My first week in London...

I thought I would write a sharp analysis of London and my new life, but I realize I cannot put my thoughts straight and it’s all too new and messy and wonderful and in so many directions, I don’t know how to start!

 With the gratefulness maybe? First of all, The Greek sisters who’s received me in their home for ten days now. They are amazing! Imagine coming home from a long day of rehearsal and you just get; red wine & food, help to sort out things like phone company, bank account, what’s the matter with the Shoreditch’s stylish youths, where to go, how to survive the underground… The morning when you’re too tired to think they get you strong coffee, and added to that they’ve helped me not to feel lonely at all, even if I am kind of lonely and new in this big city. How does it sound with aubergine and tomato lasagne, Greek salad, spinach and feta pie and homemade bread with walnuts, dates and cinnamon? At this very moment one of them makes pancakes, I mean the world becomes a better place to live, with pancakes on a Saturday morning.

 With the contentment of creating? The company is very good for me.  We have worked with the Laban Movement Theories, researching how to move in space with different energies and speed, direct or indirect moves, heavy or light, sudden or sustained… It becomes really interesting when you combine them so that for example you would move in a heavy, direct and sudden way.  We have been exploring how three women can fit on a bench in various formations, how to keep the central place on the bench if all the three of us has the same mission, how to walk on the back of a bench without getting noticed… We do Pilates and other conditioning training. Of course we have worked on the partner acrobatics too and I love it. I love the feeling of weight and balance. The small movements you need to do to adjust. The trust. The perseverance. The positive environment the three of us is already creating to make the best of what we’re doing. Mimbre is great!

 With the big confusion about the humanity? I do not always get what we are meant to do here on earth, and in a city that shows the extremes of everything, I tend to get confused. Last Thursday I happened to be in a huge shopping centre situated underground in the business district Canary Wharf. It was lunchtime and suddenly suits were all over the place. I had to stop by a wall to feel safe from all these men and women running out of their offices to grab some food, it looked like a crazy performance. People do look unhappy in the Underground, or just completely emptied of soul, I guess they did press the off button when they entered the tube system? I think my problem is that when a lot of people are doing the same thing at the same moment, it overwhelms me, no matter if it’s a lot of hipsters parading in their new clothes, tattooed mummies smoking or drunk middle-aged men taking the DLR train.

 But, as a good friend wrote me: “You can experience life, and answer questions about it. But doing both at the same time is difficult and perhaps unwanted.”

 Maybe it’s time just to LIVE the London life?

 

26 Jan 2014