ARTZ, Authors and Alzheimer’s

This post owes its thanks to a conversation with Karen Kruger on Tuesday, at the first Yale Center for Dyslexia & Creativity conference. More on the conference in upcoming posts, but for now, it’s ARTZ and Authors, all related to Alzheimer’s.

ARTZ
Karen began by telling me about ARTZ, Artists for Alzheimer’s. Art as therapy has long been a useful tool for assisting people with myriad health issues, right up there in positive impact with music, dance and pet therapy. “The ARTZ Museum Partnership Program implements interactive, educational museum programs for people living with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia.” My Dad is unable to visit a museum, but perhaps I can bring “art” to him. I see him respond to my singing of songs and playing of his favorite oldies (Frank Sinatra always hits home); perhaps art – both viewing and creating (why not finger painting!) – will also tweak a memory or provoke a positive response.

AUTHORS
Still Alice was written by neuroscientist Lisa Genova, whose grandmother had Alzheimer’s. Lisa had the benefit of being a scientist who could understand the mental deterioration that was taking place in her grandmother’s brain, but it left her wondering how a person with Alzheimer’s felt as their cognition slipped away. From this curiosity came Still Alice. Thanks to a book journal given me by my oldest son, I’ve been writing about the books I read, and here’s what I wrote about this book back in March.

Deb S. loaned me this book. written by a Harvard PhD in neuroscience and online columnist for the National Alzheimer’s Association, it is a fictionalized yet highly informed look at one woman’s descent into dementia after being diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s. The woman, Alice, is a Harvard professor with three grown children and a husband, also a Harvard researcher. They have a summer home on the Cape, in Chatham. Yes, the ending is a tear jerker – Alice is alive but has lost so much of her capability to communicate. Lisa’s insights into Alice’s mindset seem spot on and I wish-I wish-I wish that I had read a book like this when Dad was in the early stages. Perhaps I could have been more helpful to him.

I did not read verbatim, and intentionally read quickly, because this topic and story – particularly this story – were too close to home. Fred and I teach at the same school. We’ve spent many glorious, soothing summers on the Cape. We have two incredible children. I cried for Alice but nestled deep down perhaps I cried for me. I could have the gene my Dad has, and that portends a future I don’t want to contemplate, certainly not until or unless it becomes apparent that I need to contemplate it.

And that is the most honest I’ve been about Alzheimer’s! This was a sad story but also somehow encouraging, because Alice had a voice. This is Alice’s story.

Karen also recommended another book, which I have ordered, I’m Still Here: A Breakthrough Approach to Understanding Someone Living with Alzheimer’s by John Zeisel. Am very much looking forward to reading it, and of course, will share my thoughts in a later post.

Paul Taylor on Dance

Last night I saw the Paul Taylor Dance Company at the SUNY Purchase Performing Arts Center. This was the final dance performance of my three-company subscription treat this year, the other two being Savion Glover and Pilobolus.

Not quite sure what to expect, the dances turned out to be a satisfying mixture of modern and classical ballet. I was struck by the fleet-footedness of the dancers, and the meshing of classic body moves with angular arm and head movements, though none of it ever abrupt; all of it a continuous, graceful flow.

Perhaps what struck me most, though, was watching the dances and listening to the music after having read the program notes. The biography of Paul Taylor included this line about the marriage of his choreography to his choice of music:

He has set movement to music so memorably that for legions it is impossible to hear certain orchestral works and popular songs and not think of his dances.

Excerpts from Franz Schubert’s Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2 accompanied the first piece, Mercuric Tidings, and I can still vividly conjure the dancers, their costumes, and the sprightly music. Ah, the welcoming of spring! You can listen here to parts of Schubert’s symphonies.

This is a troupe I hope to revisit in order to see Funny Papers, the second dance that was replaced by a piece whose name I did not catch. Why Funny Papers – because it is “Dedicated to all those who, before reading front page news, turn to the funnies first.” As a kid, that’s how I read the paper. And with dances named Alley-Oop, I’m Popeye the Sailor Man, I Like Bananas Because They Have no Bones, Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini, and Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavour (On the Bedpost Overnight), these dance names remind me of the musical ground of my childhood!

