Conexión Creativa

Based on my blog content, one might assume that I actually live in a theater, with occasional trips to boliches and super swanky McDonald’s. But I actually spend a fair amount of my time in classrooms. You know, learning stuff and whatnot.

So I thought I’d do something new and spotlight one of my classes on el blog (I call this “el blog” when speaking in Spanish. With a Spanish "o". I take Spanglish very seriously).

I start my Mondays with Conexión Creativa (translation: – you guessed it – Creative Connection) at USal’s School of Dramatic Arts. I wasn’t originally enrolled in the class, but decided to give it a try during shopping period, and now it’s safe to say I’m in love.

I’ve been exposed to some pretty hippie-dippie stuff in my life. Progressive schools, organic food, folk music, etc. I know what WOOFing is and hope to give it a try some day. Gender-neutral bathrooms don’t faze me in the least. I went to Prometheus Camp in Finland where we skinny-dipped and made meditative sculptures that represented our personal idea of what “time” is, for Pete’s sake.

Hey, this is a fun list! I could keep going, but in the interest of your sanity, dear readers, I’ll stop and get to the point. Conexión Creativa is an extremely hippie-dippie, touchy-feely, find-your-spirit-animal-and-become-a-vegan kind of “class.” I say “class” entre comillas because it’s really more like having art therapy sessions once a week with a group of thirty of your peers. In fact, it is exactly that. And each time I go, the more convinced I am that every theater student – if not every artist/person ever – should have this as part of their training/life.

The professor is a small woman in her late 50s with a constant, genuine smile and a powerful, mellow voice. She says things like, “You are a flower with four petals. Beautiful energy emanates from your center, from the bellybutton.” (Except in Spanish, of course – I’m learning to speak hippie in Spanish, it’s nice!) She has a team of mostly silent, extremely chill people who come with her and make the magic happen. It's pretty ridiculous, but also wonderful.

I’m finding it hard to explain what happens in this class. We do a lot of different things. We chat. We listen to earthy music. We close our eyes. We move. We paint. We play like children. Last time we were each handed a lump of clay and were supposed to transfer our body heat to it, then march outside with it with our eyes half-closed to bask in the sun and sculpt.

I can imagine more than one person rolling their eyes at this. “This is your CLASS?” You ask with disbelief and mild to moderate distaste. “You’re getting CREDIT for this?”

I understand why you might feel that way, but I assure you, as pre-kindergarten as it may sound, Conexión Creativa is hard work. Somewhere between the tickling, the shouting, and the clay-pounding, this class really gets to people. It’s all about going deeper, accessing something we’re not allowed to access most of the time, discovering truths about yourself you had no idea existed. “Confronting the beast,” says the professor. So far, at least five or six people have cried each session – last week, I was the first! There’s nothing like tearing and snotting (that should be a word) in front of thirty people you hardly know. At the very least, now they know I'm human, and I think everyone speaks the universal language of unintelligible sobs equally well.