Saturday 5 June 2021

The Journey & Event Horizons 2021

EventHorizons2021 

Vimeo Showcase: The Journey 

Press from Greece, Athens QR Code Gallery

The Journey started in Jeju, South Korea at the start of the school year at NLCS. I knew I was going to create a project for Event Horizons with Ana, but I didn't know what I was going to do yet. Stella, the department head for dance at NLCS, said we would be doing the theme of Journeys for a dance. I took that idea and ran with that even though, at some point, she changed the idea to David Bowie. This is how The Journey was born. 

I imagined The Journey as an explorative unit for young dancers that would travel from one school to the next. We started with a bunch of interested teachers, but Covid was a difficult year to navigate, for everyone. Instead of passing along in a line, we worked on what we could as we went. 

Gladstone, from Vancouver, was the first school to complete The Journey. They even made a final show out of it.

There were 13 questions made by Amanda Kay for EventHorizons and I used those for the mini-interview. 

13 Questions:

 

  1. How do we forge a future together?
    1. 13 EXCHANGES -Tanja and Harpa
    2. IVANA LONDON /DEMY ATHENS
    3. Nadra Assaf and Jimmy Bechara

 

  1. In what ways do we experience duration or the passing of time?
    1. DAMARIS FERRER - MIAMI

 

  1. How do we make our creative work visible and what remains invisible?
    1. Paola Escobar y Natalia Orozco

 

  1. What generates equity and diversity?
    1. Paula Bridget J
    2. Naporn Wattanakasaem, Bangkok

 

  1. Who you are at the moment vs who you become through process?
    1. Dimitri
    2. Paola Escobar y Natalia Orozco
    3. DAMARIS FERRER - MIAMI
    4. IVANA LONDON /DEMY ATHENS

 

  1. What is the dialogue between our internal rhythms and our outward rhythms?
    1. PAOLA Y RENE

 

  1. What were you given at birth?
    1. Dimitri
    2. Naporn Wattanakasaem, Bangkok

 

  1. How do we choose to appear to the world and to ourselves?
    1. IVANA LONDON /DEMY ATHENS

 

  1. What are we able to transact and transfer through distance?
    1. 13 EXCHANGES -Tanja and Harpa

 

  1. What does it take to be an artist?
    1. Marianela Boan
    2. JOE LANDINI SAN FRANCISCO

 

  1. What connects and transforms us?
    1. Paola Escobar y Natalia Orozco
    2. PAOLA Y RENE
    3. Paula Johnson, Jeju/Vancouver

 

 

  1. How do we tether our understanding of ourselves to the experience of others?
    1. DAMARIS FERRER - MIAMI
    2. Paula Johnson, Jeju/Vancouver

 

  1. What are the ways we can expose the bodily experience?
    1. Marianela Boan
    2. Paola Escobar y Natalia Orozco

 

 

 I was hoping to interview more of the completed students, but I think my project was too long and confusing. I only got to do one interview and that was with Arwen from Gladstone. 


After participating in Naporn's project with the traveling package, I understood how I could have improved my own. However, they are both different. Mine was designed as a unit of lessons for students. I wanted to it to be more collaborative and flexible for the teachers that were participating so they could make it work for their classes. (Especially during Covid.)


Consent forms were another issue. I had one that I got from the internet that I added to a Google form. That one wouldn't work for Ana's website. I had to use Theatre EnCorps version. Moving forward with the Journey, I will put the Google Form back in and tell teachers they need to check with their schools for what the rules are - and have their own media consent forms signed. Every school is different. 


Connections were the biggest issue. I really wanted this to be about connecting students around the world.. and I was not effective with this. I tried making mini-journeys that people could join in on... smaller more manageable connections - but that didn't really work either. However, I do have some fond memories of kids at NLCS dancing at me in the hall - they had learned the dances and did them for me. There were some connections - it did work somewhat. It worked more me to them not them to other kids around the world. 


I did an assembly, speech about Global Artistic Collaboration for Arts week. I spoke about Events Horizon and had Caitlin, Lipda, Rajan, Ginger, and I dancing on the stage and through Zoom. That was a good connection. That was fun and memorable. (Although, I had Rajan in tech rehearsal but somehow didn't get him connected for the actual show - even though he was there waiting... argh.. that was my fault!) 


Finally, at the end of the year, I was able to make some connections between my students and Tanja's students in Stockholm. We both only had a few students but we were able to go back and forth with them for some connections. 


I have four dancers from Sweden who would like to collaborate with you!  

 

Let me tell you more and if you want to go for it, I will send you a file with their life events, photo, and video. 

 

You would need to: 

  • read their life events and watch their video
  • Record your voice saying (can be video or audio): 
  • My name is (your name) 
  • I am from (city, country) 
  • I saw your video and read your life events. One thing that I noticed that is the same for me is... 
  • One thing I noticed that was different is... 
  • Record a video of: 
  • Your movement - watch their video and see the moves that they did (They were going though the pathways of their morning routine.) How can you take those and make those your own? You don't have to do their moves - just build something and dance back to it. Does that make sense? 
  • Send them your favourite song to dance to. 
  • Send them one question. 

An email to teachers I sent at the start of summer:

For me, this was a difficult year to try and implement this project. I was at a new school, in a new country, teaching a new curriculum. I had students at home that were missing dance and I was trying to find a way to stay connected. I wanted to have opportunities available for my dance kids to connect without pushing them because I knew the struggles they were going through with Covid. Maybe I should have been more pushy because I did not get a lot of interaction with my kids at home or at the school I was at.

 

As I try not to feel disappointed, I put this year in perspective and am grateful for the creation of the unit and the moments of connection that did happen. In my mind, I know that this is just the beginning and while Event/Horizons is a project that ends in November 2021, The Journey, is something that could continue to grow and travel.

 

Highlights

 

NLCS in Jeju, South Korea (Paula)

 

Gladstone in Vancouver, Canada (Cynthia)

 

OSCARTS in California, USA (Amanda)

  • Explored some of the unit…

 

Bangkok City Ballet in Bangkok, Thailand (Naporn)

 

Järfälla kulturskola in Järfälla, Stockholm, Sweden (Tanja)

  • Created a final video with this group

 

 

As I reflect on some of the highlights from this year, I am interested to know any thoughts and areas for improvement as we move forward. Is it too much? I went in with the idea that teachers would pick and choose what they want to try and adapt for their own students and in their own styles. I am also open to teachers adding their own activities to the document. (A living, breathing document.)

 

I attempted to make the mini-journeys for students that didn't have a lot of time to connect. I don't feel those were that successful. I feel as though, they might have been confusing. I also feel, like maybe they are something that could be more student driven. They could create mini-journeys and share them on the Instagram. (Although that IG does not have very many followers - and growing it takes effort I am not totally fond of.)  However, I do feel like I did get some interaction with my students. Some of my students learned the dance and shared their food but were not allowed to share them online. I had students come up to me in the hall and share their fancy footwork. So for that, it did help share the idea of the Journey.

 

With this in mind, I think about the possibilities for the future and the connections that could be made. I would love to hear your thoughts, anytime throughout the summer. No pressure. Enjoy the break. I thank-you all for joining the Journey with me this year, for your time, support, and feedback. I hope you will continue to collaborate with myself and my new students 2021/2022. Please share it with colleagues that might also be interested. Let's keep the Journey going. I would love to see where it is in a decade!

 

 


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