(Very Intentionally Not) Defying Gravity
I took a falls class!
Remember when I mentioned approaching with humility? I’ve been teaching falls for a good two decades, but in full transparency I haven’t fallen for a stunt since Jason Armit pushed us all down a hill in Louisiana back in 2013. When I found out my beloved friend and show business idol Bryce Bermingham was teaching a class called “Gravity,” I was sold. Time to remember what the floor is for and how to be its friend—not its enemy.
Like most Paddy Crean classes, we started with quite a bit of theory. The workshop directors have been very clear on the intent to better balance the “sword” (violence) and “pen” (pedagogy) than they’ve done in years prior. My favourite snippets included:
Bryce’s patented acronym of 3D-A (pronounced “triple D – A”) – Distance, Deceleration, Distribution, and Absorption. The base ingredients to any safe and artistically polished fall.
A paradigm shift for me. As we started the actual practice of falling, many of us noticed that Bryce wasn’t actually watching the people he was critiquing. He happily answered our inner questions: “The quality of a fall is best judged aurally than visually. When you hear a ‘bump-bump-bump,’ that means you need an ice pack.” We eagerly tuned into the sound instead of the images of our peers as they fell, and were invited to judge each other by the sound of our falls. A smooth “woosh” was a beautiful fall. Any bumps and bonks needed adjustment. It made so much sense, and reminded us all that safety comes before every other aspect of the show. Once we get the fall smooth and comfortable, we can add character, adjust the face position, build the final look of the fallen or decide they recover to fight another day.
“I need your arms and body to be right. Your feet will figure it out.” In any movement profession, we tend to be obsessed with what our feet are doing. But like a centipede doesn’t think of each individual leg to get moving (lest it become quite overwhelmed!), when the body is in a moment of (controlled) crisis we can’t expect the human brain to focus on everything all at once either. I found that following this advice to focus on my arms and torso did indeed cause my hindbrain to tell my legs and feet what to do as we tried out the different falls and throws. Of course, if this were true choreography with rehearsals built in, we would have time to get comfortable with the mechanics of the fall and then make a conscious choice of what to do with the lower body. But we’re talking basics here!
Tension increases impact (aka energy absorption). This is one I think most of us know, but don’t often take the time to analyze. Especially in a fall situation, tensing up is a natural response the amygdala sends to the muscles in order to protect the body. As performers we actively fight that natural response daily in order to achieve beautiful, gnarly, exciting falls. So start with an effortless and relaxed version of whatever fall you’re attempting, and only once that goal is attained do we start layering on tiny bits of tension that create the image we’re going for.
Once we had adequately practiced many different falls, Bryce and his assistant Kay Mak took turns throwing us, allowing us to take our falling basics into partnering scenarios. Twice the body parts to consider! But there are few folks I trust more than Bryce, and my new friend Kay Mak turned out to be brilliant as well. It was the perfect way to dive (hah!) back in.
