Sorry for the delay.

Well, it's been a pretty busy past two days. I'm beginning to love this place more and more every day...well, the classes at least. Moscow's definitely cool, but the training I am getting right now is uncomparable to anything else. It's absolutely worth every cent I paid.

Yesterday we started off the day by singing with singing with the lovely, firey, and hilarious Marina. We sang 16 bars for her, she worked with us individually and then chose a new song for each of us to work on for the next month. She is so remarkable and get anything out of anyone. She's amazing. Next we went to Movement. Man, that kicked my butt. She had us doing the craziest things - pushing us further and further - but never too far. My muscles are still sore - but in a different way. Instead of them not being able to move, I actually feel more free and more stretched. I love it. The movement class is pretty intense, though. Putting our arms, legs, bodies in the strangest positions you wouldn't think possible. It's important for an actor, however, because our body is our tool and it has to be explored and shaped in order to use it to the fullest extent. It's all good. We then went to Acting with Sergei and we did etudes (improvisation in a certain event and atmosphere) and etudes with am object. We had to pick an object, become it, have an event and then live through it. I wasa vase - flowers were put in me and then my "event" which caused a change in atmosphere, inner life, and emotion was that i got knocked off the table and broke. So cool. We did this kind of stuff with Lavinia and James before too.

Today we had our first ballet class with Larissa, who was a former Prima Ballerina at the Bolshoi Theatre here in Moscow. She is absolutely brilliant. She is so funny, so intense, and also pushes us. (That's what I love about being here, when you think you're doing your best, they know you're not and push you further than your best. love it.) We did some work at the barre and then some floor work. She was pretty impressed with me and I was usually in front or demonsrating when she was teaching a new dance which was cool. Thank goodness for Betty Ballet. Betty taught us ballet at Wayne State for a semester and a half. Without that basic knowledge, I don't think I'd be the dancer I am/becoming, or would I be able to grasp everything we're doing so well. It makes everything so much easier. We did some lifts - the girl is in an aribesk, the guy picks her up and she goes into passe and then add a spin. it's fun. We also did some regular jumps. Absoluely loved that class and could've stayed there the entire day. I can't wait for the next one. The next class was a Michael Chekhov class taught by a brilliant man named Masha. Chekhov is my thing. It's all about imagination, playing, radiation, feeling, etc. We did a bunch of differnt concentration execises, as well as focus, attention, and sensations and feeling centers. Loved it. He built upon what James Luse had taught us when we had him. I'm definitely going to love this class immensely. Had acting next and we continued the Etudes.

We went and saw MacBet tonight. Amazing show. It's not MacBeth, but it is based off MacBeth. It was completely in Russian, but you didn't even need to know what they were saying. This is the kind of theatre I would love to be a part of. I'm always talking about how I love physical theatre - this was it. It tied in all of the arts - there was singing, there was dancing, there was acting, there was physicalization. They brouight in certain animal elements and transformational work (another one of my favorite things) - for instance MacBet became some sort of bird - a hawk or eagle. Everything was just performed so beautifully. A great first show to see in Moscow.

Kennikki and I are going to make some kind of chicken dinner tomorrow. We've been eating pasta everyday for dinner, so we decided we needed to change it up. That should be exciting\ and interesting. If we have Sunday off I think we might head over to check out the Kremlin and Lenin's tomb because that's just down the street from the Moscow Art Theatre.

Well, I'm tired so I am off to do some homework and then go to bed. Peace out!!!!