The Gaze.

So, despite my declaration (or desire to adhere) to a cozy, yummy 9 pm bedtime, there will of course be exceptions.

Like, every Tuesday night. My new poetry workshop ends at 9:15 on Tuesday nights, and my painting class begins at 9 am on Wednesday mornings, so these are going to be quick turn around days, and I’ll have to learn how to work within these parameters. Mainly, sleep enough within them!

Also, despite my saying yesterday, “Theater, I lay you down,” … my poetry course is mainly, almost entirely focused on performance. Not just poetry, but, performance art. I’m SO freaking excited. Like I said, this teacher is a pretty big deal (Guillermo Gomez Pena, look him up, you’ll get what I mean), and his methods are NOT your typical poetry workshop, where everyone brings in a poem, reads it, murmurs comments of assent or dissent and move on.

This, will be much different. And I can’t wait. Last night, we did all kinds of spontaneous verbal exercises, then some pretty awkward and intense physical interactions with each other, the other students. It was a series of looking into another student’s eyes for minutes on end, with different attendant variations – to explore the gaze and being fully present with another human being. It, as you can imagine, could get a little awkward. These were not the ice-breaker activities we did in summer camp! It was weird, and telling, and opening, and closing, and awkward, and just interesting to notice the experience.

Further, I had training for the artist’s modeling yesterday for about 2 hours in the city, and the facilitator said that there are two reasons that people get out of the business. 1) it’s too physically demanding. (and after actually running through some 1 minute, 5 minute, and then a 20 minute pose, I assure you, I completely agree – my muscles are going to be learning a thing or two about what works with my anatomy… and blood flow – yes, my fingers are numb if I hold them over my head for 5 minutes…!)

The 2^nd reason he said people get out of the business is because they can’t take “the gaze” anymore. That although, in reality, the artist and students drawing the model are really only seeing what they want to see, that mainly they’re interested in form and shadow and contour, the model can begin to get hyper-sensitive to the gaze, and feel too vulnerable underneath it.

He said to remember that what they’re seeing is only what you’re giving them. That still, we’re in control, even if we’re nude, and eyes open, we still, like most people walking around fully clothed all day, get the chance to allow people to see only what we want them to see.

In one of the exercises last night, the 3^rd woman I “stared” at, well, I’ll tell you, she was pretty powerful. And after so much outflow, which is my natural setting (“She’s gone from SUCK to BLOW!” … Spaceballs reference), it was interesting to feel that actually, she was going to be the one with the outflow, and I could choose whether to let her in or not. (And if you’re rolling your eyes right now, and being like, "Molly, you are sooo Woo-woo hippie shit,” meh, c’est la vie.) So, I did let her, and several minutes into the exercise, I actually began to cry. Not on purpose! But because, I could feel that as exhausted and raw as I’ve felt over the last month or so, I’ve still been outwardly focused.

Like with the 2^nd girl, I could feel her pain and loneliness, and she actually said afterward that she realized how little physical contact she gets these days (we were holding hands as well as eye contact in this one). And I was sending her all kinds of love and healing.

But with the 3^rd girl, I tried to send it out, but it was like, no buddy, This Bud’s for You. And she sent that healing, and that love, and that gaze into me. And I felt myself seen, and held by it. And just let go, into her power, and saw my own vulnerability and raw places by riding into myself through her gaze. I told her afterward, to explain why I'd cried, that my energy had been so outwardly focused and I’ve felt so raw lately, that to let someone else in, to allow the energy to go the other way ‘round was really powerful for me, and a relief to let myself sit in it.

So, yeah. Although I’m not trolling the casting call website at the moment or going on auditions, I’m pretty sure the HP is arranging for me to engage in my body, my emotions, and my performance in a variety of new ways. Even woo-woo hippie ones.