my front row, corner seat. Putting my book on the lectern, and propping it open was nerve wracking. I decided in addition to warming up my body (as the instructor had told us to), I would do a silent speed-through read and practice micro versions of the hand gestures.
This put the stage fright at bay. Words are my friends. They were there for me on the page. They always have been, and they always will be.
Imagine me, standing in front of the group, but NEVER taking my eyes off of the book. Man, was that weird. I mean, I'm a trainer. My thing is to look at the group and connect. But no, this reading was not for them, and they were not there. I needed every. bit. of. focus.
To read, do the actions, and get through the five sentences.
My right hand shook during part of the reading, but I made it through.
Afterward, the direction I received was to "hold it in." Because: LOUD YVETTE IS TOO LOUD
If I learn nothing from this class except when NOT TO PROJECT, it will have been worth every. single. penny. When I learn other things, even better.
I will say...because I know that anyone who goes and reads this blog is rooting for me - hard - with pom-poms and megaphone in hand...I received several compliments from my fellow students.
"What a great voice you have," said one woman in the bathroom.
"You're so good at this," someone caught me in the hall.
"You looked so relaxed up there," from the guy behind me, "I was impressed."
"You've clearly been doing this awhile, haven't you?"
Nope. The same six hours as you, my friend.
Oh, AND, 41 years of practicing reading out loud, and upside down (for kids books), and training in front of a class for almost 20 years.
So it is all new. And it is damn hard.
But it is at the same time comforting. And it is my zone.
And more than anything else, I was learning!
It was a wonderful first day.
