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.

Hearing does not equal Listening

In the July 8, 2007 New York Times Book Review, Haruki Murakami writes in his essay, Jazz Messenger,

Practically everything I know about writing, then, I learned from music. … Even now, almost 30 years later, I continue to learn a great deal about writing from good music.

Murakami goes on to quote Thelonious Monk who, when discussing how he gets special sounds out of the piano, said

When you look at the keyboard, all the notes are there already. But if you mean a note enough, it will sound different. You got to pick the notes you really mean!

The essay fueled my thinking about how we listen and how we process what we hear. Listening is not always a simple activity. To be sure, if your hearing functions properly, it is easier to hear than to listen, for listening requires attentiveness, and attentiveness usually requires a level of interest or need. Hearing is a physical act; listening is a cognitive one.

Turns out there is even an International Listening Association created “to promote the study, development, and teaching of effective listening in all settings.” And it may come as no surprise that in some schools students are taught how to listen. The University of Minnesota Duluth has a page on Listening Skills, and Study Guides and Strategies provides an interactive guide to Active Listening.

My favorite site about sound, though, is Listen: Making Sense of Sound, part of the Exploratorium online. If you aren’t familiar with it, the Exploratorium is “the museum of science, art and human perception” located in San Francisco, California. Their online exhibit contains a slew of well-prepared, informative yet entertaining interactive activities designed to get you thinking about the act of listening – not just to other people but also to your environment, which contains wondrous sounds of its own.

Listen with your Eyes

Listen with your eyes closed, because what you see influences what you hear.

Thus exhorted Wouter Snoei, a composer from The 192 loudspeaker experience, a concert we attended in Amsterdam with our friends.

Peter Elsea, for the University of California at Santa Cruz electronic music studios, wrote an essay on Hearing and Perception. Although he posted the essay in 1996 (so there may be more current research available), I found it an interesting accompaniment to the 192 loudspeaker concert.

Returning to Wouter’s exhortation, I wear glasses, and wearing glasses impacts my ability to hear. In loud environments particularly, I need to see the speaker’s face and lips to influence the odds of properly hearing what is being said. More on this idea is available in The University of Kent’s peer-reviewed electronic academic journal article posited by Michael A. Forrester, Auditory Perception and Sound As Event: Theorising Sound Imagery in Psychology. If you don’t feel like reading the entire article, skip ahead to section 5.

I suspect if we had kept our eyes open during the loudspeaker experience, we would surely have processed the sounds as coming from the 192 speakers. By listening with my eyes closed, I heard the sounds but conjured up images of the places or people from where the sounds may have emanated. (And yes, I did keep them closed during each of the four pieces!) This is not unlike listening to a radio, as discussed in Forrester’s article. In many instances, listening while seeing combine to enhance the ability to process the sound.

At the HyperPhysics site, hosted by the Georgia State University Department of Physics and Astronomy, you can learn more about the physics of the ear and hearing. And you can get an earful of information at Neuroscience for Kids, including experiments to test your hearing.