Final Reflections
1
Why We Do What We Do
Victoria Nieto
Honestly, this class was not what I was expecting. However, it became something more broad I would say. It was about connecting to the core of what an artist is. It was about why we do what we do. This was my biggest takeaway.
I encountered insecurities that I thought were gone. I overcame them once more. So that is always refreshing. It was inspiring to watch my peers evolve as they lose themselves up a little too.
My biggest take away is the connection to artistry. As a conductor I can become a task master. I can neglect the emotional connection that I must have and also inspire in the ensemble. Hopefully, the elements of imagination and dis-inhibition would help me to create a safe space to keep developing my art.
2
Stepping Out of My Comfort Zone
Lorena Surducan
The biggest takeaway from this class was stepping out of my comfort zone. This has been the characteristic of this and last year. I tried to push myself out of my comfort zone and not let myself be controlled by fear. As I mentioned in the beginning of the class, the reason I decided to join this class is because I knew it would push me. The most difficult aspect was not performing the movements, but rather performing them in front of my peers. Nobody judged me (or so I hope), but I felt judged for stepping out of my comfort zone. I thought that if I am boring, they would think I am boring, and if I am "extra", they would think I take things too far. The movement I will prepare for my final presentation is a perfect illustration of this fear and its impact on my self esteem.
At times I felt like I could not find any passion for the process. I was trying very hard to make it personal, to give it a piece of myself, and I felt that I could not relate to it. I chose the song for my movement very randomly, and it was difficult to find its place in the process. Once I realized that it is MY movement, and that I can express MY thoughts, MY feelings, MY interpretation, I realized that the passion started to grow in. Nobody can understand or be my movement more than myself. I created it from the vast of myself. I turned it, and flipped it, and molded it until it became ME; and then I gained my passion.
I found a lot of different activities that helped me tune with my surroundings and to individuals around me. Many of the activities we did together are fantastic in helping my clients gain awareness of their surroundings. Many distractions stand in between our perception of the immediate moment - of the present. Tuning in to the little details around us can help an individual meditate and process the littlest changes. I think that all this awareness to details (time and space) will help me come with strategies for my clients to practice meditation.
3
I Will Embrace the Process
Elmira David
My biggest takeaway from being in this class is to always trust and listen to myself. One of the things that I will remember from being in class is the saying "No one will know you made a mistake unless YOU tell them." Life is not perfect and neither are we human beings. Therefore, while it is important to stay focused when doing a task or performing a piece, it is important to be flexible. Mistakes are meant to happen and we may not be able to 100% avoid them. What we can do is practice our response when making those mistakes. How can we embrace those mistakes to then make it a part of what we are doing/performing?
During the learning process, I was often surprised with myself. I was not quite sure how I would feel having to perform different movements and acts in front of the class and even expected to feel a little bit shy/awkward. However, I did not feel that way at any point and time during the semester. I believe that the learning environment we have created made it easier for me to feel safe despite being vulnerable at times. As a result, I feel that I was able to explore new things about myself even if it is only for a short period of time.
As I mentioned earlier, the biggest thing I learned from being in
this class is that it is OK to not be perfect. This concept is important
not only for me and my field of studies, but also for the people I will
be working with. As a music therapist, I will do everything I can to
provide the best care for my patients/clients. That being said, I have
and will continue to make mistakes. Instead of beating myself up for not
having a "perfect" session, I will embrace the process, learn from any
particular mistakes that I would not want to repeat, and enjoy the
process of my growth. As for my patients/clients, I will encourage them
to also stay as true to themselves as they could and that what they may
consider as their "imperfections" are actually qualities that make them
who they are.
4
My Sense of Self-Accomplishment
Xiao Xu
I felt that this class was full of freedom. After a period of study and practice, I realized that this class is also full of fun. I learned to use body movements to express my inner feelings, to feel myself, to express my body. Movement is not just movement, but an expression of our true feelings, a sincere and natural expression of our inner world, not a single pursuit of form and technique, imitating the boring movements of others. Rather, we should think out of our box, create dance works close to nature and life,, and focus on highlighting the dance to reflect real life and express individuality. I also learned how to use different techniques to enrich my movements so that I can express my inner thoughts to the audience more clearly.
