When I stepped into the room I didn’t know my professor. I barely knew anyone in the room. It was the first full day of classes for my MFA program. I had met a few of the dancers at orientation, where we had passed cursory greetings, but I wouldn’t have ventured to say that any of them were friends. I was filled with anxious energy as so often happens during the first day of school. My first day at Temple was a time full of opportunities but also with the unknown lurking in the shadows. I was also nervous about the class because I was a novice at improv, or so I thought.
Through that hour and a half, I’d come to realize that improv, when done with others, is form of communication and that my years of social dancing was the perfect preparation. Even more importantly, I found real connection and friendship during my first class. Friendship wasn’t my express goal as I stepped into the classroom, but it was the most important aspect of the class for this San Francisco transplant.
We meandered through Conwell Theater, freely exploring how our bodies move. I started timidly interacting and acknowledging other first year MFAs that I had met at orientation, but there was one girl standing in front of me that I did not know. She reached her hand out and I instinctively followed her movements. We clicked, we both moved with the same intensity and with a similar rhythm. I naturally trusted her until we were both throwing our full weight at each other like a fast and vigorous human seesaw. It was magical to connect with someone so purely without the burden of words. It was then and there that I knew that I wanted to get to know her. Afterwards our conversation naturally flowed, but our bond had already been formed without words.
-Alissa Elegant
1st Year M.F.A.