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Last week, we looked at the most essential element of our art form called "Off the Clock", the elastic speed of movement a mime sets up onstage.
Yes, it is much easier to learn this technique if you are here in the studio with us, but we believe it is important for us to write about this and publish it for those people who might not be able to find related information in their own community, or be able to attend our workshops or summer intensive.
For this reason, today I will provide you with many visual examples and images that will help you better understand the concept of performing in "Real Time: compared to performing "Off the Clock." Once you can visualize the difference, it will be easier to apply the techniques we are writing about to your own plays and transform your show.
"Off the Clock" makes the art of mime magical. Period. Often the public will use the word “Mesmerizing” and that effect comes from the off the clock sense they experience while watching a mime performance. This "texture of time" physically induces the endorphins in the brain for both the audience and performer.
The following statement is what my friend wrote about her impression after seeing her first mime performance. She is definitely talking about the effect of "Off the Clock". More importantly, note how she is not even describing her impression of the story, but the effect of the “art” itself.
"After only a few seconds, I was drawn into the world and felt like floating in a dream. For some reason I was imagining some very old animation films like "Tom and Jerry". It looked as if the world of expression was projected into the air like a film and at the same time there were many afterimages remaining around. It was beautiful, nostalgic and mysterious. It should have a lot in common with dance, but it felt very different because each tiny movement seemed to expand into a drama. Very impressive."
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Gregg Goldston - Photo by Katarzyna Chmura-Cegielkowska
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What does "Off the Clock" feel like?
First, we listed images that would give a variety of speed qualities. I hope that visualizing these images in motion with an imaginary magnifying glass will help you identify and extract the qualities.
Most importantly, please understand that "Off the Clock" does not mean staying at one constant speed. It is not a constant slow motion or constant fast motion. It is an “ever changing” speed and rhythm. This is why we keep speaking of “elastic” as the mime will constantly be changing time as if it is like an elastic band.
Furthermore, we are not saying you can never move on the clock. We are saying that after 4 to 5 seconds of real time, you must change your rhythm to another speed, or you will be in real time.
Once a teacher said, if we move in a steady or constant speed, we become like a heartbeat. The audience then is reminded of how soothing their Mother’s heartbeat was when they were a child in their Mother’s arms…then they fall asleep!
Regarding this, we often hear Gregg say something like,
"Same (equally spaced) four beats are okay, but not six of them. Break it BEFORE it sounds flat." Before you flat-line.
Here are a few images of being Off the Clock with a variety of speeds:
- A falling snowflake or feather.
- An astronaut jumping on the moon.
- Two space ships "docking" together in orbit.
- A spider lowering itself as it makes a web.
- Fog drifting in a slow breeze.
- Hands sculpting clay.
- Honey dripping off of a spoon.
- A butterfly drifting in the air.
You see? These images in motion are the ones created by physics, and they are never in one constant speed. Honey really isn't in a simple slow motion. It keeps changing speed, i.e., accelerating as it drips down.
Next, let's imagine, you are in the airport, sitting in the airplane looking out the windows. Your plane is moving smoothly on the runway, speeding up and is about to take off. You are remembering your friend’s smiles, hugs and last good-byes. You slowly look back from the windows, knowing that your physical body is set in motion and now being taken away by the speed of the accelerating plane. Your thought is floating behind your body staying in the past.
Generally speaking, "Off the Clock" combines two simultaneous rhythms happening on stage. You separate your thought from your body. Then you sustain your thought much longer/slower while your body is moving in a faster motion. Later, your thought will be compressed and will catch up with the body like a stretched elastic band would. In other words, both body movements and thoughts are "Off the Clock".
This elasticity of thoughts and body motion are racing back and forth in a playful and dreamy way creating this non-real sense of time for the audience. This effect is the primary ingredient of this art form that separates Mime from all other arts.
The motion of your "physical part" can be a life's event or your own activity on stage. Usually, separating actions (events) from reactions (thoughts) is the first transition people experience in their mime training.
"Off the Clock" seems foreign and difficult to most people in the beginning. However, it begins to feel so great as your body learns step by step the texture of it. As I wrote earlier, this skill physically and pictorially triggers your endorphin smile. In class, we look for that smile in our students' faces to see when they actually feel this sensation. It’s also described as the moment your left brain connects to your right brain and the air around you feels like you are in a dream.
That is what made me cry when I found Gregg Goldston thirteen years ago in New York City. I immediately felt the distilled air in the studio. That was completely different from the air I felt in dance, drama, singing, rhythmic gymnastics, or any other art form I was training before.
Picture your body moving in the speed of dripping honey. While the speed of your body motion is accelerating like the honey's physics, project a few thoughts in a different rhythm, like a drifting butterfly or a bouncing ball.
Don't you get excited like we do? I get chilled to bone while my imagination touches those words!
This will transform your story into a deep experience for your audience. The rhythm created by your "time speeds of your body and thoughts" become the deliciousness of this art and the "air changer" of the space, which a mime masters in performance.
Here is when the famous saying becomes more clear: It’s not what you say, but how you say it.
Next week we will write more about which physical elements and specific techniques are used to acquire and expand upon this most important and beautiful base of Mime.
Written by Haruka Moriyama,
with additional writings by Gregg Goldston
NEWS:
The schedule of The GMI Spring Workshops in NYC will soon be available on our website. The curriculum will include the "OFF THE CLOCK" and its physical, practical and philosophical step by step guidance. It will be a vary rare opportunity for you to learn many hidden and essential techniques we cannot type out here in our articles. Unlike our GMI Summer Intensive in July, we accept all levels for these workshops. You will also get to see a lot of fun in New York City, the biggest city in the world!
For more information about The Goldston Moriyama Institute for Mime, our Personal Mime Training Programs in New York City, or our Summer Mime Intensives, please contact us at the links listed below.
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