Shvartz un Vays (Black and White)

Today I began my study through the Lincoln Center Institute National Educator Workshops (LCI-NEW). Wow. Incredible!

The morning included an intro session on movement. I created a physical representation of the word "development" and my partner worked with me on the word "reaching." I suppose you could call it a communicative dance activity. All I have to say is that I had no idea I could move so well (or that I could stand on my toes for so long). . .

Then we explored "vocal events," wordlessly portraying emotion through sighs, cries and laughs. My sigh of disappointment and my partner's sigh of delight became part of a bit of a performance. . . and through that we all discovered so many things: that physicality goes with sounds, and you have to close your eyes to isolate sounds, and that context (and audience) changes one's ability to perform -- like when my partner cracked up in lieu of her turn to sigh.

This all prepared us to see and hear "Evolving Traditions," a musical group led by a trumpet player named Frank London. (Just Google him. The man is AMAZING.)


The music was Klezmer -- Jewish music with which I had little to no familiarity. The very best part might have been when Frank combined this Klezmer music with Ska. So cool! And what a way to make music accessible. It made me consider all the times when I've heard two traditions of music combined:

Charlie Hunter re-doing Bob Marley (Jazz & Reggae),
Celtas Cortas (Irish & Spanish),
Ratdog (Jazz & Jamband), . . . I could go on.

Perhaps the most astounding idea: postvernacular culture - culture continuing (music, food, theater, etc.) despite the death of a language (eg. Yiddish). There are tons of Puerto Ricans in the class. The language barrier can make discussions difficult, but it highlights the ability of music to speak to all peoples, regardless of language. . .

The day ended with me getting paint all over my hands trying to express "adoration" on paper. . .

Pinch me, please. (I just might be in heaven.)