When I first started
taking this class, I didn't have a basic understanding of dance. I
thought that the teacher would just do the moves and I would follow
them, and that was it. However, after taking the class, I realized that
the teacher basically did not hand over any fixed movements. What we
learn is to feel and express through our own bodies. In addition, this class
requires us to be able to let go, to focus on our own movements when we
dance, and not to care what others think. This was something that I had a
hard time doing at first. However, with some students taking the lead, I
learned that it is also possible to turn movement into art. I remember there was
a session in the course where one person often worked on their own
phrase first, and then one person added a new phrase one by one. this
session was full of creativity, and in this session, I was inspired in
various ways, and came up with many special movements, which not only
improved my creativity, but also my sense of self-accomplishment.
My
major is viola playing, this class helped me a lot in my major. First of all, I can apply what I have learned by expanding my understanding of a music
piece and add some personal emotions to the music,
so I can play my own unique style instead of just following the rules
and imitating others. Secondly, the power of presentation on the stage, based
on my understanding of the music and some corresponding body language
will also make my performance visually impactful. I am also more
confident in my musical expression. So this has been a class to exercise my
innovative musical ideas and my creative embodied performances.
5
Art is Art
Scott Aucoin
The biggest take away from the class is that the arts really are connected, if we allow them to be. Though we study each principle separately, each one has elements of the others, and we saw that exemplified in this class. In dance there are of course elements of music, theatre, and even poetry, and in music there exist elements realted back to dance and theatre. It is all interconnected. My takeaway is that each principle of art is at its best when it is infused with parts of all the principles. We can learn and grow from each other. Art is art.
At times I felt worried in the learning process. I usually want to do everything exactly right and so that caused some stress and worry on my part, particularly about the final project. But as I let myself go and learn to enjoy the experience and let myself try new things and make small discoveries, I found freedom and acceptance with trying. I learned to take chances and was reminded that in those chances, we might make small discoveries.
I will be able to apply the expressive ideas into my study of conducting. From Laban efforts, to expressionism in voice, and beyond, I found new ways to engage with expression through movement and voice. As conductors we are always trying to communicate expression to our ensembles through movement, and that is what I wanted out of this class, and I think I got it. I watched my peers tell incredible stories through movement and I was reminded that our bodies (and breath) often speak before words ever do. This is a powerful reminder, and I want to bring that to my conducting.
6
Moving Freely About
Simone Monroe
What I enjoyed most about this class was the reassurance to let go. As a classical musician, I feel that we are taught the tradition of western classical music and what we ought to do, that sometimes, we lose ourselves in the process. I also loved the creativity that was promoted. What we learned in class was one more thing that I found could creatively stimulate me. I love being able to move freely about. I am always so busy, going, going, going, and so when I take the time to bend my limbs, it is so refreshing. To be able to do this in front of people, who I knew before or not, added to the experience, as we were all letting go.
As for applying this to my field, I have always loved moving to movement. In fact, I don't understand people who don't move when around music. There is something different, however, to moving to the music that you are playing. Going back to the tradition of western classical music, there is this unspoken rule of not bringing attention to yourself, as the orchestra is one unit. The music is coming from one orchestra not many individuals, therefore, doing things such as extensive movement, or really doing anything flashy is unheard of.
But I disagree with this when it comes to moving to the music. I look at solo artists when they perform with orchestras, and I love how they convey their interpretation of the piece. Most recently, I watched Martin Frost, a solo clarinetist, play the Aaron Copland Clarinet Concerto, and it was so beautiful to see him moving about from the different sections of the orchestra as they were being featured and how he interacted with the conductor and just how in the moment that was his time, his stage. That is how I want to be as I perform, and not worry about customs we may think are right or wrong. I want to be able to move to the music that I perform, because I also think that it brings even more to the experience for both the performer and audience member.
