I am really excited to begin working on a show for the Kimball Theater for Nov 14. I am nervous because of the very short amount of time we have to create a show and perform it, but I am excited to see what we come up with. I thought it was great that people stepped up in class this week, on their own, to help convince others of the pros of putting on a performance at the Kimball. I think it will be a great growing experience for the banjar and help make us even more of a community.

Along those same lines...I have been feeling much more of a community within our banjar recently. We all seem to be getting more comfortable with one another, and I know for certain that I am feeling more comfortable. I see more people speaking up in class and offering contributions. I have also felt more comfortable stepping up and taking leading roles at times in class. This is still something I am a little wary to do...because I don't want to be that person who jumps up to take control all the time, but I feel like everyone is volunteering for roles and characters that they are interested in, and aren't holding back as much. It's great!

Working on expressions through specific movements with a partner has been a great experience as well. The fact that Francis could leave the class for a day and everyone stayed and still gave their attention and respect to Kalyani shows how our banjar has really grown into a community of respect. We are all taking this class together to learn and grow in our knowledge of Asian Performance. Anyways, the movements with expression were a great new addition to the class, it was somewhat difficult for me, because the movements that express the certain emotions just are not movements that I would ever do in trying to portray that moment, but I did understand them and see the beauty in them, I just didn't actually feel them at all. I guess this is where the rasa boxes really come more into play and I will have to work more on getting mentally into the box, the role of that emotion and movement. It is something that I want to keep working on in the future.