As an actor, I have never had to do anything like animal exploration before.

So this entire

experience was unfamiliar and in a way, humbling. The animal I chose was the Chinchilla, which

I had already known a little bit about before starting on the research part of the process.

Genuinely, I didn’t really know what I was looking for and so I just gathered every bit of

information I could find. Turns out that I’d be relying mostly on the facts that I had already

known about the animal I chose. Moving on to the activity itself, it was very interesting since I

came in not knowing what to expect. The breathing caught me off guard the first time we did it

since I didn’t know if I was doing the activity right considering the lack of instruction and

structure in the exercise. Breathing into each part of my body and allowing myself to completely

relax. And falling into the feeling of transforming into the animal was definitely a new feeling

that I can’t say I’m opposed to. The whole breathing process itself was almost therapeutic. I

could really get into the perfect mindset to play, be curious, and fully commit to my animal.

During the play itself, it still took me a little while to get into the part. To be honest, I’m not sure

as to why I had such difficulties with really getting into the exercise. Gradually I started to figure

out how I wanted to replicate the chinchillas posture or the way it ran or acted. The part that

really brought out my curiosity was when we were interacting with the objects across the room. I

used my imagination alot during that part, using my imaginary paws and moving around

whatever object I was evaluating to make sure it was safe. There was one moment specifically

that I really let go of myself. There was a small corner of the room that had a blanket or

something of the sort that I allowed myself to touch and play with even though I hate dirty

corners and dust, so doing that was very out of my comfort zone. Overall, I learned a lot while

doing the animal exploration activity. What I learned most about though, was my body and its

capabilities. I learned how to get something across to a crowd that might not be possible with my
human body. I liked being able to figure out new and creative ways to move and contort to make

myself more similar to my animal. I’m not sure if this is really something I’d like to do again,

but it was certainly an experience that I needed to grow as an actor.