7
More Connection and Awareness
Yi Mei Ciou
8
The Union of Mental and Body
Wenzhe Li
The most impressed thing from this class is that I am starting not being afraid of having eye contact with others. Mostly, we have that special session at the end of class. At first, I am too shy that can’t look at others’ eyes. I were struggling about who I should start with and questioning myself will that feel awkward. But once I was pushed into that atmosphere and I know I have to finish this process just like others. Everything just naturally happened. So, the first thing I learnt is that things are usually easier than I thought and don’t overthink before doing it. Meanwhile, the bubble, frame and everything I learnt from this class were all the sources where I get my inspirations. Group performance and individual performance are both good ways to help me reduce the feeling of nervousness. One teaches me how to do team work with others and the other one is how to overcome nervousness.
At the beginning of this class I can’t really understand what we are doing and what’s the meaning of doing that exploration. But after several classes, we start to combine them together, I finally got the idea of it. The first few classes were like a warm-up, a few pieces of a big fancy puzzle. The goal is help us getting familiar with our body and feel the power around us. Something reminds me that the feeling of exploring the boundary of bubble or frame is similar with Tai Ji-–slow but having the connection with the air, the union of mental and body. I really enjoy class after I realized what I should pay attention to during class. I start to open my mind and getting used to perform in front of class which made me so proud of myself.
I am a classical pianist which means I don’t have that much opportunities playing with others. So, it was a good experience that can perform with a team together not just for final but more about showing our works which all composed by ourselves. And also, after watching other pieces from my classmates. I learned that first, rehearsal is so important that will help us be more confident and gain enough power to deal with emergencies and since then, I finally understand that exaggeration on stage will bring better visual enjoyment to the audience. Second, I learned from everyone is no matter what happened on stage, be confident and only you know what’s wrong and don’t be afraid of making mistake on stage, trying to fix it the calmer, the better.
The most important thing I experienced is that I meet lots of friends here. I love the atmosphere of this class where I got so many inspirations about how to produce a better music and even some idea about life. It helped me think out of the box. Dance is not just walking, jumping on stage, just like music is not simply play notes. They all showing a combination of real world and spiritual world.
9
Embodied Movement Ideas
Hsin Han Hung
I found that this class was an enjoyable and worthwhile challenge. Growth does not come for insulating yourself in a situation in which you're comfortable or content - it comes from going beyond your boundaries and having new experiences. Up to this point, the idea of using movement for expressive purposes had been confined to understanding movement within the context of conducting. To think of movement outside of this context was challenging. I was forced to think about the entire expressive potential of my movement which was both liberating and difficult.
There was much more potential for organic expression - I was able to move in ways that I wouldn't be able to while conducting. But it was also full of challenges. The inspiration for movement was less defined. I'm so used to my movement being guided by some combination of music and/or technical necessity, and not having such explicit motivation was difficult. I found it most difficult not to think about and analyze the movement before just trying it. Once I could divorce myself from thinking about it, it became much easier. But this was not a natural thing for me to do.
I wish that there was a follow up course to this that allowed me to explore more of my movement potential, or that there was a course of this nature worked into the conducting curriculum - I think it would be helpful to a large number of students.
11
I Need to Be a Playful Artist
Jamie Bunce
I know I am most comfortable fully embodying the character of a particular work when I can find an emotional, dramatic connection to it. Developing my final piece reminded me that I need to give myself permission to approach work in this way.
I felt uncomfortable and anxious. The structure of the class is far outside my comfort zone. In some ways, my 2-week COVID isolation was helpful because it gave me time to work and think on my own. I’m OK with knowing that I need privacy during my creative process.
Discomfort isn’t always a fundamental obstacle that needs fixing. It’s a message from my body that something isn’t right, and I need to honor that. In order to find the playful headspace that I need in order to embody the character of a work, I need to take a great deal of time to develop my ideas in private. So, I will honor that need as I continue my DMA and beyond by giving myself permission to take the amount of time that I require in order to feel I have spent sufficient time with an idea before I give others access to my work.
I also think that my experiences in this class have shown me that I need to find ways to insert my own creativity into my work. I need to be a playful artist.
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