Following and breaking rules, revealing principles, and BIG NEWS!
Hey Joyful followers,
What is the difference between a rule and a principle?
Well first, what is a rule?
I would say, it's an instruction that you can follow and you can break.
In the All-inclusive-mime-exercise, there is a strong rule. The negative version of the rule is: You can't move your feet. or You are not allowed to move your feet. The positive version of the rule is:Your feet stick to the floor.
It is a rule. You can follow it, you can break it.
When a student breaks this rule, he or she loses awareness for a split second. Students are perfectly aware of the rule, but when they start to play/act/improvise and they are not physically trained, they lose awareness (I do too!). And that's Ok! That's the purpose of the training: developing body awareness.
So the rule "Feet stick to the floor" is useful, whether we follow it or we break it. It reveals our level of body awareness when we practice this exercise. Physical theater involves the body. We could say that 'being physical' starts by 'being aware' of our body. It's not a rule though. We can't really break this previous statement, can we? So maybe... it's a principle. Maybe, principles can't be broken (except with Magic or engines). Maybe, that's the difference between a rule and a principle.
If we teach others and give them rules to follow, what principles are we trying to reveal? If there is no principle behind these rules, what do we teach?
If we follow our teacher's instructions without knowing why we're doing it, why do we follow these instructions?
BIG NEWS
I've created a set of joyful videos to introduce warm-ups movements. The trailer will be released today here on Youtube and here on Facebook.
And last but not least
We are starting our third month of Joyful Saturdays! Yeepidou!
10 a.m. in Paris, 6 p.m. in Melbourne
Booking here: The Joyful Saturdays
Promo code: TJSOCT
Pauline, for The Joyful School