Training under Eliz

This training featured a lot more animal poses than the form of Kalarippayattu I did under my Kalarippayayttu. Besides the lion and the elephant poses, there was the fish pose, the frog pose, the horse pose and the cat pose. What struck me was the lion pose. The lion pose that I did under Master was very different and it was more a moving pattern rather than a stationary pose. The lion pose that I saw here reminded me of the pictures I see in Zarrilli's books where he has a picture of his master in the lion pose and he frequently captions that picture with the words "the body becomes all eyes". What's more, Elizabeth kept talking about the body becoming all eyes during the practice, like some kind of mantra. As such, it felt, training under her that it was easier to connect to my reading of Zarrilli's works.

Somehow, though I do not think that Eliz's set of Kalarippayattu moves is more physically demanding than Master's moves, I perspired alot more under Eliz's Kalarippayattu than under Master's Kalarippayattu. So when Zarrilli talks about perspiration during practice, it seems to be closer to Eliz's practice.

I realised that they do not do the tumbling and rolls or the "Kalari falls" that are very much emphasised upon in Master's practice. I asked Eliz about it and she said only the more advanced students do it. They also made use of music in the practice that was not something we did in Master's class. However, I'm not sure whether the music is an element of Zarrilli's practice or her own practice.

There was an emphasis on the preciseness of the movements. We were to replicate Eliz's moves as exactly as possible. From time to time, we were also asked to check our pose to see if our feet were spaced correctly and placed at the right angle.

At one point of the practice, I thought I felt a sensation that seems to agree with my semantic and phenomenological understanding of "when the body becomes all eyes". I felt more akin to my senses and awake. However, this sensation I had was not a new sensation, it seemed like the same sensation I get after doing hours of latin ballroom training. Pondering upon this thought, if I could reach "the body is all eyes" through latin dance, why not even use latin dance for actor training since that also helps with body awareness, awareness of space and overall level of consciousness (arousal)?

We played a game afterwards where we had to close our eyes and play "hide and seek" with a partner. This game was to test our body awareness as we had to move very quietly to avoid being caught and be very sensitive to the movement of the person hiding if you are the person seeking. According to the rest of the people in the class, I was extremely noisy in my movement. My body was not all eyes apparently. Either what I felt wasn't what it meant to be the body is all eyes or I could not hold that kind of alertness for long enough to play the game well enough with it. I would think it is the second option personally but it is hard to ascertain.

What was certain is the benefits of being precise in the replication or execution of a movement. That somehow seems to a trend in elevating the level of consciousness. Elizabeth also spoke alot about the awareness of the bottom of the spine. Though in dance we don't use the word spine so much, we talk about using the back alot, as well as the alignment of the body, which all involves the spine.


K8