Our Banjar

Art, acting, love? These words did not exist in my life dictionary before. I play the piano, and I also used to play the flute, but I never understood what the word Art meant. Acting was a big “No No” for me. I never knew how to act and thought I will never learn. The biggest out of all was love. If we do not understand love, we cannot understand anything else in the world, especially not any kind of Art.

In the process of this course, I learned many things, not only from the course, but also from my environment. I used to keep everything to myself because I always thought, I would be better off this way. However, Francis, you taught us how to express ourselves. To let our feelings glide into our expressions and body. Why does every move have its own meaning even though it looks so similar to the next one? How can your eyes set different atmospheres for the audience? How can strange noises that we produce make our expressions more alive, even though they have no real meaning? How do we accomplish it that the audience understands us even though we do not use their language to communicate? What characteristics are necessary to be an artist? Is it innate or can it be learned?

To all these questions, there is only one answer: the individual. We, as an individual, have to open up ourselves and feel the character we are representing. For example, Ravana is not automatically recognized through his stamping hard or strange noises. It could be any of the Lankas. It is really the artist that makes Ravana alive by feeling what he felt when Sita rejected him. We do not express our feelings through stamping hard, but rather make the stamps more expressive through our feelings. Our body language is more meaningful when the feelings really exist because they polish every movement, putting more value into it.

I remember, the beginning of class, when Francis, you showed us some moves, everyone was giggling, and most likely thinking what in the world is going on. However, this immaturity or lack of knowledge did not last too long because we became part of the creation. We broke the wall of our shyness and entered your world of expressions, where we formed the Banjar. I was surprised as well as very content that our members were trustworthy. Everyone felt comfortable to talk about their problems, which was very important because only then we could forget our problems and express fully the characters we played. At that point we gave the weight of our worries to the Banjar, and slipped into the role of the characters of Ramayana.

At the end of class, I felt, everyone changed to a different person. We all were left with a better understanding of the Ramayana as well as of ourselves. We learned more about our capabilities, and about the Art of expression. When we went to the middle school, the children there reminded me of us. They giggled during our performance, and yet they paid attention to what was happening. They are much younger than us, and yet we did not act much different than them. However, this class taught us how to learn from others and mainly from ourselves, rather than from books or power point slides. It gave us a start, and we will still be continuing to learn.

This was the one class where I looked forward to get to, and yet I missed four classes throughout the semester: twice in October when I had big tests, and twice in November where I was sick the first time and had to signed up for classes the second time. However, the feedback of our Banjar always helped me to catch up. The blogs were my weakness. It was hard for me to keep up with the weekly entries. At the end of every class, I always learned something new. So I always had something to say, but I kept losing track of time, and kept forgetting to put my thoughts down on paper. I never had a diary, so that might be another disadvantage because the blog was a type of a diary. I came mostly on time to class, helped where ever I could, and contributed to the Banjar, but I still wish, I could have performed in the Kimbell Theater. However, I am glad that some of us did because I did not want to let this opportunity slip out of our hands. So, thank you soo much Banjar. Our final performance was amazing, and heads up for our Ravana, she was marvelous. In my opinion, I deserve an A. I entered the class as an individual, and left as a part of a community where people were very different from each other, and yet so similar. I met many sweet people and learned the meaning of a community. However, I let you decide what letter grade I deserve. To be honest, what we learned is far more valuable and important than the letter grade. Thank you very much Guru for introducing us to ourselves and to a world where there is still some hope for good. Do not ever let anybody discourage you and keep up with your way of teaching; it will encourage people to develop a sense of responsibility. I hope we left a positive mark in you life as much as you did in ours.