Paul Taylor writes about why he creates dances, and I was captivated by the inner workings of his creative brain – the urges that propel him forward. He is a man who is in his element, as Ken Robinson would say. 

 

Aural Feats

Martha Graham said:

Dance is the hidden language of the soul.

Ever have something you’ve always wanted to do? For many years now, I have wanted to see Savion Glover perform in person. October 4th I did something about it by attending Bare Soundz in concert at The Performing Arts Center of Purchase College. Mata Hari said:

The dance is a poem of which each
movement is a word.

Savion Glover is a tap dancer extraordinare who makes words with his feet, conjures images with his sounds, and provokes feelings and emotions with his taps.

In 1998, when Glover was in his late twenties, 60 Minutes did an interview with him. You can watch and listen to part 1 and part 2, or you can read a partial transcript. In the interview, Glover talks about

the dance as a way of expression…of voice 

Judge for yourself in this Savion Glover tap exhibition ~

Lincoln Center institute for the arts in education

In my post about Maxine Greene, I mentioned the Lincoln Center institute for the arts in education. During the summer of 2002 I participated in The National Educator Workshop: Introduction to Aesthetic Education. Everyday for the week of July 8 through 12, I trekked to New York City and spent my days at Lincoln Center. As a child growing up in the Long Island suburbs of the City, I had my fill of concerts, opera and ballet at Lincoln Center, but for that week in 2002 it was a treat to enter buildings that for years had seemed out of range to me as a theatre attendee. The location, and having access to these buildings that are home to artistic endeavors, made me feel artistically inclined; it was as though my surroundings could rub off on me and cause me to feel like an artist!

Wikipedia has some pictures of Lincoln Center’s buildings, and Carthalia contains a compilation of history about the buildings along with some postcard pictures of the complex. In fact, if you have an interest in old postcards or theatres and concert halls worldwide, you should check out Carthalia – Theatres on Postcards.

During the week long workshop I participated in activities designed to expose me to the sensations of aesthetic education. There were hands-on art workshops, hands-on music workshops, attendance at a concert, a visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and attendance at a dance performance. There was also a lecture by Maxine Greene, which was one of the many highlights of the week. I was immersed in the arts, and loved every minute of the process!

Throughout the week each of us (there were about 40, if memory serves correct) were encouraged to keep a journal. After the workshop concluded, we were asked to submit a Response Essay about the week long experience. In addition to various handouts provided during the workshop, we were also given a booklet entitled Entering the World of the Work of Art – A Brainstorming Guide. The booklet’s purpose was to guide us in bringing art into the world of education, particularly as a way of expanding imagination. From the booklet:

“At Lincoln Center we believe that works of art provide an inexhaustible resource for exploration, reflection, and understanding. Children and adults have the capacity to respond to a work of art in ways that can stimulate fresh insights, encourage deeper understandings, and challenge preconceived notions. Without the limitations imposed by “right” or “wrong” answers, the process of responding to a work of art develops each student’s ability to think in fundamental and powerful ways.”

“As a result, unexpected connections are made, alternative points of view considered, complexities explored, and doors to new and imagined worlds opened.”

To read more about this experiential program, first visit the Lincoln Center page and then scroll down to the lower right corner, under Arts and Education, and click the link for Lincoln Center Institute.

The Pajama Game has been put to bed.

Alas, we have opened and closed, happily to thunderous applause and standing ovations. Well, what else would you expect from an audience of family, students and friends, and a musical that has some rousing songs, active staging and two great dances (Steam Heat and Hernando’s Hideaway), and of course some good acting to boot!

My regular posts will resume this week, but I wanted to mark the wonderful time I had in this production by sharing two more photos with you. The first is a backstage shot of three factory workers (I’m the one on the right). The second is the closing moments of Hernando’s Hideaway, and I’m the one in green.

