Day one at the Restless Studio

How was the first day of The Lure and Blur of the Real?

Matt
We had such a small group - that was good coz we did such kind of up close and personal work today, but at the same time, the walking around thing at the beginning of the day would've been good to have different people to interact with. But if we had a larger group we couldn't have done that 'stare off' exercise with each other.

Jesse
We went beyond the physical a bit more and into emotional and personalities, which was draining to stand opposite someone and stare intensely at someone and establish a connection with them. Its exciting to be doing something that's not really dance - its theatre but its feeling like it's a different approach.

Matt
Yeah I feel it will help with duets more when we get to dance again.

Sue
It was kind of thrilling because I joined at the last minute and I found myself in a very deep experience straight away and feeling comfortable with people I've never met before who didn't know anything about me either. I felt comfortable as soon as I walked into the studio. But I'm really curious to see what happens next.

Caroline
It was good. It was a bit nerve wracking having different people who I haven't worked with before in the same room. I will hopefully get to work with Paul and Adriano tomorrow. I liked the singing. We had to look at people in the eyes and say what we could see - it was actually quite close, but I just watched people.

Paul
Its so weird because I've been doing this work for so long that I always feel really humble when I work with a group of people this way - and I wish I could stay that way but I cant. Its just a funny thing - you do it for so long but you don't really master it. So I feel really grateful to be working with people this way in this environment. It reminds me of all the good times I've had and how powerful it is.

Sally
It was really great to be on the floor again and connecting with my body physically and working with new people. It was intimidating and fantastic to stare at Jesse.

Adriano
It was great to get into it at the beginning to understand and communicate the things that have preoccupied me for a awhile and to see and share the responses between the ensemble. There's an instinctive thing here with the Restless performers where they don't tend to perform - they commit to the act in a way that's fresh and I find that its a great quality to work with so I'm really looking forward to seeing where we go these next two weeks. There's a real willingness so its going to be great to get to know each other and engage with the people here.