After waiting with bated breath, the SAVVY adults are back, literally with a bang!
I’d missed my Thursday nights like you would not believe so when Sheree emailed us with a start date for rehearsals, I felt lifted and excited. When I read the part that said we had to turn up to rehearsals in gym gear for the next eight weeks, I felt curious. When I read that we’d be doing skills training with fight director, Lewis Penfold, I sank back, looked at my wobbly bits and felt that it was probably too late to get away with blaming my lack of fitness on Christmas indulgence, what with it being February. (I never got round to those swims…) Still…I felt excited and I couldn’t wait to find out what bonkers-ness Sheree had in mind. Count me in!
Session 1: I turned up at our new rehearsal space in Wandle Valley School. The hall was cold and everyone had on their extra winter layers. This didn’t last for long though as Lewis’ warm up was a very physical ministry of silly walks-esque exercise which made us all move muscles that had been dormant throughout the hibernation period. Ouch.
I quickly guessed that our newest project would involve lots of silliness. Within the first twenty minutes, I’d already pretended to be a see saw, a rock and a cauliflower (as you do). Lewis and Sheree then taught us how to realistically ‘slap’ people without causing harm. If done correctly, it looks amazing, but it’s all about the timing, which I didn’t have. Luckily, everyone came out of the exercise with all facial features in tact…just about.
The demonstrations that Lewis and Sheree did for us were hilarious and I’ll never cease to be amazed at how well Sheree has got the screaming banshee down to a tee. That woman can wail! Lewis then got out a load of plastic tubes and taught us how to sword fight with them (again, as you do). I was embarrassed by the fact that holding up a piece of plastic for more than three minutes made my arm ache. I really wish I’d got round to those swims…
So it was a night of exhausting madness but there’s no surprise there. This is SAVVY adults after all.
Session 2: Well, it’s taken me all week to recover from last week’s aches and pains and I’m just about ready to give it all another go.
This week’s session consisted of making ourselves in to goal posts and using our multi purpose plastic tubes to shoot cuddly toys through our human holes. Ahem. Shortly after this exercise, Sheree demanded us to, ‘present our balls’ (these people are filthy) and play a game of ‘any hole’s a goal’ (okay so that was me. I am easily influenced). The memories of my awful week at work quickly disappeared and I felt ready to throw myself about some more, which was a good job as that’s exactly what Lewis had in mind. Out came to crash mats…uh oh.
“I’m going to teach you how to roll”, he said, before he threw himself head over heels on to the crash mat and came up in a Kung Fu pose; true Jackie Chan style. We were all hesitant, but once we’d all had a go, we couldn’t wait for another and, very quickly, a queue of eager masochists began form. Bottoms up SAVVY adults!
What I love about this group is that we can all comfortably laugh at ourselves, and each other, and that’s okay because everyone is having loads of fun and we all fully support each other and our mishaps. In this space there are no politics, no rules and no inhibitions. It’s so refreshing.
I’m so glad that I fell in to this group and that I continue to literally fall in to it. I can’t wait to find out what happens next at rehearsal tonight. I know it’s guaranteed to be ridiculous, very physical, very slapstick and very SAVVY. If you saw us, you’d think we were all as mad as hatters. And you’d be totally right there.
Yours,
Alice
p.s I will get round to those swims.
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