Forecast this week includes two days in the 60s. While we may yet have some cold and damp weather, spring is on its way. Olé!

p.s. Those five satin dresses were made by a Math teacher in our upper school. One of the students took a picture of the five of us and I’ll be sure to share it in a future post. Satin dresses accompanied by heels sure did a lot to set the mood for our  tango dancing!

The Pajama Game

It may get a little quiet here for the next week or so. I’m having a blast being in the student~faculty musical at my school. This is a 30+ year tradition that brings together upper schoolers (grades 9–12) and faculty in the production of musical theatre. I’ve been in The Boys From Syracuse, Fiddler On the Roof, My Fair Lady, and now The Pajama Game.

We open on Friday, February 29th, and close the next evening on Saturday, March 1st. Definitely a limited engagement. Starting tomorrow night (Thursday the 21st) we have rehearsals every evening except for this Friday and Saturday.

That’s me and a student doing a “fin de leap frog” (not sure what that is, leave me a comment and I’ll get back to you) as part of the picnic scene for “Once A Year Day”. The musical is definitely a bit corny, absolutely dated, but nonetheless lots of fun.

Oh yes, and it’s also a wonderful test of visual memory, spatial memory, and kinesthetic memory as I learn lines (all two of them ), staging, and dances. Am actually rather pumped to be one of the dancers in “Hernando’s Hideaway”. By the way, the original musical was staged on Broadway the year I was born. Now go figure out how old I am!

Creative Footsteps.2

Movement, in general, and dance, in particular, is very healthy for our bodies and our minds. Indeed, just take a look at young children and you will often see them in some type of motion. Somewhere along the line we manage to educate the movement out of the bodies, to paraphrase Ken Robinson (whose talk you can see below). Well, undoubtedly you are sitting while reading this, but perhaps some of the places below will move you to movement!

~ Free to Dance, Public Television’s Great Performances “three-part documentary that chronicles the crucial role that African-American choreographers and dancers have played in the development of modern dance as an American art form.”

~ The Center for Educator Development in Fine Arts includes a section on teaching dance – explore the site using various links on the left and discover seemingly obvious pearls of wisdom like this, which I think is applicable to every educator in any field: “Dance teachers who actively explore and develop their own ideas of what it means to be creative will, in turn, model their beliefs and practices for their students.”

~ Child & Family CANADA’s article: Creative Movement and Dance in Early Childhood Education. This quote from the site says it all when it comes to kids of any age and physical movment: “Rudolph Laban, considered the founder of movement and dance education, stated in his book Modern Educational Dance (1948) that educators need to guide children’s natural urge to dance-like movement and preserve their movement spontaneity into adult life.”

~ Sudden Focus on Organizational Creativity: Seniors Dance out of the Box! – an amusing article about sports teams and half-time entertainment, proving one is never too old to shake, rattle and roll (and it’s probably very good for those who are doing so!) (Ah, had but the article included more about the health benefits, both physical and cognitive, for seniors…)

~ The Dance of Creativity – Mark Morris – portions of an interview from the Harvard Business Review.” Some snippets from Morris: …it’s important to distinguish between creativity and art. … The most common form of creativity is problem solving … By contrast, art depends upon whether you can invent something from very little.”

Creative Footsteps

Judith Jamison is the artistic director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, and I saw my first performance ever of this high-energy troupe just this past Thursday evening. The program included Night Creature (a jubilant homage to the music of the same name by Duke Ellington), Urban Folk Dance (a tale of two couples confined by their surroundings), The Golden Section (choreographed by Twyla Tharp), and the amazing Revelations (a signature piece that chronicles the spirituality of African Americans).

I so thoroughly enjoyed the performance – the boundless energy, grace and athleticism; the floating, leaping, shimmying, wiggling, slinking, jumping, bending; the passionate love for what they were doing displayed by the dancer’s bodies and on their faces.

Twyla Tharp, the choreographer of The Golden Section, discusses creativity in the video clip below. She is also the author of The Creative Habit: Learn it and Use It for Life (which I have not read).

There is more to this post, but it seemed a bit long so I have split it into two, and you can read the next part in my next post.