pop culture

That Tingly Feeling: An Exercise for Feeling Energy + Mandy Moore

March 16, 2017March 17, 2017 By MairinNo Comments

We talk a lot about energy on this blog. We’ve talked about it as vibration. We’ve talked about how it transforms us when we perform. We’ve talked about how art has its own unique energy. And we’ve talked about how it can be hard to let go of that energy after a performance. But what does energy feel like? How do we experience energy moving through our systems? The truth is…I can’t exactly tell you. Here’s the deal… We are all unique beings (surprise!), and following that, the way we express energy is unique. We know this as performers. Think about it. This is why 4 actors can play the role of Hamlet and all their performances are different. Or 5 musicians can play the same song and they all sound different. Heck, 5 musicians can play the same instrument and the instrument sounds different! So it follows that the way each of us feels energy is different from one person to the next. So...

Releasing Character: Lessons from Hugh Jackman and Wolverine + EXERCISE

March 2, 2017March 1, 2017 By MairinNo Comments

My first memory of Hugh Jackman will always be from this film. I mean, what more could I have wanted from an early 2000s romantic comedy: Meg Ryan, time travel, a man in tails, Liev Schreiber, margarine…I’m not seeing a downside here! Oh, and Bradley Whitford too. ;) But regardless of my teenage taste in movies (don’t judge…), the role that really defined his career involved having giant retractable knives sticking out of his hands. Yes, in between several Broadway runs, hosting the Tony’s multiple times and winning a Golden Globe Award, the character that has stuck by his side for 17 years has been James (Logan) Howlett, better known as the X-Men’s* Wolverine. *Side Note: The X-Men were my gateway superheroes. I was a big fan of the animated series in the 90s. This was probably largely due to the fact that it was one of the only cartoons that had women heroes (Storm, Jean Grey...pretty awesome). I can still sing the...

Performance Energy, Part 2: A Harry Potter Theory

February 16, 2017February 28, 2017 By MairinNo Comments

In my last blog post, we began exploring the idea of performance energy. We discussed energy as vibration and the exchange of energetic vibrations that happens during a performance. And we also started talking about another energetic force at work when we perform. That’s where we’ll pick up here. If you have haven’t read the previous post yet, you can do that here. Then join us as we continue to explore performance energy. A spark. That little flash of energy that transforms us from our everyday selves into performers. When do we feel it? In the moment of stepping from offstage to onstage? In the seconds when our hands first grasp our instruments? In that breath that brings the microphone to our lips? What happens in that moment? Where does that burst of energy come from? That my friends, is the power of the performance itself. Let me explain. In the previous post, we talked about how we give off energetic vibrations in everything we do. This...