Ten Lessons and a Final Word: Musicality Book Club, Week 11
We have finally arrived at the end of W.A. Mathieu’s book, Bridge of Waves: What Music Is and How Listening to It Changes the World. What a journey! I really enjoyed taking my time to reflect on each chapter and sharing thoughts and experiences with many of you through the comments and by email. Even if you are joining us late, feel free to join in the discussion!
The final chapter, Living the Waves, is pretty short and provides just some final parting thoughts, so I’d like to use this last post in our musicality book club to summarize my “take-aways” from this book before wrapping up with a final quote from Mathieu. These lessons are not necessarily new and not necessarily learned, but they are definitely the ones that most resonate with my own experience with dance and that I will continue to meditate on for quite a while. What truths do you keep returning to?
(0) Comments Filed under Musicality Book Club
Like this article? Please share!
Unexpected Gifts in Music We Don’t Like: Musicality Book Club, Week 10
A few days ago I read a guest article by Lindy hopper Coyle Parker on the Dance World Takeover blog. In it, he quotes an interview with teacher Dan Newsome, who lists “not connecting to the music” as one of the top three reasons dancers suffer from burnout (the other two are lack of helpful feedback to progress and unhappiness with their place in the community). There is sooo much in Chapter 9 of Bridge of Waves that relates to this and that I want to write more about, because they are things I have been reflecting on for quite some time, but for today I want stick to something short and simple.
Experimenting with music outside my comfort zone has opened up whole new worlds to me, so I have always encouraged my friends and students to reconsider music they think they hate. There will always be music I don’t feel very connected to, but I prefer to think of it as music that I just haven’t gotten to know well enough – yet. It is natural to have tastes, preferences, and choices (and I definitely like mine!), but some of my most memorable dance/music experiences have happened because I opened myself up to something new and unexpected.
(1) Comments Filed under Musicality Book Club
Like this article? Please share!
Still, Empty, and Full of Feeling (Cadencia): Musicality Book Club, Week 9
Short intro, because it’s one of those days! We’re on Chapter 8, Music on the Zen Elevator in W.A. Mathieu’s Bridge of Waves: What Music Is and How Listening to It Changes the World. I’m jumping straight to the sections that resonated with me the most this week:
Our word passion derives from the Latin passio, which means exposed to suffering or strong emotion, that is, being acted upon by them, and relates to passive, meaning emptied out and acted upon. As the dance stills and empties, it is filled with feeling. My mantra for music making is “Listen actively, play passively.” Listening actively takes great effort, but you will then be filled. [pp. 189-190]
And later in this chapter:
(0) Comments Filed under Musicality Book Club
Like this article? Please share!
